You can tell if your summary is general if it feels like its just describing the first two or three chapters, the introduction, the set up not the exposition.
When the summary is general, it's like an empty stage. The backgrounds are beautiful, the curtains are open, and the characters are backstage. the crowd is waiting for the play to start but they have no idea what its about. The only thing they know is the title and what they can interpret from the set peices alone. It could be a comedy, a tragedy, a mystery, a romance, anything, they don't know even though you, who wrote the story and train the actors, know. You can't advertise a play or expect people to understand what it's about by just describing the set. The readers know significantly less than you simply because the entire story is new to them. For you it has been brooding in your head for months maybe years and you know every character, symbol, and event inside and out, they don't so treat them as such.
What you should talk about is your exposition (or hook) in the summary. The hook is the first event of the story after all the setup has taken place and it is what sets the story into motion and throw the main character past the point of no return.
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The Don'ts of Wattpad
Non-FictionA list of writing problems common among many Wattpad writers that I have complied over a year of critiquing.
