Old but good advice, which we first shared on 9/16/2008. It's always important to fact-check your writing, maybe more today than ever! ~ Dani  Punctuation marks and misspellings are not the only thing that can trip you up and de-value your writing. Poor vetting erodes the confidence the reader has in your story and can even go so far as to void the suspension of disbelief. Facts, even the “fictional facts” of a novel, must work together to create a story into which your reader can escape. No cognitive dissonance allowed. Of course, the writer must watch this as the work progresses, but at least one of the final read-throughs needs to focus on questioning and verifying, checking and authenticating. Perhaps “questioning” is the most vital of these…you simply must question everything. Anything not known as confidently as you know your own name must be verified. Here’s a little laundry list of things: 1. Are all names spelled correctly? Confirm the spelling of actual person...

Camilla Franks at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, photo by Eva Rinaldi , via Flickr The other day when I was at church I couldn't help noticing that two women sitting apart from each other wore the same floral patterned top. After a second look, I realized that actually one of them wore a pull-over blouse, while the other had on a short-sleeved cardigan. What could this discovery have to do with writing? Well, some authors get the notion that others steal their ideas. In some cases, that might be true. However, in many, it's not. According to British journalist and author, Christopher Booker, in his book, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories ,   there are only seven basic storylines. Wikipedia  lists them along with examples, of which I've provided one for each. 1. Overcoming the Monster - James Bond 2. Rags to Riches -   Cinderella 3. The Quest -   The Wizard of Oz 4. Voyage and Return - Odyssey 5. Comedy - A Midsummer Night's Dr...

Another substantive post about writing an author Wikipedia page. This was first published here on March 31, 2010 and is part of an excellent series by former blogger, Charlotte Phillips. ~~~~ So far, we registered with Wikipedia , wrote our leads , learned about biographies , took the tutorial, and practiced making edits in Wikipedia. Yesterday we wrote the rest of our articles. Today we put our creations into Wikipedia using the article wizard. Follow these steps to get to the article wizard: 1. Go to the Wikipedia login page and login. 2. Go to the article wizard page and click the Create Article Now button: 3. Read the intro, then scroll down to the propose article topic area and click the I’m Writing About Someone Else button: 4. Read the definition of notable people, then scroll to the buttons and click My Proposed Article Is About a Notable Person: 5. Read the blurb about reliable and verifiable resources – including the lists in the sidebar. Note: onli...

This is the first in a series of articles about author Wikipedia pages. Do you have one yet? It first appeared here on January 15, 2010. ~~~~~ Do you have a favorite author who does not have a Wikipedia page? We here at The Blood-red Pencil are dedicating a new Friday series to learning to write for Wikipedia. Our focus will be on writing biographies of living people—specifically, living authors. If you want to play along, • Make a list of your favorite authors • Check Wikipedia to find one who does not have a wiki biography • Search the internet for biographical information on your selected author You’re looking for information like when and where your author was born, a list of all published writing (and the copyright year for each), schools attended, etc. Wikipedia biographies are about facts—not your feelings or reasons for selecting your author. So, make a list of facts. For other ideas, check out these biographies: • Susan Wittig Albert • Nevada Barr • Robert Cr...

In an earlier post, we created leads for our articles. Today we draft the rest of the story. If you haven't already done so, begin by reviewing existing author pages. What kinds of information is included? How is it grouped under sub-titles? What kinds of external links (links to pages outside of Wikipedia) are included? What kinds of wiki links? What kinds of categories are used? Now look at the information you’ve gathered on your author. Can you organize it into chunks of related items? What heading (sub-title) would you give to each chunk of information? Organize the information that way in your document so you can cut and paste later. What is typical for authors? It depends. Take a look at Nevada Barr and Linda Barnes . They have the simplest form of article for authors – a lead and a list of publications. (Note there is no table of contents. That’s because there’s only one subheading – the list of books. We’ll learn tomorrow that Wikipedia automatically adds the table ...

So far, we’ve talked a lot about what Wikipedia is and is not, and about Wikipedia’s views on biographies. It’s time to address some of the mechanics of actually creating an article. If you’ve been following the author links each day, you know all the articles have a similar look and feel. That’s because Wikipedia has a defined style for each type of article, including biographies. Let’s take a look at today’s links: Steven Saylor , Andrew Vachss , and Amy Tan . Each of these articles has a title and the title is the name by which we know the author. If you look back at the Sunday and Monday links, you’ll see all our sample biographies use the author’s name as a title. The articles begin with leads – information that appears above the table of contents. The first sentence of the first paragraph in the lead section: · Contains the article title (the author’s name) in bold, the date of birth, and date of death if appropriate–remember, verifiable facts not forecasts–and any titles (e.g. P...

If you’ve decided to write a Wikipedia biography , you’ve probably selected a subject that excites you – an author whose books you love (or love to hate), for example. There are some points to keep in mind for all wikipedia articles that have special importance when writing about people. • Be factual – do your research, double check the facts, make sure the facts are independently verifiable • Limit the article to relevant facts • Keep your tone neutral, don’t state your opinions • Take care to link your finished page to other pages, otherwise your hard work will be orphaned Be Factual Remember – Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, a collection of known, verifiable facts. You are also writing about a person and people tend to have families and friends who care about them. Your family probably would not be amused to read that you died three years ago in a drug induced frenzy during which you leapt from Grand Canyon rim while yelling “I believe I can fly!” Okay, maybe they would be am...

I went to a spirituality conference many years ago, where the guest speaker told a story to illustrate his point. It went something like this: An artist painted a picture of Jesus Christ knocking at a door. When the painting was unveiled to the public for the first time, the audience broke into jeers and the critics ridiculed it because the artist had forgotten to paint a handle on the door. In his own defense, the artist explained that the door represented the human heart and could only be opened from the inside. Charming story, no? I cocked an eyebrow listening along with the rest of the audience, knowing fully well who the artist in question was – William Holman Hunt - the painting, his " Light of the World". The allegory as explained by the speaker was relatively close, but he erred in saying the painting was ridiculed. In fact, it was a raging success from its first showing and was highly successful in print immediately after, as well as into the modern day. It inspi...