As promised (threatened? asked for?), here is a little snippet about how to write a recap back in the old days, and how I wrote them.
[Some background: I was under javabeans’ tutelage for my training period. She was presiding editor over the majority of my shows until 2017, although I did do a couple of shows under girlfriday as well.]
——————————
The OG School of Recaps
Old-school longform recaps had a criteria of technical specs that they needed to meet in terms of format, wordcounts, and so on.
A recap has two main components: text and images.
The text aspect of a recap has three parts:
1) Intro
2) Base recap
3) Comment
The image aspect of a recap has two parts:
1) The header image
2) Screencaps to illustrate the recap
Today I’m going to tell you about INTROS.
The intro needs to be at least 50 words to fill the space correctly. They can be (and often are) longer, but you have to offset this against your total wordcount (more on that in future posts – maybe lol, if you want them).
Intros are important because they show up in the blurb box on the main page, so it’s the first thing anyone will read. For that reason, you also need to write them in a way that makes the reader want to click through. This one’s your hook – use it well.
Never put plot spoilers here – not just for that episode but also of any twists or reveals of previous episodes. Not everyone will be reading and watching these live, so you need to be mindful of the fact that people will come to these months and even years later.
Also think about how it displays under the show’s tag: in reverse. So if you click on the tag for, say, Kill Me, Heal Me, the list will begin with the final episodes and the episode count goes down as you go down the page.
Intros are hard to write: it has to be a precise mix of vague and specific – vague enough not to spoil, specific enough to lure you in. If you’re clever, you can write it with veiled meaning that is clear to someone who’s watching the show, but remains unrevealing for someone who isn’t (but may later). And avoid clichés – they’re boring.
Though the intro is the shortest component of the recap, it can often be the hardest to write. I made it a habit to write them at the very end, once I finished the rest of the recap, because that’s when they came easiest. The worst time to try to write it, I think, is the beginning. This is because once you’re done writing everything, you have a clear overview of what went down in the episode and what you think of it. So it’s easier to pick out themes and arcs, and weave them into little puzzle sentences. It’s actually fun at that point (though after you’ve been writing for 16-20 hours, nothing is fun except the thought either dying or sleeping).
That’s it for this post! If you guys like these, let me know and I’ll try to write more as and when the tiger takes me. If you’d like to be tagged for notifications, lmk in the comments! 💙
Also proofread, so you don’t repeat yourself. But you know when you’re most likely to miss your errors? When it’s 3am and your words are just squiggles and nothing means anything to you anymore.
Thank you so much for sharing the writing process! I must say, it sounds like such a labour of love! I could probably write one recap, and then wouldn’t have anything left to give (to anyone or anything)!😅 Did you have another job, or studies at the same time? I couldn’t imagine how that would be possible. How did you recover after these 16-20 hour marathon bouts of writing?
Back when I was writing papers and essays, I would write the intro last as well (although I’d come up with the thesis statement first and have a plan). It’s interesting to see how a very different type of writing can share that in common! Also, had you not pointed out the unique challenges of writing an intro for a recap, I would never have realised! It makes a lot of sense though, and as a reader, I really appreciate that there are no spoilers, but enough shared to draw me in – what a challenge! And please, please do tag me in future posts!😊
Thanks so much, now I want to read more of how you got everything done. When I read “classic recaps” I kept thinking how many recapper watched the episodes or how many times they pressed the pause bottom to be that specific.
And by the way, when I went down all your heart content I suddenly remembered how many dramas you and I loved to bits!!!
Thank you for this is interesting behind the scenes process @saya. I was always curious about how recaps were done, and you’ve given such a detailed description.
Your most impressive take on a drama was Watcher. That was such a complex drama to put into words, but you made it interesting and clear. A huge feat!
I love this. I’m an amateur editor-writer for a local medical journal and what you’ve outlined could work for several different types of writing. Scientific writing aside, a lot of what I write is more conversational with the reader, so I’m also looking for that intro hook for them to keep reading my article. Also, finding a subject that is interesting across subspecialties, or making a subject that may not be immediately relatable interesting and entertaining to read about. I hope you can mention this at some point, where people may not be watching the show at all, but find entertainment just reading the recap and how you interject blips of humor or exasperation into the recap. Sometimes I read to just get the recapper’s opinion of the show. That was missing after JB and GF left and the recaps became more just summarizations and honestly were really dull to read because I could never make out what the recapper really thought. We know there are bad dramas that people recap and half the fun is wallowing in shared misery when you’re watching it too—or sympathy for the recapper when they’re stuck with watching it and I have the luxury to stop!
Keep them coming! I’m saving them for future reference for myself, who plans to write full time when I retire.
Thank you so much Saya. I’d love to be tagged for future posts. Intros are indeed very tricky. In my one extremely lackluster try at writing a recap, I faced the most difficult while wroting the intros and comments DB style. They just need to be the right amount of ambigious and intriguing. That’s hard and cliches are tempting when you’re running out of creativity and time 😅
And this reminded me of when I was watching Start-up, and I was getting frustrated with the lies, I went to the show’s tag page and read the intros to find out how long the lies are gonna take to unravel. I found it and it was a good find for me. But after reading your post, maybe that wasn’t a very spoiler-free intro…
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Saya
August 20, 2022 at 7:17 PM
DRAMABEANS DIARIES: INAUGURAL EDITION
As promised (threatened? asked for?), here is a little snippet about how to write a recap back in the old days, and how I wrote them.
[Some background: I was under javabeans’ tutelage for my training period. She was presiding editor over the majority of my shows until 2017, although I did do a couple of shows under girlfriday as well.]
——————————
The OG School of Recaps
Old-school longform recaps had a criteria of technical specs that they needed to meet in terms of format, wordcounts, and so on.
A recap has two main components: text and images.
The text aspect of a recap has three parts:
1) Intro
2) Base recap
3) Comment
The image aspect of a recap has two parts:
1) The header image
2) Screencaps to illustrate the recap
Today I’m going to tell you about INTROS.
The intro needs to be at least 50 words to fill the space correctly. They can be (and often are) longer, but you have to offset this against your total wordcount (more on that in future posts – maybe lol, if you want them).
Intros are important because they show up in the blurb box on the main page, so it’s the first thing anyone will read. For that reason, you also need to write them in a way that makes the reader want to click through. This one’s your hook – use it well.
Never put plot spoilers here – not just for that episode but also of any twists or reveals of previous episodes. Not everyone will be reading and watching these live, so you need to be mindful of the fact that people will come to these months and even years later.
Also think about how it displays under the show’s tag: in reverse. So if you click on the tag for, say, Kill Me, Heal Me, the list will begin with the final episodes and the episode count goes down as you go down the page.
Intros are hard to write: it has to be a precise mix of vague and specific – vague enough not to spoil, specific enough to lure you in. If you’re clever, you can write it with veiled meaning that is clear to someone who’s watching the show, but remains unrevealing for someone who isn’t (but may later). And avoid clichés – they’re boring.
Though the intro is the shortest component of the recap, it can often be the hardest to write. I made it a habit to write them at the very end, once I finished the rest of the recap, because that’s when they came easiest. The worst time to try to write it, I think, is the beginning. This is because once you’re done writing everything, you have a clear overview of what went down in the episode and what you think of it. So it’s easier to pick out themes and arcs, and weave them into little puzzle sentences. It’s actually fun at that point (though after you’ve been writing for 16-20 hours, nothing is fun except the thought either dying or sleeping).
If you want to see my intros in the wild, scroll to your heart’s content!
——————————
That’s it for this post! If you guys like these, let me know and I’ll try to write more as and when the tiger takes me. If you’d like to be tagged for notifications, lmk in the comments! 💙
Saya
August 20, 2022 at 7:18 PM
hm, I think this is as pretty as this formatting is going to get. oh well.
Saya
August 20, 2022 at 7:29 PM
Also proofread, so you don’t repeat yourself. But you know when you’re most likely to miss your errors? When it’s 3am and your words are just squiggles and nothing means anything to you anymore.
PS, it’s past 3am 😭
Saya
August 20, 2022 at 7:31 PM
So go the eff to sleep and check it over again in the morning and THEN submit.
^ true story (x100)
dramadillo
August 21, 2022 at 6:40 AM
Thank you so much for sharing the writing process! I must say, it sounds like such a labour of love! I could probably write one recap, and then wouldn’t have anything left to give (to anyone or anything)!😅 Did you have another job, or studies at the same time? I couldn’t imagine how that would be possible. How did you recover after these 16-20 hour marathon bouts of writing?
Back when I was writing papers and essays, I would write the intro last as well (although I’d come up with the thesis statement first and have a plan). It’s interesting to see how a very different type of writing can share that in common! Also, had you not pointed out the unique challenges of writing an intro for a recap, I would never have realised! It makes a lot of sense though, and as a reader, I really appreciate that there are no spoilers, but enough shared to draw me in – what a challenge! And please, please do tag me in future posts!😊
Eazal
August 21, 2022 at 12:57 AM
Thanks so much, now I want to read more of how you got everything done. When I read “classic recaps” I kept thinking how many recapper watched the episodes or how many times they pressed the pause bottom to be that specific.
And by the way, when I went down all your heart content I suddenly remembered how many dramas you and I loved to bits!!!
I ♥️ bad dramas
August 21, 2022 at 2:31 AM
Thank you for this is interesting behind the scenes process @saya. I was always curious about how recaps were done, and you’ve given such a detailed description.
Your most impressive take on a drama was Watcher. That was such a complex drama to put into words, but you made it interesting and clear. A huge feat!
parkchuna 🍉
August 21, 2022 at 4:45 AM
I can’t go wild on the old posts yet, but it’s 2022 and Kim Seul Gi still hasn’t gotten the star she deserves!
Ally
August 21, 2022 at 7:13 AM
I love this. I’m an amateur editor-writer for a local medical journal and what you’ve outlined could work for several different types of writing. Scientific writing aside, a lot of what I write is more conversational with the reader, so I’m also looking for that intro hook for them to keep reading my article. Also, finding a subject that is interesting across subspecialties, or making a subject that may not be immediately relatable interesting and entertaining to read about. I hope you can mention this at some point, where people may not be watching the show at all, but find entertainment just reading the recap and how you interject blips of humor or exasperation into the recap. Sometimes I read to just get the recapper’s opinion of the show. That was missing after JB and GF left and the recaps became more just summarizations and honestly were really dull to read because I could never make out what the recapper really thought. We know there are bad dramas that people recap and half the fun is wallowing in shared misery when you’re watching it too—or sympathy for the recapper when they’re stuck with watching it and I have the luxury to stop!
Keep them coming! I’m saving them for future reference for myself, who plans to write full time when I retire.
💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
August 23, 2022 at 3:18 AM
Heck yeah sign me up haha love to know the behind the scenes, even if I’m drawn to a different kind of writing than specifically recaps.
wapz
August 23, 2022 at 8:58 AM
Thank you so much Saya. I’d love to be tagged for future posts. Intros are indeed very tricky. In my one extremely lackluster try at writing a recap, I faced the most difficult while wroting the intros and comments DB style. They just need to be the right amount of ambigious and intriguing. That’s hard and cliches are tempting when you’re running out of creativity and time 😅
wapz
August 23, 2022 at 9:00 AM
Most difficulty while writing*
Yeah I guess I didn’t make it thanks to the typos as well 😂
Midnight
August 25, 2022 at 2:24 PM
I would like to be tagged! Because although I check db fanwall every day I hadn’t seen your post until now
Midnight
August 25, 2022 at 2:33 PM
Also, I loved reading this! Thank you.
And this reminded me of when I was watching Start-up, and I was getting frustrated with the lies, I went to the show’s tag page and read the intros to find out how long the lies are gonna take to unravel. I found it and it was a good find for me. But after reading your post, maybe that wasn’t a very spoiler-free intro…