Help:Manual of Style

Purpose
DF wiki is here to provide information on the Dresden Files series; as such this manual of style is intended to provide a way to organize said information in an ordered and homogeneous way.

If something is not covered by the manual, editors are welcome to use their judgement and are encouraged to raise the point with admins. Editors are also encouraged to voice their doubt and disagreements with the manual. If their points meet approval from other editors and admins, they'll make their way in the manual of style.

Language
American english is the language of the Dresden files, therefore it will be the language of this wiki. Even though both past and present tense are currently used in many pages without consideration for consistency, present tense is to be preferred over past tens, so editors are encouraged to convert past to present, unless there's a good reason not to: i.e. a character is dead or an incident has happened before the beginning of the series - "Restoration of Faith".

Pages
Information present in the book should be summarized succinctly and clearly in many pages, which can be of various different types, with different layouts for each type.

Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of pages: 1) describing a story, 2) describing a character, 3) describing everything else.

Story pages
Story pages, such as Storm Front, typically include:


 * a mandatory short lede, giving information about the title, publication information, number of chapters. is to be included here, as complete as possible. References may be required.
 * a non-mandatory Blurb section, proposing the blurb's content. References are not required.
 * a Plot section, describing succinctly the novel's or story's plot. References are not required.
 * for novels, a plot points introduced section, summarizing what of importance happens in the novel. References are not required.
 * an Other media section, presenting what graphic novels, audiobooks, electronic media are available. References are not required.
 * a non mandatory Trivia section. Notes and miscellanea should be included here. References, if available, should be to outside sources.
 * a Notes section, if needed. It will be explained later.
 * a References section, almost always needed. It will be explained later.
 * a See also section, with links to pages relevant but not previously piped.
 * an External links section, with links to external pages relevant to the topic.

Each page should be self-contained, and must avoid referring to future stories; only exception being the "followed by" line of the infobox. However, it is up to the judgement of the editor to include a plot point that will be relevant later on in the series, and influences future events.

Mandatory categorization is Books.

Character pages
Character pages, such as Harry Dresden, describe what is known about characters, and typically include:


 * a mandatory short lede, including the character name, nicknames, gender, species, affiliation and first appearance. References and notes may be required.
 * a Description paragraph, succinctly presenting the physical chracteristics of the character. References are required.
 * a Biography description, presenting a succinct biography of the character. It can be quite lenghty and is to be chronologically ordered. Mentions of books or stories are not mandatory, but references are required. Either description or biography may be omitted if there is not enough information exists and the other paragraph is present.
 * a number of non mandatory paragraphs about Possessions, Spells, physical or magical characteristics. They may be divided in titled subparagraphs, and references are required.
 * a mandatory In the series paragraph. Each novel/story's information is to be presented in its own subparagraph. References are required.
 * a non mandatory trivia section. References, if available, should be to outside sources.
 * a Notes section, if needed.
 * a References section, almost always needed.
 * a See also section, with links to pages relevant but not previously piped.
 * an External links section, with links to external pages relevant to the topic.

Each page should be self-contained.

Mandatory categorizations is one of: Main characters, Recurring characters, Minor characters, Mentioned characters.

Other pages
Other pages, such as Nevernever, Magic, Wizard, describe what is known about any other subject, and typically include:


 * a mandatory short lede, broaching the topic. References and notes may be required.
 * a Description paragraph, presenting the topic. Might be lengthy, mentions of books or stories are not mandatory, and references are required.
 * a biography description, presenting a succinct biography of the character. It can be quite lenghty and is to be chronologically ordered. but references are required. Either description or biography may be omitted if there is not enough information exists and the other paragraph is present.
 * a number of non mandatory paragraphs about specific details, which may be divided in titled subparagraphs, and references are required.
 * a mandatory in the series paragraph. Each novel/story's information is to be presented in its own subparagraph. References are required.
 * a non mandatory trivia section. References, if available, should be to outside sources.
 * a Notes section, if needed.
 * a References section, almost always needed.
 * a See also section, with links to pages relevant but not previously piped.
 * an External links section, with links to external pages relevant to the topic.