Therapist in the Candle

Summary:

"in my dream...that person helped my trauma"

Therapist in the Candle

awsmlwsn 14 Oct 2020 23:09

Seeking Greenlights: Yes
Page Type: SCP Article
Genre: Drama/Emotional
Page Layout: Standard SCP Format with addendums describing events and dialogue
Elevator Pitch: A scented candle that aids subjects make the first step of healing with trauma through two dreams.
Central Narrative: When a heat source within 12cm lits this candle, it makes a scented smoke in a specific radius. After 30 minutes or when an individual qualifies as having trauma inhales the smoke, the flame extinguishes, and the smoke dissipates. Test subjects are chosen based on the results of a Public Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Brief Trauma Questionnaire (BTQ).

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When subjects sleep, they dream of the traumatic event and wakes up to recall every detail, making them remember.
When they sleep again, subjects have another dream. This dream will help the subject. A humanoid individual, who's been described in every test subjects’ dream, will appear and aid them. For example, this humanoid walks you to a bench and talks to a loved one who passed away in real life or holding a war veterans’ hand and walks together to a support group. The candle will not affect the same individual after the second dream. The subject will either recover from the trauma or obsess to have the dream again and never recover.

Hook/Attention-Grabber: I personally deal with trauma. What helped me was a dream that allowed me to say “I love you” to my dad, who was deceased at the time. It was my first step because I never got the chance to tell him.

The idea of a fictional candle that helps people in two key steps to recovery is a great idea for me to write cause anyone can relate.

The first dream is to make you face the problem and what hurts you. The second dream is when you had someone to help/encourage you to make the first step. The humanoid in the dream symbolizes that encouragement.

But trauma cannot disappear immediately. But you alone can take the first step to recovery. That is depicted from the candle not taking away the trauma like a magic trick.

Additional Notes:

Last edited on 17 Oct 2020 17:10 by awsmlwsn Show more

Re: Therapist in the Candle

KaraKatt 16 Oct 2020 05:00

[Placeholder o' Doom!!! Will crit within 24 hours]

Howdy hey! I'm KaraKatt and I'll be dropping a little bit of crit today!

+ Line by line and general thoughts.

Questions I Have While Reading Through

When subjects sleep, they dream of the traumatic event and wakes up to recall every detail, making them remember.

Well, depending on the thing, wouldn't they remember anyway? What's the point of this dream if they already remember (say in the case of PTSD)? This could provide a nice look into a characters trauma (in terms of a reader reading), but I'm unsure how well it would be portrayed if you try to rush it or skim over details. Though, I don't know if that's even a thing you're looking to do in this case.

For example, this humanoid walks you to a bench and talks to a loved one who passed away in real life or holding a war veterans’ hand and walks together to a support group.

So, whats the point of them doing this? They care, but I'm wondering why. This isn't entirely an important question, but it may be something to make you think on why they do these things and want to give these people a chance to work through these things?

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Final notes

Hmm, I quite like this idea, but I'm unsure what you're trying to do with a story here. You laid out what the candle does and its effects, but what is the story for this? You have a heavy and interesting core anomaly but you need to build on it. Like, I don't know if you've ever seen "Infinity Train" but this idea reminds me of that. You have a train that's supposed to help you through your trauma, but what is it without the person going through the train? The trails, the learning, the acceptance of their trauma and how to deal with it. That's the thing that holds the idea of the train up. Honestly, I feel like this is something that can go far.

Good luck!

Last edited on 16 Oct 2020 05:20 by KaraKatt Show more

Re: Therapist in the Candle

Naveil 18 Oct 2020 14:45

I'll start of by saying the core concept has great potential, and you show a great understanding of the subject matter. This is an obligatory note to say that you should be careful when dealing with these issues, as they tend to be polarizing and can come off as edgy or so on when not treated with respect.

You've spent a lot of time thinking of the semantics, and that's good! However, they only matter if you're able to do something with them. In an article, there should be a coherent narrative that exists to drive the story forward. What is the story in this case? What emotions do you want to convey? How do you plan to execute it the context of the article?

For instance, while you've given an example of a war veteran's trauma, but is that the one you want to use? What emotions are going to be prevalent? Are there more stories besides this one?

As I said, I enjoy the concept, but it can only flourish in draft form if the right attention is given. My recommendations would be to focus on the specific narratives, whatever they may be, and keep everything focused as to not bloat your piece. I'll leave the rest up to you - good luck!