I love summaries when it comes to finding and reading fic. Unless it's by an author I already know and like, I won't waste my time reading stories that don't have promising-sounding summaries, because my time for reading is limited and I don't want to waste it. I skip over fics that have no summary, or "My summary sucks but read anyway," or are summarized by, "This is my first fic."
When it comes to writing summaries, it's more of a love-hate relationship. I believe a good summary is necessary if you want to attract readers, but because that's your primary way of advertising your story, the pressure is on to make sure the summary is good. I wouldn't say I enjoy writing summaries, but I do it and try to do my best at it, because I want people to read my stuff.
As for how I come up with them? Well, at the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, I try to summarize what the story is about. If it's a long or multi-arc story, I try to make the summary like a teaser and focus on the primary theme, or what's going on at the beginning, so that the reader knows what they're getting into, and will hopefully get hooked from there once they start reading.
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