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An article about a novel should include a concise plot summary which highlights the most important events and developments without attempting to follow every twist and turn of the story. A plot summary should be written in the narrative present tense. A summary for a full-length novel should be between 400 and 700 words.
There is no universal set length for a plot summary, though it should not be excessively long. Well-written plot summaries describe the major events in the work, linking them together while minimizing the less-important scenes. The Manual of Style provides general guidance on length, with allowances for exceptions.
Plot summaries and character descriptions should be written in an out-of-universe style, presenting the narrative from an external real-world frame of reference from the characters or setting. For example, instead of starting a plot summary with "It is 2003", which puts the reader in the frame of reference of the work, start with "In 2003 ...
Titles or what could be taken for titles should be trimmed, both in main text and in reference citations, to remove extraneous and reader-unhelpful injections. A common case is navigational website interface elements, such as breadcrumbs , hashtags , and keyword links appearing in front of or after the article title per se .
Additionally, an overly precise list title can be less useful and can make the list difficult to find; the precise inclusion criteria for the list should be spelled out in the lead section (see below), not the title. For instance, words like complete and notable are normally excluded from list titles. Instead, the lead makes clear whether the ...
There are some where I couldn't see a plot at long, e.g. chicklit, and ones, e.g. some detective or science fiction, where it's difficult to lead the more important characters from the start to the end without include a lot of incidents - so the plot summary would be fairly long even if it omits sub-plots and 2nd-level characters.
Wikipedia articles concerning fiction frequently feature overly long or excessively detailed plot summaries. While any plot section can be trimmed, it can be hard to know what to cut if one hasn't consumed the relevant media, while those who have might be tempted to explain any intricacy that arises to give the reader the full experience of the show.
If the title has a parenthetical disambiguator, such as Mercury (planet), the parenthetical should be omitted in the text. [G] Dates and locations should be included in the first sentence if they help the reader to quickly determine if they're reading the right article. For instance, in the article Spanish–American War, the text of the lead ...