Is there such a thing as trying to hard to sound epic?

[melchi]

I was thumbing through some of the longer length web novels trying to see if there was one that I wanted to try out but I found myself put off by some of the blurbs.

Stuff like... the world is at an turning point, gods walk among us as ancient evils long forgotten awaken.

The world is against the witch, everyone wants to be her enemy, only the path of ascension remains a ray of hope.

Anon deleted the novel that would have kept humanity from destroying itself, only by hacking the gibson and time traveling to a scribblehub that actually has it posted can mankind be saved.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

There is, it's called being edgy.

 

[Clo]

Absolutely. A lot of authors try so hard to make their blurb stand out they don't realise how it works against them.

1) for the cringe
2) drowning in a sea of cringe

Going for something snappy and simple tends to work for the best in the blurb,

And that's true also for the general plot of the story.

Something simple...
"The daily struggles of a girl built for battle, acting like the girl next door."
or
"Level 100 Paladin jobchanges to Level 1 HomeOwner"
is more likely to get people checking out a story than

Destiny is dead, the gods have been devoured by an eldtrich horror, space time is unravelling. Unfortunately for Joe who had an unfortunate encounter with truck-kun, he was reborn as this forgotten world's one and only savior. Can Joe protect him peaceful way of life until adulthood or will his calling, harem, and serrendipitous snarky system force him to take up arms early?
Joe: "Well, shit. I better use my Appraisal skill, cheat-skill and plot armour to use, demons are the door. Can I make it home before mom and pop notice I slipped out?"

 

[RainingFish]

My thoughts on the matter are that you can’t expect too much in the way of feelings from readers early on. Many authors are deeply invested in their stories, so of course they have strong feelings about certain parts of their story that they wish to share, but they sometimes fail to realize it’s difficult to make others feel as strongly as they do. Most of the stories I like put their epic moments later on after I’ve already become invested in the story and its characters.

People reading the blurb just want to quickly know if the story is right for them. Reading a story is like going on a journey and the majority of that journey isn’t the beginning or the end, but the middle. People reading the blurb want to know if they’re going to enjoy the journey so it should focus more on what the middle part is like rather than a few cherry-picked epic moments. Anyway, just my take on it.

 

[Arch9CivilReactor]

Those kind of synopsis don’t get to the point and don’t give the reader any sense of what the story will be like. It just turns into a list of randomly added tropes that may or may not be in the story proper. I don’t like it because that kind of synopsis is boring in its own flavour.

 

[melchi]

Like sailus and Clo said, they do communicate something to readers.

And if cringe isn't what they are trying to communicate then they are doing it wrong.

 

[ElijahRyne]

I was thumbing through some of the longer length web novels trying to see if there was one that I wanted to try out but I found myself put off by some of the blurbs.

Stuff like... the world is at an turning point, gods walk among us as ancient evils long forgotten awaken.

The world is against the witch, everyone wants to be her enemy, only the path of ascension remains a ray of hope.

Anon deleted the novel that would have kept humanity from destroying itself, only by hacking the gibson and time traveling to a scribblehub that actually has it posted can mankind be saved.

I can’t quite decide if this is actually epic, or the creators trying to be so and just barely missing the mark and landing on cheesines.

 

[RiceballWasTaken]

I was thumbing through some of the longer length web novels trying to see if there was one that I wanted to try out but I found myself put off by some of the blurbs.

Stuff like... the world is at an turning point, gods walk among us as ancient evils long forgotten awaken.

The world is against the witch, everyone wants to be her enemy, only the path of ascension remains a ray of hope.

Anon deleted the novel that would have kept humanity from destroying itself, only by hacking the gibson and time traveling to a scribblehub that actually has it posted can mankind be saved.

no. It isn't good if it isn't chunnibyou enough.

 

[StoneInky]

There is, it's called being edgy.

No better way to put it myself.

And not only is it edgy, it's boring. I love funny and fast paced edgy, but I cannot read bland and generic edgy. Especially if it's full of purple prose and descriptions that don't actually make sense.

 

[lambenttyto]

There is, it's called being edgy.

Or possibly even pretentious.

 

[DireBadger]

A squirrel, alone, has to use his abilities with chewing and a small storehouse of nuts to STOP THE OCCULT GODS AND SAVE THE UNIVERSE!

one word book. *splat* The end.

But it's pure GRRM Epic! Kill the hero in the first word? Yep, he'd probably roll off of his super-strength couch and cream his diaper.

 

[Golden_Hyde]

uh, delusion of grandeur?

 

[Bartun]

If you like 'epic', and cringe, I'd love it if you give my humble little story a chance. ?

Actually, I'm in the process of removing at least some of the cringe out of it, and I'm not a tryhard over the 'epic' side.

Also, it is completed, so no waiting for new chapters. What do you say?

 

[Danja]

There IS such a thing as needless padding.

There ARE things that can be left to the reader's imagination (Unless it's a plot point in the story, I really don't need a lengthy description of the furniture in a given character's house ).