User blog:Tiololo/New Template: Summary

Hello everyone. I'd like to alert you to a new template I've created.

Lolskeletons gave me a Help:Templates link a while ago to help with a specific proposal I made which received some support and after some muddled up experimentation with coding I decided the best way for it was to copy and paste the code for the Author's note template.

The temp looks like this.

It's basically author's note with header different text, and is used the same way as any other template, if you're new to temps: to use, type this without the spaces at the top of your story page:

{ { summary | 《your summary here》 } }

Authors can use it to summarize a story in a few short sentences if they wish, especially for long pastas, if they think the length of the story may deter the reader. Kind of like the blurb to a book.

'What's the point?' a few may ask. Well, people have expressed concern saying it may make a story predictable, it won't be used much, may deter readers, does same thing as AN temp, etc...

I think long pastas are quite often ignored and a summary may increase its chances of being read if it seems to catch the reader's attention. Anyway it's an optional tool so it's not like you need to use it - authors can do what they like with it to try and improve the chances of their story being read properly, and producing a quality summary is up to the individual. Obviously don't put major spoilers in your summary, just give an overview of the key idea.

As for usage I know many people who have summaries of their stories on public display, especially on their user pages, but obviously felt it wasn't appropriate to put it on the story itself. It would def be something I would use as I spent some time writing summaries of my own stories. I agree as the Note and AN temps seem like tools to add credits/extra info rather than giving a summary.

Anyway, it's there, just a heads-up, use it if you want to and hopefully it's helpful. I also need an admin to look over this to make sure everything's authorized and in order as this is the first template I've made and I don't want to accidentally break anything.

In the meantime, the template is just a bland copy-and-paste so suggestions/tips/reminders all helpful.