I Am Factory

Summary:

An SCP about the horrors of running a company

I Am Factory

ADream 30 Aug 2019 15:25

An SCP that would tell the story of a young businessman, who has recently created his own company. The story would be told through a series of journal entries, documenting the main character's development. He would initially start as very eager and positive about his chances in the business world, but eventually become colder and detached due to the harsh decisions he has to make in order to keep his company afloat.
The idea is largely based around my own fears regarding the responsibility associated with coordinating a big thing that a lot of other people’s livelihoods depend on, and I hope I could transmit these fears through the article. The article is also inspired by the Factory and would be my attempt to depict the ideas behind the Factory in a real-world setting. Essentially depicting the Factory as a state of mind. I am even thinking that the story could end with the implication that the main character has been infected by the Factory.

Current problems:

• Does any of this sound interesting? I'm worried that a story like this has already been told (either by articles on the site or off-site fiction) or that the themes involved have been explored to a point where this is far too generic to be interesting. So should I try developing this concept in a different direction?
• The main anomaly. Currently, I am thinking that the main anomaly (where the Foundation recovers all these documents) would be a decrepit factory. The anomalous feature of this location would be ghost-like manifestations of people, which replay events told in the journals. This would serve as a set up to the events told in the journal entries and hopefully spark the reader’s interests. However, I’m worried that the idea of an “anomalous factory” is overdone and the idea of real-life replays of past events has already been featured in SCP-4231.

In addition, I plan on doing some more in-depth research regarding the business world and the experiences of people who have created their own companies, so as to gain a better understanding of what I am actually writing about and to hopefully get a more realistic feel for the main character. If you have any recommendations for things that could be helpful for this, I'd gladly hear them.

Thank you for reading my idea. Any feedback/advice is appreciated.

Last edited on 30 Aug 2019 16:03 by ADream Show more

Re: I Am Factory

gee0765 31 Aug 2019 00:59

First, I’ll look at your narrative. While yes, it’s probably been done before in literature, that doesn’t mean that it’s somewhere you can’t go. Especially if you’ve got an interesting anomaly to go along with it.

Your anomaly is possibly not original enough. I think that the 001 proposal for the factory has made the idea of how it is pretty clear in most people’s minds. And while yours is a bit different, I’d be concerned about putting in something that contradicts that proposal, even though there is no canon.¹ However, if you can think of a unique, interesting anomaly to tell this story, I can see this being a really good, interesting skip, especially as you seem prepared to do additional research to make it as good as possible.

If you choose to update the anomaly, feel free to send me a PM and I’ll gladly take another look at this concept! Good luck!

Footnotes

1. Although if you can justify your use of the Factory in a compelling way in either an update to the thread, a reply to this comment or a PM, I’d be willing to consider it

Last edited on 31 Aug 2019 01:22 by gee0765 Show more

Re: I Am Factory

ADream 31 Aug 2019 05:34

Thank you a lot for your feedback and encouragement. I do see what you are saying about the anomaly, and I will definitely focus on making it more interesting and relevant to the story. I'll PM you if I come up with a more interesting option in the near future.

Re: I Am Factory

DarkStuff 06 Sep 2019 02:33

The story would be told through a series of journal entries, documenting the main character's development.

This feels like a fairly uninspired way to get the story across. Not that it wouldn't work — just that it's been done before. I think that if your approach to telling the story involves a first person view that takes up most of the article, you're better off doing a tale. If you're going to make an SCP, make it a story that can only be told in SCP form. I do think you're playing off of a good fear that I think hasn't really been tackled by an SCP on the wiki (that I know of):

The fear that too many people depend on you, leading you to make decisions that don't let people down but are in the end worse for you and others. It's a very good take on capitalism — you've got to make your workers and stockholders happy. It's such an immense pressure, sometimes — no, often, almost always, heh… — you do things that hurt everyone, but that don't endanger your money.

Showing the Factory in a light where the CEO is not an eldritch horror, but instead a scared individual with an awful amount of outside pressure, is pretty great. I like that. I'm always a fan of "evil resulting from a system in which no individual directly means harm" — as I feel it's pretty realistic.

I'd say that your main anomaly should be something far more "alive" than an abandoned factory. And your factory really only sets up the contents of the journal, with people "replaying" things, which leans even more into the idea that you should do this as a tale. If you want a skip, I think you have to make the anomaly itself more about the feeling you're trying to get across. Perhaps something strange that happens to people related to this business guy? Maybe something affecting factory workers (not necessarily Factory workers).

Anyways, with some tweaking, I do think this is a really ripe idea. Greenlit, and good luck!

Re: I Am Factory

ADream 06 Sep 2019 08:21

Thank you a lot for your feedback. Telling the story in a more organic and interesting way is something that I will definitely have to focus on. Your suggestions regarding the anomaly are also very helpful.

It's such an immense pressure, sometimes — no, often, almost always, heh… — you do things that hurt everyone, but that don't endanger your money.

This is exactly the kind of feeling I hope to incite through the article. Great to hear that the idea sounds interesting.