Thread: Summarizing

Maybe I am alone but I have a lot of trouble summarizing my works. I know it is partly because I put so much feeling behind my writing and sharing it makes me very very nervous but I also just have trouble thinking of what to say. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? They would be much appreciated.

Who are you sumarizing it for? Is it just to tell someone what you are writing about or are you writing a summary for a publisher? If I am just telling someone I usually just tell them the theme. I say "Its a story about survival". And leave it at that. If I want to write a summary for more formal purposes then that bit is hard for me too.

For both. When I say for example, my current manuscript is a fantasy manuscript, it is a story about a girl who decides to become a knight, everyone always asks for more information. As for the other situation I don't know what to say/write at all. The one I have up on my website is the best attempt I have made. The one I have on some cards I have given out to friends to read part of it only seems so cheesy.

I have the same problem, primarily because my current manuscript covers multiple genres. Calling "X" with a bit of "Y" may be accurate, but there's a bunch of "Z" in it as well.
Unfortunately, I don't have a solution. I end-up describing it differently to different people. I personally hate 'labels'. It is the society we live in, however. Everyone wants to be able to put things in categories, boxes...
On a practical note, your MS does have the benefit of leaning toward 'women's empowerment'. That'll open more doors for ya than the 'fantasy' tag.