User blog comment:Nausiated/Writing Tips/@comment-1895174-20121115015843/@comment-61022-20121115190825

1) Yeah I noticed. But meh, it's just an example.

2) I find with synopsis and summaries of comics/movies/tv shows you should focus on the confines of the story your summarizing. IE: That issue/episode. Anything before or after kind of detracts from the central focus.

It does get harder when your dealing with something that back references a lot. I find that instead of getting into details about stuff that happened in a previous episode that is referenced, I just put a reference tag instead of going into deep details.

Some good examples I can point you to are summaries I wrote for issues of Uncanny X-Men during Claremont's original run, particularly the stuff from the late 80's. Check those out for a good example. Claremont did a lot of continuity references then. When it came to writing it chopped down a lot of exposition from a previous issue, but gave the reader a footnote they can reference.

Or if need be, explain things in detail in the Notes section. An example I have is the issues of Captain America Comics I did from 1945 to 1949. I reference the whole William Nasland/Jeff Mace retcon in each one so people know why I don't call the character Steve Rogers in my synopsis.

I find though that it is good to know what happened before and after in a series. With comics that's harder to do if say you're working on a character like Spider-Man or Cap. Sometimes getting a hold of the entire series is hard to do, so I do find getting an Index or Episode guide to look at. If you're not worried about spoilers (I myself am not) it's a good alternative to know what's ahead or behind the story your summarizing and you can't get to the source material due to time and resources.

I'll write blog specifically about issue summaries soon though