Template:Long plot

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The objective of a summary is to condense a large amount of information into a short, accessible format. It is not to reproduce the experience of reading or watching the story, nor to cover every detail. For those who have not read or seen the story, it should serve as a general overview of the major points. For those who have, it should be detailed enough to refresh their memory—no more.

Considering this template's common usage to indicate a plot summary exceeds Wikipedia's policy on word count, two relevant sections of the Manual of Style are WP:Manual of Style/Film § Plot and WP:Manual of Style/Novels § Plot, which say say that plot summaries for feature films or full length novels should be between 400 and 700 words.

This template will categorise tagged articles into Category:Wikipedia articles with plot summary needing attention. This template is a self-reference. This template should not be substituted. You can determine the lengths of television episode summaries or a film summary by running the following script.

Usage

This template can refer to a section (or another article part), instead of the default article:

{{Long plot|section}}

{{Long plot|1=paragraph}}

This template can be dated:

{{Long plot|date=April 2026}}

{{Long plot|section|date=April 2026}}

If the date is left off a bot will add it.

If the article contains multiple plot summaries, use |plural=yes.

Redirects

• {{Plot}}
• {{Long plot summary}}
• {{Less plot}}

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Long plot in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Long plot

For tagging articles that have overly long plot summaries.

Template parameters[Edit template data]

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Scope (e.g. section)	1	This parameter allows an editor to replace the default word "article" with another word, usually "section" or "paragraph"	Content	optional
Plural?	plural	Set to 'yes' if the article contains multiple plot summaries Example yes Auto value	Boolean	optional
Month and year	date	Month and year of tagging; e.g., 'January 2013', but not 'jan13' Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	String	suggested

See also

• Wikipedia:How to write a plot summary
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style (writing about fiction)
• Wikipedia:Handling trivia
• Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not § Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information
• Topic-specific guidelines—Films, television series and episodes, anime/manga, novels, comics, video games

Other plot- and fiction-related templates

• {{All plot}}, if an article consists entirely or almost entirely of a plot summary
• {{Hook}}, if a plot summary is more like a listings magazine hook, or a jacket blurb from a novel.
• {{No plot}}, if no plot summary exists
• {{More plot}}, if plot summary is insufficient
• {{Long plot}}, if plot summary is too long
• {{In-universe}}
• {{Fiction}}
• Wikipedia:Plot-only description of fictional works
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style (writing about fiction)
• Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup

Other trivia-related templates

General trivia

{{Trivia}} – Suggests relocation of the relevant details in a trivia section, to another section (or article).

{{Trivia section}} – Same as above, but goes at the top of the trivia section, rather than the top of the article.

{{Unfocused}} – for an article which lacks focus or has no particular topic.

Relevance and importance

{{Off topic}} – For a section that has wandered from the topic of the article

{{Content}} – For an article or section containing information whose relevance is disputed.

{{Importance section}} – For a section with information that is simply off-topic for the article, and needs removal or relocation to another article.

{{Importance inline}} – For a particular item that is off-topic needs removal or relocation to another article.

{{Better source example}} – For a particular instance of a poorly cited example.

{{Relevance inline}} – For a particular item that doesn't seem to belong in the context at all.

{{Non sequitur}} – For a namedropping of someone or something the relevance of which may not be clear to the reader.

Excessive detail

{{Overly detailed}} – For excessive focus on minute details not of interest to our general readership.

{{Summarize section}} – For sections that are too detailed and need to be summarized.

{{Example farm}} – For excessive use of examples.

{{Too many see alsos}} – For an indiscriminate "See also" section, most of which should be pruned or integrated into the prose.

Topical trivia

{{Self-sourcing examples}} – For an article or section with poorly cited popular culture examples.

{{In popular culture}} – For excessive "popular culture" and "media references" sorts of material.

{{Fiction trivia}} (or {{In-universe}}) – For too many trivial fictional references (or too much "in-universe" detail).

{{Long plot}}, {{All plot}} – For excessively detailed plot summaries.

{{Cleanup book}}, {{Cleanup film}} – For excessive detail about particular types of works (other than plot and fictional or in-universe issues).

{{Game trivia}} – For too much gaming-related trivia.

{{MOSLOW}} – For list that does not follow the Manual of Style for lists of works, e.g. not in chronological order

{{Cleanup university}}, {{Cleanup school}} – For excessive detail about an educational institution.

{{Famous}} – For an indiscriminate list of "famous" people associated in some way with a topic.

{{Localist}} – For local-interest trivia that is unverifiable or otherwise unencyclopedic.

List cleanup

{{Prose}} – Suggests converting into prose a section that consists of a list.

{{Cleanup list}} – For indiscriminate lists that need reduction.

{{List to table}} – For use where a table would be better than a list.

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Long plot/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.