 Oftentimes, when people are writing for the SCP Wiki, they try to think of ways they can change up the format or do something completely outrageous to actually, you know, the idea is that something new is always going to be successful. And while that's partially true, a lot of people go too far and then don't understand why they're not well received. So let me tell you a little bit about how you're wrong about respect on the SCP Wiki. So today was originally going to be you're wrong about DJ Cactus, and I thought about doing that for real, but DJ Cactus wasn't really available for an interview. We'll still try to schedule that for some future point. But DJ Cactus will certainly come up more than once or twice in this discussion because he is often used by new writers as an example of how it's unfair for new writers to try and create something fresh and new, but get smacked down while Cactus creates something completely and totally wacky and somehow gets upvotes for it. And they're like, how's that happen? And the truth is, in the end, it's about respect. Respect is one of those things is like everybody thinks that they deserve it off the bat, but no one does. Your first article is going to be looked at with a jaundiced eye. Everyone's going to be cynical about what you first put out. That's why when your username is DrCarol and DrCarol shows up in your work, that trips some bells and everyone goes, aha, I knew this person was a noob because it's such a common thing for people to do. Now, even if you're a great writer, I've seen plenty of great writers try this and it just doesn't work. You can't do that. And I always suggest to people to try and earn some respect as a writer. Just do something basic to start with. And I know that sounds outrageous. And by the way, it's not universal advice for a lot of people. And I shouldn't say a lot of people, but for some people, the idea of doing something outrageous on your first article actually works pretty well. But if you're still learning how to write, which is true of a lot of the people who subscribe to this channel, either are beginning writers or some of them are established writers from the wiki because I have a bit of a friendships with folks from there. The vast majority, I'm sure, of my subscribers are not experienced writers. Some of them probably don't even care about writing, but I'm talking about this as more of a phenomenon that you'll see, especially in the SCP community, of new writers going, how come DJ Cactus gets to write about Donald Trump and Dr. Bright crapping himself, but I try to write something silly and everybody says it's too silly? DJ Cactus has written like 120, maybe 150 articles for the SCP wiki. He has a proven track record. When it comes to creating something outrageous and weird, the ultimate authority on whether or not it's going to work for you is whether or not you can get anyone to read it. That's the real question. Can you get other people to read your work? And this is why for new writers, I often tell them that the first thing you really need to work on is your pitch. Well, after learning to recognize ideas that are good, I always say that all ideas are good. Some ideas are the kind that make you excited. If you think about them a little bit, you go, oh, man, I could really do that. I wait and then you just start working through the possibilities, right? But a lot of people have an idea and then that's as far as they go with it. Their brain doesn't continue on with the what's the development for it? What's the story you can get from it? And more importantly, and this is something I've run into a lot recently, they'll run into the they'll do the whole is this good thing, which is fine in the beginning with. I mean, obviously not everyone's going to understand what is and isn't good. And this is the point you got to develop that skill for yourself. But they never get past asking. So for a lot of people, it's like they don't even get to the writing part of anything. They just have ideas over and over and over again. And it's constantly a matter of is this a good idea? Is this a good idea? Is this a good idea? Is this a good idea over and over and over again? And at some point, you just want people to go, it doesn't matter until you write it. It's a bad idea. The only bad ideas are the ones that aren't written into stories. That's it. And it's not about whether or not it excites me, whether or not it excites you, because you're the one that's going to have to develop it further past the first sentence pitch that I try and teach people to do. But when DJ Cactus does George Bush or Donald Trump as SCPs, look at it from this perspective. I'm going to be comparing DJ. DJ Cactus is going to love this. I'm going to compare him for a second to Stephen King. OK, let's call him the Stephen King of the SCP wiki. We'll go if that is that far. So Stephen King comes to you with a pitch and he says, all right, I'm going to write. Actually, no, let's say it's not Stephen King. Let's say it's your mother or anyone else you can think of that's not a good writer, but that's just my joke for now. Your mother. Anyway, let's say your mother comes to you with a pitch. She wants to write a story about a Saint Bernard that gets rabies. That's the pitch. That's the whole story. You know your mother can't write. You it's just a random thought she had at some point. Stephen King pitches that with his history behind them. And you say to yourself, that might be good. Let's see what he does with it. Context is key. Stephen King has earned respect from readers, from editors, from publishing companies. So when he has an idea or he has any kind of silly, even when he's finished, when he has a finished product, for example, people will read it because they know there's a level of quality they can expect. DJ Cactus falls into that realm and so do a lot of other big name authors. Sometimes I think myself included. But that feels a little bit conceited to say. But I am, what, seventh or eighth most prolific author on the SEP. We got one hundred and ten somewhere between one hundred and ten and twenty articles at this point. So I'd say I'd probably qualify as a big name author. New writers have to realize that, by the way, upvotes, downvotes, none of that matters. The only driving force for the SEP wiki, the most important thing you can do is to get someone to read your work. Legitimately read it. Afterwards, you can worry about what their opinions are, what their rating eventually is going to be. But the important thing is get them to read it. If they don't read it, they can't vote for it. They don't read it. They can't talk about it. If they don't read it, it doesn't matter, which is part of why pitching is important. There are essentially three ways you can really get someone on board and get them interested in your idea. One, be a big name. I know that's not fair to new writers, but you got to get there somewhere. I said this to someone a couple of weeks ago, I think it was. Respect is earned. You earn respect and then you have respect. You don't start with respect. You don't. When DJ Cactus writes megalomania, I read it and I'm thinking. This is silly, but it's DJ Cactus. So I know he's going to deliver. And you forgive things too, by the way, it is completely fair to say this. And this is true of all three of the possibilities here. But be a big name. Have a high rating already, which is something that you can just count on or pitch it really well to someone, get someone interested from the start. That's why I always say the one sentence pitch is super important for success in writing in general. But it's definitely important for success on the wiki. You can't look at the wiki and be like, well, I'm going to tell you the first half of the description and see if you like it. No, that's not how it hooking people in. You might think about like, why does the other ways work? Well, we already talked about how being a big name helps. You get your reputation behind you. So people will continue to read past, say, problematic parts if there's a pacing issue and they like they start to get bored. But they'll think, no, no, no, no, Samarian wrote this. I trust them to finish this off well. So I'll get through this part that's a little bit tough and I'll keep reading. But if it's a new writer, you're just like, all right, I'm done. Downboat. Same thing with a high rating. This is important, too. If somebody comes into an article and it's already got a high rating or even just decently high rating, people will give it a little bit more leeway because they see it and they say, well, 100 other people liked it. So there must be some redeeming quality by the end. And if there's a problem or there's a incongruency, some sort of thing that doesn't make sense logically or pacing issues, those will be ignored or at least allowed for. And the thing will be finished. And that's the important thing. Those things get forgotten often when people are making their final evaluation on an article. Not everyone does it. In fact, I'd say a lot of site authors have gotten gotten better about remembering the little things in the middle that they didn't like rather than the big ending that was awesome makes them forget everything. But essentially that high rating or being a big name will do that for you. Less so. And this is what new writers have to count on, because it's the only thing they really have is hooking people at the beginning of their article. The first few lines of the Special Containment Procedures really kind of need to grab someone. It doesn't have to be the first line. Everyone will give you that first line. But within three sentences, there has to be something interesting to grab that person or else they're gone. You can bring people in. You can give them a link. You can't get them to click. And once they click, you can't get them to finish it. And once they finish it, you can't get them to vote most of the time. The sending curve of people doing the things you want them to do. This is the key success on the SAP Wiki. Understanding that getting people to read it is super important. Get that first one line pitch to people. You want to what I wrote a tale recently or me and SAP Illustrated wrote a tale. We put it up on YouTube and that's cool because that gives you a nice visual hook at the beginning of the tale that I've written so I can put the big picture at the top and that gets people going, oh, this is different. This is new. You get the screen, not the image, but the embedded YouTube video above the tale. And that really grabs people's attention. But at the same time, OK, the pitch for it was SAP 682, the end of time and space. SAP 2343, what if an Egyptian god got drunk and went to the wrong Memphis? I like to sometimes phrase my pitches as a what as a question because it in the in the receiver of it, they think, well, actually, what if that happened? No, I got some ideas of what that could be. And then they read it and they get that gets their interest going and then they continue on or SAP 2632. What if an immortal man has to face the consequences of his bad behavior or 3213? What if there was a man who is hated universally by all seals everywhere or 3 3 1 3? What if Benjamin Franklin's penis granted wishes? These are all pitches that I feel in varying levels can immediately grab the attention of a reader or a perspective reader and get them involved. If you don't have a following already and you don't have a reputation already for quality, work on your pitches. And by the way, just keep working on your pitches because it doesn't matter how great your reputation is. Pitches will always get people on board and just keep writing solid articles until you have an idea personally of what of how to do it right. And everyone else has an idea that you understand how to do it right. That's it, earn respect. Respect is not given, respect is earned. People like DJ Cactus have written 150 articles and because of that have earned quite a lot of respect from perspective readers. That's it. You don't get it easy. Everybody wants it to be easy. It's not easy. Well, it is easy. Compared to other media. But it's not always like right there in front of you. It's not just laying on the ground. You gotta dig a little bit to get to it. That's all. Anyway, that's it. Thank you very much for watching. If you liked the video, please hit the subscribe button then scroll down and hit the notification bell next to that so that you're notified when I upload new videos. And if you would like to see your name and the credits of the next video, which are gonna be over here somewhere, go on over to patreon.com forward slash de-samaritan and pledge at any level, like everybody here on the screen already has. Oh, let's do it the right way. Ah, thank you for letting me know I'm not alone out here. And I'll see you all again on Thursday.