User:Burntfingers/draft1

Editing Notes

manual of style.

• WP:HEAD says not to overcapitalise headings unless proper nouns are used, so "Writing Influences" should be simply "Writing influences".
• WP:CITE says to avoid spaces between citations and punctuation, place, where possible, the citations immediately after punctuation.
• Instead of adding a {{cite web}} template for the same reference a number of times, use <ref name=blah> for the first time (when you do use the cite web) and for all subsequent uses, use <ref name=blah/> - this will give you a, b, c etc for each use.
• Further information section looks like an External links - you can use the cite web template again, or link the whole "Minnesota Public Radio interview with William Kent Krueger" as the URL for instance.
• Avoid overusing bold text and avoid overcapitalising (e.g. WINNER makes me feel faint when I see it...)
• I wouldn't go so overboard on the bibilography and awards - it's half the article right now. See Carl Hiaasen for example. I know his works are possibly more notable than those of Krueger, but it's an example of how to present the information without overkill.
• I think you need to be more judicious with your "notable" awards.
• Obviously when you "move" the page, you'll need to add suitable categories as well.

A very good start in my opinion. I'm more than happy to explain further anything I haven't made clear here and anything else that may spring to mind. When you feel ready to expose the article to the "mainspace" (i.e. it's currently in your "userspace" which is fine, but for it to be out for general consumption it needs to be in the mainspace) let me know - in order for us to keep to our obligations to the GFDL, we need to "move" the page which will preserve the history of the article so far. Get in touch if and when you're ready for more! Finally, there's a nice little thing called WP:OWN which relates to the fact that nobody owns any article and you are quite within your rights here to edit any article. I understand you're nervous to upset others but they'll get over it! It's a wiki so you can be bold and go for it!

Tips for writing biographies

Starting from scratch and want some guidance on creating a biographical article? Follow these helpful tips! Some of them are also useful for work on articles that have already been started.

1. Research the available literature to find reliable sources. Read them carefully, taking notes.
2. Create a proto-article in a subpage of your own user space.
   • Right from the start, cite your sources: it's much easier to do this as you go along than to attempt to do so later.
   • See "How to edit a page" to understand the basics of the wiki markup language. Reference the proto-article, especially biographies of living persons.
   • Check your sources again. Balance and neutrality are vital.
   • At this stage, don't add categories or images. (You'll be able to add them later.)
3. Work up the proto-article until it's coherent and at least slightly informative and has had its facts checked. (It does not yet need either to present a rounded picture of the person or to be a good article in any

normal sense; it merely has to be sound in what it does say.)The article, no matter how rough, should clearly state why the person is notable enough to be included in this project, see WP:BIO. It is a good idea to make reference to at least one of the notability determinants in the lead paragraph. Failing to clearly show notability may lead to your new article being quickly deleted.

1. Create a new article on your subject and paste the content of your proto-article there.
   • Read Wikipedia's naming conventions to decide what the page title should be. Also see m:Help:Starting a new page.
   • The history of your proto-article up to this point is unlikely to be of interest to anybody other than yourself, and moving it would force you to re-create your user sub-page. Thus copy/pasting makes sense. However, do note that copying and pasting existing articles is frowned upon in Wikipedia; moving makes the edit history easy to find.
2. Add images such as those obtained from Wikimedia Commons, image list, or by posting a request for an image from other editors.
3. Add the appropriate categories.
   • You may also be able to find suitable categories by looking at related articles, particularly articles about similar people. Failing that, visit the appropriate work groups (which have them listed) or start browsing at Category:People.
4. Linking: check that the internal and external links and footnotes in the article go where you want them to go.
   • Make sure that some other, relevant articles link to a new article, so that the new one isn't "orphaned".
5. Keep working on the article. Chances are that other editors will notice its existence and join you in working on it. If nobody seems to notice it and you'd like one or two to do so, mention the article in the talk page of a relevant "WikiProject" (e.g. Music), or this one, or both.
   • You may find that the newcomers will be interested in aspects of the person that don't much interest you, or will relish aspects of editing that you find a bit tiresome. Thus their work will complement rather than compete with your own.
6. Consider adding a list of works (bibliography, discography, etc.).
7. When you're happy with the article or have done about as much with it as you think you can, consider requesting a peer review by following these instructions.
8. Relax! and take a break if you reached this point. You deserve it!