Formatting Guide

This page is meant to be a simple reference to keep the Wiki looking uniformed. If you have any suggestions, concerns, or questions, feel free to reach out to an administrator (User:Kurohaneshizumi).

General Formatting Standards
As a multimedia-based Wiki, we should start by setting the formatting standards for titles. Here's a brief list:
 * Album & Book titles: Italicized
 * Song & Chapter titles: with "Quotes"
 * Video Game, Movie, and TV titles: Italicized
 * Likewise, TV episode titles should be in "Quotes".

When citing sources in the article (or references), please use the usual standards. (More can be found here.)

General Page Standards
Even though some pages will have different content, the following elements should be on pretty much every page, regardless of the type of page it is.

Infobox
Technically, the first thing that goes on the page is an infobox. There are a few different types so here's a brief breakdown:
 * Album for any type of music collection, including cassettes and vinyl.
 * Book for any type of book, including comics.
 * Character, Item, Event, & Location for notable, applicable articles.
 * And hopefully, Film, Game, Series, & Cast hopefully soon.

The infobox has pretty straightforward descriptions in the Visual Editor, but if you aren't sure of anything, reach out!

Page Summary
After the infobox, the page summary can be entered. The summary should always begin with the page title in bold. You can see some examples here and here. The summary shouldn't be longer than a paragraph (3 to 8 sentences). Remember, you want to expand in the actual body of the article. This is just a summary.

After the summary, you can begin to add the full information in the body. For specifics, keep scrolling down to the type of page you're making:
 * Album Page
 * Song page
 * Story page (Book/Comic)
 * Character page

Trivia
Not every page will have something special that should be added to a Trivia section, but you can always add things that you aren't sure where they should go (especially if you have a reference you don't want to lose). You can always check with an admin as well. The list should be a bulleted one!

Gallery
Every page should have at least one photo for the infobox, but some pages have additional, applicable images that would simply clutter the page. These can all be complied into a simple gallery. You can add pictures of the editions, different vinyl colors, and so forth! Preferably, the images should be official, high resolution/quality photos, but certain exceptions can be made.

Navigation
Next comes the navigation template. Just use one of the following syntax:

These will produce a simplified navigation box that allows readers to quickly move to a related page, or jump around as needed or wanted. Here are the codes in action:

Click to Reveal

These navigation templates are mostly for Amory Wars-related albums and story pages. If you are adding a non-canon album or page, please use the main navigation (the first one) only. If and when a new album come out, the admins will make a new navigation for it and depending on it's link to the story, it may get added to this list. (There are navigations for CBTS & TCI as well, but they aren't canon to the story, so they won't be used outside of those albums/songs.

After you've added this, you can finish the page with your References section and then add your categories...

Categories
After making your page, you'll also want to add some categories to it to make it easier to find in a general search. This is pretty simple. Adding an infobox will usually automatically add a related category, but you can use this simple guide: * Should ONLY be used when the material includes ALL material—Vol 1 AND Vol 2 for Good Apollo, or more than one Act of Vaxis. For instance, the albums are clearly Vol 1 and Vol 2 respectively, but the comic, with its current title of JUST Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV and no volume indicated, is currently debatable. When NWFT's comic comes out, we'll be able to make a more informed choice for that material.

If you want to add any of these with code in the page, you can use this syntax: But be careful because if you spell it wrong or don't use an already established format, you will ADD that category to the Wiki.

Of course, you can also add new Categories as you see fit. Try to keep things simple and general. Categories are meant to link topics on a page to other pages with similar topics, not single out a page. Contact an administrator if you're unsure.

Page-Type Specific Content
Now let's dive into specific content you'll want depending on the type of page (Album/Song/Story/Character specifically) you're creating. Not every page will fit into those categories, and not every page that does fit into these categories will need all the listed content. Feel free to replace or omit content as necessary.

Please remember, all this should come AFTER the infobox and page summary but BEFORE the Trivia and/or Gallery. Some of this you will find easier to create in the Source Editor. This may be frightening for new users, so reach out to an admin if you're unsure. We're happy to help.

Album Page
An album page should be named the title of the album in its entirety, subtitle and all. Subtitles are usually marked with preceding colons like The Afterman: Ascension, or Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV - Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (in the latter example, a dash is used instead of a bar "|" due to formatting on Fandom Wiki sometimes reading this as code; otherwise, this is taken right off the album art itself).

Story
Starting with the Story Summary will help readers get an idea of what the story is about. Before actually presenting the story summary, please use the following syntax: ""

...where PAGE NAME is the main story page. Right now, there is only one story source per "chapter" of the story, but when an additional source becomes available, you can use the following syntax instead: ""

Now you can provide a summary of the story. This shouldn't be more than a paragraph (3 to 8 sentences) since readers can always view the main page for more details.

Editions
If the album was released in other formats or has other editions, you can list them here! Vinyl can be listed altogether unless it's super special and comes with something specific.

Tracklist
The tracklist should be in a specially formatted table. Here's the syntax with filler tags:

You can add tracks by copy/paste-ing the contents between the |- sections. If you don't have a total time, you can add up the individual times with a time calculator. If your total time goes into an hour, you can add #: in front of the existing ##:##. In general, the time doesn't have to have a 0 in front of any aspect (such as 01 hours verses 1 hours).

If you have bonus tracks that are in a different edition, you can create a second, mini tracklist with them, but please keep the time running (that is, if the bonus songs total 10 mins, and the main album is already 40 mins, the new total on the bonus track table should be 50 mins). But exceptions can be made if the argument is sound. Just Contact an Administrator.

Critical Reception
Sometimes this takes time to add to, but usually a few reviews will be out shortly after an album's release. Try to summarize the overall result of the reviews (positive/negative/lukewarm) to start. After that, you can mention a few major review sites' conclusions, including their score (3/5 Stars, 78/100, 50%, etc.) and a brief quote from the review itself.

If the album has topped any charts, or if any chart stats are available, you can use a level 3 heading to list those as well. They don't have to be in any special format, really.

Add Special Headings?
This is where you can add your Trivia or Gallery sections if needed.

Closing the Page
Before you finish your page, don't forget to add the relevant navigation syntax, reference section, and categories.

Story Page
A story page should be named the title of its source material in its entirety with any subtitles being denoted with the use of a colon (such as Vaxis - Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures (novella), in which the dash denotes it is apart of a larger story; similar to the Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV parts without using parenthesis or a bar). Technically, a case could be made for Year of the Black Rainbow (novel) to follow its comic predecessors in using the overarching title "The Amory Wars" and its subsequent "chapters" as a subtitle, like in the case of The Amory Wars: Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV. If you are unsure, discuss it with an admin.

Plot Summary
For a story page, after the infobox and page summary should come the Plot Summary. This is a more in-depth overview of the plot of the material. For this reason, you'll want to start the section with a spoiler tag: And then get into the actual plot. This can be as long as needed, but as a general guideline, you'll want to go through each chapter or comic issue and try to summarize what is happening with just a sentence or two. Now, with the comics (and novels, sometimes) may have complicated sub- and side-plots. You may choose to summarize these altogether in a separate paragraph. Just make sure the summary is easy to read and follow. Discuss the best way to describe it with your fellow editors.

Publication History
In this section, you should outline the publication of the material. For a book, this may be as simple as:"'The first edition (hardcover) was published on this date with this company (Evil Ink; BOOM! Studios; 12 Gauge; etc). There was also a special edition that came with blah, blah, blah, released on the same day. The 2nd edition (paperback) was published on this date. It was released digitally on this date on these platforms (Amazon; Kindle; etc).'"Comics, however, are more complicated. Usually comics are first released in single issues first, and then collected in volumes when enough material has come out. Nowadays, many comics that have more than a couple of volumes are also being released further in omnibus editions. The Amory Wars is no different. Therefore, you may want to split a comic's publication history into two or even three paragraphs where you can outline it to be like:"'The first issue was published in this month/year with this company; the second on this month(/year, if needed); the third (and so forth). The first four issues were volumized and released on this date with this company (if different). The second volume collects these issues and was released this date (and so forth). On this date, an omnibus edition was published with this company (if different). It included all this extra stuff.'"...or something like that. Again, it could be more complicated or simple than what's there, so feel free to write it in whatever way is most comfortable to you.

Creative Team
BEFORE ending the publication section, you'll also want to include the Creative Team! This should be under a subheading for the section. The purpose of this section is to introduce the reader to the team member by relating other notable work they've done. The creative team should include all notable positions, such as the cover artist (which is sometimes different from the actual artist if it's a comic), the actual artist within the pages listed by issue if different, additional writers that may have helped Sanchez or Echert (who don't have to be listed beyond the page summary since they have their own pages on the Wiki), and you may also want to include other positions such as colorist, inker, letterer, editor and anyone else that have been involved, if notable. It should read something like:"'All covers were done by this person who has done work on this other comic or series. Art for issues #1 to 4 were done by this artist who has also worked on this franchise or for this company (Marvel, DC, etc). This writer helped with the writing and also wrote for this other series. Other notable team members include this person and this person. Person #1 worked on this project and Person #2 worked on this project.'"Of course, you may flesh out this and add whatever you think is notable. Not every minor team member (inker, colorist, letterer, etc) will be notable and need to be added to this section. All members should be credited in the infobox anyway, so readers may always look them up if interested.

Album Comparison
Similar to how on an Album Page's story section we include a Main Article link to the Story Page, we need to include a Main Article link to the Album Page before we go into the comparison specifics. You do this by using the syntax: "" ...where PAGE NAME is the complete name of the page you want to link to.

The Album Comparison is pretty simple and sometimes not more than a paragraph or two. This section is going to relate the content of the source material to the related album. Remember, at the end of the day, it's the ALBUM that came first, which makes it the #1 source of canon. Not every song will be adapted exactly into the comic or book in a way that is obvious (this has been especially true for Vaxis). Sanchez has said that sometimes the song is more to illustrate the atmosphere of the situation or acts as a closing credit song (like, in movies). Sometimes the songs illustrate events out of order or two songs might illustrate the same events from different points of view. The band always wants to put out a creatively interesting music project first and foremost. This is why the comics and books exist; to build on the concept born in the music. This section is to highlight this.

Add Special Headings?
This is where you can add your Trivia or Gallery sections if needed.

Closing the Page
Before you finish your page, don't forget to add the relevant navigation syntax, reference section, and categories.

Song Page
First and foremost, when creating a song page, make sure the page includes the "Quotes"! This helps to immediately identify it as a song page. For instance, there is The Afterman book, The Afterman: Ascension which is the first half of The Afterman double album, and "The Afterman" song. It is easy enough to know to use the song page rather than the book as it is in quotes. For our Wiki, we will use this convention.

Page Summary
I know we've already gone over what should be in a page summary, but in the case of a song page, I just wanted to briefly note how simple and easy it is to create. They pretty much always follow the following format:

"Junesong Provision" is a song by the American rock band Coheed and Cambria. It is the eighth track on their 2002 album The Second Stage Turbine Blade. A demo, acoustic version was released in 2000 on the EP Delirium Trigger and was included as the fifteenth track on the reissued Second Stage album in 2005.

As you can see, you want to mention its first, official release before anything else. Then, if it has additional versions (demos, lives, mixes, etc), you can mention what they are and where to find them. In this song's case, you can also see that technically the song was released in an under developed form officially! But since this wasn't the final version of the song, you should not count it. And that's it!

Additional Credits
If a song has guest vocals, a guest musician playing an instrument, or even the regular band members playing instruments outside their usual repertoire, you should add this info to the Trivia section, as the first bullet.

Lyrics
Of course, the first thing to add is the lyrics! I usually pull these from Genius since they tend to separate the parts of the song into parts like, Intro, Verse, Pre-chorus, Chorus, Interlude, Bridge, & Outro, where applicable. Of course, you should always double-check that the lyrics are accurate using the liner notes (the booklet that comes with the CD that has the lyrics), since sites like Genius have lyrics submitted by fans, and fans can get stuff wrong sometimes!

Song parts should be in [brackets] and bolded. They should be followed by line breaks (  or you can use SHIFT-Enter in the Visual editor, or under the T Advanced options, the ← New Line button in the Source editor) until you have to move on to a new section. Here's an example of what the code looks like: [Verse 1] Good morning, sunshine Awake when the sun hits the sky Look up at the sounds that surround The day you died She waits for me outside Near a hole in the ground In the one way thinking You might get the upper hand You can see the last line does not have a break. Feel free to link any of the lyrics that have to do with a character, location, or notable story concept—even a symbological one. See Symbology in The Amory Wars, for a complete list.

Story Context
If the page is a canon-related song page (which it most-likely will be) include this section. In this section, you should first use the Main Article snytax to link to the main story page, like so: ""

Your goal in this section is to relate the lyrics to the story as much as possible. If you aren't sure how a line might relate, skip it! Check out other song pages to get an idea of how to word it, but feel free to use your own method. Remember, when quoting a line, you should use "quotes" and if you want to quote multiple lines you can use a slash / between the lines, like, "Good morning, sunshine / Awake when the sun hits the sky" for it to be read more fluidly.

Music Video
If the song has an official music video, you can add it here! (If the band's official account posts an alternative kind of video, you can also post it, but make sure it comes after the first and label it as unofficial, if applicable.)

Add Special Headings?
Now you can add your Trivia section, if needed. A Gallery section will most likely not be needed. Songs rarely have enough visual material to compile in a gallery.

Closing the Page
Before you finish your page, don't forget to add the relevant navigation syntax, reference section, and categories.

Character Page
For naming the page, you should always try to use proper names when available. If the full name is unknown, you can use the only name known (first or last), and you may, if you think it's appropriate, include any title the character may have, such as Vic the Butcher.

Page Summary
Before going into the summary, please use a spoiler tag to alert that spoilers will follow throughout the page, as even the summary may contain spoilers. For a character's summary, try to keep the information to no more than a single paragraph. Who are they, why are they important, and what are some notable things they've done? Not much more is needed than that.

History
Just as your life contains many chapters and encompasses a huge amount of information, a character's history will also be long and information dense. In order to make the history easier to digest, be sure to break up the history into smaller, subheadings. And easy one to start with would be "Early Life." Not every character will have much information for this section, but it might include details leading up to their present in the story, or their first major life event. Beyond Early Life, just try to title these subheadings with something notable; either for the character or for the time period. Check out other character pages if you need some inspiration (I recommend Claudio Kilgannon, Wilhelm Ryan, & Nostrand Crane).

Powers & Abilities
Most likely, even if your character doesn't have supernatural powers or abilities, they probably have some kind of skill or equipment that makes them special. If they really don't, then just skip this section.

Add Special Headings?
Now you can add your Trivia section and Gallery, if needed. A Gallery section will most likely be needed. Especially in the early comics where the art was changed up a lot, it good to see the character in all sorts of different styles, using powers, or even wearing something iconic.

Closing the Page
Before you finish your page, don't forget to add the relevant navigation syntax, reference section, and categories.

Concluding Thoughts
That's pretty much it! If you have any additional questions, concerns, or need any help, you can contact an administrator.

Right now, this is the list of administrators:

Administrators
User:Kurohaneshizumi

And you can always leave a comment on a page (including this one) if you have specific questions or concerns. We are happy to learn and grow and make this place an awesome source for all CotF!