User talk:O/Novels

Project news

• We are on the cusp of having 9000 novel and other narrative prose articles tagged as part of the project. With this volume of articles, we need all the editorial help we can get.
• Now there are three Task Forces ("Short story", "Science Fiction" & "Crime") - see below

Member news

• The project has currently 214 members, 8 joined & 1 leavers since the last newsletter at the start of February 2007

Other news

• The Assessment department has managed to assess (in some form) nearly all the main articles. The emphasis will now change to identifying needed article improvement, however keeping a watch on newly tagged articles with a view to properly assess those.
• A new Peer review department has kicked off with one of my early articles as a starting point. Please do give it a look, start reviewing and suggest other articles that you believe could benefit from another pair of eyes.
• The Children and Young Adult Literature portal was created by User:KGV, go take a look.

Auto list news

• Currently stalled - if anyone has the means to help out here with re-generation of these list - please do!

Current debates

• The End of Fair Use? is notification of a serious debate going on across WikiPedia.
• Another possible problem hasn't really got going as a debate but maybe should have. It highlights a need to put in content to articles that asserts "notability" and gives proper referencing to articles.

Task Forces

• Short story task force is about short stories and short story collections.
• Crime task force is about Crime, Detective & Mystery novels, novellas, novelettes & short stories.
• Science fiction task force is about Science fiction novels, novellas, novelettes & short stories.

Project volunteers

• Volunteers needed - if any members feel able to take on project tasks such as leading Task Forces, editing this Newsletter, monitoring and maintaining the Announcements template, heading up Outreach activity, managing Collaboration or Assessment activity or anything else you believe needs special attention, please let us know.

From the Members

Welcome to the tenth issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.

We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.

Kevinalewis : ^{(Talk Page)}/_(Desk), Initiating Editor

Collaboration of the Month

• This months Collaboration has been selected by popular vote and it is Adam Bede.

Newsletter challenge

Last months A Taste for Death challenge was met by the user Barbara Osgood (talk · contribs) with a brief stub .... again this could still handle some development.

• The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This month's article is Ivan Turgenev's - On the Eve.

Project news

• The project has now passed the 10,000 article tagged as in scope. It is hoped to see much more effort going into the improvement of these articles. Those of particular concern are those of "high" or even "top" importance/priority that are still only stubs. If any of these are about anything you know about or can quickly research please add what you can.

Member news

• The project has currently 217 members, 5 joined & 2 leavers since the last newsletter at the start of March 2007

Other news

• A bot compiled list of new literature related pages is now available at Portal:Literature/New pages.
• The peer review department of the Novels WikiProject is always open for peer reviewing articles.

Department & Task Force news

• We now have five administration Departments which now include an Automation Department which is the home for support and administration of automated update activity. Anyone with such experience and can get involved look in here for work ideas and to make suggestions.
• The three task forces are gradually growing but need support to succeed. Also if you have further such ideas for co-operation - also let us know.
  • At the Short Story task force we have just started to consider what a standard short story article should ideally include and an article pattern template debate has started here.

Auto list news

• Our Auto Generated lists appear to have lost the editor who created and supported them. If any other editors have the ability and are willing to have a stab at producing replacement updates, please let us know.

Current debates

• On {{Infobox_Book}} template talk page there was a discussion on adding website links to the template.
• Later on more debates opened on adding WikiQuote, then Editors & foreword-contributors and further Serialized books and release date?
• Short story article debate has started here as mentioned above.

From the Members

Welcome to the eleventh issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.

We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.

Kevinalewis : ^{(Talk Page)}/_(Desk), Initiating Editor

Collaboration of the Month

• This month's Collaboration has been selected by popular vote and is The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. Someone has pointed out that the 22nd of April is the 300th birthday of Henry Fielding so it behoves us to honour his memory with a suitable effort here!

Newsletter challenge

Last month's On the Eve challenge was met by the user TAnthony (talk · contribs) (who is possibly from the planet Arrakis) with a nice stub ....

• The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This month's article is the genre Political thriller.

Project news

• The peer review department of the Novels WikiProject is running well after the start in February, having 2 new articles under review: So You Want to Be a Wizard and To Kill a Mockingbird.
• Our article count has leapt again rising to over 11500. Do get stuck in and assist in improving this rising tide of narrative prose related material. A statistical count of articles can be found here.
• We have a new project page for Article Style Guidelines which has had a few editors work on it. Currently based on our existing article template it needs some extra eyes to hone any rough edges.

(n.b. also see debates below!)

• Also to accommodate this page the main navigation template has been slightly reorganised.

Member news

• The project has currently 229 members, 12 joined & 0 leavers since the last newsletter at the start of April 2007

Other news

• The Brothers Karamazov has been nominated for a featured article review.
• Uncle Tom's Cabin and Original Stories from Real Life were nominated for Featured Article.

Auto list news

• Our Auto Generated lists appear to have lost the editor who created and supported them. If any other editors have the ability and are willing to have a stab at producing replacement updates, please let us know.

Current debates

• Of crucial importance to our progress and the way we edit is a debate on the Main Article Template which is strongly recommended for every editor who can, getting involved with. We have worked with the existing template for well over a year now and this debate proposes making radical changes.

(n.b. also see the "Article Style Guidelines" mentioned in "Project News" above)

• On the project's general discussion page there is a thread on sourcing novel articles.

From the Members

Welcome to the twelfth issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.

We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.

Kevinalewis : ^{(Talk Page)}/_(Desk), Initiating Editor

Newsletter tip line has been created for members to link, doodle, shortly write news ideas, discussions they think are possibly interesting/important for the Newsletter.

feydey, Co-editor

Collaboration of the Month

• This month's Collaboration has been selected by popular vote and is Moby-Dick.

Newsletter challenge

Last month's Political thriller challenge was met by the user Loom91 (talk · contribs) with a nice stub.

• The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This month's article is Louisa May Alcott's Work: A Story of Experience.

Project news

• The demand for fair use rationales for book covers has generated a discussion among wikipedians and also WP:NOVELS members. See the discussion here it has some potentially very important ideas to consider and possibly contribute to.

Member news

• The project has currently 247 members, 11 joined & 0 leavers since the last newsletter at the start of June 2007

Other news

• The French and Francophone literature portal was created in June.

Novel related news

• The Novel - (author notes by kind permission of Gregory David Roberts)

What is a novel? What are the elements that must be found in any piece of writing for it to be considered a novel? I think it fair to say that traditional definitions of the word “novel” work along these lines: A novel is a fictitious prose story of book length. In my view, a novel has six basic elements: 1) It must have a society of characters; 2) They must be undergoing transformations; 3) And those must be in the course of a sustained prose narrative; 4) The sustained prose narrative must be impelled by a plot; 5) And it must be unified by clearly discernible central themes; 6) And to the extent possible, it must be universalised by a complex architecture of allegorical and symbolical sub-strata. If I write those six basic elements into a single definition, I come up with this: A novel is a society of characters, undergoing transformations, in the course of a sustained prose narrative, which is impelled by a plot, unified by clearly discernible central themes, and universalised by a complex architecture of allegorical and symbolical sub-strata.

• item courtesy of Boylo (talk · contribs)

Current debates

• After lengthy discussions about the {{Infobox_Book}} it has settled down at a possibly permanent layout. Any suggestions are still of course welcome.
• Also the important book cover debate mentioned first above.

From the Members

Welcome to the fourteenth issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.

We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.

Kevinalewis : ^{(Talk Page)}/_(Desk), Initiating Editor

Collaboration of the Month

• This month's Collaboration has been selected by popular vote and is Live and Let Die (novel).

Newsletter challenge

Last month's Pity is Not Enough challenge was quickly written by our two eager Novel's WP members Imasleepviking (talk · contribs) and Yllosubmarine (talk · contribs) from the US.

• The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This month's article is Sinclair Ross' As For Me and My House.

Project news

• During July we passed the 13,000 mark for articles tagged as within the scope of the WikiProject.

Member news

• The project has currently 248 members, 8 joined & 0 leavers since the last newsletter at the start of July 2007

Other news

• Book cover images are discussed at large on WikiProject_Novels/GeneralForum.

Novel related news

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, is released worldwide in July.

Current debates

• On {{Infobox_Book}} we have new debates on ISBN format and coding ideas. Also we have the possibility of making or asserting COinS usage, for those who know more about this please get involved.

From the Members

Welcome to the fifteenth issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.

We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.

Kevinalewis : ^{(Talk Page)}/_(Desk), Initiating Editor

Collaboration of the Month

• This month's Collaboration has been selected by popular vote and is The Plague.

Newsletter challenge

Last month's As For Me and My House challenge was getting left so I Kevinalewis (talk · contribs) had a pop at it. Please add anything you can find about this important work of Canadian literature. .

• The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This month's article is Jules Verne's 1897 novel The Sphinx of the Ice Fields.

Project news

• During August we signed up to the WikiProject advertising facility {{wikipedia ads}} initiative.
• Our tagged articles now number over 14,000 and more are being added every day. In reality the article count for our project scope is likely to be much higher so the more who can get involved and assist the process of improving the quality of the articles the better.

Member news

• The project has currently 261 members, 7 joined & 0 leavers since the last newsletter at the start of August 2007.
• A number of editors have signed up to our "task forces" without signing to the main project so the figure could be slightly higher.

Other news

• Although many editors are doing sterling work actually working on writing and maintaining articles we could always do with more volunteers to assist with the project wide tasks.
• Our Collaboration of the Month is in need of more suggested articles for our attention and more votes for those already proposed.

Novel related news

• The eagerly awaited Fatal Revenant by Stephen Donaldson is ever closer now, due for release October 9, 2007 in the U.S., October 18 in the UK. As the second part of the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever#The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant it should seal the character of this trilogy as the closing set from this classic sequence of fantasy novels.

Current debates

• One experienced editor has requested feedback on guidelines such as WP:FICT and WP:WAF. Check out his comments first and get your views felt.

From the Members

Welcome to the sixteenth issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.

We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.

Kevinalewis : ^{(Talk Page)}/_(Desk), Initiating Editor

Collaboration of the Month

• This month's Collaboration has been selected by popular vote and is The Firm (novel).

Newsletter challenge

Last month's The Sphinx of the Ice Fields challenge had quickly a short line about it by New Babylon 2 (talk · contribs).

• The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This month's article is Susan Cooper's Over Sea, Under Stone, which currently is only a redirect.

Project news

• We have had a solid month with an increase of project tagging work. We now have a bit of a backlog of assessments needed.

Member news

• The project has currently 305 members, 6 joined & 0 leavers since the start of January 2008.
• The member page has been reorganized with it being noted that many member are largely inactive. However this is not unusual for WikiProjects and we have a very loyal core of editors who work diligently away often without recognition.

Other news

• Many book cover images were tagged for deletion because of missing or incorrect fair use rationales in January. Several notes on this subject were placed on the General Forum.

Task force news

• There is a new 19th century task force. if this is an area of interest for you join in and help out.

Novel related news

• 23 January, 2008 - The Nestlé Smarties Book Prize is discontinued as of 2008 Guardian
• The Jaipur Literature Festival, was held on the 23 - 27 January 2008, and is India's biggest festival of literature. British Council news site
• Margaret Truman Daniel, president’s daughter and popular author of mysteries, Dies at 83 on the 29 January 2008 NYTimes "Margaret Truman Daniel" obituary

Current debates

• The short story taskforce talk page has a discussion relating to the (non)inclusion of articles on stories by well known authors. Find the debate here.

From the Members

Welcome to the Twenty First issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.

We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.

Kevinalewis : ^{(Talk Page)}/_(Desk), Initiating Editor

Collaboration of the Month

• This month's Collaboration has been selected by popular vote and is Rabbit, Run.

Newsletter challenge

Last month's challenge (Master Georgie) was completed by member User:Nick mallory again. Although is worth mentioning that much of the current content is the work of User:Yllosubmarine.

• The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This month's article is Wright Morris' award-winning The Field of Vision.

Project news

• An election has been proposed to elect a council that will govern the whole project for a month or more, if you would like to debate this, go to the general discussion forum here

Member news

• The project has currently 312 members, 7 joined & 0 leavers since the start of February 2008.

Other news

• Last months collaboration brought few improvements it would be nice if more got involved with the one for this month.

Task force news

• "Featured short stories?" discussion on the Short story task force talk page.

Novel related news

• Penguin is planning to offer audiobooks that are free of digital copyright protection technology. (Guardian)
• Double Booker prize nominee, novelist Julian Rathbone dies on 28 February, aged 73. (Guardian)
• Mystery writer and romantic novelist Phyllis A. Whitney died on 8 February, aged 104. (Wikinews)

Current debates

• The debate on "studying literature" is now taking place here. Please have a look and add to the debate.

From the Members

Welcome to the Twenty Second issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.

We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.

Kevinalewis : ^{(Talk Page)}/_(Desk), Initiating Editor

Collaboration of the Month

• This month's Collaboration has been selected by popular vote and is The Betrothed.

Newsletter challenge

Last month's challenge (The Field of Vision) was completed by member User:Elizabennet as a fairly basic "stub" if anyone knows more to enhance it, please do.

• The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This month's article is Norman Douglas' perhaps most famous work South Wind (LE).