Star Wars Fanon:Featured articles/Tutorial

This featured article tutorial is brought to you, the Star Wars Fanon Wiki, by Atarumaster88 starting in 2009. It was motivated by a shortage of featured articles to display on the Main Page. After reading a community discussion on the matter, I decided to write this to serve as a possible solution for the featured article&mdash;henceforth referred to as "FA"&mdash;shortage. The idea is to create a work that serves both as a guide for prospective featured article writers, as well as model the appropriate layout and writing style that Star Wars Fanon requires of their featured articles. The inspiration came from tutorials that myself and other Inquisitors produced on Wookieepedia to aid writers on that wiki. I also recruited two other users, Solus and Squishy Vic to assist with this project by lending their expertise in certain areas.

When I was writing this tutorial, my goal was to make something that would show off qualities such as proper spelling and grammar. The sentences are all standardized in American English, so as to avoid reader confusion and, since this is an Out-of-Universe work, written in present tense. If you count the words on this tutorial, there are more than two hundred in the introduction, just like what is expected for a featured article. The sections are laid out and written to cover topics and concepts pertinent to prospective writers on the Star Wars Fanon Wiki, based on my experience reviewing writing featured articles on Wookieepedia and reviewing of featured articles on Star Wars Fanon. And remember, the full list of requirements and guidelines can be found at either the Manual of Style or featured article requirements.

The question of tense
Tense. It's an important part of any article, and I'm not referring to a state of suspense. I'm referring to tenses as in verb tenses. Generally, there are two very distinct classifications of articles: In-universe and Out-of-universe, and the classification into which your piece falls into determines which tense should be used, more or less.

In-universe works are written as if the Star Wars universe was real and cover people, places, things, and ideas that reside in the Star Wars universe. They include the vast majority of articles on SWF. Examples include:
 * Characters
 * Ships
 * Weapons
 * Species
 * Planets
 * Vehicles
 * Battles
 * Wars
 * Organizations
 * Lightsaber forms/combat styles

All of these types of articles should be written in a consistent past tense. Here's an example of what past tense looks like:

Note how everything is written as if it happened a long time ago. The perspective presented in the article is that the character's life story occurred years and years prior to the article's writing. At no point in an in-universe (IU) article should present tense verbs be used&mdash;not in the introduction, not in the biography/history section, not in the personality and traits, not in the users, nowhere. Not at all. If you want to write an IU FA, this is one of the hard-and-fast rules. I can't make it any clearer than that. See below under "Behind the scenes" for a possible exception.

Out of universe (OOU) articles are articles that discuss real-world topics, such as books, photonovels, or real-world authors. They're written from a real-life perspective, that is, they treat the Star Wars universe as fictional. Examples include:
 * Books
 * Photonovels
 * Fan series
 * Fanon video games

These are usually written in present tense. In fact, they have to be, according to the Manual of Style. Present tense treats the subject as if it is currently undergoing or performing an action. The perspective is that the topic at hand is active right now, and so should use the present tense. It is possible to employ some past tense, usually in the form of present perfect tense in an OOU article. A bit more confusing, I suppose. I'm not going to explain past perfect or present perfect tense&mdash;go look it up online. This isn't a grammar book.

Note that the article is primarily written in present tense, but contains elements of past tense. The distinction is common sense, more or less. For example, the novel Fugitive could only be released once. It would not make sense to say that "Fugitive is release in June 2007". Actions that happened in the past and are no longer active at this moment in time should be written in past tense. However, things without a strict timeline, such as "characters of the story must each confront the grim reality", should be left in present tense. It's a trickier distinction to make, but a bit of common sense and a good copyedit usually makes things clear.

How to link
Linking is a simple concept, so I'll just say this: One links to another article on SWF using brackets. For example: Ussej Padric Bac That code links to the article Ussej Padric Bac. Simple, right?

Pipelinking is slightly more complicated. You link to one article, but it's done indirectly&mdash;the text shown isn't necessarily the title of the article. For example: Some silly Jedi This still links to "Ussej Padric Bac", but it shows up on the screen as Some silly Jedi.

External linking involves linking to websites off of SWF. There are a couple ways to do this. The first, linking to other wikis, can be accomplished with some prefixes. You should always pipelink these. Chewbacca This links to Chewbacca on Wookieepedia. Mary Sue This links to Mary Sue on Wikipedia.

The other way is to use URLs with a single bracket:  However, this makes your link look like a [NUMBER] with the number linked. Like this: Not very attractive. Try this instead: a Darthipedia webcomic of Epic Lulz This displays a Darthipedia webcomic of Epic Lulz. Note the space in between the caption and the URL.

A redlink indicates that the thing you're linking to doesn't exist.

What to link
Link everything that you can. You should link a given topic on first mention:
 * In the introduction (if applicable)
 * In the infobox (if applicable)
 * Possibly in the photo captions (if applicable, and I believe this is personal choice)
 * In the main body of the article once. This includes the behind the scenes section.

Don't overdo the linking; redundant links are useless and look bad.

Quotes
Quotes aren't required, but if you're going to use them, you should use the quote template.

This is how it works: "I think he was the only Sith in history that killed out of boredom."

- —Anonymous historian It yields: "I think he was the only Sith in history that killed out of boredom."

- Anonymous historian

A final word on quotes: don't overuse them. At the most, one at the beginning of the article and at the beginning of each section. Not in the middle. Also, try and make them sound somewhat realistic. Inane quotes will be objected to. For an example of an absolutely silly quote, let me point you to:

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is only one rule here and that is to SHAKE...YOUR...BOOTIES!!"

- A DJ welcoming visitors to Club StarDust

Just. Don't.

From my point of view
One of the biggest problems I see new writers having is called POV, or point-of-view, and it typically shows up when you're trying to elevate or demean something. Writing FAs demands that you be neutral and objective, and not biased. Ergo, you cannot say that Darth Vader was evil. Evil depends largely on one's perspective, as Anakin Skywalker so pointedly reminded us at the end of ROTS. Also, if words carry certain positive or negative connotations (such as "brutal"), they can be POV. Let me show you a quick example of right and wrong: "He was an excellent swordsman and duelist and was noted for his unique fighting style."

- A sentence that exhibits clear bias, or POV

The key word that shows up here as POV is "excellent". Excellent compared to what? To whom? Those questions depend on the point-of-view of the person answering them. It's a bad, unprofessional way to write. Other words that are usually pretty clear indicators of POV include: Now, the good thing is that most biased phrases can be easily fixed. Here's how I would fix the example above: "He was considered an excellent swordsman by his peers, based on his unique fighting style"
 * "Fortunately" or "luckily" when used by themselves
 * "Legendary" or "epic" when used by themselves
 * "Excellent", "evil", "brutal", "atrocious", "horrible", "mysterious" and other similar words.

- A better sentence

The key word here is "considered". You're not saying he was an excellent swordsman, which is a subjective statement. You're stating objectively that other people considered him to be an excellent swordsman. One is factual, the other is self-glorification. That said, POV objections are usually pretty easy to fix if you remember the above tips.

Prosetry, or the art of growing prose flowers
Another common objection to new writers is prosetry, or as it's called on Wookieepedia, "flowery prose." This is where your work does not carry a tone befitting an encyclopedia entry. I won't explain tone here&mdash;go look that up online also.

Here's an example of something with a lot of prosetry. "Screaming to his creations to continue their attack, Gloed was getting a little bit frightened. Where was the bleeding profusely, almost dead, Ichi Go he had left to be finished off? What had happened in such a short time for him to have regained his strength and composure? Questions better left for later, as Ichi Go had just defeated the last of the Sithspawn Gloed had brought with him. Cursing him to Chaos, Gloed brought out his twisted Zangetsu and jumped from the hill he had been standing on to get to Ichi, if his minions could not end this, then he would."

- A piece of flowery prose

This is written like it belongs in a book or something. There's a rhetorical question. There's a fragment. There's melodrama. All of those are characteristics of flowery prose and should not be removed. Here's something along the lines of how it should be written: "Gloed became frightened, even as he screamed at his creations to continue their attack, due to his inability to locate his injured opponent, Ichi Go. The other man had already defeated the rest of Gloed's Sithspawn companions and now Gloed moved to engage him, cursing his foe to Chaos. Drawing his twisted Zangetsu, he charged Ichi Go."

- The same thing, written in a far more appropriate manner for an encyclopedia

This is far less flowery. Sure, it doesn't convey the same sense of suspense or action, but it gives you more or less the same information. It's not nearly as dramatic. That's how encyclopedia articles are supposed to read. Yes, I know SWF isn't really an encyclopedia, but its FAs are held to the principles of having encyclopediac prose. If you want to write with lots of suspense, action, and melodrama, don't write articles. Write a story or a novel. That's the bottom line.

Common spelling and grammar errors
These are some of the most common errors that pop up on the FAN page.
 * My personal pet peeve, it's and its:
 * Wrong: Its common knowledge that the Decreto Order's leadership had a bug up it's collective rear.
 * Right: It's common knowledge that the Decreto Order's leadership had a bug up its collective rear.
 * Its is possessive. It's means "it is."


 * Hanger versus Hangar
 * Wrong: "the starfighter hanger"
 * Right: "the starfighter hangar". HangErs are for clothes. HangArs are for vehicles.


 * Galaxy versus galaxy.
 * Wrong: Darth Lulz controlled the entire Galaxy at the peak of his power.
 * Right: Darth Lulz controlled the entire galaxy at the peak of his power.


 * Clone versus clone.
 * Wrong: The Clone troopers killed Aayla Secura on Felucia.
 * Right: The clone troopers killed Aayla Secura on Felucia.


 * Ranks
 * Wrong: The brass assembled on the bridge; three Generals, an Admiral, and a Colonel from Intelligence waited to hear admiral Ackbar's description of the Imperial trap.
 * Right: The brass assembled on the bridge; three generals, an admiral, and a colonel from Intelligence waited to hear Admiral Ackbar's description of the Imperial trap.
 * Capitalize the titles only if it is immediately followed by someone's name, or is a proper title, such as Grand Master of the Jedi Order. Generic ranks like king, general, and sergeant do not get capitalized. Master is always capitalized.


 * System versus system
 * Wrong: The Death Star emerged from hyperspace in the Alderaan System.
 * Right: The Death Star emerged from hyperspace in the Alderaan system.


 * Human versus human.
 * Wrong: Darth Tyler hated all humans because they were meatbags that made fun of his absurdity.
 * Right: Darth Tyler hated all Humans because they were meatbags that made fun of his absurdity.


 * There, they're, and their.
 * Wrong: There headed to Coruscant on there ship, hoping to find a party there.
 * Right: They're headed to Coruscant on their ship, hoping to find a party there.
 * "They're" means they are. "Their" is possessive. "There" has several uses, but is generally used to indicate direction. It is never possessive.


 * To, too, and two.
 * Wrong: The to Force-sensitive battle droids were also to ridiculous too be cast in the next episode of Lulz Wars.
 * Right: The two Force-sensitive battle droids were also too ridiculous to be cast in the next episode of Lulz Wars.
 * "Two" is a number. "To" is a preposition or part of an infinitive (usually). "Too" is an adverb (usually). Don't confuse them.


 * Where, we're, and were.
 * Wrong: Ussej and Damien where saddened as they arrived at the Dantooine ruins, were so many other Jedi had died. Upon seeing the ruins, Ussej told Damien "were doomed."
 * Right: Ussej and Damien were saddened as they arrived at the Dantooine ruins, where so many other Jedi had died. Upon seeing the ruins, Ussej told Damien "we're doomed."
 * "Were" is a verb in the past tense. "We're" means we are. "Where" is used to indicate direction or serves as a pronoun.


 * Possessives
 * Wrong: The terrified criminals guns fell from their hands as they stared at the glowing swords tip wielded by the Rohi standing in front of them.
 * Right: The terrified criminals' guns fell from their hands as they stared at the glowing sword's tip wielded by the Rohi standing in front of them.

Good article
Atarumaster88 gave a brief explanation of the Good Article process and its purposes, as well as its workings.

Featured article nomination
The benefits, proceedings, rewards, expected obstacles, and people behind the FA process were revealed in this segment.

Council of Seers
Atarumaster88 created a small piece about the review board of Star Wars Fanon, posting it here.

Acknowledgments
I'd like to thank Wookieepedia for getting me started on article writing. I'd like to thank 4dot for inspiring me to write tutorials. Also, my acknowledgments go out to Solus, who requested that I explore this idea. And to whatever lucky victims let me use their featured articles as fodder for my examples, thank you as well, for being so willing to let me use your work as an example to others.

I suppose a nod of sorts should also be made to the Star Wars Fanon community, for precipitating the events that led to this being created. Now, go write some FAs or something.