Hello there!
Now the purpose of this forum post is to aid writers with suitable guidance. Initially, I wanted to share some personal antidotes and experiences.
As well as, offer personal commentary on my own works. However, I opted to keep this short so that it could easily be read at a glance.
While there is a Lore Submissions Guidelines. It offers a baseline of expectations and minor advice.
I felt that it doesn’t quite offer suitable enough advice for first-time writers.
Now the purpose of this forum post is to aid writers with suitable guidance. Initially, I wanted to share some personal antidotes and experiences.
As well as, offer personal commentary on my own works. However, I opted to keep this short so that it could easily be read at a glance.
While there is a Lore Submissions Guidelines. It offers a baseline of expectations and minor advice.
I felt that it doesn’t quite offer suitable enough advice for first-time writers.
Review the Denied Section
In order to keep this post timeless. Readers' desires, tastes and wants can change with the times. I cannot determine what people will like or dislike in the future.
Therefore, it is an extremely good idea to simply review the last stories that were denied and specifically why they were denied in the first place.
That way you can gauge what stories fail and shouldn’t be attempted.
Make use of the Essay & Resource Hub.
The SCP Wiki actively maintains a pool of resources that are specifically aimed at budding writers. This ranges from collecting all the terminology and concepts about the SCP Universe in one place. To articles describing writing styles, elaborating on real-world processes or the themes around the Universe.
I would consider the Essay & Resource Hub key in writing stories. As it saves you time and effort from having to search for these resources all on your own.
Proof-read your work & then read it to someone else.
While the standard for writing should be that all stories are written with proper spelling and grammar. It still won’t make up for the fact, if the story is a bore.
Therefore it is a very good litmus test to simply ask another person to have a look at your submission.
I would like to point out that just because a work is poorly received. Doesn’t mean it has to go completely in the trash bin. A lot of writing is just simply iterating, improving and expanding on an idea until everyone is happy with it.
Consider collaboration with other writers.
A great majority of the stories posted to this thread. Appears to be solo-written. Adding additional writers or editors would offer different perspectives thus enriches your story. After all, “Flame of Humanity” was a collaborative effort between myself and two others.
Now you have heard of the idea. “Nothing is canon, it is whatever the reader deems it to be canon.”. But let's expand on this idea. Why is this the case? It is due to the fact that the SCP Universe is a collaborative writing platform. There are people from all walks of life who have contributed to the SCP Wiki. There are people from the fantasy genre, sci-fi genre and literal Government Workers who have explained bureaucratic processes.
The genius in this framework is that everyone has their own version of the SCP Foundation, or Chaos Insurgency, or the GOC, or the Serpent's Hand, or literally anything else. But people can share their version and expand on those ideas to others. In which, after essentially millions of iterations and writers. We’ve ended up with a monolith of a universe.
One such example is the “What Hides Beneath: the Black and White of Blackboxing” Essay. Which discusses how redactions or ████ are used in the real world. After this was shared with a number of writers. Many writers choose to adopt it to mirror real-life processes.
Another such example is that you may have heard of the genre of “Lovecraftian Horror” tossed around. The idea in which the “Fear of the Unknown” and the horrors that formed by an overactive imagination are greater than what an author could describe themselves. The SCP Universe Framework.uses this vagueness and asks readers to fill in the blanks themselves because everyone has their own personal fears.
Which draws us to our conclusive point. How should writers navigate this writing framework? A degree of vagueness and obfuscation should be written into your submission. So that it can comfortably fit in everyone’s headcanon. I’ve seen many stories posted to this thread that create a degree of serious friction.
What do I mean by this? I’ll pose an example.
“The Chaos Insurgency is evil.”
Now, that very conflicting statement, as many would have differing opinions. In fact, I'm fairly confident that this doesn’t need further explanation.
Now what if we were to change this statement to be more vague.
“The Chaos Insurgency is morally ambiguous. Due to the nature of a fractured nature of the insurgency.”
Now, this is a neutral statement that can be supported by everyone. It still allows a version of CI that is driven by madmen and schizos. Whilst allowing for the freedom-fighter esque types. As well as, it offers a supporting statement as to why CI is morally ambiguous.
Writers should aim to write stories that could conceivably fit in everyone’s headcanon and thus expand upon the Universe.
The genius in this framework is that everyone has their own version of the SCP Foundation, or Chaos Insurgency, or the GOC, or the Serpent's Hand, or literally anything else. But people can share their version and expand on those ideas to others. In which, after essentially millions of iterations and writers. We’ve ended up with a monolith of a universe.
One such example is the “What Hides Beneath: the Black and White of Blackboxing” Essay. Which discusses how redactions or ████ are used in the real world. After this was shared with a number of writers. Many writers choose to adopt it to mirror real-life processes.
Another such example is that you may have heard of the genre of “Lovecraftian Horror” tossed around. The idea in which the “Fear of the Unknown” and the horrors that formed by an overactive imagination are greater than what an author could describe themselves. The SCP Universe Framework.uses this vagueness and asks readers to fill in the blanks themselves because everyone has their own personal fears.
Which draws us to our conclusive point. How should writers navigate this writing framework? A degree of vagueness and obfuscation should be written into your submission. So that it can comfortably fit in everyone’s headcanon. I’ve seen many stories posted to this thread that create a degree of serious friction.
What do I mean by this? I’ll pose an example.
“The Chaos Insurgency is evil.”
Now, that very conflicting statement, as many would have differing opinions. In fact, I'm fairly confident that this doesn’t need further explanation.
Now what if we were to change this statement to be more vague.
“The Chaos Insurgency is morally ambiguous. Due to the nature of a fractured nature of the insurgency.”
Now, this is a neutral statement that can be supported by everyone. It still allows a version of CI that is driven by madmen and schizos. Whilst allowing for the freedom-fighter esque types. As well as, it offers a supporting statement as to why CI is morally ambiguous.
Writers should aim to write stories that could conceivably fit in everyone’s headcanon and thus expand upon the Universe.
Sooo.. by your choice to click on this spoiler. You wish to be a promising writer.. Excellent!
I have but a very simple request to make to you. Write OOC notes, if you can afford the time to. If your work does get accepted. It is very good practice to offer personal commentary as how was the work created. Detailing possible processes and the alike. As you could be setting an example to future writers.
If you go through my personal stories. Listed below. You should be able to read the OOC notes attached there.
I have but a very simple request to make to you. Write OOC notes, if you can afford the time to. If your work does get accepted. It is very good practice to offer personal commentary as how was the work created. Detailing possible processes and the alike. As you could be setting an example to future writers.
If you go through my personal stories. Listed below. You should be able to read the OOC notes attached there.
If you have made it this far. Thank you for reading and good luck in your submission.
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