Short description length and content

[LetsMisBehave]

If there has been a thread on this topic previously, I would be glad to be referred to it. However, I was wondering why the hook descriptions are so brief. I assume that this is to ensure new entries occupy a limited amount of space, but I find it challenging to provide an accurate description within the given limits.

Do people have any recommendations on how to avoid the risk of bait and switch, thereby irritating readers, or being too boring so that no one reads?

 

[iwatchus]

There have been a handful of convos about the length, but I don't have the patience to go searching now, so I will summarize some of it from memory.

Many authors would like a longer description. One suggestion was to have a short (like now) first description and give a paragraph length longer description available with a hover. But that is not happening anytime soon, if ever. The length is limited by the display. There were also complaints about unfairness to older stories, but I'm not a fan of that.

Other people have argued that the short description forces you to be succinct.

No one thought it was easy to write these.

 

[Djmac1031]

Trust me, I sympathize.

I found it especially difficult on one story because I truly struggled with coming up with a short description that would catch readers attention but with a major plot spoiler.

and ultimately I think views on the story suffered because what I finally wound up using was far to vague.

So yeah, you're in good company, a lot of us here wouldn't mind being able to expand those short descriptions by at least several more words.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

These are an art unto themselves. Strive to find the magic.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

LMB,

Succinct is important as Iwatchus said. I write one when I do my original outline and it may be revised twenty times before publishing. Keep refining and adjusting as you go and hopefully you’ll find the right one by publishing time.

One other thing I and some others do is use the short one for the initial hook but provide the slightly longer description that would have been preferred as the first line in case you need to reel the reader in. Just remember, if you do any type of description or author’s note up front, be sure to provide some type of divider so the reader will clearly understand where the story starts so they can skip to it. I’ve bailed out of more than one story where that didn’t happen. Good luck!

 

[LetsMisBehave]

Thank you for the comments. They have made me focus on the fact that I should engage my mind on the title and hook while writing the story rather than snatch quickly at it when I have done my last readthrough

 

[SimonDoom]

There's an art to them.

I like that they're short, but some think I'm all wrong about that. I see both sides but I like the challenge of using few words to do it.

A couple of things I try to do:

1. Complement, don't duplicate, your story title. If the title is artsy and allusive, make the tag more direct. You want them, together, to give readers a good idea what they are getting into.
2. Choose the individual words carefully. Try to use titillating, fun, sexy words to drum up the interest.
3. I sometimes phrase taglines as questions or as unfinished with ellipses, to introduce a sense of mystery and to tease the reader.
4. Don't focus too much on trying to capture the plot. Instead, ask yourself: what is the most interesting or sexiest thing about your story? And then try to capture that.

 

[kreemi_pi]

If there has been a thread on this topic previously, I would be glad to be referred to it. However, I was wondering why the hook descriptions are so brief. I assume that this is to ensure new entries occupy a limited amount of space, but I find it challenging to provide an accurate description within the given limits.

Do people have any recommendations on how to avoid the risk of bait and switch, thereby irritating readers, or being too boring so that no one reads?

There seem to be quite a few "that's just how it is" things on Lit. This site seems to run on autopilot with a shoestring budget. Making changes would require effort an money, so don't hold your breath.

 

[jsmiam]

An analogy I like in many ways, is to pretend lit is a bookstore.

Books have front and back covers with a spine also showing the title and author, with only so much space.

People have to take the book off the shelf to see the back cover. Open it to see the inside flap.

So there are analogies. And a lack of unlimited or larger quantities of room.

And series frikking cluttering up all the shelf space. But I digress. ;-)

Lit’s story side (mostly: I’d also love to be able to write long forum responses without an error occurring too) has a lot of amateurish things that could and should be fixed, but my personal opinion is that this is one that’s probably an intentional and defensible position.

 

[yowser]

One exercise to try, and not too difficult, is look at the new stories list (or whatever category is your thing) to note title + description pairing.

Which ones intrigue you?

Lots of ways to do it wrong (and no reason that with a little thought you can't avoid the worst) there's lots:

Jon Exposes Himself - The First Time Jon reveals his Body
Fucking Outdoors - Sex Under the Sky
Tom and Jane Meet - How Tom and Jane became a Couple

(all made up, but you get the idea.)

Also, find a good author you like, with imagination and good skills. Take a look at their catalog to see how they do it.

 

[CalBishForNow]

Here's one previous discussion of it. TL;DR: the status quo about this doesn't bother me, but it definitely does bother some people a whole lot.

 

[Britva415]

Do people have any recommendations on how to avoid the risk of bait and switch

Can you say more?

Why do you perceive a risk, there?

 

[LetsMisBehave]

Can you say more?

Why do you perceive a risk, there?

Sorry, I missed this in my inbox.
Perhaps because I tend to write series, I can't double up on the title and short description. I have found in a couple of recent stories that I needed maybe 30 more characters to give a balanced summary, and have felt I have had to choose between different ways of being misleading. This may also be my fault, in that I prefer describing why emotionally people are doing what they do, as the sex stuff too easily reduces to insert knob A into hole B, C, or D or like listening to a radio description of a tennis match,
I was perhaps feeling a little bruised for having an average of 1.5 from 28 votes for a story in Loving wives, which actually involves a repressed couple trying to make things work between them. I have now decided that managing to piss off both the BTB and the cuckold story fans in LW is an achievement of sorts.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

IMO, the characterization of the field as "description" leads to a lot of the angst.

It functions here as more of a "catch phrase", "tag line", or at best a "blurb".

 

[iwatchus]

Perhaps because I tend to write series, I can't double up on the title and short description. I have found in a couple of recent stories that I needed maybe 30 more characters to give a balanced summary, and have felt I have had to choose between different ways of being misleading. This may also be my fault, in that I prefer describing why emotionally people are doing what they do, as the sex stuff too easily reduces to insert knob A into hole B, C, or D or like listening to a radio description of a tennis match,

I think the description on series is different. You are not going to hook new readers all the often from a description on the middle of the series. It is more a teaser for the readers you already have. And for some readers, the most alluring description on a series is a COMPLETED tag.

I was perhaps feeling a little bruised for having an average of 1.5 from 28 votes for a story in Loving wives, which actually involves a repressed couple trying to make things work between them. I have now decided that managing to piss off both the BTB and the cuckold story fans in LW is an achievement of sorts.

 

[LetsMisBehave]

iwatchus - oddly, sometimes I do seem to get new readers from halfway through a series who look at my other stuff. It depends on how regularly they check the new stories in their favourite category, so it seems worth having an interesting tag description. Hasten to add that I am happy that my stories will only work for a minority of readers.
ROFLMAO does describe my measured reaction.