Critter Resource Hub

Howdy!

εїз εїз εїз Howdy! εїз εїз εїз

If you're reading this, that means you're either one of our site's valuable critters or you have an interest in supplying criticism for the site. No matter the case, I would like to take a moment to thank you for your contribution to the site. Critting is often a thankless, neverending job, but its one we do because we love the site and want to see it improve. Thank you very much.

Critting is a very time-consuming process. A lot of our job comes down to explaining why things do and do not work to people who don't always get it. It is for this reason that I have compiled a list of essays, guides, and other useful works to help you improve as a critter and assign your crittee1 some homework.

All of the resources have been organized into categories which best describe them for easy access. I hope you find them useful. If there are any new guides that spring up, please contact me and I will see about adding them.

Important Critter Reading

These are resources I highly suggest reading. It is important to know what is expected of you and how you can carry out critique to the best of your ability. I swear up and down by these three documents, and I highly encourage you to read them before your next crit. They're short, I promise.

Critter Resources

There are many kinds of articles you will encounter on the forums. The following resources will help you learn how to appropriately handle scenarios quickly and efficiently without losing your mind.

Resources for Sharing

These resources are universally useful for improving one's writing, though many of them are aimed at new writers. I personally like to close my crits with 'suggested reading', which typically includes a handful of resources I feel the author would benefit from reading. I will typically explain to them what needs changing and fixing, and letting them know they can further discover how to fix it within the provided literature.

Technical Stuff

Formatting

Everything from simple bolding errors to failure to understand the SCP format.

  • Wiki Syntax - A cheat sheet with all of the basic formatting typically used on the wiki.
  • SCP Style Resource - An ever-expanding library of special formatting, neat div styles, and other cool resources to add flair to an article.
Poor Tone

Easily the most common issue faced when writing SCP. It's easy to say 'the tone is bad' but it's hard to exactly point out what is and isn't clinical, which makes it time-consuming. These guides can help an author brush up on their tone without stressing you out.

Foundation Lingo

There's a lot of on-site lingo that doesn't make sense elsewhere. There's also a lot of words that we don't know because we are authors, not scientists. These resources contain information on both for your convenience.

Conceptual Stuff

Broad Resources

These contain very broad and easily applicable information to a myriad of common errors faced by authors, ranging from the new to the skilled.

Specific Stuff

Misunderstanding of the Foundation's Purpose

This is not as common nowadays, but you may still get the odd 'SCP-XXXX IS TO BE DESTROYED IMMEDIATELY!' draft here and there. Sometimes there is a reason, but most of the time there isn't. If the Foundation is acting real GOC-like or the Con Procs are lacking, you may want to send the author one of these.

  • Doing The Safety Dance - The Foundation does not KILL KILL KILL. This essay helps the reader create effective and fun containment procedures.
  • The Foundation and Evil - An essay detailing the Foundation's motives. Very useful for explaining that the Foundation, though sinister, is not ill-intentioned.
Magic Items

Magic items, or 'thing that does a thing' are the most commonly seen kind of article in the draft forums. They are also very often executed poorly in a S1 style.

Humanoids

Humanoids are complicated, and also very popular with newbies. These resources are meant to encourage them to stray away from the dreaded X-Men tropes.

Tales

Surprisingly, only one essay on Tales has been written. Fortunately, it is very good.

Esoteric

For all your random and otherwise unclassified additional literature needs.

  • Photoshopping your SCP - For when an author wants to make a photo for their article but isn't well-versed in photoshop.
  • Zyn's Co-Authoring Tips - For those interested in co-authoring and unsure as to how to go about it.
  • Listpages Magic and You - A comprehensive guide on how to make a listpages article, as seen in SCP-3002.
  • Col. Hornby's Audio Guide - A guide on how to properly create and apply audio logs (actual media files) to an article.
  • Expert Witnesses - A list of Wiki members who are well versed or professionals in certain fields, and are eager to help you with any relevant specifics!

Writing Advice from The Great Hippo

Shamelessly stolen from The Great HippoThe Great Hippo's author page. Share this with fellow authors and friends, or maybe even use them to inspire yourself!

Whenever you compare yourself to another author and find yourself lacking, just remember this: Your unique background and set of experiences equips you to write stories they can't. There are stories inside of you that only you and you alone can tell. No one can take that away from you.


Writing fiction is like exploring unknown territory. There's no 'right way' to go — just lots of wrong ways. People can give you some helpful directions, ideas, and even a few places you might want to visit — but no one can tell you where you're going or how you're getting there. That's just something you have to discover for yourself.


I don't care how shoddily written a piece of writing is. The author does not deserve to be ridiculed, mocked, or patronized. Don't do it — and if someone tries to do it to you, don't put up with it.


The Elements of Style (by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White) is a small paperback book that's around 50 to 70 pages long. It costs about $1.99 — and if that's too rich for your blood, check your local library. Try to get the most recent edition if possible (older editions will contain errors, on account of grammar changing).

It's an excellent guide to concise, technical writing. I cannot recommend it highly enough.


Writing is not a magical, innate talent that you're born with. It's just like any skill: You need to hone it. The only reason people think otherwise is because writers just show you the finished product — which perpetuates the illusion of writers as wizards who conjure a masterpiece out of thin-air.

But the truth of it is this: Behind every great story is a fuckton of shitty ones.


Kurt Vonnegut once wrote 8 rules for writing. He went on to state that all but one can (and often will) be broken. "Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted."

This is the only rule in writing you must not break. Never waste a reader's time.


And that's all I wrote.