1. How did you get your idea for the plot? The idea for the plot actually came from the prehistoric CC I had discovered. My previous pc had died and I lost all my cc so while on the hunt to replace it all I came across some prehistoric outfits and tents. I wanted a way to use them that wouldn't look out of place in the games modern neighbourhoods. I had seen a few Amazon challenges but didn't like the idea of getting rid of the males. I always grow to love the children so losing my boys when they become adults was just not something I could do.
I was also playing around with the title it had come to me many months before and I wanted to create a story that followed a sim throughout their entire lifespan. The sci fi aspect came when I found the servo bot CC. and I missed servo's from sims 2. I decided to try to incorporate them.
2. Where does the TS4 bot come from?
The Servo is CC from mod the sims by a fantastic creator by the name of Qahne and the child sized bots and S.A.M's are by another amazing creator Esmeralda also at Mod the sims (They are outfits).
3. What surprises did you encounter in playing this?
Hmmm. I didn't really encounter any surprises in the story. I had a few unplanned events as you would expect in a game driven story.One being Una Reign's abduction by aliens while supposedly hiding away in the far reaches of the galaxy where she would remain undiscovered. it was unexpected and frustrating at the time but i was able to incorporate it and really helped the story in the end.
4. What was the most rewarding part of writing this story? For me the most rewarding part was just actually Completing the story.
There were many times I wanted to just abandon it as I had quite a few hiccups with the plot driven aspect and a lot of writers block and I discovered that I don't really have much of a writing process I've never thought of myself as a writer I don't plan ahead at all, I usually get an idea, I write it down. That's how my stories tend to come about.
I don't use notebooks to write mainly due to my daughter the paper gremlin I've always just sat in front of the computer and the story idea's just flow but in this case more often than not nothing came and I lost all motivation. But thanks to you and other great simmers here I was able to work though it.
Also discovering poses. I had never used them before this story and it took some getting used to I used them for the Queens demise and promptly uninstalled right after. A little time lurking over at the writer lounge I was inspired to give them another chance and i'm so glad I did.
@Charliimai I really enjoyed your answers! I'm so glad you stuck with it and finished--even when you felt stuck! It's a great story--so much fun to read!
It was just about a year ago when you published the first chapter--and what a joy it's been to read every single post!
And to think that you wrote this while going to school and working! Tremendous accomplishment! Thank you so much for writing such a lovable and inspiring story! Your Sims are so very easy to love!
Oh, and now I'm feeling all teary-eyed, because I just finished reading your last chapter... But I'm happy and excited, too, because you're continuing with more stories with these same Sims! How fun to see them live their lives....
(I'm so smitten with Wyatt... can't wait to see what he discovers... and how he discovers himself in his new surroundings!)
Congratulations, again!
(I'll be posting questions for you through the weekend, if you're interested in talking about the process of writing and playing this challenge!)
It was just about a year ago when you published the first chapter--and what a joy it's been to read every single post!
And to think that you wrote this while going to school and working! Tremendous accomplishment! Thank you so much for writing such a lovable and inspiring story! Your Sims are so very easy to love!
Oh, and now I'm feeling all teary-eyed, because I just finished reading your last chapter... But I'm happy and excited, too, because you're continuing with more stories with these same Sims! How fun to see them live their lives....
(I'm so smitten with Wyatt... can't wait to see what he discovers... and how he discovers himself in his new surroundings!)
Congratulations, again!
(I'll be posting questions for you through the weekend, if you're interested in talking about the process of writing and playing this challenge!)
Thanks @CathyTea ! It's been so much fun writing this story, though sometimes a struggle to find the time! I can't believe it's been just a little over a year since I first started this story (my first post was 12/13/15). Time flies!
I felt so connected with all of these sims, so I'm glad you loved them, too! I've been putting off posting this last chapter all day. I'm so excited to be finished, but somewhat melancholy, too. I have to keep reminding myself that they're still in my saves, and will be coming back soon! XD
(I'm totally smitten with Wayatt, too! He's such a fun sim to watch. I just adore his face (I have way too many screenshots of just his face... I can't help myself XD). I'm really excited to continue to see him grow and figure his life out!)
I'd love to talk about my writing process and playing this challenge! It was such a fun experience, I'd defenitly recommend others play this challenge! It's a great one for story-telling, as it's not focused on score or 'winning', but having two siblings survive and thrive on their own.
Just sneaking in here to say that I've finished my holiday novella, Coming Home. It's a short, eleven-chapter story, inspired by a beautiful build by @ShannonSimsFan . You can find the TOC for the story here: Coming Home Table of Contents
**I'll be back later this afternoon or tomorrow with questions for @supernatural103 in celebration of the completion of her 100 chapter Isaacs Sisters! **
Back with Writer's Questions for @supernatural103 regarding her Isaacs Sisters!
1) How did you decide to do this story? What made you want to try this challenge?
2) You finished! And you wrote that this was the first story you'd actually completed. It took a little over a year, and exactly 100 chapters... How did you do it? What made the difference this time in order to help you complete it?
3) What was the most challenging part in playing and writing this?
4) What was the most fun part?
5) Favorite Sims? Favorite moments?
6) How do you feel your writing and writing habits developed over this past year? What did you learn and how did you grow as a writer?
Back with Writer's Questions for @supernatural103 regarding her Isaacs Sisters!
1) How did you decide to do this story? What made you want to try this challenge?
2) You finished! And you wrote that this was the first story you'd actually completed. It took a little over a year, and exactly 100 chapters... How did you do it? What made the difference this time in order to help you complete it?
3) What was the most challenging part in playing and writing this?
4) What was the most fun part?
5) Favorite Sims? Favorite moments?
6) How do you feel your writing and writing habits developed over this past year? What did you learn and how did you grow as a writer?
First off, congrats on finishing Coming Home! It was such a cute holiday story!
1. I was looking through a list of TS4 challenges to play, and found the Big Sister Challenge. It really clicked with me, as I have a younger sister. It was actually my younger sister who encouraged me to write and post the story of the Isaacs Sisters. She heavily inspired the baby sister in the story, Gracie Isaacs (my baby sister's middle name is Gracie, which is where the character got her name).
2. I just wrote whenever I could! I'm kept pretty busy with school and my job (at one point, I was going to school full time, and working 3 jobs), plus I have a lot of pets at home who take up quite a bit of my times. So I just write whenever I find a few spare minutes. I frequently end up writing when I have my birds out. One of them likes to perch on my laptop while I write, so I talk to him while I write. XD
I think I was able to complete this one because of my readers. This was the first story I had posted anywhere, and once I got one person reading, I was determined to finish so I wouldn't leave them with an incomplete story. Then a couple more people started reading, and a few people commented, and I got to actually engage with the readers, which was fabulous in helping motivate me to get this finished.
3. I think the most challenging part in playing/writing this was finding the time! XD Other than that, I'd say finding my 'voice' as a writer. I'm still don't have a very solid writing style, but I definitely think I've improved since the start.
4. The most fun part was looking through all the screenshots I had gotten after a play session (or two or three). I had so many awesome screenshots that didn't fit the story, but I really loved! Hadley has such a hysterically expressive face. I catch her with the craziest expressions all the time.
5. Aiden Aldrich was defenitly my favorite sim. I even have a few short-stories about his childhood posted. Two of my favorite moments were when Ellie first met Aiden, then when she realized she had feelings for him. I have so many favorite moments, but those are two of my top moments.
6. I feel like my writing had developed quite a bit over the last year. I actually took a fiction writing class at the university, which I learned so much from. And this story really helped me, as it kept me writing. So often in the past, I've wrote a chapter or two of a story idea, and then I wouldn't write for months. This story kept me writing throughout the year. My writing style changed quite a bit over the course of the story. I think I was really influenced by other stories I read, as once I started posting my story, I was introduced to so many other wonderful SimLit authors.
I've had such a blast writing this story! Thank you to all who've taken their time to read it. It means the world to me.
Let me know if you'd like me to expand on an answer, or if you have any more questions!
And Happy New Year everyone! Hope this year brings lots of good things your way.
1. I was looking through a list of TS4 challenges to play, and found the Big Sister Challenge. It really clicked with me, as I have a younger sister. It was actually my younger sister who encouraged me to write and post the story of the Isaacs Sisters. She heavily inspired the baby sister in the story, Gracie Isaacs (my baby sister's middle name is Gracie, which is where the character got her name).
This is so cool! I know a few others who've written stories for family members, and I always find that it adds such a sense of love to the stories!
And Gracie is one of my all-time favorite characters! I'm really looking forward to the continuation of her story in her spin-off!
2. I just wrote whenever I could! I'm kept pretty busy with school and my job (at one point, I was going to school full time, and working 3 jobs), plus I have a lot of pets at home who take up quite a bit of my times. So I just write whenever I find a few spare minutes. I frequently end up writing when I have my birds out. One of them likes to perch on my laptop while I write, so I talk to him while I write. XD
I think I was able to complete this one because of my readers. This was the first story I had posted anywhere, and once I got one person reading, I was determined to finish so I wouldn't leave them with an incomplete story. Then a couple more people started reading, and a few people commented, and I got to actually engage with the readers, which was fabulous in helping motivate me to get this finished.
I love hearing how busy people manage to write stories, and I especially love checking in with students to get their tips, for students seem to be the busiest of everyone! Plus, when you're a student, there are so many creative and organizational and mental demands!
The way that you wrote whenever you had a few spare moments is so great, and I love that you incorporated "bird-time" into writing time!
I also agree with you about the importance of having readers--it really does provide inspiration and motivation to continue!
3. I think the most challenging part in playing/writing this was finding the time! XD Other than that, I'd say finding my 'voice' as a writer. I'm still don't have a very solid writing style, but I definitely think I've improved since the start.
I really saw your voice develop through this! Some of the chapters especially sing! When you're really into the character and writing from his or her perspective, and also when you pull back and sort of describe the whole scene, the writing is so, so good!
As a reader, I also enjoyed very much that you tried different things and different styles in different chapters--it kept it really interesting to me, and I always had a lot to think about in terms of your writing choices, as well as in terms of the story and the Sims.
4. The most fun part was looking through all the screenshots I had gotten after a play session (or two or three). I had so many awesome screenshots that didn't fit the story, but I really loved! Hadley has such a hysterically expressive face. I catch her with the craziest expressions all the time.
That's so cool! It's so neat the way Sims have such distinct and individual expressions!
5. Aiden Aldrich was defenitly my favorite sim. I even have a few short-stories about his childhood posted. Two of my favorite moments were when Ellie first met Aiden, then when she realized she had feelings for him. I have so many favorite moments, but those are two of my top moments.
I love Aiden so much! He's SO photogenic--true movie star quality! I really love his short stories, too. They were heart-rending. I think that when we, as writers and Simmers, fall in love with characters/Sims, it really helps the story because all of our investment in them comes through in the writing!
6. I feel like my writing had developed quite a bit over the last year. I actually took a fiction writing class at the university, which I learned so much from. And this story really helped me, as it kept me writing. So often in the past, I've wrote a chapter or two of a story idea, and then I wouldn't write for months. This story kept me writing throughout the year. My writing style changed quite a bit over the course of the story. I think I was really influenced by other stories I read, as once I started posting my story, I was introduced to so many other wonderful SimLit authors.
I've had such a blast writing this story! Thank you to all who've taken their time to read it. It means the world to me.
Let me know if you'd like me to expand on an answer, or if you have any more questions!
And Happy New Year everyone! Hope this year brings lots of good things your way.
You know, @DeiraShadeweaver wrote something like this the other day, about how writing her SimLit blog got her in the habit of writing again, and how that will help with all future writing projects.
I've noticed the same with my writing. I've got tons of writing experience, including grad school and both my current jobs, but keeping up the SimLit blog has helped me write consistently like no other writing project has! For one thing, I never wait until "I feel like it"--If I've got the time, I'll write, because that way, I get to play more! (I try to use up all or most of the screenshots that will be going into chapters before my next play session so I keep sort of in sync.)
Another thing I've noticed is that writing SimLit pushes me to write about subject matter or difficult scenes/chapters that I'd otherwise be tempted to skip. I've had to push through and write those dang emotional scenes because my Sims were being emotional! LOL!
Thanks so much for your responses and for sharing with us both the story and a little bit of the behind-the-scenes! It feels like such a treat to me to have been able to read all 100 chapters and the side stories!
My sister has always been such a huge inspiration for me. She always motivates me to keep doing my best, and try new things. I'm having so much fun playing and writing Gracie's character again!
I've had quite a bit more free-time now that I'm on winter break, but my work's keeping me pretty busy. But, I love my job, so no complaints there!
Bird-time is almost all-the-time for me! They hang out when I'm folding laundry, watching TV, eating a snack, whenever they can! It's so easy to incorporate them into my writing time. They're such good birds, and keep themselves entertained fairly well.
I'm glad you also saw my voice develop! I'm really happy with how the later chapters turned out. I loved experimenting with different styles throughout this story. I was a little worried that people might find the style shifts irritating, or bring them out of the story too much, so I'm glad to hear it actually kept things interesting for you! I just love trying new things, and seeing what works for me and what doesn't.
I'm so impressed with the individuality that this version of the Sims brings out in each sim. And it's probably heavily influenced by our interpretations of the sims reactions, but I feel like they have such huge personalities in this game, more so than I noticed in TS3 (though that could be because TS3 was so laggy on my computer).
Aiden is so photogenic! I defenitly think my love for Aiden came out in the chapters and short-stories he was in. I just felt so attached to him, and his story. I also have plans for him and Ellie in the future (though probably won't start that 'till the summer when I have more time).
I really love Wayatt, too! Ever since he was a kid, he was such a fun character. And his recent romantic endeavors have made me so much more attached to him.
I think a big part of my continued writing is the SimLit community. Everyone is so kind and welcoming. I haven't had a bad experience with this community! On any other part of the internet, you have those people who just want to troll others and make people miserable. Here, everyone's helpful and so encouraging! We really have such a fabulous community!
1. You've said Shift is a challenge of your own creation. The YOTO challenge began as a hybrid of Runaway Teen and Mooch off your neighbors. How did you get inspired for this challenge and how did you go about the 'rules' creative process. How did the challenge begin?
2. Jenny had many mentors. Deon, Ted, Aadhya, Clara even Nancy tried to help with the passing of the YOTO Staffer. Who was your favorite of her mentors and why.
3. Who was the hardest character to write for in Shift?
4. There are a lot of chapters that focus on Jenny being in the moment just 'being' or 'putting it out to the universe'. It seems many of her mentors provided something different in aspects of traditional religion there were inspiration from Buddhism, Hinduism, Yoga Practice etc, how did you decide what elements of what religions to include?
5. How much of the story was scripted and how much was purely game driven? Can you give us a peek back stage and talk a bit about the game driven vs plot driven?
6. What types of decisions did you make about fluidity of gender? I know you had Donnie being pretty stereotypical especially when it came to transgender. Were there any surprises for you during the exploration of gender fluidity?
7. If you (CT) were part of Shift, who's role would you take, or what role would you build for yourself in Jenny's world?
8. What are you most proud of with this story and it's completion?
9. You've worked on a few other projects alongside Shift. City Tales and your Christmas Story to name two. How did you get back in the head space for the Shift characters?
10. What's next for you?
Thank you SO much for sharing your marvelous story with all of us, and thank you too for your time answering these questions. Cannot wait for March to re-read it and discuss in book club!!
Ah, @cshaner ! What great questions! Thank you for these! I'll enjoy the thinking!
1. You've said Shift is a challenge of your own creation. The YOTO challenge began as a hybrid of Runaway Teen and Mooch off your neighbors. How did you get inspired for this challenge and how did you go about the 'rules' creative process. How did the challenge begin?
Actually, it was your Orphan Challenge story that inspired me to write this. I was catching up on your Orphan Challenge story when I came up with the idea--I loved your story so much that I wanted to do something similar, but with a single Sim and one that didn't stay at a house, so I invented this. It's been super fun to play, especially in the early stages.
2. Jenny had many mentors. Deon, Ted, Aadhya, Clara even Nancy tried to help with the passing of the YOTO Staffer. Who was your favorite of her mentors and why.
I really love the way all the adults cared for Jenny. This happened naturally in the game. As a Sim, she gravitated more towards adults than Sims her own age, always whimming for interactions with adults, especially elders. And the way they responded so warmly to her really touched me.
Deon was my favorite by far. He was one of the first Sims she met. It was really easy to develop the friendship between them in the story because it played out that way in the game. Most of the conversations between them I invented through looking at screenshots of them talking and wondering, "Now what would make them look like that?" Deon is gloomy, romantic, and... maybe childish? (I forget his third trait.) But as a result of the gloomy and romantic (and whatever the third was) he seemed really sensitive. He loved to talk! So it was just so easy for me to invent his backstory and to write all the ways that he'd step up to help out.
All the scenes with them in restaurants came about from him inviting her to dine out!
3. Who was the hardest character to write for in Shift?
It was Ted. I wanted him to be smart, wise, and to have this connection with Energy. And I kept feeling like I had to try to stretch out of my own limitations to be able to present him the way I wanted him to be. I didn't want him to be me, presenting my own insights and experiences, I wanted him to be smarter, wiser, and to have had a lot of mind-blowing, amazing experiences that I haven't had. I drew a little bit on Carlos Castaneda's writing in trying to create his character, but it felt hard to keep him real, and I sometimes felt that he was slipping into caricature. So... that was tough.
I always find it hard to write people who are smarter than me... like, how do they think?
4. There are a lot of chapters that focus on Jenny being in the moment just 'being' or 'putting it out to the universe'. It seems many of her mentors provided something different in aspects of traditional religion there were inspiration from Buddhism, Hinduism, Yoga Practice etc, how did you decide what elements of what religions to include?
Well, this is all drawn pretty much from my own hippie, New Age culture. Whenever I've had my biggest challenges in life--like grief or significant shifts in sense of self--my default tools are mindfulness and present-moment attention.
In the game, the build I used for YOTO is inspired by some of the community centers I knew of in Santa Cruz, CA, back in the early 80's, along with other dance/art/yoga centers I've visited in Seattle. Most of these are pretty smack in the New Age culture. Since the building is a spa with a yoga studio, every time Jenny goes there in game, yoga instructors show up! Aadhya was the first, and when I saw she had an Indian name--and then she wore Indian-style clothing, I got the idea to have YOTO run by the local yoga community. Since I'm familiar with West Coast and Southwest yoga communities, I know how they talk and their styles of offering support, so it made it easier for me to write for Aadhya.
Originally, I'd planned on having a lot of therapy sessions, and I was hoping for a wise and kind counselor. She would have presented positive psychology as well as more traditional therapy approaches. But that character never materialized in-game, so Jenny never had therapy! Just help from the YOTO coordinators and volunteers.
5. How much of the story was scripted and how much was purely game driven? Can you give us a peek back stage and talk a bit about the game driven vs plot driven?
My process was this:
I'd think about the outline of the upcoming chapters, and then I'd play and take a lot of pictures. Then I'd select the pictures, divide them into chapters, upload them to my blog, place them in the drafts, and think about them for a day to two weeks. With this style, I didn't mind playing ahead, though I would usually write and publish all the chapters sitting in drafts before the next play session. About two hours of play usually yielded three to eight chapters.
Before I even started playing, I knew I wanted Jenny to start out in Oasis Springs. And I worked out her backstory before the first play session. After that, I knew I wanted her to move around quite a bit before she moved into YOTO (in the challenge rules, you can't move the Sim into YOTO until they've earned an A in school, which takes a while because they're required to use up vacation, take sick days, and play hookie).
I ended up not moving her as much as I'd planned because a) I loved having her live at Oasis Springs and b) she earned her A faster than I'd anticipated.
In terms of who Jenny is as a character and her relationships with others, those come from her in the game. I'd hoped that she and Yuki would become best friends--I even thought that maybe Yuki would ask her to stay with her. And I'd worked out a little scenario where Cassandra was a friend from home, and she had to try not to let Cassandra see her. I had all these plots worked out! But when I went into the game, they weren't the plots that developed. Jenny really had a different story in mind. Like I mentioned earlier, she gravitated towards Deon, Ted, and Aadhya, and she also relished time alone.
Then at YOTO, I was really hoping for some bonding with the other kids! I moved a bunch of teens into Oasis Springs (for some reason, besides Marquis, there were hardly any teens in the game, aside from pre-mades). Then I had them join a club, and YOTO was the hang-out. So all the scenes with them there were club gatherings. But Jenny hardly ever wanted to talk with any of them! She just wanted to talk with Aadhya--and Britney and Clara Bjergsen always sought her out.
So the game-play really drove the story in a different direction than I'd planned.
I initiated things like skilling activities, the trips to Granite Falls, and I'd accept invitations to dinners or festival-outings. Most of the rest of the interactions and conversations simply came about in the game.
6. What types of decisions did you make about fluidity of gender? I know you had Donnie being pretty stereotypical especially when it came to transgender. Were there any surprises for you during the exploration of gender fluidity?
Well, I created Jenny because when I was around 12, I really wanted to look the way she looks. I didn't: I've got a feminine face and body (especially when I was younger), and my mom wouldn't let me buy boy's clothes. When I was little kid, I'd sometimes get my brother's hand-me-downs and be in heaven. (I always loved it when I could tuck my braids under the hood of a sweatshirt and then strangers would think I was a boy--that stopped happening after around the age of 5 ). But my aunt took me shopping for school clothes for my 13th birthday and she let me buy anything! I bought some really cool boys' pants (striped) and a neat pullover sweater (green). Those were my favorite clothes! Now I'm lucky because I can wear men's Levi cords and Henley's to the office. I look femme, but I don't wear make-up and feel... sort of not one or the other. I feel whole. I'm also pretty nontraditional in terms of gender roles--I'm the one who paints the house eaves, often takes the car to the shop, tries to fix plumbing, gardens, takes out the garbage, and so on. But then I love a lot of traditionally female activities, too. I just like the freedom to be whatever, however, fully whole, and to do what I feel like doing, think how I want to think, and feel how I want to feel, without worrying about limitations of gender-expectations or without feeling that I have to be some way I'm not. And that's what I wanted to explore with Jenny.
At first, I thought she might choose to go by male pronouns, because she does seem trans in a lot of ways. But as I explored her interactions and also the way she was when she was alone, I felt that she just wanted freedom. She just wanted to be able to be, however she felt, whenever she felt like it, without having to worry or limit her expression of herself.
And the title "Shift" came into play, too. I chose the title subconsciously... then when I thought about it, it made sense to me because she had to "shift" her living situations so often. And she had to shift to find a way to survive. But then I realized that she was shifting her identity all over in this story, so shift fits in terms of being non-binary.
The scene with Donnie came from interactions in the game--he was laughing and saying something, and Jenny really didn't like it!
I loved how the game kept creating gender nontraditional Sims! There was Adriene (who, we discovered is also an alien!), and a few others!
7. If you (CT) were part of Shift, who's role would you take, or what role would you build for yourself in Jenny's world?
I'd love to be one of the vendors when she was staying in the San Myshuno park! I'd be sure to always have lots of meals set aside for her!
I'd also like to be one to help her find out about YOTO and other resources available for kids in her situation, and I'd enjoy volunteering as someone to help her and kids like her navigate the college application process (oh! that's something I actually could do!).
8. What are you most proud of with this story and it's completion?
Well, I feel very proud of the Sims the game created and proud of Jenny! I love Ted, Aadhya, and Deon so much. And Adriene is really cool. So's Britney! It was really neat to see how all of these Sims stepped up and how the relationships developed. Relationships with Sims that extend through time develop so many nuances. These were heartwarming to watch develop.
I do feel really gratified by the story. It means a lot to me. During the past seven years, I've gone through so many internal shifts in terms of identity--not gender identity, but overall identity. The hardest thing, for me, about growth and development--and change--is seeing that not much is permanent and as we grow and change, we leave a lot behind--even aspects of ourselves we may have loved. Writing this story helped me feel at home with the process of shifting--of growing and changing. It helped me see how grief is a part of this. It helped me see how our relationships change, as we do. And it also helped me find that we have countless helpers along the way.
I enjoyed writing about how Jenny couldn't let herself feel insecurity, sadness, and grief until she felt safe--and this helped me appreciate the safe space that I have to feel all these things as I move through my own shifts.
I also found a lot of inspiration from writing a character as strong as Jenny. And I love how her strength developed into grace through time. This happened in-game, too. She just got more and more beautiful as the game progressed.
9. You've worked on a few other projects alongside Shift. City Tales and your Christmas Story to name two. How did you get back in the head space for the Shift characters?
Oh, it's easy! Like I mentioned, I get all the screenshots placed in their respective draft chapters, and then, during the day, I think about these chapters sitting in draft.
Usually, I'll draft the first few sentences while I'm cutting veggies for supper. Then when I sit down to write, I just look at the pictures, write the first few sentences, take out all the extra words (for young Jenny wasn't wordy) and write in short declarative sentences, and there you go! As Jenny got older, I let her write more like me--less direct, more wordy, using a lot more qualifiers, and fewer simple sentences. So that made it even easier to write!
10. What's next for you?
I'm starting a Pen Pal project! It's a collab! I'll have the announcement post up for it within the next few days. There might still be a few slots available for others who want to participate, and if loads of people want to take part, I'm sure we can coordinate something to accommodate!
Here's Jasper McCumber, who will be my participant in the project:
I've also
got a sequel in mind with Jenny living in the flat in the city (which she'll be sharing with Honey Walker from Skill U--yup! That's the violinist!)
And I want to finish my Mooch Off Your Neighbor story and get back to Whisper and Wonder.
Thank you SO much for sharing your marvelous story with all of us, and thank you too for your time answering these questions. Cannot wait for March to re-read it and discuss in book club!!
Thanks so much! It feels like such a neat way to finish a project to have the opportunity to reflect on it like this. Thanks so much for asking these thoughtful questions!
Cool think about March is that we'll be reading your Orphan story, too!
@CathyTea this was so informative!! I really enjoyed the look into your chapter creative process as well as learning about your plot elements you wanted that didn't materialize because Jenny and her friends had other plans.
Very cool to hear about your gender identity and how your life is shaped as well!!
I'm very excited to read about Jenny's sequel and the collaborative project sounds great too! I'm afraid I'm far to much of a control freak to participate in a collab! However maybe I'll work on that and consider a project in the future.
Thank you for your time answering these questions it was insightful and lovely to have a glimpse into your thought process as we flowed through Jenny's story!!
Comments
@Charliimai... here are some questions for you:
1) How did you get your idea for the plot?
2) Where does the TS4 bot come from?
3) What surprises did you encounter in playing this?
4) What was the most rewarding part of writing this story?
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
1. How did you get your idea for the plot? The idea for the plot actually came from the prehistoric CC I had discovered. My previous pc had died and I lost all my cc so while on the hunt to replace it all I came across some prehistoric outfits and tents. I wanted a way to use them that wouldn't look out of place in the games modern neighbourhoods. I had seen a few Amazon challenges but didn't like the idea of getting rid of the males. I always grow to love the children so losing my boys when they become adults was just not something I could do.
I was also playing around with the title it had come to me many months before and I wanted to create a story that followed a sim throughout their entire lifespan. The sci fi aspect came when I found the servo bot CC. and I missed servo's from sims 2. I decided to try to incorporate them.
2. Where does the TS4 bot come from?
The Servo is CC from mod the sims by a fantastic creator by the name of Qahne and the child sized bots and S.A.M's are by another amazing creator Esmeralda also at Mod the sims (They are outfits).
3. What surprises did you encounter in playing this?
Hmmm. I didn't really encounter any surprises in the story. I had a few unplanned events as you would expect in a game driven story.One being Una Reign's abduction by aliens while supposedly hiding away in the far reaches of the galaxy where she would remain undiscovered. it was unexpected and frustrating at the time but i was able to incorporate it and really helped the story in the end.
4. What was the most rewarding part of writing this story? For me the most rewarding part was just actually Completing the story.
There were many times I wanted to just abandon it as I had quite a few hiccups with the plot driven aspect and a lot of writers block and I discovered that I don't really have much of a writing process I've never thought of myself as a writer I don't plan ahead at all, I usually get an idea, I write it down. That's how my stories tend to come about.
I don't use notebooks to write mainly due to my daughter the paper gremlin
Also discovering poses. I had never used them before this story and it took some getting used to I used them for the Queens demise and promptly uninstalled right after. A little time lurking over at the writer lounge I was inspired to give them another chance and i'm so glad I did.
Read my Legacy story's or atttempt one of my Sims 4 challenges.
Charlii Mai's Blogs and Challenges
Read All of my Latest stories all in one place.
RainbowPlumbob (Wordpress)
SimFluence - Where Sims Influence the Story
Blood that Binds: A Vampire Coven Challenge Updated 04/22/2017
Life Under Construction: A Drifter Challenge House 001 Completed 1/29/17 | Orphan Challenge: Harkins Family Completed 11/12/16
Origin ID: cshaner07
And @cshaner too! I missed the last few posts in here.
SimFluence - Where Sims Influence the Story
Blood that Binds: A Vampire Coven Challenge Updated 04/22/2017
Life Under Construction: A Drifter Challenge House 001 Completed 1/29/17 | Orphan Challenge: Harkins Family Completed 11/12/16
Origin ID: cshaner07
Read my Legacy story's or atttempt one of my Sims 4 challenges.
Charlii Mai's Blogs and Challenges
Read All of my Latest stories all in one place.
RainbowPlumbob (Wordpress)
Rebuild | Rebuild Vol. 2
Read my Legacy story's or atttempt one of my Sims 4 challenges.
Charlii Mai's Blogs and Challenges
Read All of my Latest stories all in one place.
RainbowPlumbob (Wordpress)
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
What a wonderful way to close out the year!
It was just about a year ago when you published the first chapter--and what a joy it's been to read every single post!
And to think that you wrote this while going to school and working! Tremendous accomplishment! Thank you so much for writing such a lovable and inspiring story! Your Sims are so very easy to love!
Oh, and now I'm feeling all teary-eyed, because I just finished reading your last chapter... But I'm happy and excited, too, because you're continuing with more stories with these same Sims! How fun to see them live their lives....
(I'm so smitten with Wyatt... can't wait to see what he discovers... and how he discovers himself in his new surroundings!)
Congratulations, again!
(I'll be posting questions for you through the weekend, if you're interested in talking about the process of writing and playing this challenge!)
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Thanks @CathyTea ! It's been so much fun writing this story, though sometimes a struggle to find the time! I can't believe it's been just a little over a year since I first started this story (my first post was 12/13/15). Time flies!
I felt so connected with all of these sims, so I'm glad you loved them, too! I've been putting off posting this last chapter all day. I'm so excited to be finished, but somewhat melancholy, too. I have to keep reminding myself that they're still in my saves, and will be coming back soon! XD
(I'm totally smitten with Wayatt, too! He's such a fun sim to watch. I just adore his face (I have way too many screenshots of just his face... I can't help myself XD). I'm really excited to continue to see him grow and figure his life out!)
I'd love to talk about my writing process and playing this challenge! It was such a fun experience, I'd defenitly recommend others play this challenge! It's a great one for story-telling, as it's not focused on score or 'winning', but having two siblings survive and thrive on their own.
Read my Legacy story's or atttempt one of my Sims 4 challenges.
Charlii Mai's Blogs and Challenges
Read All of my Latest stories all in one place.
RainbowPlumbob (Wordpress)
**I'll be back later this afternoon or tomorrow with questions for @supernatural103 in celebration of the completion of her 100 chapter Isaacs Sisters!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
1) How did you decide to do this story? What made you want to try this challenge?
2) You finished! And you wrote that this was the first story you'd actually completed. It took a little over a year, and exactly 100 chapters... How did you do it? What made the difference this time in order to help you complete it?
3) What was the most challenging part in playing and writing this?
4) What was the most fun part?
5) Favorite Sims? Favorite moments?
6) How do you feel your writing and writing habits developed over this past year? What did you learn and how did you grow as a writer?
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
First off, congrats on finishing Coming Home! It was such a cute holiday story!
1. I was looking through a list of TS4 challenges to play, and found the Big Sister Challenge. It really clicked with me, as I have a younger sister. It was actually my younger sister who encouraged me to write and post the story of the Isaacs Sisters. She heavily inspired the baby sister in the story, Gracie Isaacs (my baby sister's middle name is Gracie, which is where the character got her name).
2. I just wrote whenever I could! I'm kept pretty busy with school and my job (at one point, I was going to school full time, and working 3 jobs), plus I have a lot of pets at home who take up quite a bit of my times. So I just write whenever I find a few spare minutes. I frequently end up writing when I have my birds out. One of them likes to perch on my laptop while I write, so I talk to him while I write. XD
I think I was able to complete this one because of my readers. This was the first story I had posted anywhere, and once I got one person reading, I was determined to finish so I wouldn't leave them with an incomplete story. Then a couple more people started reading, and a few people commented, and I got to actually engage with the readers, which was fabulous in helping motivate me to get this finished.
3. I think the most challenging part in playing/writing this was finding the time! XD Other than that, I'd say finding my 'voice' as a writer. I'm still don't have a very solid writing style, but I definitely think I've improved since the start.
4. The most fun part was looking through all the screenshots I had gotten after a play session (or two or three). I had so many awesome screenshots that didn't fit the story, but I really loved! Hadley has such a hysterically expressive face. I catch her with the craziest expressions all the time.
5. Aiden Aldrich was defenitly my favorite sim. I even have a few short-stories about his childhood posted. Two of my favorite moments were when Ellie first met Aiden, then when she realized she had feelings for him. I have so many favorite moments, but those are two of my top moments.
6. I feel like my writing had developed quite a bit over the last year. I actually took a fiction writing class at the university, which I learned so much from. And this story really helped me, as it kept me writing. So often in the past, I've wrote a chapter or two of a story idea, and then I wouldn't write for months. This story kept me writing throughout the year. My writing style changed quite a bit over the course of the story. I think I was really influenced by other stories I read, as once I started posting my story, I was introduced to so many other wonderful SimLit authors.
I've had such a blast writing this story! Thank you to all who've taken their time to read it. It means the world to me.
Let me know if you'd like me to expand on an answer, or if you have any more questions!
And Happy New Year everyone! Hope this year brings lots of good things your way.
This is so cool! I know a few others who've written stories for family members, and I always find that it adds such a sense of love to the stories!
And Gracie is one of my all-time favorite characters! I'm really looking forward to the continuation of her story in her spin-off!
I love hearing how busy people manage to write stories, and I especially love checking in with students to get their tips, for students seem to be the busiest of everyone! Plus, when you're a student, there are so many creative and organizational and mental demands!
The way that you wrote whenever you had a few spare moments is so great, and I love that you incorporated "bird-time" into writing time!
I also agree with you about the importance of having readers--it really does provide inspiration and motivation to continue!
I really saw your voice develop through this! Some of the chapters especially sing! When you're really into the character and writing from his or her perspective, and also when you pull back and sort of describe the whole scene, the writing is so, so good!
As a reader, I also enjoyed very much that you tried different things and different styles in different chapters--it kept it really interesting to me, and I always had a lot to think about in terms of your writing choices, as well as in terms of the story and the Sims.
That's so cool! It's so neat the way Sims have such distinct and individual expressions!
I love Aiden so much! He's SO photogenic--true movie star quality! I really love his short stories, too. They were heart-rending. I think that when we, as writers and Simmers, fall in love with characters/Sims, it really helps the story because all of our investment in them comes through in the writing!
I'm starting to feel affection for Wayatt, too!
You know, @DeiraShadeweaver wrote something like this the other day, about how writing her SimLit blog got her in the habit of writing again, and how that will help with all future writing projects.
I've noticed the same with my writing. I've got tons of writing experience, including grad school and both my current jobs, but keeping up the SimLit blog has helped me write consistently like no other writing project has! For one thing, I never wait until "I feel like it"--If I've got the time, I'll write, because that way, I get to play more!
Another thing I've noticed is that writing SimLit pushes me to write about subject matter or difficult scenes/chapters that I'd otherwise be tempted to skip. I've had to push through and write those dang emotional scenes because my Sims were being emotional! LOL!
Thanks so much for your responses and for sharing with us both the story and a little bit of the behind-the-scenes! It feels like such a treat to me to have been able to read all 100 chapters and the side stories!
I'm really looking forward to the spin-offs, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
My sister has always been such a huge inspiration for me. She always motivates me to keep doing my best, and try new things. I'm having so much fun playing and writing Gracie's character again!
I've had quite a bit more free-time now that I'm on winter break, but my work's keeping me pretty busy. But, I love my job, so no complaints there!
Bird-time is almost all-the-time for me! They hang out when I'm folding laundry, watching TV, eating a snack, whenever they can! It's so easy to incorporate them into my writing time. They're such good birds, and keep themselves entertained fairly well.
I'm glad you also saw my voice develop! I'm really happy with how the later chapters turned out. I loved experimenting with different styles throughout this story. I was a little worried that people might find the style shifts irritating, or bring them out of the story too much, so I'm glad to hear it actually kept things interesting for you! I just love trying new things, and seeing what works for me and what doesn't.
I'm so impressed with the individuality that this version of the Sims brings out in each sim. And it's probably heavily influenced by our interpretations of the sims reactions, but I feel like they have such huge personalities in this game, more so than I noticed in TS3 (though that could be because TS3 was so laggy on my computer).
Aiden is so photogenic! I defenitly think my love for Aiden came out in the chapters and short-stories he was in. I just felt so attached to him, and his story. I also have plans for him and Ellie in the future (though probably won't start that 'till the summer when I have more time).
I really love Wayatt, too! Ever since he was a kid, he was such a fun character. And his recent romantic endeavors have made me so much more attached to him.
I think a big part of my continued writing is the SimLit community. Everyone is so kind and welcoming. I haven't had a bad experience with this community! On any other part of the internet, you have those people who just want to troll others and make people miserable. Here, everyone's helpful and so encouraging! We really have such a fabulous community!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Ooooh! It's done? Congrats!
So thrilled for you. Congratulations on another successful completion of your story projects.
Edit - Ok, caught up now!! Still choked up! Loved it and will be back tonight with some questions for you CT!!
SimFluence - Where Sims Influence the Story
Blood that Binds: A Vampire Coven Challenge Updated 04/22/2017
Life Under Construction: A Drifter Challenge House 001 Completed 1/29/17 | Orphan Challenge: Harkins Family Completed 11/12/16
Origin ID: cshaner07
Thanks so much, @cshaner !
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Questions for the Author on Shift
1. You've said Shift is a challenge of your own creation. The YOTO challenge began as a hybrid of Runaway Teen and Mooch off your neighbors. How did you get inspired for this challenge and how did you go about the 'rules' creative process. How did the challenge begin?
2. Jenny had many mentors. Deon, Ted, Aadhya, Clara even Nancy tried to help with the passing of the YOTO Staffer. Who was your favorite of her mentors and why.
3. Who was the hardest character to write for in Shift?
4. There are a lot of chapters that focus on Jenny being in the moment just 'being' or 'putting it out to the universe'. It seems many of her mentors provided something different in aspects of traditional religion there were inspiration from Buddhism, Hinduism, Yoga Practice etc, how did you decide what elements of what religions to include?
5. How much of the story was scripted and how much was purely game driven? Can you give us a peek back stage and talk a bit about the game driven vs plot driven?
6. What types of decisions did you make about fluidity of gender? I know you had Donnie being pretty stereotypical especially when it came to transgender. Were there any surprises for you during the exploration of gender fluidity?
7. If you (CT) were part of Shift, who's role would you take, or what role would you build for yourself in Jenny's world?
8. What are you most proud of with this story and it's completion?
9. You've worked on a few other projects alongside Shift. City Tales and your Christmas Story to name two. How did you get back in the head space for the Shift characters?
10. What's next for you?
Thank you SO much for sharing your marvelous story with all of us, and thank you too for your time answering these questions. Cannot wait for March to re-read it and discuss in book club!!
SimFluence - Where Sims Influence the Story
Blood that Binds: A Vampire Coven Challenge Updated 04/22/2017
Life Under Construction: A Drifter Challenge House 001 Completed 1/29/17 | Orphan Challenge: Harkins Family Completed 11/12/16
Origin ID: cshaner07
Ah, @cshaner ! What great questions! Thank you for these! I'll enjoy the thinking!
1. You've said Shift is a challenge of your own creation. The YOTO challenge began as a hybrid of Runaway Teen and Mooch off your neighbors. How did you get inspired for this challenge and how did you go about the 'rules' creative process. How did the challenge begin?
Actually, it was your Orphan Challenge story that inspired me to write this. I was catching up on your Orphan Challenge story when I came up with the idea--I loved your story so much that I wanted to do something similar, but with a single Sim and one that didn't stay at a house, so I invented this. It's been super fun to play, especially in the early stages.
2. Jenny had many mentors. Deon, Ted, Aadhya, Clara even Nancy tried to help with the passing of the YOTO Staffer. Who was your favorite of her mentors and why.
I really love the way all the adults cared for Jenny. This happened naturally in the game. As a Sim, she gravitated more towards adults than Sims her own age, always whimming for interactions with adults, especially elders. And the way they responded so warmly to her really touched me.
Deon was my favorite by far. He was one of the first Sims she met. It was really easy to develop the friendship between them in the story because it played out that way in the game. Most of the conversations between them I invented through looking at screenshots of them talking and wondering, "Now what would make them look like that?" Deon is gloomy, romantic, and... maybe childish? (I forget his third trait.) But as a result of the gloomy and romantic (and whatever the third was) he seemed really sensitive. He loved to talk! So it was just so easy for me to invent his backstory and to write all the ways that he'd step up to help out.
All the scenes with them in restaurants came about from him inviting her to dine out!
3. Who was the hardest character to write for in Shift?
It was Ted. I wanted him to be smart, wise, and to have this connection with Energy. And I kept feeling like I had to try to stretch out of my own limitations to be able to present him the way I wanted him to be. I didn't want him to be me, presenting my own insights and experiences, I wanted him to be smarter, wiser, and to have had a lot of mind-blowing, amazing experiences that I haven't had. I drew a little bit on Carlos Castaneda's writing in trying to create his character, but it felt hard to keep him real, and I sometimes felt that he was slipping into caricature. So... that was tough.
I always find it hard to write people who are smarter than me... like, how do they think?
4. There are a lot of chapters that focus on Jenny being in the moment just 'being' or 'putting it out to the universe'. It seems many of her mentors provided something different in aspects of traditional religion there were inspiration from Buddhism, Hinduism, Yoga Practice etc, how did you decide what elements of what religions to include?
Well, this is all drawn pretty much from my own hippie, New Age culture. Whenever I've had my biggest challenges in life--like grief or significant shifts in sense of self--my default tools are mindfulness and present-moment attention.
In the game, the build I used for YOTO is inspired by some of the community centers I knew of in Santa Cruz, CA, back in the early 80's, along with other dance/art/yoga centers I've visited in Seattle. Most of these are pretty smack in the New Age culture. Since the building is a spa with a yoga studio, every time Jenny goes there in game, yoga instructors show up! Aadhya was the first, and when I saw she had an Indian name--and then she wore Indian-style clothing, I got the idea to have YOTO run by the local yoga community. Since I'm familiar with West Coast and Southwest yoga communities, I know how they talk and their styles of offering support, so it made it easier for me to write for Aadhya.
Originally, I'd planned on having a lot of therapy sessions, and I was hoping for a wise and kind counselor. She would have presented positive psychology as well as more traditional therapy approaches. But that character never materialized in-game, so Jenny never had therapy! Just help from the YOTO coordinators and volunteers.
5. How much of the story was scripted and how much was purely game driven? Can you give us a peek back stage and talk a bit about the game driven vs plot driven?
My process was this:
I'd think about the outline of the upcoming chapters, and then I'd play and take a lot of pictures. Then I'd select the pictures, divide them into chapters, upload them to my blog, place them in the drafts, and think about them for a day to two weeks. With this style, I didn't mind playing ahead, though I would usually write and publish all the chapters sitting in drafts before the next play session. About two hours of play usually yielded three to eight chapters.
Before I even started playing, I knew I wanted Jenny to start out in Oasis Springs. And I worked out her backstory before the first play session. After that, I knew I wanted her to move around quite a bit before she moved into YOTO (in the challenge rules, you can't move the Sim into YOTO until they've earned an A in school, which takes a while because they're required to use up vacation, take sick days, and play hookie).
I ended up not moving her as much as I'd planned because a) I loved having her live at Oasis Springs and b) she earned her A faster than I'd anticipated.
In terms of who Jenny is as a character and her relationships with others, those come from her in the game. I'd hoped that she and Yuki would become best friends--I even thought that maybe Yuki would ask her to stay with her. And I'd worked out a little scenario where Cassandra was a friend from home, and she had to try not to let Cassandra see her. I had all these plots worked out! But when I went into the game, they weren't the plots that developed. Jenny really had a different story in mind. Like I mentioned earlier, she gravitated towards Deon, Ted, and Aadhya, and she also relished time alone.
Then at YOTO, I was really hoping for some bonding with the other kids! I moved a bunch of teens into Oasis Springs (for some reason, besides Marquis, there were hardly any teens in the game, aside from pre-mades). Then I had them join a club, and YOTO was the hang-out. So all the scenes with them there were club gatherings. But Jenny hardly ever wanted to talk with any of them! She just wanted to talk with Aadhya--and Britney and Clara Bjergsen always sought her out.
So the game-play really drove the story in a different direction than I'd planned.
I initiated things like skilling activities, the trips to Granite Falls, and I'd accept invitations to dinners or festival-outings. Most of the rest of the interactions and conversations simply came about in the game.
6. What types of decisions did you make about fluidity of gender? I know you had Donnie being pretty stereotypical especially when it came to transgender. Were there any surprises for you during the exploration of gender fluidity?
Well, I created Jenny because when I was around 12, I really wanted to look the way she looks. I didn't: I've got a feminine face and body (especially when I was younger), and my mom wouldn't let me buy boy's clothes. When I was little kid, I'd sometimes get my brother's hand-me-downs and be in heaven. (I always loved it when I could tuck my braids under the hood of a sweatshirt and then strangers would think I was a boy--that stopped happening after around the age of 5
At first, I thought she might choose to go by male pronouns, because she does seem trans in a lot of ways. But as I explored her interactions and also the way she was when she was alone, I felt that she just wanted freedom. She just wanted to be able to be, however she felt, whenever she felt like it, without having to worry or limit her expression of herself.
And the title "Shift" came into play, too. I chose the title subconsciously... then when I thought about it, it made sense to me because she had to "shift" her living situations so often. And she had to shift to find a way to survive. But then I realized that she was shifting her identity all over in this story, so shift fits in terms of being non-binary.
The scene with Donnie came from interactions in the game--he was laughing and saying something, and Jenny really didn't like it!
I loved how the game kept creating gender nontraditional Sims! There was Adriene (who, we discovered is also an alien!), and a few others!
7. If you (CT) were part of Shift, who's role would you take, or what role would you build for yourself in Jenny's world?
I'd love to be one of the vendors when she was staying in the San Myshuno park! I'd be sure to always have lots of meals set aside for her!
I'd also like to be one to help her find out about YOTO and other resources available for kids in her situation, and I'd enjoy volunteering as someone to help her and kids like her navigate the college application process (oh! that's something I actually could do!).
8. What are you most proud of with this story and it's completion?
Well, I feel very proud of the Sims the game created and proud of Jenny! I love Ted, Aadhya, and Deon so much. And Adriene is really cool. So's Britney! It was really neat to see how all of these Sims stepped up and how the relationships developed. Relationships with Sims that extend through time develop so many nuances. These were heartwarming to watch develop.
I do feel really gratified by the story. It means a lot to me. During the past seven years, I've gone through so many internal shifts in terms of identity--not gender identity, but overall identity. The hardest thing, for me, about growth and development--and change--is seeing that not much is permanent and as we grow and change, we leave a lot behind--even aspects of ourselves we may have loved. Writing this story helped me feel at home with the process of shifting--of growing and changing. It helped me see how grief is a part of this. It helped me see how our relationships change, as we do. And it also helped me find that we have countless helpers along the way.
I enjoyed writing about how Jenny couldn't let herself feel insecurity, sadness, and grief until she felt safe--and this helped me appreciate the safe space that I have to feel all these things as I move through my own shifts.
I also found a lot of inspiration from writing a character as strong as Jenny. And I love how her strength developed into grace through time. This happened in-game, too. She just got more and more beautiful as the game progressed.
9. You've worked on a few other projects alongside Shift. City Tales and your Christmas Story to name two. How did you get back in the head space for the Shift characters?
Oh, it's easy! Like I mentioned, I get all the screenshots placed in their respective draft chapters, and then, during the day, I think about these chapters sitting in draft.
Usually, I'll draft the first few sentences while I'm cutting veggies for supper. Then when I sit down to write, I just look at the pictures, write the first few sentences, take out all the extra words (for young Jenny wasn't wordy) and write in short declarative sentences, and there you go! As Jenny got older, I let her write more like me--less direct, more wordy, using a lot more qualifiers, and fewer simple sentences. So that made it even easier to write!
10. What's next for you?
Here's Jasper McCumber, who will be my participant in the project:
I've also
And I want to finish my Mooch Off Your Neighbor story and get back to Whisper and Wonder.
Thanks so much! It feels like such a neat way to finish a project to have the opportunity to reflect on it like this. Thanks so much for asking these thoughtful questions!
Cool think about March is that we'll be reading your Orphan story, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Very cool to hear about your gender identity and how your life is shaped as well!!
I'm very excited to read about Jenny's sequel and the collaborative project sounds great too! I'm afraid I'm far to much of a control freak to participate in a collab! However maybe I'll work on that and consider a project in the future.
Thank you for your time answering these questions it was insightful and lovely to have a glimpse into your thought process as we flowed through Jenny's story!!
SimFluence - Where Sims Influence the Story
Blood that Binds: A Vampire Coven Challenge Updated 04/22/2017
Life Under Construction: A Drifter Challenge House 001 Completed 1/29/17 | Orphan Challenge: Harkins Family Completed 11/12/16
Origin ID: cshaner07