Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Outreach/Newsletter July 2007

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Image:Book collection.jpg The Novels WikiProject Newsletter
Issue XIV - July 2007

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; Project news

• The demand for fair use rationales for book covers has generated a discussion among wikipedians and also WP:NOVELS members. See the discussion here it has some potentially very important ideas to consider and possibly contribute to.

; Member news

• The project has currently 247 members, 11 joined & 0 leavers since the last newsletter at the start of June 2007

; Other news

• The French and Francophone literature portal was created in June.

; Novel related news

• The Novel - (author notes by kind permission of Gregory David Roberts)

What is a novel? What are the elements that must be found in any piece of writing for it to be considered a novel? I think it fair to say that traditional definitions of the word “novel” work along these lines: A novel is a fictitious prose story of book length. In my view, a novel has six basic elements: 1) It must have a society of characters; 2) They must be undergoing transformations; 3) And those must be in the course of a sustained prose narrative; 4) The sustained prose narrative must be impelled by a plot; 5) And it must be unified by clearly discernible central themes; 6) And to the extent possible, it must be universalised by a complex architecture of allegorical and symbolical sub-strata. If I write those six basic elements into a single definition, I come up with this: A novel is a society of characters, undergoing transformations, in the course of a sustained prose narrative, which is impelled by a plot, unified by clearly discernible central themes, and universalised by a complex architecture of allegorical and symbolical sub-strata.

• item courtesy of {{user|Boylo}}

; Current debates

• After lengthy discussions about the {{tl|Infobox_Book}} it has settled down at a possibly permanent layout. Any suggestions are still of course welcome.
• Also the important book cover debate mentioned first above.

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; From the Members

Welcome to the fourteenth issue of the Novels WikiProject's newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.

We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask.

Kevinalewis : ^{(Talk Page)}/_(Desk), Initiating Editor

; Collaboration of the Month

• This month's Collaboration has been selected by popular vote and is Live and Let Die (novel).

; Newsletter challenge

Last month's Pity is Not Enough challenge was quickly written by our two eager Novel's WP members {{user|Imasleepviking}} and {{user|Yllosubmarine}} from the US.

• The first person to start the article is mentioned in the next newsletter. This month's article is Sinclair Ross' As For Me and My House.