How to Write An Enticing Description For Your Story

How often do you see a story with an interesting title or cover but a description that gives you little or no information about the plot? Hopefully this tutorial will help you to avoid this by writing an interesting and intriguing description.

Know Your Story

First and foremost, you must know what your story is going to be about. Now, I'm not suggesting that you have already written or planned the entire thing, I often post my description with only the first chapter written, but you still need to have an idea of where your story is going. In your short description you could suggest at how the main characters met/meet or the first dramatic twist your plot will take. For the long description, maybe include a back story or brief introduction to the protagonist in order to connect the reader and make them want to read this characters story. These are all things you should have an idea of before you have completed you story or even plan. Just remember, if you give too much away your story risks being very predictable or dull.

Key Information

A pet peeve of mine is when someone has listed a fan-fiction and not given any information about what famous person/character will be involved. Although you may be tempted to think that people will read your story to find out, it is more likely that a potential reader will simply skim over your story among those featuring this information.

With an original/true story, the key information is harder to define. A readers main interest is likely to be the genre or the original, unique twist your story will have so try and hint at that or spell out 'This is a crime drama featuring the forbidden love of a victim for their attacker' or whatever your genre and unique take on it are.

Rhetorical Questions

I'm not going to say never use a rhetorical question, but something like 'Will they get together?' is a bit cliché and generally the reader knows the answer is yes. You should be focussing on the journey they will take not the outcome.

There are however situations in which a rhetorical question is useful, such as if it isn't generic or hints at a twist in your story. The main thing to ask yourself if using a rhetorical question as part of your description is 'How soon do I answer this question?' If it is something that becomes apparent early on in the story or is very predictable, it may appear to the reader that you have used the question as a scape goat to avoid writing a true description.

Overall, as long as your description shows that there will some depth and direction to your story, it will be more successful than writing 'I suck at descriptions. Read and find out'.