Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Novels

This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

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This is the style guidelines department of the Novels WikiProject. Its goal is to assist editors improve the quality of Wikipedia's articles on novels, novellas, novelettes and short stories. For Wikipedia guidelines regarding how to write about fiction in general, see

. The word "novel" in these guidelines may be replaced with "novella", "novelette" or "short story".

• If a non-novel article already exists with the name of the novel that you are trying to create an article for, disambiguate and use (novel) in the title: Novel Title (novel).
• If a novel article already exists with the name of the novel that you are trying to create an article for, and the two novels are by different authors, use (AUTHORNAME novel) in the title: Novel Title (AUTHORNAME novel). Rename the already existing article's title and change it to Novel Title (AUTHORNAME novel) also.

Because of Wikipedia's

. Novels need this in particular: most readers of a novel can write a plot summary about the work, but without the contributions of outside experts, there is little opportunity to discuss topics like themes, style and reception – which are the substantive real-world issues for these works. (For advice on writing sections on these topics, see the discussion below.)

Places to start

If you have been active on Wikipedia for six months and have 500 edits, we recommend the following databases available through

(and many public libraries and university libraries):

• WP:JSTOR (full-text articles on literature and history)
• WP:Project MUSE (full-text articles on literature and history)
• WP:EBSCO (assortment of academic and periodical literature)
• WP:Gale (assortment of academic and periodical literature)

Other useful database/sources of research, that may be available through your local library:

• MLA Bibliography
  (cites publications on literature and languages)
• For more for a "classic" author, the Cambridge Companion, or if it's a "classic" work, a
  Norton Critical Edition
  for that work. Both series have a number of volumes, and provide extensive introductions to the authors and works within their fields.
• ProQuest's Literature Online

If your local library doesn't have these works available, we suggest using the process documented at Wikipedia:Find your source to find the source.

Tips for finding criticism about less reviewed or studied works

For so-called "popular" texts, you should exhaust all of the methods above first because scholars have written a lot on popular culture in the last two decades (for example, there are many articles and even some books on Stephen King). If you find nothing, try these methods:

• Scholarly sources on the genre itself. The sources may not be entirely focused on that particular novel; you can still mention that the novel is part of a larger literary tradition, such as the mystery novel or the romance novel.
• Book reviews written by respectable publications in the novel's genre. The point is to try to find sources who are experts in the field of that particular novel. Sometimes you can find this information in a general search with the novel's title in
  Kirkus Review, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, USA Today, The New York Times
  or other newspaper review. Some newspapers have their reviews behind a paywall, so perform the search at a public library to avoid the need for a subscription to every newspaper with good book reviews. For some genres, like mysteries or historical fiction, you can find more specialized reviews that would be more interesting to read and have more nuanced opinions, for example in mystery writer or science fiction magazines.
  • It's important to be careful about choosing and using reviews: there is often a money trail that leads straight back to the publishers themselves (many blog reviewers are commissioned for their reviews). When using reviews make sure to not only emphasize praise which may be in part motivated by this financial incentives, but look for more complex reflections on themes, topics, style and the publishing context.
• Comments by other writers, particularly in the same genre. These opinions also have to be used carefully because these other authors may have personal or financial links to the writer, or may be competitors, and may have personal "issues" you know nothing about.
• Sales figures from journals and magazines who track that sort of thing, not from the publishers themselves. Publishers have an investment in boosting their numbers. One should always try to find independent verification of numbers like that (in this sense, you have to think like a journalist – you need two independent sources).

Finally, if there are very few sources (less than three substantial sources), you might consider not writing a page on the novel itself; instead, consider writing a page on the author or a series, especially if that author has written many novels in a single genre.

Article body

The following are the standard components of Wikipedia novel articles. An infobox can be placed at the head of a novel article; for more details on the content and style of the box, see below.

Lead section

The lead should summarize the article as a whole (

), thus the structure and content of your article should be reflected in the lead of the article. Leads tend to average between 2–4 paragraphs, depending on the size of the article.

Plot

Plot summaries should be concise and an integral part of the article. 400 to 700 words are usually sufficient for a full-length work, although very complex and lengthy novels may need a bit more. Shorter novels and short stories should have shorter summaries.

A plot summary should avoid reproducing the work being discussed. Instead, it should summarise the work, touching on plot, important events, character developments, etc. In a longer work, every conversation and event does not need to be mentioned. Size of the plot summary should be roughly proportional to the size of the plot. This is not always equivalent to the length of the work, since some plots are complex and dense while others are simple and straightforward.

A novel is a primary source for its own plot summary. Citing the novel explicitly in a plot summary section is not necessary provided that the summary is verifiable directly from the plot of the novel itself, that the novel is publicly available, and that its publication details are included within the article, for example in an infobox. Any part of the summary that is not purely descriptive, such as interpretation or explanatory remarks, requires a secondary source.

Plot summaries very often contain spoilers. That is quite normal, and is in line with the spoiler content guidelines and Wikipedia's content disclaimer. Spoilers are no different from any other content and should not be deleted solely because they are spoilers.

Characters

If appropriate, a character section would consist of brief character outlines, as opposed to a

. Length of each entry should vary relative to the character's importance to the story. Most articles do not need this section. Instead, a finely crafted plot summary is used to introduce the characters to the reader.

Major themes

In many ways this is the most important section of the page because it details the "meat" of the novel. The plot of a novel carries the themes and it is the themes that are often the most interesting. A small example will illustrate this. A plot summary of the story of the Fall might run like this: "Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and therefore God banished them from Paradise and cursed them with mortality." One of the themes of this little tale is "sin leads to death." It is more important that readers are made aware of the theme of "sin" than all of the details about the bits of fruit. This example also illustrates why an overly detailed plot summary will only confuse readers. Details about who ate the fruit first and who tempted whom are irrelevant to the larger issues—sin and death. At least in a Protestant reading.

And that brings us to a very important point. In order to write a comprehensive "Themes" section, you must do research. You cannot present your own opinion of what the novel's themes are (

". If you cannot find a source for your section on themes, do not write the section.

Style

Like the "Themes" section, this section should be based on as much research as you can do and should rely on the same sorts of sources – literary critics and historians, if possible, and book reviews and other writers' comments if not.

This section should lay out the writing styles employed by the author. For example, if the novel is an

's use of free indirect discourse.

Background

Include here a history of the novel's writing and development. For example, did the author use a 'real life' story to shape the plot? Did the author model a character on a 'real life' person? Did the author use another novel as a model? Is this novel in some sense a sequel to a previous work? None of these can be speculative. The 'background' section must report the writings of significant and reliable sources. For an example of Featured articles with a 'background' section see The Halo Graphic Novel or The World Without Us. 'Background' should not be confused with "Setting"; think in terms of the real world context and / or origins of the novel.

Publication history

Relying on research (see below), you should briefly outline the publication history of the novel ONLY if there is interesting information to relate. For example, some novels, such as William Godwin's Caleb Williams, were published with two different endings. Some novels were first published serially and then later published as bound books; this is the case with many of Charles Dickens' novels, for example. Maria Edgeworth altered significant elements of one of the marriage plots of her novel Belinda in response to criticism after the first edition was published. Other novels have been censored or altered by later editors. If there are no particularly interesting details to relate, try to work the basic facts of the novel's first publication into the article at some point. If both sections are short, it may be appropriate to merge Background and Publication history.

Reception

Understanding the novel's position in its own society and in later literary and cultural traditions is crucial; this material should be presented in a "Reception" section (clearly, a modern novel can't have much of a legacy yet). You should analyze how the novel was received by critics, meaning professional or well-known reviewers at the time that the novel was published, and not comments from members of the public. (Quotes from users on Amazon.com and blogs do not count, as these are

said about a particular Victorian novel. Your research will tell you what is important and what is not.

Relying on your research, you should also indicate what the public reaction to the novel was. Sales figures can help indicate this, but do not rely exclusively on reviews and sales figures for this section. Since reading habits were different in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is helpful to include descriptions of readers' responses to the novel as well as descriptions of how the novel was read. For a good example of this, see the "Style" section of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which explains the "sentimental" style of the novel and how readers responded at the time. Such descriptions help the reader understand the novel within its historical and social context. If the novel is a cult novel, an explanation of how the "cult" label developed would also be appropriate (again, all of this information would come from your research).

Adaptations

The adaptation section should detail any notable information about the novel's adaption into dramatic media, including films, TV miniseries, Broadway shows, etc. If this information is extensive, consider creating an entirely separate article for this information, such as "[Novel] in popular culture".

Be careful that such sections or articles do not degenerate into

to be worthy of an article to itself.

Footnotes and references

All Wikipedia article content must be

to verify your information can do so.

Other considerations

Infobox

Desolation Island

Author	ISBN	0123456789 (first edition, hardback)
Preceded by	The Mauritius Command
Followed by	The Fortune of War

Note that including an infobox is advisable; include one if sufficient information is available.

The table to the right is the

.

The parameters for the infobox can be found at Template:Infobox book.

A companion infobox for "novelettes" and "short stories" can be found at Template:Infobox short story.

Images

The image presented in the table should be the most significant cover historically for that book; often this is the first edition, but occasionally it is not. For example, sometimes authors make drastic revisions to texts and later editions are considered to be the "preferred" edition. The most important factor in choosing an illustration for your infobox is knowledge and reasoning: do you know why you are choosing that image and can you justify it? Remember also, that still copyrighted images can only be uploaded as non-free content, which means that you have to give a rationale for why the cover is being used.

Finding and uploading an image Covers can be found at various sites, including

). Novels published during the seventeenth century in Britain can be found at Early English Books Online (EEBO – by subscription only) and novels published during the eighteenth century in English can be found at Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO – by subscription only). Many images can also be found at google images for older texts.

Once you have found a suitable image:

• Save it to your hard drive as a
  PNG file. See preparing images for upload
  .
• Upload it to the wiki at Special:Upload. See uploading images.
• On the file's description page, add a short description of the image (e.g. "A book cover for NovelTitle."), and an
  image copyright tag
  :
  • {{Non-free book cover}} for such novels, novellas, novelettes or short stories.
• On the image line of the template, insert the image's filename. A short description can be included in the field image caption. The image size in the infobox is currently set to 200 pixels.

e.g. sample input – vary text used to suit image used

image = NovelTitle.jpg

image_caption = First edition cover

Genre

Choose a genre from the list available to link to which can be found on the main project page. You are not required to fill in the genre field. Genres are often debatable and can lead to anachronistic labeling. For example, labeling Robinson Crusoe a novel is highly suspect, for (it can be argued) the genre of the novel itself had not fully formed at that point, and Daniel Defoe would not have identified his text as a novel. You may consider leaving this field blank if no suitable genre is among the choices listed.

Publication dates

• The novel's earliest release, or publication in book form; if it was previously serialized, do not give the date of serialization. If not formally published, use the date written; this would be highly unusual for writing of notability.
• Use the release date in the country of origin for the novel.
• If the novel has been translated from a non-English language (and only then!), add the english_pub_date for date of first translated publication.

Do not include the following in infoboxes (although they can be included in a separate section in the main body of the article):

• Release dates for every country in the world.

Media type

Record only the media types in which the novel was originally available. For example, eighteenth-century novels were never published in "hardback and paperback" nor in audiobook so it is inappropriate to list those print subtypes.

• Print sub-types (
  Periodical
  )
• AudioBook sub-types (
  Cassette
  )
• e-Book sub-types

Preceded and followed by

These fields should be included only for the novels that are written as part of a series or sequence. Then the titles of the novel prior and the novel subsequent in the series should be placed in each parameter. Otherwise they should be left blank, in all cases. Note, It is not essential to complete all fields in the infobox. This is especially true if scant information on the novel is available.

Trivia

Trivia sections should be dealt with in accordance with

. They create a sense of a "fan site" in what might otherwise be a respectable encyclopedia entry. As such, information that might be placed in a Trivia section should be integrated into the body of the article.

Lists

Once an article has been created for a novel, it can be entered into a number of lists to allow easier browsing for viewers. All novels should be included in the

, etc. that a novel can be included in.

Categories

The article should include categories at the bottom. At a minimum, year, country and genre categories should be included. It is best to keep them in alphabetical order for easier browsing. For example, you would add the following to the bottom of a page for an American comedy novel that came out in 2007:

• Category:2007 novels
• Category:American novels
• Category:Comedy novels

For the novels of more significant novelists you could add the appropriate "Novels by AuthorName" category:

• Category:Novels by Charles Dickens
• Category:Short stories by Isaac Asimov
• Category:Short story collections by Philip K. Dick

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Writing about fiction