How To Write An SCP

Writing an SCP

This is the basic guide for SCP writing, from getting started to the posting process.

Writing a successful SCP isn't easy. Authors should get accustomed to writing fiction, the SCP format, and the community itself. The best way to do this is to dig into them. Read lots of stories. If you want to write an SCP, read lots of SCPs, new and old. The same goes for Tales. Read comments in page discussions, the forums, and chat. Pay attention to how you respond to what you read, and how others respond as well.

SCP articles have three basic components: the concept, the story, and the format.

Concept

Ideas can come from anywhere. A conversation, a cool image, a strong feeling you have… anywhere at all. Try to find a mood for your work, meaning the emotions you want to evoke in the reader. Do you want to write something scary, or baffling? Something hilarious, or thought-provoking, or painful? The reader wants to feel something, or more than one thing. Give them that.

Story

The story is where the article goes beyond just describing your idea. The best SCPs offer a hook, something intriguing/memorable that catches the reader's interest right away, and a conclusion that makes the article feel like it was worth reading.

If an SCP has a weak payoff, the reader might react with "that's it?" or "it needs something more." If an SCP has a weak hook, the reader may lose interest before even reaching the end.

Format

SCPs convey their stories through a set format. SCP articles are clinical documents that give the information the reader needs to understand how to keep the SCP object locked up, what the object is, and any other useful information the Foundation has gathered on it through testing, interviews, investigation, or other events.

To see what the standard SCP format looks like, click the "Format" tab at the top of the guide.

Format

Here's the Wikidot formatting code for the basic SCP document:

[[>]]
[[module Rate]]
[[/>]]

**Item #:** SCP-XXXX

**Object Class:** Safe/Euclid/Keter (indicate which class)

**Special Containment Procedures:** [Paragraphs explaining the procedures]

**Description:** [Paragraphs explaining the description]

**Addendum:** [Optional additional paragraphs]

The article begins with the SCP number, which is what the article calls the anomaly, and the object class, which explains how hard the anomaly is to keep contained. The three main object classes are Safe, Euclid, and Keter. Some SCPs use others instead of or in addition to those, like Thaumiel, Neutralized, and Explained. You can read about them in the Object Classes guide.

Containment procedures tell the reader what the Foundation does to keep the anomaly locked up. They should be clear and logical. Write them from the point of view of an organization telling their employees how to prevent the object from escaping or discovered by the public. Try not to make the Foundation look too incompetent or silly to be believed.

Description is the section that tells the reader what the anomaly is. It should be concise and practical. Start with the most basic and important information, so the reader understands what you're talking about right away. Write as if you're a researcher for the Foundation on an important professional task. Use a plain, precise style that gets the facts across without being too emotional or flowery.

An addendum is an extra item that explain more about the SCP. These are optional, and you can have as many as you want. You can add experiment logs, interviews, surveillance logs, status updates, researcher's notes, and so on, even audio or visual content.

[REDACTED], [DATA EXPUNGED], blackboxes (█████, added by copying another █ and pasting it in or with alt+219 on your number pad), and other forms of censorship are used to add mystery or realism. This can backfire if you use them too gratuitously or as a way to get out of knowing what to write.

Text formatting can make your SCP document better-looking and easier to read. The text editor on every wiki page has buttons for common commands like bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, and page links. Underneath the text editor, you can find links to a Quick Reference page for basic formatting help and the full Wiki Syntax list that explains everything.

The two most frequently-asked-about formatting tools are the quote box and the collapsible.

To make a box like this, just use "> text", where "text" is whatever you want to appear on that line. Line breaks like the one after this sentence are just "> ".

Make sure to include the space, because ">text" makes that text disappear from the page.

Click here to learn about collapsing text

Collapsibles can hide long sections of text to save space. To get an effect like this, use this code:

[[collapsible show="+ Title for showing text" hide="- Title for hiding text"]]
[YOUR TEXT]
[[/collapsible]]

Replace the "+ Title for showing text" and its companion for hiding the collapsed text with something relevant to your article. You can also leave the "show=" and "hide=" sections off to use the default collapsible text.

When in doubt, if you want to find out what the code for something is, you can go to a page that uses that something, click the "+ Options" button at the bottom of a page, then click "Page Source" to look at a page's code without editing it.

Posting

Once you've gotten enough feedback on your work and the final draft is ready, it's time to put it on the wiki for others to read. Here are the steps to posting:

1. Go to a Series page by clicking one of the links in the sidebar. (Series 3 is the newest, so it's most likely to have an open number.) Pick an unused number. The unused ones have "[ACCESS DENIED]" instead of a title. Then click the number to go to a blank site page. Read all the instructions on the page. When you're ready to post, click the link on the bottom.

2. Copy the article text from your sandbox page or word processor, then paste it into the text editor. Make sure that all references to your SCP's number use the number you chose to post the article to, rather than XXXX or any other placeholder.

3. Fix the page title, shown above the text editor, by changing it from "Scp XXXX" to "SCP-XXXX", where XXXX is the number you chose. Then click the Save button to post it.

4. Now that the SCP is up, go back to the Series page, scroll down, and click "Edit". This lets you replace the [ACCESS DENIED] next to your chosen number with a title of your choice. (This title is out-of-universe, not part of the SCP document, so it can be whatever you want.)

5. Now you should go to the Announcements forum and announce your posted SCP in the current SCP Announcement thread. If you like, you can also announce it in the IRC chat. After that, you're done. Users will vote and comment on your work, and you can edit to make adjustments.

Posting a tale works essentially the same way, with a few differences. Tales don't have assigned numbers, so use the Tale section of the Contribute page linked in the sidebar to go to the page you want, or just go to the URL you want your page to have.

Once you've posted your tale, add tags. Include a tag consisting of an _ and the first letter of your username (or Dr if your username starts with Dr. or Doctor). A user named Silberescher would add the tag _s. An author named Dr. Silberescher would add a _dr tag instead.

If your tale is about one or more Groups of Interest, add the tag for that group. If your tale belongs to a specific canon or other tale series, add the tag for that series. Consult the tag guide for information on which tags to use.

Like with SCPs, make sure to announce your tale in the Tale Announcement thread of the Announcments forum.

Images

Before you add an image to your article, make sure that it follows the Site Rules and it's appropriate for the article.

Do not use a picture if you don't have the rights to use it. It can't have visible watermarks or copyright notices. (Removing the copyright is not acceptable, either, that's illegal.) And it cannot contain illegal or pornographic material; anything that does will be immediately removed.

To place an image on your article, first you have to upload your image onto the page. Don't hotlink directly to an image hosted on another website. Be sure that any images uploaded are in the proper format (.jpg, .jpeg, or .png) and the right file size (it takes as much space even when scaled down to fit the image box, so make sure it's not multiple megabytes). Then follow these instructions:

1. Go to the page you want to add an image to.
2. Scroll to the bottom, then click on the Files link.
3. From there, click Upload a File from Your Computer.
4. Locate and select the image(s) you wish to use, and click Open.
5. Click Upload.

Now the image has been uploaded to your page. To insert the image into the article with the proper styling, all you have to do is include the following snippet of code in the appropriate place (Below the rating module and above the "Item #:" line for your first image, wherever you choose for extra images.)

[[include component:image-block
name=THE NAME OF YOUR IMAGE FILE|
caption=THE TEXT YOU WANT SHOWN UNDERNEATH YOUR IMAGE
]]

Note that you can place all of this on one line. We broke it up here to avoid getting a horrible horizontal scrollbar. Be sure to replace everything after the equals ("=") sign and before the pipe symbol ("|") or the closing brackets ("]]") with what's relevant to your article. It won't work if you just copy-paste the above.

By default, the standard image block is set to 300px width. If you need it to be a different size (such as if the native size of the image is less than 300px), then you can optionally add a width attribute to the image block as shown here:

[[include component:image-block
name=THE NAME OF YOUR IMAGE FILE|
caption=THE TEXT YOU WANT SHOWN UNDERNEATH YOUR IMAGE|
width=300px
]]

The height of the image will automatically adjust to the width. Make sure it's not more than 300px wide, as blocks larger than that disrupt the normal flow of the document.

If you have any problems or questions about using images on articles, please contact a member of the Image or Technical Staff Teams.

Cut Content (archived for reference)

Cut Content -- Wiki Formatting

Text Formatting

These are some of the most common formatting styles used:

Code	Effect
**bold**	bold
//italics//	italics
__underscore__	underscore
--strikethrough--	strikethrough
[[[SCP-173|On-site links]]]	On-site links
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page External links]	External links

A blackbox (█), also known as FULL BLOCK, is used to censor information. You can copy and paste this from other articles, or press Alt+219 on your numpad to get the character. The Alt command can vary based on which character set your program uses.

A complete list of supported syntax can be found on the Wiki Syntax page. The text editor box on every wiki page has buttons for most common formatting commands, as well as a link to the Quick Reference at the bottom.

Rating Modules

You need to place a rating module on every tale or SCP you create, using the following code:

[[>]]
[[module Rate]]
[[/>]]

Placing an Image

Pictures are optional but generally improve an article, so long as they're appropriate for the article and follow the site rules.

Test Logs and Records

Test logs are optional, but a useful storytelling tool. They come in a variety of formats, from the in-depth:

__**Test A - Date**__
> **Subject:**
> **Procedure:**
> **Results:**
> **Analysis:**

To the casual:

 *Time*: Event

Create a format appropriate for your article and use the same format for every entry in the log.

Footnotes

Footnotes can be used to put additional information into an article without breaking the flow of the text. To get an effect like this:

Text.¹

Use this code:

[[footnote]][YOUR TEXT][[/footnote]]

Templates

Basic Article Template

[[>]]
[[module Rate]]
[[/>]]

**Item #:** SCP-XXXX

**Object Class:** Safe/Euclid/Keter (indicate which class)

**Special Containment Procedures:** [Paragraphs explaining the procedures]

**Description:** [Paragraphs explaining the description]

**Addendum:** [Optional additional paragraphs]

Interview Template

> **Interviewed:** [The person, persons, or SCP being interviewed]
>
> **Interviewer:** [Interviewer, can be blocked out using █]
>
> **Foreword:** [Small passage describing the interview]
>
> **<Begin Log, [optional time info]>**
>
> **Interviewer:** [speech]
>
> **Person:** [speech]
>
> [Repeat as necessary]
>
> **<End Log, [optional time info]>**
>
> **Closing Statement:** [Small summary and passage on what transpired afterward]

Note: When inserting block quotes with the > symbol, make sure you add a space after each > you use. Otherwise, your text won't be visible.

More Cut Content

* "Safe" does not refer to how dangerous an object can be. Rather, it denotes that the object can be safely and reliably contained. The containment procedures of a Safe-class SCP can usually be summed up as "lock it in this container and everything should be fine".

* Euclid-class SCPs can be contained, but require more specific containment procedures and more precaution than safe SCPs because they are unpredictable. This could be because the SCP object and its anomaly aren't fully understood, or because the SCP is intelligent and can think for itself.

* Keter-class SCPs are the most difficult to contain, and reqire the most resources to keep suppressed. Keter SCPs tend to constantly or inevitably threaten to breach containment and result in dire consequences if they escape. SCPs with this class are the most threatening to the Foundation's goals.

In most interpretations, the SCP Foundation has enough resources to be thorough, but prefers not to be wasteful. Likewise, the SCP Foundation is typically not interested in making an SCP entity feel at home or like it has any degree of freedom, but they also recognize the practical value of humane treatment.

Footnotes

1. [YOUR TEXT]