The Most important Rules
While the nature of writing about fictional works requires a certain amount of flexibility, ad hoc decision making, and some policies may be subject to change, we have two cardinal rules we observe here:
When writing articles about the characters or events of a work, write in past-tense, and in-universe.
That's self-explanatory.
It's usually best to avoid references to our own timeline in an article. Jake Featherston doesn't know he's a functional equivalent of Adolf Hitler, and so addressing their similarities in the article is unnecessary. Obviously, there are instances where the characters involved in the story are somehow aware that there are multiple timelines (e.g., the Crosstime Traffic Series), and so comparisons in the article make some sense.
However, that is not to say comparisons with OTL are unwelcome; just refrain from using them in the "historical analysis" portion of the article. Instead, save them for a separate section at the end of the article, in a subsection of their own. In some cases, an article dedicated to comparing Turtledove's work to OTL might be warranted.
Stay within the parameters of what Turtledove actually put on the page!
Don't worry about trying to fill in the gaps of knowledge that Turtledove inevitably leaves. If a person, place, or thing is fleetingly referenced, its enough to note the fleeting reference. For example, Peru is quickly referenced as being at war with its neighbors in the Southern Victory series. Obviously, there might be some actual historical basis for this alternate historical event, but including that information in an article is completely unnecessary, as it would be speculative, and the event's role in the overall series is quite limited.
Speculation Policy
Speculation in articles is discouraged as a rule. All articles should be about people, places, and events at least mentioned (or described obliquely) in Harry Turtledove's work. However, Turtledove does not always fully describe the people and events that are peripheral, a certain level of speculation is tolerable if: 1) It has some factual basis in Turtledove's writing; and 2) It is needed to reconcile an inconsistency in Turtledove's work or otherwise produce a coherent article.
An excellent example is Franklin D. Roosevelt as he appears in Southern Victory. When he is first introduced, FDR is a member of a Democratic administration. However, for the remainder of the series, FDR is described as a lifelong Socialist. Turtledove never directly addresses this inconsistency, and so speculation is necessary for the article to work.
Fan-Fic
Keep it in your blog!!
Do not put fan fiction in articles. For example, Martin Luther King's role in In the Presence of Mine Enemies has no place in the article about King, as he was neither mentioned by name nor described in any way in that work. If you want to write a harrowing narrative about King's fight against the Nazis who occupied the U.S. after the Third World War, keep it in your blog.
Character Templates
Every character should have a template. In light of Turtledove's large body of work, we've created a story-specific template system. The complete character templates may be found here.
Creating Articles for historical figures
When should I add one?
Given the importance of historical fiction and historical figures to Turtledove's work, we tend to prefer creating articles about historical figures. Obviously, people who appear in a given work, either as a major or minor character, should be given an article. Historical people who don't appear on-stage, but who are referenced and are alive at the time of the work's setting should also get articles.
Historical figures who are deceased at the time of the story's setting and are referenced are trickier, especially if those people died before the Point of Divergence. If that posthumous reference reveals something about the history since the POD, or the culture, politics, etc. of the world after the POD, then an article may be warranted. For example, George Washington has never appeared directly as a character in a single Turtledove work. However, an article has been created because of various posthumous references that were important to their respective works. Washington is a subject of the titular painting in The Two Georges. That painting and Washington himself are both important symbols to the historical background of the novel.
If, however, the only reference to Washington in any work was a passing reference to his status as the first President of the United States, then an article probably would not have been worth creating, as this information is consistent with OTL, and would not reveal much about the world and the people Turtledove had created. In cases such as this, information about the historical figure should be placed on the References to Historical Figures in Turtledove's Work page.
How do I format the article once I decided to create it?
When adding information for a historical character who appears in unrelated works, separate the information using appropriate sub-headings. See model entry, or for example, Abraham Lincoln. To limit confusion to new visitors, its best to begin the article with a brief sketch of the historical figure's biography. It needn't be a complete survey of that person's life, merely the highlights of why that person is remembered/important to our history.
Subsections should be created for each fictional work the historical figure appears in, or at least plays a noteworthy role in. Those subsections should be organized based on the Point of Divergence, with the most recent POD on top, and the oldest POD at the bottom. Using Abraham Lincoln as an example: Lincoln appears in, among other works, The Guns of the South (POD: January 17, 1864) and the Southern Victory series (POD: September 10, 1862). As The Guns of the South has a more recent POD, the subsection should be placed before the Southern Victory subsection.
Links can be made to specific subsections of articles. This is especially useful with Historical Figures and geography generally. For example, a link to Abraham Lincoln in Southern Victory looks like this: [[Abraham Lincoln#Abraham Lincoln in Southern Victory|Abraham Lincoln]].
For ease of use, we encourage the creation of redirects to subsections, rather than the coding. Continuing with the example of Abraham Lincoln, we have created a redirect entitled Abraham Lincoln (Southern Victory) that uses the [[Abraham Lincoln#Abraham Lincoln in Southern Victory|Abraham Lincoln]] coding. Rather than remember a series of awkward coding, editors can simply type in [[Abraham Lincoln (Southern Victory)|Abraham Lincoln]] and have it link to the Southern Victory section of the Abraham Lincoln article.
Creating categories
When creating new categories, it's best to first consider how many articles might actually be listed in that category. Usually, a category should have at least three articles to start, but there should also be a strong possibility for growth. For example, there are at present three different people who served as the head of state of Croatia. However, given the areas and periods of history Turtledove prefers to write about, it seems unlikely that a "Heads of State of Croatia" would grow beyond three articles anytime soon, and so creating a category would not be useful.
All series should have their own categories, as should stand alone novels and short stories.
Subcategories for characters should be created in most instances. See the Characters category for a list of categories that apply to characters, including nationality, religion, profession, etc. Not all of Harry Turtledove's short stories embrace many characters. Some may have one or two. In those instances, a subcategory is probably unnecessary.
Geography may be divided by continent, country, state/province, or city.
Non-Turtledove Works
Works found in anthologies edited by Turtledove
Turtledove has edited a number of anthologies, collecting works by a variety of authors. Each of the collected works are (usually) self-contained, and have no connection to Turtledove's fiction. We do not allow articles pertaining to the works of other authors at this wiki, even for ones edited by Turtledove.
Turtledove has written works set within the fictional worlds created by other authors, known colloquially as "shared-universe" works. Articles pertaining to such works are permitted here insofar as they are relevant to Turtledove's contribution, i.e., they are articles about characters, places, and events that appear in the story Turtledove wrote. If it becomes necessary to explain some aspect of the other author's work, we prefer external links to creating articles detailing the work of the other author wherever possible.
For example, "The Fillmore Shoggoth" is a story set in the world of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. For the purposes of this wiki, the only required articles were George, the story's POV character, his band mates in HPL, some of the historical characters mentioned in passing, and The Fillmore itself. Turtledove makes use of two creatures created by H.P. Lovecraft himself: the Old Ones and the shoggoths. These Lovecraftean creations did not require articles here as a wiki dedicated to Lovecraft exists and already has detailed articles about Old Ones and shoggoths.
Even if an author doesn't have a wiki, there may be other sources. For example, articles about the story "Two Thieves", which is a Turtledove work set in Philip José Farmer's Riverworld series, makes use of links to articles found at Wikipedia.
However, there will be instances where an author's work just isn't thoroughly examined, despite the resources the internet makes available. In those instances, articles pertaining to the other author's work may be necessary. For example, Turtledove's story "Eyewear" is set in the world of Fred Saberhagen's The Mask of the Sun. There isn't a wiki about Saberhagen, and even websites dedicated to him have very limited information about The Mask of the Sun specifically. Thus, it was appropriate to create articles about the object called the "Mask of the Sun" and Esperanza, a character Saberhagen created in his original novel who also appears in Turtledove's short story. It was also necessary to create articles about the Aztec and the Inca, as their cross-time war, which was the crux of Saberhagen's novel, also plays out in Turtledove's short story.
At present, Turtledove has not opened up any of his works to shared-universe exploration by other authors.