When you were writing your 001 proposal, at what point in the process of writing the article did you have the final or close-to-final containment procedures?
Clef: It was pretty much the first thing that I wrote. The containment procedures were simple: “Keep the location of the Garden secret, and don’t let anyone approach it for their own protection.” SCP-001 Gate Guardian pretty much contains itself (i.e. it destroys anything that approaches it), so I was able to make the containment procedures very simple.
For specific things, like Emergency Procedure PATMOS and the PATMOS XK-class scenario, were those planned to be in the article or were they put into place once what the proposal was going to be became more concrete?
Clef: Emergency Procedure PATMOS and the PATMOS XK-class scenario were key to the whole thing. The entire article is based around my own religious upbringing in a fire-and-brimstone style religious setting, and the anxiety it caused in me about being left behind during the rapture. PATMOS is named after the island from which John wrote the Book of Revelation. IIRC, the only thing that changed was the last section actually being PATMOS taking place, to a “temporal anomaly” saying that it will happen at a later date. Basically, I started with the idea that the Rapture would happen and it would be bad, and then moving back through it to the idea of the Gate Guardian.
How were containment procedures generally viewed in these early days of the site, 2008-2009?
Clef: I’m not sure how to answer that question. It kind of boils down to they were either using the “EVERYTHING IS NUCLEAR AND OVER THE TOP” method, or “I don’t really care about the containment procedures, I just want to get to the cool monster.” Does that answer it?
Yes! I have a follow-up: Was reading the containment procedures common practice?
Clef: um
Clef: kind of
Clef: They existed, but people didn’t take them too seriously or try to make them reasonable or consistent.
Clef: That was one of the early arguments: “Does every single artifact really need a nuclear self-destruct for it?”
How is the way you approach containment procedures in your more recent works different than how you would have approached writing Gate Guardian or any of your other early SCP articles?
Clef: Honestly, I wouldn’t change too much. Over time, I’ve approached writing containment procedures as favoring versimilitude vs. detail. For instance, instead of trying to put down something like “a 10 x 10 x 10 cell with a bed and blah blah blah,” I would just say, “Standard containment cell,” with the assumption that there is such a thing as a standard containment cell and that it can exist.
How important, in your opinion, are containment procedures to writing for the SCP Wiki?
Clef: Give me a moment to think about it.
Clef: If you’ll excuse the expression, I’d say that the containment procedures are as important as plot to a porno. You can have a good article without needing in-depth containment procedures. There are some people who think that they should be there, but nobody really cares about it. But in practice, I generally find that containment procedures, a good set of them, are what divide a memorable article from a bad one.
Is there a difference in writing the containment procedures for an SCP-001 proposal versus a mainlist SCP, a -J or -EX, perhaps even x000 contest entries?
Clef: I would say no. . . except for the -Js. If your containment procedure for a -J isn’t absolutely hilarious, you are doing it wrong. I would, however, say that mainlist SCPs get the least boost from a good set of containment procedures, whereas 001s and x000 contest entries get the most benefit.
Clef: Mostly because you’ll have more eyes on the later two.
Clef: Hope that makes sense.
When you’re reading a new SCP, do you read the containment procedures before or after the description?
Clef: Before. I go in order from the top down. In general, I therefore find that containment procedures should stimulate interest and intrigue the reader, or get out of the way as fast as possible.
Cool. That’s what I do too. Alright, I think that’s good enough for government work. Is there anything else you have to say on the matter of containment procedures
Clef: Basically, don’t feel like you need to spend a lot of time on them unless you really have a solid idea for it. Assume that the Foundation is competent and has done this for long enough that they have standard procedures to take care of these things: you can allude to these standard procedures and save yourself a lot of time. If you do need to go into deeper detail, then make sure that your ideas are fascinating, concise, and clearly portrayed.
Clef: Sometimes all you need to do is say, “Follow Procedure BIGWORD MYTHREFERENCE,” then if you have a good idea for what that is, detail it later.
Alright, thank you very much for your time.
Clef: no problem
Oh, I’ve got one more if you’re still up for it?
Clef: Sure.
How do you feel about 173’s con procs?
Clef: They’re fine.