Greetings writers, and readers.
I've been thinking about starting a thread like this for a while now, and I think it's time!
With the recent contributions rush, there's been a lot of what I'd call "common pitfalls" which aren't necessarily spelled out in the How to Write an SCP guide. I'd like to list what I consider "pitfalls" and how to avoid them! These are both general, and specific.
The idea of this is to provide people with the breadth and depth of experience of the current authors. For example, I know a lot about computers, and computer science, hence I list my CS pitfalls. Someone else may know a lot about….World War 2, and list common WWII based pitfalls.
Feel free to respond with your own pitfalls, or tell me why my own pitfalls may or may not be bias!
As such, here are what I consider "fast downvotes":
- Formatting
- Even minor lapses in formatting, that aren't part of a format screw are an almost immediate downvote for me. If I have to fix your spacing, or add your rate module, I'm PROBABLY halfway to a downvote already. I'm a lot easier on bad grammar as my abuses of the common comma are well documented, but formatting is one of those things you can easily see visually and fix without much effort.
- Caucasian Male in their 20's humanoid scp
- This one's pretty straight forward. If you're writing about a 20 year old white man, you're probably writing about yourself (going by simple demographics). Caucasian, by the way, doesn't mean "white". It actually means "people from the caucus region". What you're looking for, if you're american is "of Northern/Western/Eastern European Descent." Either way, keep in mind there are seven and a half billion people in the world. Statistically, the average male is not of European descent.
- My SCP fights things really well
- I get this one, I really do. You want to write how amazing this guy is, and how hard they are to contain. Unfortunately, "being really good at fighting" isn't something that the foundation, as a writing project, is interested in anymore, without significant other factors. I can't actually think of a played-straight example that would work at this point. If you really need to write something that fights good, there's a ton of fanfiction projects that would probably really enjoy it. The SCP Wiki probably won't receive it well, however.
- Describing every last detail of what a skip looks like
- The more you describe the appearance of something, the more it's most likely a little too personal to you as a writer, and usually, means that you're more interested in the character than the story you're trying to tell.
- Computers what do magic
- So this is definitely a personal one, but if you have a computer-based SCP, you'd best know how computers work. They're not magic do-anything machines, and have incredibly complex safeguards against intrusion, and non-expected operation. It would take a hell of an anomaly to actually mess with a computer. You're better off side-stepping the issue entirely, and not having it involve the OS, Hardware, etc. oinkers is a great example of this
- Weapons what do things
- If you're going to use swords, or any other historical weapon, for god's sake, consult an expert. Nothing earns my downvote faster than calling an arming sword a longsword.
- "SCP-XXXX has two blades of xyz length"
- A "blade" is a relatively meaningless term. It's any planed object that comes to an edge. Like an oar. Or a rudder. Or a fan.
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