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You just need to make the summary memorable. Stock characters are a good way to go, they're easy to remember and identify with, but word it wrong and you can make it sound cliche. For me, to make a good summary, you need to give away a small detail that the readers will find out quickly, and make it interesting. One of the best summaries I've seen came from one of my friends for her Sailor Moon fanfic:

'Dane's not fussed she's suddenly the stormheeled warrior, Sailor Aello. she's got more important stuff to be concerned about then wangsting over a past life. That chainsaw inspired youma rushing at her head for example...'

From that, we know it's set in the Sailor Senshi Universe, the character, unlike most, isn't thrilled to be one of the Sailor Scouts, and makes it funny. That instantly caught my attention (Even though I don't follow Sailor Moon) and made me have a look-see.
Now, let's take a look at 'Opportunity'.

'A young king, having just taken back his family's crown, seeks advice from a loyal duke. How the heck do you rule a whole kingdom, anyway? Same world as "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "Fugitive;" different time and place. Completed May, 2008.'

Ok, we can tell it's slightly unusual, because the King doesn't know what to do. However, what throws people off is the latter part of it. Most, if they follow your stories, would assume it's set in the same Universe, and usually they don't really care when it's completed. I know that does sound harsh, but if you saw that on a story, you'd probably pass over it.
Now, let's see if we can pump some life into it!

'Oliver, having just come to the throne of his Kingdom has come to an epic conclusion; he has no idea how to be king! Deciding to better himself, he seeks out the advice of one of his most trusted subjects to find what it truly means to be King.'

Though it might be me being biased, that one seems a little more energetic. It seems a little lighter than what you might be going for though, so I'll try again.

'With his enemies defeated and his family restored to the throne, King Oliver must try to understand what it is to be a King. Realising he can't take this journey alone, he seeks the help of one of his family's most trusted Advisors.'

It's more stoic than the last, but it gets the information across. The word 'Journey' also peaks the responder's interest, and may make them more likely to click.
But yeah, that's just what's happened with me. Hopefully this helped!

And for 'My Immortal' I point to Mad Hattie. She's taken a personal grudge it seems against that story. So, hopefully she'll be dealing with it soon enough. We were actually talking about it's 'Sequal' earlier, 'Bring Me Back to Life', with many of us gibbering and breaking out the various Bleep products.
But anywho, welcome back! I gift you with some Bleepolate!

So all I can do is say hi.

I already said hello on LJ, so I won't bother repeating all that. Nice to see you!

(note: Repost from the LJ group. It's more or less an introduction)

It has been many a year since I last heard of the PPC. I don't even remember how long ago it was, honestly, but a long time indeed. Last time I checked it was really just Jay and Acacia, along with a few other brave souls. I made cause with them, but honestly I couldn't get through enough bad fanfics to actually write anything. As time went by I became distracted, and wandered away from this corner of the internet. I figured this little adventure would have eventually played it self out, leaving behind, at best, a decaying, obsolete website.

So, imagine my surprise while wandering the awesomness that is TVTropes in finding that the PCC was still around. You guys have done damn well for yourselves, and have carved out your own niche in cyberspace. In fact, from what I've seen, you're better organized and growing faster then most of the online communities I'm part of, not to mention the Real World ones. You guys should be proud of yourselves.

Anyway, enough ramblings from an old-timer (well, relatively speaking). In more relevent news, have you guys had a chance to take a stab at the new contender for the title of "World's Worst Fanfic" AKA "My Immortal?" (No, really. Google "worst fanfic" and it's the first hit). If not, it definitely needs it. Worst Sue I've ever seen, and quite possible one of the more disturbing things on the internet, and believe me, I've seen a lot.

Happy hunting!
~Paladin

Contrary to appearances, I am not in fact dead, in jail, or on the run from giant vampire gerbils. It's just that the chaos level in my life has reached new heights of stress and strangeness, and I've been entirely too busy, so some things (like most of my active forum participation in various places) has had to slide.

My apologies if Princess of Shadowfire and the ring of doom has been linked already -- I know it's making the rounds of all the usual sporking sites, but a quick scan didn't show it here. This is the most over-the-top Mary Sue I've seen in a long time. It's just ... remarkable. There are no words. You have to see it. This Sue might need more than two Agents to take her down. A lot more.

I'm thinking of doing a major dissection of that fic over on Wandering Criticism. If there was ever a textbook example of how not to write LotR fanfic (or how not to write, period), that is it right there.

I saw that this morning. Pretty awesome.

... can be found here; http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/

I am not a member, except in spirit. I tend to follow the author of 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' in asking

'Do they [the APS] have a militant wing? Can I start one? Where do you buy balaclavas?'

In other words, I just end up following people around pointing out where they're misusing apostrophes, is all :)

*is even more OT than the Trojanhorse, but ah well* I haven't heard of it. Would a Ciri be allowed to join? *tries to look hopeful instead of just really OT*

C

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20081015

IT'S A SPORK GUN.

WANT.

:DDD

And, yeah, absolutely in your own time.

I'm not sure whether or not you have my e-mail, so just in case, it is exswyzie14 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com, with the obvious replacements.

~Neshomeh

But you'll forgive me for not doing it instantly. I'll save all this and read it this evening, and get back to you - by email, maybe?

But I won't. Unless my non-existant boyfriend decides to buy a gold engagement ring, because I want silver. But that aside...

Yep, sounds good.

I'll pick your brain about other things. Which story did you skim, and what could I do to make it more fall-into-able, given that you're not expected to know the characters?

I've noticed that I've garnered a lot of hits on my stories, but only three actual comments, and two of those on older works that I'm not really concerned about at the moment. I understand time constraints, but I was really hoping for good critical reading whenever people were/are able to do it. "Opportunity" is really short. So is "Natural Consequences." Pick a single element of a story to critique, even. Title, summary, intro, ending, description(s)... I know I need a better title for "Fugitive," for example. It doesn't really say anything useful about the story.

I'm sorry if I'm coming off as pushy or anything like that. I'm just sick of not getting anything beyond "that's cool" and "I liked it" from my RL friends and family. I mean, compliments are good, too, but tell my why it was cool, or what made you like it if that's the case. If something doesn't work, why not? {= P

~Neshomeh, who probably should have been clearer about what she wanted in the original post.

You're in there twice, I think. Once in separately and once in the middle of a paragraph.

*hugs* Thanks! I was having trouble trying to use examples that everyone would know, sticking with things like Harry Potter, LotR and so on, but my teacher gave me the idea of describing one story early on to frame it, so I took that idea and ran with it. I'm very pleased with how it turned (not to mention the fact that I'm completely in love with Wicked just now.

Ah, I ramble. Sorry - that's me being self-indulgent. *hugs* Thanks again!

I really don't know. When summarising a fanfic, I always have a general idea of what fanfic readers are attracted by (particularly the types of readers I want - ie, not dragging a book purist into a Susan/Caspian story), but with original fiction... bah.

It probably says something that I read your summaries and didn't start reading the stories. (Something besides the fact that I have almsot no spare time.) I skimmed one of them, but not already knowing the characters, I couldn't fall in easily.

I suppose the most important thing for an original fic summary is to make it sound familiar; give potential readers a grounding with something they already know (say, an apparently stock character - the Innocent Princess, for example) and then give an enticing twist (one of my favourite childrens' books was called "The Tough Princess").

In general... I'd say it needs to be enticing without seeming to beg. Quotes from the text would be good, if you can find something concise and illustrative enough.

... Actually, I really don't know. *shrug* Sorry.

...it usually gets used to symbolise the premium, best service offered. And we want to reassure our characters :)

(I prefer silver as well, for myself, but gold tends to be used for 'yay, we're the best')

I expect the different divisions of the DCPS would have things on the shields to differentiate them, or maybe the swords Artic suggested could be used for some division or other. But for the Dept. as a whole, the basic golden shield I think should be the symbol.

Have the initials of particular characters or names of continua 'engraved' (read: written / crudely stitched) on the shield. But that's detail. Shield sounds good - why gold, though? (I don't particularly like gold, you see. Prefer silver.)

Introducing the fourth mission of Agents Tirsaer and Ryni! Featuring the disposal of a Silmarillion!Sue. Who tries to marry Maglor.

Yeah.

On livejournal:
http://dracorn-adagio.livejournal.com/10465.html
http://dracorn-adagio.livejournal.com/10723.html

On the website:
http://www.freewebs.com/dracornadagio/missionfour.htm

Greetings, Agents and Authors, from the Department of Intelligence. I am the Sub Rosa, and I would like to take a minute or two of your time.

As you know, my Department is tasked with investigating bad fanfiction and determining whether it requires the PPC's attention. You Agents may think you are overworked, but believe me, without us you wouldn't even have time to breathe between missions.

You may remember that Agent Architeuthis was kind enough to post some of her intelligence reports on the HQ network for all to read, and that they made their way from there onto the internet. Now that we have time to breathe again, we are interested in taking this idea and running with it. To that end, we have co-opted a section of your "PPC Wiki" to use as a portal for our reports.

Department of Intelligence Reports

We hope that these reports will, in combination with the List of Unclaimed Badfic, make it easier and simpler for you Authors to choose missions for your Agents, and for you Agents to understand what you're getting into.

I wish you all the best of luck in not getting killed.

~The Sub Rosa, Head, Department of Intelligence

(What the Sub Rosa didn't say is that this isn't a closed area. If you're feeling bored, and don't feel up to a full mission, why not write up a quick report? You can create an Agent specifically for the DoI, or let one of your Agents do a bit of transfer work, or if you have an Agent who wants to retire, you could transfer them into Intelligence. Hopefully these reports will be useful, as well as entertaining. They don't need to be announced on the Board, or cleared with anyone [although I think I'll have to say that you need Permission to write them, since they are actual PPC stories], and as I've tried to get across on the page in question, they don't preclude a mission being written for that story -- in fact, they're meant to help the mission-writer, or at least the mission-selecter.

And, of course, they're meant to be fun! So write them if you want to, don't if you don't... it's up to you.

hS)

Anyways, if you need them, I offer up my Agents to help with your mish. Liadan is pretty good at rounding up those loose vowels which seemed to have vanished from her writing.
Though, does that really count as being in the Harry Potter Universe anymore? By this point I think it's a story that coincidentally has a few characters and locations in common.

Though she must burn in Tartarus for bringing Paris Hilton into it...