Guide For Writing

Basic Guides

Guide for Newcomers
Guide for Reading
Guide for Writing
Frequently Asked Questions
Joining the Site

Writing for a website as large as the SCP Wiki is often very challenging. For many, there's a lot of hesitation when posting your first article, and for some, it can be daunting just to get words out, but this guide will hopefully ease you into the writing process.

If you haven't already done so, check out Join the Site - You need to be a member of this site to post contributions.

Also, this is an introduction to writing specifically, so if you're more interested in sharing art, see How to Post Your Art to the SCP Wiki.

I. What You Need to Know

The first and foremost thing is that:

The SCP Wiki is a literary writing website.

This is the mindset from which you, as a writer, should start when planning to write anything on this site. The SCP Foundation may, ostensibly, resemble a simple catalog of anomalous objects, creatures and events, but almost every article contains a coherent, complete story, no matter how subtle.

Building upon this, there are several sticking points the wiki expects/implements, which may differ from other writing sites:

• The author should have a college level proficiency in the English language and literary skills, or higher.
  • This is to ensure ease of communication and feedback, and so that critique can be digested and integrated without having to reiterate foundational literary concepts.
• Works submitted to the wiki are expected to be broadly complete and finalized, give or take leniency for initial setup/technical difficulties. Use the Sandbox for drafting.
• Works submitted to the wiki are subject to the voting system, wherein it may be deleted when under a certain threshold.
  • See: Deletions Guide
  • Works on the wiki are voted on by the community at large, where each member can vote +1 or -1. Although it'd be courteous, voters are not expected to leave comments explaining their votes or critiques of the work.
  • If you believe malicious voting has occurred on your page (i.e. vote casted in bad faith or not based on page content), file a report to a member of staff.

II. Literary Spectrum and Recommended Readings

Though initially starting as a database of oddities of a secret organization, the literary canon¹ of the wiki has vastly expanded beyond that original scope, and now spans multiple genres, ranging from creepypasta to hard sci-fi to queer culture to gothic fantasy.

Onsite Reading

See also: Curated Lists, Glossary Of Terms

It's important to familiarize yourself with the tone and setting, as well as the breadth of topics and genres of the wiki, if only to give yourself an idea of our standards and expectations.

Offsite Reading

At its core, an SCP article is a short story disguised as government documents — fundamental literary techniques surrounding writing will still apply.

It's recommended that while you do read on site material, you also read a wide variety of published works outside of the wiki. Novels, biographies, essays, etc. will all help you develop your general writing skills. When in doubt, read, read, and read some more!

The following are the Critique Team's recommended readings:

Short Stories

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

An example of a narrative completely driven by a central character, with a clear character arc. It's perfect if you're looking for examples of successfully telling a story via journals, as this book is told entirely through journal entries written by the main character. We see how his voice evolves as the narrative progresses, and how that reflects his character arc.

mmacevedo by qntm

An exercise in minimalism written by renowned SCP author, this is a masterclass in unorthodox storytelling, speculative science fiction, and fridge horror in less than two thousand words.

Lamb to the Slaughter and The Landlady by Roald Dahl

Not for kids this time! Dahl's short stories are more "weird fiction" and have a dark sense of humour to them. Great for setting up a macabre twist hidden in the mundane everyday.

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

Writing an unreliable narrator and someone losing grip on reality while the prose mirrors that.

Books

As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann

A good book for learning how to write absolutely hatable characters while still making you want to finish the book. Excellent character work.

The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

A great book to read because it does a good job of characterizing the MC and how the main plot device affects him and the people around him, very good piece for getting a hold on how a linear plot affects every character individually and how the mc is slowly effected by the weight things.

His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

Something that can both be read as a young adult adventure, and a philosophical work. Interesting in how it does worldbuilding and how it plays around with the expectations of YA fiction. The characters aren't "heroes and villains" but people with their own agendas, traumatised but still not redeemable, and they don't intend to be.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Using "new slang" and very rhythmic prose. Even the opening paragraph has a lot of nonsense terms for which you can figure out the meaning in context. A great book to analyse if you like to play around with technobabble.

Poetry

The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot

A free verse work with extremely strong imagery. Look how the opening paragraph sets up the imagery to "figure out" the rest of the piece's meaning.

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

You know the meter of this poem. If you want to do rhyme, look at how this poem uses both end rhyme, alliteration and rhythm.

Non-Fiction

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White

Seminars will also be held from time to time on various topics, writing included. Catch them whenever you can!

III. Pen to Paper (Or Keyboard to Screen)

Ideation

Example essay: Ideation: A Guide To Making Good Ideas Out Of Nothing

You should almost always start with mapping out the core characteristics of your idea. Define your character(s), conflict, resolution, themes, genres, pathos, etc. The specifics may differ from person to person and idea to idea, but know what you're writing towards.

Execution

Example essay: To Step on Stones: Taking a Concept From Idea to Draft

Once you understand the structure of what you want to write, the execution comes next, which is the factor that can make or break your article.

Keep in mind the context in which your article will exist in, and the constraints of the formats. You can play it straight, recontextualize its use, serves a vessel for environmental storytelling, or even invert it near-entirely. Regular judgment of creative writing still applies, so consider how to best utilize the Foundation to serve your story. Same goes for all of the other types of articles as well.

For more guides on specific ideation and narrative guides, check out the staff-managed Guides. For user-made essays on writing process on the wiki and other reference materials, see Essay and Resource Hub.

IV. How to write an SCP

Main page: How To Write An SCP

SCPs are fictional documents from the Foundation, detailing anomalous phenomena and procedures for containing them. SCP articles have a very clinical and neutral tone, and generally have a standard layout, plus additional information towards the end of the article in the form of addenda.

Note: Do not pick a number higher than currently open, or it will be summarily deleted.

V. Tales, and other Formats

Example essay: Essays By A Hack: Writing Tales

The wiki also offers flexibility for writing in formats aside from SCP:

• Tales: Stories set in the Foundationverse. Tales are very flexible, as you can write them however you desire without the restrictions of the standard SCP format, whether that be a document, recording, narrative story or even poetry! Tales encompass pretty much any kind of writing you can think of.
• GoI Formats: These are documents, usually about an anomaly, from the perspective of a Group of Interest (GoI) - organisations other than the Foundation which deal with or handle the anomalous. Like SCPs, GoI formats are documents with their own structure, tone and style that varies from GoI to GoI. The format structure of each GoI can usually be found on its hub page.
• Miscellaneous Pages: Any page which doesn't fit into the above categories, such as site dossiers and collaborative logs.

VI. Optional - Idea Critique and Draft Critique Forum

It is highly recommended to seek feedback before posting to the main site, to better ensure the success right from its creation. Coldposts² by new authors rarely survive for more than a few days.

Places where authors may seek feedbacks from are:

• IRC (emphasis on brainstorming with real-time convos)
• Official Discord (quick discussions with focused threads)
• Wiki Forums (move slower, more thorough, pacing easier to follow)

Note that the Discord and the wiki have a dedicated Draft Critique forum, which requires authors to have their idea greenlit before they may use them, details written below.

Greenlighting Policy

Main pages: Idea Critique Forum, Draft Critique Forum
See also: Greenlights Made Easy- An Essay on Communicating Elevator Pitches and Central Narratives

The greenlighting policy exists to ensure that authors and reviewers develop solid drafts that don't need conceptual reworking during the writing phase.

Greenlights are votes of confidence in story concept and an author's ability to internalize feedback before progressing to drafting; first-time authors seeking to use the Draft Critique forum must have two greenlights on their corresponding concept in the Idea Critique forum before they may submit a draft for review.

Only site members who fulfill certain criteria may greenlight your ideas. Greenlights on the wiki forums can be used in the Discord, and vice versa.

VII. Syntax, Formatting and Appearance

Main Page: Wiki Syntax, SCP Style Resource
See also: Components Hub, Sigma Themes, black-highlighter-themes

Many formatting tools are used across a multitude of SCP articles. These modules can be copied from the linked pages and used in your articles.

Keep in mind that formatting and themes are vessels for the writing and it's not necessary to go beyond the default styling to tell a compelling story.

VIII. Posting

Once you feel your draft is at its best, you may post it to the mainsite.

Copy the raw text of your entire draft³. Afterwards, you need to head back to the SCP Wiki and follow either of these steps:

• If you're posting an SCP: Find an empty slot in the current SCP Series, typically an orange hypertext link with a label [ACCESS DENIED]. Click on your desired number and create your page there - Your page title should be SCP-[number], and [ACCESS DENIED] on the series page should be replaced with your desired name (e.g. 'Seal of Approval')
• For all other pages: Go to "Contribute" in the sidebar, then type in the page name (i.e. the page's address)⁴ in the textbox that appears in the Tales section and click "Create". Avoid colons (:) in the initial page name - if you want them in your title, add them in while editing.

IX. Other

Tagging

Main Page: A Laymen's Guide to Tagging

Generally, do not tag your page unless you know what you're doing; a member of Staff's tagging subteam will get to it afterwards.

If you're posting an entry for a contest however, you can apply that contest's tag as instructed.

Co-authorship

You can collaborate with another author, or even multiple authors, on an article. Such pages should have their co-authorship attribution noted in the License Box and the page tagged co-authored.

You must also request for attribution metadata by contacting staff through channels such as IRC's #site17, SCP Discord's help-desk, or the official staff server.

Technical requirements

All pages posted must be in compliance with our CSS and Technical Content Policy.

Self-deletion

If you're unhappy with your work (which can happen to all of us!) you can choose to delete your page. Just go down to + Options and then Delete, making sure the right option is clicked.

Tips and pointers

• Don't feel too pressured to post. If you're getting stressed out, it may be a good idea to take a break. Writing for the Wiki isn't all that important and shouldn't affect your wellbeing.
• It's okay to stop writing a draft, even if you already got greenlights for your first concept. As a writer, if you feel when something is not working and is not salvageable, take a break or move on. You can always come back later with fresh eyes.
• If you think you can do well in critique, you can ask to do a draft exchange, where you and another user swap drafts and critique each other's work. You don't need to be an experienced author to give critique. Sometimes helping with just grammar, tone, and pacing goes a long way.
• Don't get worked up if your first contribution fails. Most articles which have a lot of effort put in end up doing well, but sometimes a piece of writing may not work out with the community. That's okay and expected, even for the most experienced authors on site. Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat - you can always bounce back stronger than before.
• Again, have fun while writing!

Footnotes

1. As in the total body of published works.

2. Posts made without feedback or critique

3. Remember to copy your rating module as well. If you've used things like CSS components, don't forget to copy that too!

4. For instance, if you name your page "my first tale", the URL will become https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/my-first-tale. For all non-SCP pages, the page name does not need to be the same as the page title.