Short description

[NotWise]

How do you concoct your story's short description when you post the story?

It one of the few things that readers see before they click on your link. It has to be important. I think my history is to produce really sucky short descriptions. I stumbled on good descriptions in a few cases, a few others probably made readers click elsewhere.

Should our sixty charactes describe the story? Should they be sexually enticing? Do they even need to be related to the story?

 

[Kantarii]

I try to summarize the chapter into a short, interesting sentence describing what the chapter is generally about. I’m probably the only dummy on the site that does that sort of thingKant

 

[SamScribble]

Where possible, I try to write something that will mean something to the 20 or so readers for whom I wrote the story.

Oops! Did I say 20? Sorry. I meant 15.

 

[TxRad]

Like the title at the start of writing the story, the blurt comes to me as I get ready to post the story. Yes, I try to catch the essence of the story and I also try to keep it sexy and fun.

 

[Hypoxia]

Entice the witted. Provoke the wary. Grab the wankers. Promise the wildest. Etc.

 

[yukonnights]

I had to go see what I had put on some before answering. Other than always being brilliant...I noticed a few things worth mentioning; 1) Don't forget the category also gives a lot of info. For a made up example; Laura Discovers The Truth - Women really are better... Since that would most likely be placed in the Lesbian Category it would not be necessary to put a description like that; It'd be redundant.

2) Something I hadn't thought about are series stories. The First in the series might need to be more of a broad brush; A Sissy's Journey Ch 01- A young man's journey of self discovery. But the next chapters could target readers who already read #1, and could inform them what's in Ch 02, etc.

3) Here's one that was kinda tricky;
April Can Be So Foolish - A Lesbian and Transgender Romance. Since it was posted in Romance, it seemed wise to spell out the kind of story it was so readers could make an informed choice.

I think the descriptions are important, and worth spending some thought on. Like TX, I usually come up with some idea as the story unfolds...then I type it into the draft. I also figure out my main Tags before entering the submission page here so I won't go blank-brain and leave some out.

 

[Bramblethorn]

How do you concoct your story's short description when you post the story?

"very badly", as a rule. Blurbing is one of the toughest parts of writing for me, whether it's the very short blurbs that Literotica requires or the paragraph-length ones for Smashwords.

Ideally, I'd be basing it on what I think the heart of the story is, but by the time I finish writing I struggle to express that - I'm usually at the stage where I'm tired of editing and just want to get the submission done, so my descriptions suffer.

Sometimes I'll just give a teaser, something that provokes curiosity without saying much of what the story's about. But either way, I find it challenging.

 

[Voboy]

Sometimes they just come to me as I write, other times I forget I need one until I’m ready to submit, occasionally I agonize over them for days.

Any way you slice it, I can tell when they suck. It definitely affects views.

 

[Jada59]

Always tough for me. Sometimes I think I'm too vague.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Mine all suck. I always feel like anything I write will be a spoiler for the story.

 

[NotWise]

Thanks, all. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has problems with the blurb.

I usually try to make it descriptive of the story and then hammer it into 60 letters. Something usually gets lost in the smithing and it comes out boring.

I've also used the blurb as a subtitle. That worked for me, but there are a lot of places where the title appears and the short description does not.

Maybe my most successful blurb was barely related to the story, but it was alliterative.

 

[SimonDoom]

I focus on my goal: to get as many eyeballs on my story as possible. That's it. It's more important to tease and entice than to be accurate. General principles I try to follow:

1. Use words that will trigger and appeal to the readers of the category in which you are posting the story.

2. Be playful with your words if you can.

3. Tease.

4. Include sexy words.

5. Don't wait until submission time. Think about your teaser line as you write your story.

6. Be indirect in a fun way rather than saying exactly what happens. For my story "Late Night on the Loveseat with Mom" my tagline is "Mom and son get under the blanket, and well . . . " That story has a lot of views and votes.

Some of my taglines have been better than others. I do think it makes a difference in how many people read your story.

 

[ChloeTzang]

How do you concoct your story's short description when you post the story?

It one of the few things that readers see before they click on your link. It has to be important. I think my history is to produce really sucky short descriptions. I stumbled on good descriptions in a few cases, a few others probably made readers click elsewhere.

Should our sixty characters describe the story? Should they be sexually enticing? Do they even need to be related to the story?

It's a teaser. You want to use that sixty characters to entice and hook your reader. It has to be something to do with the story, it has to fit the category and it has to get them thinking "yeah, I'll try this one" and then that first paragraph has to get them wanting to read more... I think I've got a lot better at it over the last couple of years and I do put a lot of thought into that teaser, probably more than any other line in the story itself because it's the title and this that determines if your potential reader is going to convert. It's a sales pitch, pure and simple and given we don't have cover images and titles on LIT, it's all we've got.

I'm going to throw in some actual examples from my own stories - maybe they're okay, maybe they're not so okay.... Some of them are pretty blatant - Hayley's party tells you right up front what to expect. Some of them hint, some of them imply and some of them, like "Never Ending Love" are fairly vague.

Here's a couple I'm working on now where the sixty character blurb is a work in progress - I might keep these or I might change them.... it's almost always absolutely the last thing I finalize

Midnight at the Villa Diodati - A Tale of Gothic Romance and Horror
One Night in Xanadu - A Princess of the Xiongnu loses her virginity in the Old Way

**** And here's some old ones

Hayley's Party Ch. 01 Pt. A (4.66) - "Tonight's the night...." - a Chinese girl loses her virginity.

Camel Toe (4.80) - This is Biology one zero seven zero, right? Biodiversity?

Fingerprints on My Heart (4.80) - A Chinese girl, a married man and a kind of romance.

Hanky Panky (4.80) - You can't trust a gweilo guy with a nice Chinese Girl!

Sometimes Harder is Best (4.78) - A Chinese college girl meets the guy of her dreams...

The Temptation of Sammi Woo (4.80) - Summer. A Chinese girl with a V-card. Bikers and a Strip Bar.

Welcome to Nockatunga Station (4.66) - In your head, no one but you can hear your screams

Tales from Old Shanghai 01 (4.89) - Never Ending Love (不了情)

 

[gordo12]

I try to think of it like fishing. Getting that hook baited with something juicy that will make them bite. Without giving away the plot.

The plot thing is important, I've seen far too many descriptions that give away the central theme to the story ahead of time. It now becomes a decision as to whether I want to read that plot.

The first story I did I F'd up by not considering it ahead of time and just threw some buzzwords in. Including the word Nympho Lawyer. Considering the story had morphed to where she was no longer a Nympho a reader called me on it.

Now I'm thinking about those few characters while writing the story. I have a little area at the bottom where I record any ideas I get for consideration later.

 

[DreamingOfMyEx]

Think like a reader, not like a writer.

Imagine you are looking for a story just like the one you just wrote. Do a search (or several searches) for that story. What key words do you use in the search?

Look over all the responses you get from that search. Which titles and descriptions would prompt you to check out those stories and not the others.

 

[KeithD]

The description space given is quite limited. I want mine to be catchy but also accurate. I don't want the reader leaving thinking the description had been false.

 

[NotWise]

Think like a reader, not like a writer.

Now that's hard to do.

I'm writing "One night in Gormaz" for the "One night" event and plan on putting it in SciFi/Fantasy. I doubt many people know what or where Gormaz is. (It's a huge, 10th-century fortress in Spain.) The best I've done so far for the short description is:

"Of Medieval war, forbidden sex, and the Red Witch"

Does that grab ya?

 

[Privates1stClass]

How do you concoct your story's short description when you post the story?

Sometimes I find it takes as much time to write a 60-character blurb as it does to write the story in the first place. As others have said, your blurb needs to attract readers' attention, but not give away the story. Summing up a 10,000 word story in 60 characters isn't easy.

For most of my stories, I try to work on my short description as I write, and by the time I've completed the story, I'll have perhaps a dozen different blurbs. I try to pick the best one when I submit the story.

 

[yukonnights]

Now that's hard to do.

I'm writing "One night in Gormaz" for the "One night" event and plan on putting it in SciFi/Fantasy. I doubt many people know what or where Gormaz is. (It's a huge, 10th-century fortress in Spain.) The best I've done so far for the short description is:

"Of Medieval war, forbidden sex, and the Red Witch"

Does that grab ya?

Yours provides good information, but to me it dosen't sound very catchy (to my ear anyway).

Just playing with words; One Night in Gormaz - Ancient wars, the Red Witch...and forbidden sex

 

[yukonnights]

Here's the one I 'think' I'll go with for the One Night event; One Night in Baton Rouge Can love be found in just one night


I'll probably put it in Romance

Other's I tried on;

A brighter future beckons two strangers. 40 too much of a spoiler

A less lonely future beckons two strangers. 42 too much of a spoiler

A less lonely future tempts two strangers. 41 sounds too sad

Two strangers find a new future together. 40 better but still a spoiler

Can love be found in only one night 35 better

Can love be found in just one night 35 'just' sound better to me

Suggestions welcome

 

[SimonDoom]

Here's the one I 'think' I'll go with for the One Night event; One Night in Baton Rouge Can love be found in just one night


I'll probably put it in Romance

Other's I tried on;

A brighter future beckons two strangers. 40 too much of a spoiler

A less lonely future beckons two strangers. 42 too much of a spoiler

A less lonely future tempts two strangers. 41 sounds too sad

Two strangers find a new future together. 40 better but still a spoiler

Can love be found in only one night 35 better

Can love be found in just one night 35 'just' sound better to me

Suggestions welcome

It's hard without having read your story, but I'm not crazy about these, and I'll tell you why.

I make allowances for the fact it's romance, not a more explicit and erotic category, where something more salacious would be appropriate. But even so, there are no fun and enticing words in any of these descriptions.

You might incorporate a word that relates to Louisiana -- why is it set there, after all? Why Baton Rouge?

What's the trigger that brings two strangers together?

What's unusual about how they come together? What's the unique thing about the story?

Incorporating more colorful and concrete words that relate to something specific in your story would be better.

I agree the one you've picked is the best of the lot. But it's still very general.

 

[yukonnights]

It's hard without having read your story, but I'm not crazy about these, and I'll tell you why.

I make allowances for the fact it's romance, not a more explicit and erotic category, where something more salacious would be appropriate. But even so, there are no fun and enticing words in any of these descriptions.

You might incorporate a word that relates to Louisiana -- why is it set there, after all? Why Baton Rouge?

What's the trigger that brings two strangers together?

What's unusual about how they come together? What's the unique thing about the story?

Incorporating more colorful and concrete words that relate to something specific in your story would be better.

I agree the one you've picked is the best of the lot. But it's still very general.

Not having read the story is the whole point in these descriptions. I appreciate your advice. Another problem with these is the fact it's in Romance...so love is pretty much expected. To be honest, I hadn't done these before answering this post and just pounded out a few ideas.

I could use; One Night in Baton Rouge...heading for the trains

That might intrigue those who know the song, etc.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

Sometimes they just come to me as I write, other times I forget I need one until I’m ready to submit, occasionally I agonize over them for days.

Any way you slice it, I can tell when they suck. It definitely affects views.

This is me.

 

[SimonDoom]

Not having read the story is the whole point in these descriptions. I appreciate your advice. Another problem with these is the fact it's in Romance...so love is pretty much expected. To be honest, I hadn't done these before answering this post and just pounded out a few ideas.

I could use; One Night in Baton Rouge...heading for the trains

That might intrigue those who know the song, etc.

Too obscure. I don't know the song and I don't know the reference. This would go completely over my head. If you can't come up with something clever, be simple and direct and let potential readers know something about the meat of your story.

The point (in my opinion -- others may disagree) is to focus like a laser beam on what's going to maximize the number of Lit readers who are going to say "Hey, I think I'll take a look at that story."

Readers of stories here come with an agenda. They tend to know what they are looking for, more or less. And they are looking for a sign that you are going to give them what they want. This is an erotic story site. People want to be aroused. So your tagline needs to reveal something about the story AND arouse them.

 

[yukonnights]

Too obscure. I don't know the song and I don't know the reference. This would go completely over my head. If you can't come up with something clever, be simple and direct and let potential readers know something about the meat of your story.

The point (in my opinion -- others may disagree) is to focus like a laser beam on what's going to maximize the number of Lit readers who are going to say "Hey, I think I'll take a look at that story."

Readers of stories here come with an agenda. They tend to know what they are looking for, more or less. And they are looking for a sign that you are going to give them what they want. This is an erotic story site. People want to be aroused. So your tagline needs to reveal something about the story AND arouse them.

I'm glad you said that...I thought almost everyone knew that song. Good points, I'll think about it as if I didn't know the song and what one will find inside (besides trains )