These are some things that annoy me when reading a fanfiction, some signs that tell me not to read a fanfic, or just some generic tips. While this is not specifically for Percy Jackson and can actually apply to most stories, I pretty much only read Percy Jackson fanfics and the examples will be using things that use Percy Jackson characters, cliche fanfics, etc. I hope you enjoy this and I hope to see some more stories that I would definitely read!

"Fine, Seaweed Brain. So...This is what you need to know."

1) We do judge books by their covers.

Ever heard of the saying, "Don't judge a book by their cover"? Well, honestly, everybody does it. And this applies to fanfictions.

The 'cover' I'm talking about is the summary of a story. The summary is supposed to draw readers in, tell them what the story is about, or give reader a little sneak peek to entice them.

So why is the summary important? The way most fanfiction readers find stories they think are good are by scrolling through a list of fanfiction summaries. For me, as I read the summaries I scan for certain things that pretty much scream "I have potential!" Some of the fanfics that have all of the basic requirements for a good story I skip over, some I read. It all depends on the reader, and so if you do have all of these and don't have the followers you want, don't despair. Some people want to read specific types of stories, some just aren't interested. Think of stories like a love interest. For some, your story is just not their type.

There are a few main parts of a summary and here are what you need to have in each:(If you continue reading this, you'll find I like lists)

Title

The title is part of every story. It gives hints as to what the stories are about. Some of the hints flat out say what they're talking about, and some are just one word titles that may be the main point of the story-but you'll just have to read it to see it. Either is fine, but the title must have something to do with the story. Titles like :P and '.' are definitely not encouraged and will most likely attract fewer readers.

Though title content is important in some ways, there are other elements that are just as important, if not more. This example title, percy jackson is so awsom is definitely missing a lot of the requirements for an "attractive" story. First, capitalization. This one thing has bothered me so much in some stories. I have like, capitalization OCD attacks when I see titles like those. It would look better if it read, Percy Jackson is So Awsom.The content itself is ok, if you're writing about the awesomeness of Percy Jackson, so it depends on the story. Then, there's spelling. Notice 'awesome' is spelled wrong. The title should be changed to, Percy Jackson is So Awesome. Lastly, there should be no periods at the end of titles. Commas are okay if it is used in the right way, but periods should never be used in titles unless in abbreviations or things like Mrs. Blank.

The Body

The main part of the summary. The summary is a person, and just like a person, even the seemingly least important thing should be there because it never looks right when somebody's bellybutton is missing. Some essential 'body parts' are the same as the title's requirement for an 'attractive story'. Punctuation, grammar, spelling, capitalization, and content.

First of all, content. Content should accurately represent the story. It should not be too short either, three to five sentences is pretty good. Just as with the title, all stories are different in some way unless plagiarized, which is NOT GOOD, and therefore all summaries are different in some way.
Please, please, please, do not TYPE LIKE THIS. IF WE ARE READING YOUR SUMMARY WE WILL SEE WHATEVER YOU WRITE, CAPITAL LETTERS JUST SHOCK PEOPLE.
You can ask a question in a summary like, "what do you think happens?". That itself is acceptable, but "Read to find out!" is kind of obvious, and so please do not write that in a summary. It's like you're saying people are too stupid so you have to tell them to read, which is offensive and will turn some readers away. Some people have said that they disagree with this however, so there are differing opinions on this one(Catsrawesome).
You can also give them a sneak peek of the story, just copy and paste a few quotes. Or, you can just blatantly say something like, Percy is gone and Annabeth is missing him. You can gather what happens in that fanfic.
Also, do not write "I'm no good at summaries, just read!"(The Capitious Critic) or "first fanfic, go easy!" Well, you could if you want, but you're metaphorically wasting your breath because most people couldn't care less if it was your first or not, and if you can't write a good summary, you probably can't write a good story no matter how amazing your idea is.
Lastly, do not write an amazing summary to gain followers or readers but write a story that has nothing to do with the summary at all. Personally, I have never come across this yet, but I would hate it if I did. (Thanks, green angel01)

Moving on. Here is an example Chaos summary:

Annabeth cheats percy on with his arrigant half brother and chaos finds him and gives him a home wtih his friends, when he has to save the world, again, can he bear going back to Camp where all his best and worst memories reside?

Ok. So whats the problem, doctor? First of all, capitalization. 'percy' and 'chaos' should be capitalized. Next. grammar. 'Annabeth cheats percy on with his arrigant half brother' should be 'Annabeth cheats on Percy with his arrogant half brother'. After that, spelling. 'Arrigant' is 'arrogant' and 'wtih' is with. Lastly, punctuation. It needs a period somewhere and it needs to get rid of some commas. If I had fixed it until it was at least better, I would have changed it to:

When Annabeth cheats on Percy with his arrogant half-brother, Percy is heartbroken. He runs away only to be found by Chaos who takes him in and trains him. Percy is a new person. He has new friends, a new life. When the world is in danger- again- and Percy has to save it-again-can Percy bear returning home to where all his best and worst memories reside?

Sure, I added some things, but you'll notice that they still follow all of the requirements.

Rating

So the rating...well, there's not much to say about this one. Just rate it accurately, make sure you read the chart if you're not sure. But only add those "Rated T because i'm paranoid" things if necessary. Especially if you have a really good summary, it breaks the reader out of the feeling the summary leaves behind back into the world. If anybody complains that it's rated too low, that's ok, you're the writer. Just change it.

That's all for today. Remember, this is what I think is annoying, wrong, or could be better. If you have a story that contradicts anything I said was not good, and you have a ton of followers, great! Congratulations! Tell me, I'd love to be proven wrong. I don't want to give false information, I don't want to tell writers with potential to do the wrong thing, I don't want to cost those who read this. If you have anything that annoyed you that I didn't mention, comment or PM me! And thanks for taking the time to read!