@RipuAncestor i just read the first chapter of the chrysanthemum tango ... Woah that was an incredibly long chapter! BUT... so incredibly written!! ... Almost makes me not want you to read my story now its that GOOD. I'm a novice writer ... really. But so envious and i cannot wait to read more. This is definitely a night time read for me... i need the concentration ... toddler asleep would be best to take it all in >> love it.
@xJojox Thank you so much! Yeah, my chapters are long, I know. Sorry about that. My Fey-chapters are even longer. Sometimes I think about splitting my chapters up into shorter ones, but then I keep thinking it would ruin the (possibly not very well thought out) pacing I have in mind.
Also the first few chapters of your story I've read have been very well done, so you have nothing to worry about . You illustrate a confused, understandably angsty teenage girl's turmoil really well!
Ditto, @xJojox that's one of the things I love about Fine Lines... how well you capture the angsty teenager. I think it is brilliantly done, and makes me want to play teens more often in game. I sometimes skip over that stage when writing the meta-narrative like especially in DMD. I kinda have that story on fast forward because time doesn't quite work the same way in that story world that it does in others. But this time around through a game, I actually spent a lot of time in the toddler stage with the quads in DMD and that nearly drove me batty. It's really hard keeping up with 4 toddlers in a house where the "servants" in game don't really want to do their job. It was quite maddening. Okay, I digress.
I also ditto what Jojo said about your stories, @RipuAncestor. I think your stories and lore are incredibly detailed and well written. I didn't mind your long rant about Death. It was insightful and intriguing. I haven't quite worked out all the kinks for Death in my multi-stories universe of Sims so I really feel inspired by reading what you wrote.
I've been trying to come up with something to say or ask regarding our fortnight plus two star... but I'm again not good at coming up with questions.
So I'll just say that your stories are very inspirational and lovely and warm and cosy while still tackling lots of important and difficult issues, @CathyTea. Your writing seems always very natural, lively and happy, and I feel like reading your stories helps me when I'm feeling down. They are excellent and lovely, and I thank you for both them and all the awesome work you do for the community. Also your Sims are really amazing and I love reading about them. And you are an awesome person.
In the middle of waffling between making a formal exit from this circle or just letting myself fade away (which lbr, I 98% have), a question about Death: the Character comes up. An unironic many thanks to @AdamsEve1231. Darkness May Dream and the constant updates and me having to re-read it twice because my feeble mind can't always keep up (Mal's kids, man! I assumed way more of them came from Cora's womb until I actually thought about it) got me to revisit my old idea of a "Grim Reaper" who's an alien with a strange job.
I can never write a godlike entity without running into severe logical trouble, so I commend those who can. Though for a while, I've had the itch to take the concept but make it smaller. Not EA's eternal Grim (the only reliable NPC), but definitely drawing on the "mythos" the series has set up for death: you have a soul that gets taken, and sometimes you visit back for a night.
Albeit not with humans.
I can rationalize an entity like that for Annette's mother species, where they are simply eternal souls seeking and snatching bodies. Just not for humans, which unfortunately are the characters I primarily kill!
I think no matter what you base your Death on, if they are death-personified, they do need to make for an interesting person. Though thankfully I like Tad and Mall a lot for different reasons.
Also some of my Sims are somewhat or even a lot different from the actual characters they represent in my stories. It's one of those things that comes with making heavily story-driven stories. At least for me. Though I do try to keep the core traits and aspects of the characters and their Sims matching as closely as I can most of the time.
@RipuAncestor You bring up an interesting point. I was thinking about in-game Sims vs. actual story Sims. For those of us writing story-driven SimLit, I can imagine, like me, your characters do unexpected, out-of-character, or even annoying things at times in game? Sometimes I view this as a challenge and I try and incorporate it into the story
i.e. Gage and Natalya leaving the "funeral" to well... you know if you've read... Kass getting angry at Davis after he shared "his secret," Kass and Billy starting something, so not planned, even though I planned for them to meet, and Brendon... well, his character has all around been a surprise to me.
Other times, I am thoroughly frustrated and at a loss. I hate to change the core personality/traits of a character, but at the same time, if it's not conducive to a story, I wouldn't do this in any other kind of writing. I don't want to compromise the core integrity of a story, but I also don't like to compromise a Sim's individuality. How do you all cope with this? Have you had any amusing/frustrating instances in your game where the Sim is different in the game from in the story?
But seriously I'm going to have to make a formal exit here. I've read some great stuff here. We had great discussions. I wish I could stay, but staying has been depressing me for awhile now.
To someone who knows who she is: you won. It was silly to think you'd ever change.
How do you all deal with screenshot fails in game? Or in-game things that truly are frustrating and aren't part of your plot?
When this happens, I either work it into my game, or reshoot the whole thing.
Or, if it were to happen in the background, I'd just leave it as a sort of funny background event.
@rednenemon I've had a few of those moments... like one recently where a character transformed into a werewolf while I was trying to write/screenshot a serious scene. Lol.
I posted a new LFL chapter today. Finally, a chapter from Arpeggio...er... Sully's perspective.
I look like me. Brown hair. Green eyes. Pale skin, though I was once blue-skinned. Ten fingers. Ten toes. I counted this morning. They are all still there. Letter #1: Greetings (Sully)
Hi, Circlies! At the main Reading Circles thread, there's a question about which circles are open to having casual visitors/lurkers joining in conversations when the topic is of special interest. How do you all feel about this?
I am all for it, myself, especially when the visitors keep in mind the tone of our conversations, which seems to be primarily authentic, sincere, thoughtful, and respective.
Hi, Circlies! At the main Reading Circles thread, there's a question about which circles are open to having casual visitors/lurkers joining in conversations when the topic is of special interest. How do you all feel about this?
I am all for it, myself, especially when the visitors keep in mind the tone of our conversations, which seems to be primarily authentic, sincere, thoughtful, and respective.
you know i always do what you do but i actually like the idea.
Hi, Circlies! At the main Reading Circles thread, there's a question about which circles are open to having casual visitors/lurkers joining in conversations when the topic is of special interest. How do you all feel about this?
I am all for it, myself, especially when the visitors keep in mind the tone of our conversations, which seems to be primarily authentic, sincere, thoughtful, and respective.
Personally, that would make it less likely that I would one day start posting in public again, but that's okay. I think we've worked out a situation to fit all the various needs.
Hi, Circlies! At the main Reading Circles thread, there's a question about which circles are open to having casual visitors/lurkers joining in conversations when the topic is of special interest. How do you all feel about this?
I am all for it, myself, especially when the visitors keep in mind the tone of our conversations, which seems to be primarily authentic, sincere, thoughtful, and respective.
Yeah, sure. Works for me.
My Sims stories: The Fey of Life - fairytales in life are few and far between (Forum thread HERE) The Chrysanthemum Tango - a story about life, death, magic, and how to be a good landlady (Forum thread HERE) Forget-Me-Not - some things just refuse to stay buried; an Ambrosia Challenge story (Forum thread HERE)
I also ditto what Jojo said about your stories, @RipuAncestor. I think your stories and lore are incredibly detailed and well written. I didn't mind your long rant about Death. It was insightful and intriguing. I haven't quite worked out all the kinks for Death in my multi-stories universe of Sims so I really feel inspired by reading what you wrote.
Thank you ! I'm glad the stuff I've managed to patch together feels convincing and even inspiring. I agree with Infra that godlike entities are difficult to write because logic can easily get in the way. There needs to be limits or rules or contexts in which the godlike entities work without completely breaking the story. Sometimes I struggle with that, as I do realise that for example Tad's quest is totally pointless from an outsider's perspective and it's pretty much stated that he could very easily end the whole chase whenever he wanted. But he doesn't because he wants to experience things.
Other times, I am thoroughly frustrated and at a loss. I hate to change the core personality/traits of a character, but at the same time, if it's not conducive to a story, I wouldn't do this in any other kind of writing. I don't want to compromise the core integrity of a story, but I also don't like to compromise a Sim's individuality. How do you all cope with this? Have you had any amusing/frustrating instances in your game where the Sim is different in the game from in the story?
I think what annoys me the most is the attraction system. It feels weird for example if my characters are not supposed to have an attraction to anyone (though most of my ace/ace-like characters happen to be very unflirty or uninterested even as Sims, even though they don't have the traits for that). And the attraction system gets especially weird when I haven't created all families to be families in-game, so there are some instances where for example an adult Sim may try to flirt with another Sim who in-story is supposed to be their parent. Yikes.
Also before I installed a mod to TS4 that removes the happy moodlet that nice surroundings give, I had some trouble with trying to shoot some of my angry ghost scenes. My ghost was always turning green because the surroundings were nice. So he was like: "Oh, I'm so filled with rage for my untimely death, and I... man, this room is well decorated!" That was both funny and annoying.
My Sims stories: The Fey of Life - fairytales in life are few and far between (Forum thread HERE) The Chrysanthemum Tango - a story about life, death, magic, and how to be a good landlady (Forum thread HERE) Forget-Me-Not - some things just refuse to stay buried; an Ambrosia Challenge story (Forum thread HERE)
Do you consciously think of the Reaper as another Sim like your other characters?
I think of the Reaper as being a very specific type of NPC. After all, he's one that doesn't show up in "Manage Worlds" in TS4, the way all the other NPCs and Townies do.
Also... In TS4, there isn't just ONE Reaper. There are many! When I played the legacy, we probably had about eight different reapers throughout the ten generations. Some of them became family friends, some were fat, some were thin. Some liked to watch TV and answer teens' questions about woo-hoo. Some liked to play the gaming console. One got teased by an evil kid!
Sometimes, we had as many as three reapers around! We saw two at the gym working out, then when it was time for someone to be reaped at the home lots, a new one showed up!
I've also discovered that in TS4, they don't all have the same traits. Very cool. So, in my TS4 lore, I see them as a company with many representatives.
Do you wonder about the life of the Reaper and his/her thoughts, feelings, experiences, etc?
I do, especially after what happened in that recent chapter of My Digital Life.
At one time, I had this Reaper who was really good friends of one of the Sims at the home lot and he used to call her up often to chat. I loved that and it got me to think about them as individuals.
Because the Reaper is so much a part of Sims lore to me, he only shows up in those stories that are set in a Sims world. If I'm writing different types of fiction that aren't meant to be explicitly Sim (such as Thirty Sims on Three Rivers, some of the short stories, or Shift), then the Reaper doesn't show up. Those stories often deal with the passing of a loved one or mortality as a theme, but if someone passes on in the story, I don't show the reaper.
With the capacity to live on as a ghost, does this change the Reaper's job and/or death in general in the Sims world?
I wonder about this because Sims get so sad when they witness a reaping, and ghosts, too, will mourn at their own or others' graves. So Sims must feel that something is lost when they transform into transparency. Of course, it's just they way they're coded.
Also... In TS4, there isn't just ONE Reaper. There are many! When I played the legacy, we probably had about eight different reapers throughout the ten generations. Some of them became family friends, some were fat, some were thin. Some liked to watch TV and answer teens' questions about woo-hoo. Some liked to play the gaming console. One got teased by an evil kid!
Sometimes, we had as many as three reapers around! We saw two at the gym working out, then when it was time for someone to be reaped at the home lots, a new one showed up!
I've also discovered that in TS4, they don't all have the same traits. Very cool. So, in my TS4 lore, I see them as a company with many representatives.
I think there are multiple Reapers in TS3 too, and they too have different traits. In my TS4 -game I'm pretty sure I've only met one so far (but I know there's more). He's a kleptomaniac and once stole a stuffed toy from the family I was playing. But I figured it was only fair because it was during the time he agreed to spare a dying Sim in the family.
In TS2, there is apparently only one Reaper, however. He's a universal NPC so he's the same EVERYWHERE in the game (though according to the Sims Wiki, his interests may vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood). I think that's really cool too.
Also I really like your Reapers, @CathyTea ! They're always so sympathetic and I like the idea of there being a company of them.
...And now I imagine a bunch of Grimmies chatting at a water cooler.
Now that we're talking about multiple Reapers, I was reminded that I didn't put in any info on how my personal lore addresses the multiple Reapers -thing. So here goes:
- While one universe has only one Death, this Death can appear everywhere at once, as it/he/she/they is omnipresent. If they choose to, they can split their being into multiple aspects that may then develop more individual personalities. However, they are always still the same being. The more physical Tad we usually see in Tango is technically one such aspect, but he's one the Death in that universe actively focuses on, so his growth and changes affect the entire Death.
My Sims stories: The Fey of Life - fairytales in life are few and far between (Forum thread HERE) The Chrysanthemum Tango - a story about life, death, magic, and how to be a good landlady (Forum thread HERE) Forget-Me-Not - some things just refuse to stay buried; an Ambrosia Challenge story (Forum thread HERE)
@aslaporte Can I ask you a question about Betwixt? Is it related to Origin like a spin-off or continuation? Or is it a standalone story? It's off topic from our current discussion but I was curious.
I'm so sorry I didn't see this. It's a continuation? but so many things have changed now. i'm not sure how to update it. Things change fast lol. Skye's not a third party in the relationship anymore now. I'm getting my new game set up to play more and I should be able to do it illustrated instead of just writing.
I think many of you might have already read it, but I'll drop the link here anyhow. I'm onto phase 3 of Gage Briody's From Riverview, With Love story and I just recently posted a new chapter - 1.18 Bewitched. (More juicy drama coming your way).
And as for Darkness May Dream, I've got another chapter posted on my Simblr - Extend .
Thanks everyone for your thoughts on the Reaper. I will post my thoughts soon.
Comments
Ditto, @xJojox that's one of the things I love about Fine Lines... how well you capture the angsty teenager. I think it is brilliantly done, and makes me want to play teens more often in game. I sometimes skip over that stage when writing the meta-narrative like especially in DMD. I kinda have that story on fast forward because time doesn't quite work the same way in that story world that it does in others. But this time around through a game, I actually spent a lot of time in the toddler stage with the quads in DMD and that nearly drove me batty. It's really hard keeping up with 4 toddlers in a house where the "servants" in game don't really want to do their job. It was quite maddening. Okay, I digress.
I also ditto what Jojo said about your stories, @RipuAncestor. I think your stories and lore are incredibly detailed and well written. I didn't mind your long rant about Death. It was insightful and intriguing. I haven't quite worked out all the kinks for Death in my multi-stories universe of Sims so I really feel inspired by reading what you wrote.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
Aw. Thank you. *blushy-blush!*
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
I can never write a godlike entity without running into severe logical trouble, so I commend those who can. Though for a while, I've had the itch to take the concept but make it smaller. Not EA's eternal Grim (the only reliable NPC), but definitely drawing on the "mythos" the series has set up for death: you have a soul that gets taken, and sometimes you visit back for a night.
Albeit not with humans.
I think no matter what you base your Death on, if they are death-personified, they do need to make for an interesting person. Though thankfully I like Tad and Mall a lot for different reasons.
outrun / blog / tunglr
@RipuAncestor You bring up an interesting point. I was thinking about in-game Sims vs. actual story Sims. For those of us writing story-driven SimLit, I can imagine, like me, your characters do unexpected, out-of-character, or even annoying things at times in game? Sometimes I view this as a challenge and I try and incorporate it into the story
Other times, I am thoroughly frustrated and at a loss. I hate to change the core personality/traits of a character, but at the same time, if it's not conducive to a story, I wouldn't do this in any other kind of writing. I don't want to compromise the core integrity of a story, but I also don't like to compromise a Sim's individuality. How do you all cope with this? Have you had any amusing/frustrating instances in your game where the Sim is different in the game from in the story?
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
outrun / blog / tunglr
@rednenemon I've had a few of those moments... like one recently where a character transformed into a werewolf while I was trying to write/screenshot a serious scene. Lol.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
I look like me. Brown hair. Green eyes. Pale skin, though I was once blue-skinned. Ten fingers. Ten toes. I counted this morning. They are all still there.
Letter #1: Greetings (Sully)
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
I am all for it, myself, especially when the visitors keep in mind the tone of our conversations, which seems to be primarily authentic, sincere, thoughtful, and respective.
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
you know i always do what you do but i actually like the idea.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
Personally, that would make it less likely that I would one day start posting in public again, but that's okay. I think we've worked out a situation to fit all the various needs.
The Fey of Life - fairytales in life are few and far between (Forum thread HERE)
The Chrysanthemum Tango - a story about life, death, magic, and how to be a good landlady (Forum thread HERE)
Forget-Me-Not - some things just refuse to stay buried; an Ambrosia Challenge story (Forum thread HERE)
I think what annoys me the most is the attraction system. It feels weird for example if my characters are not supposed to have an attraction to anyone (though most of my ace/ace-like characters happen to be very unflirty or uninterested even as Sims, even though they don't have the traits for that). And the attraction system gets especially weird when I haven't created all families to be families in-game, so there are some instances where for example an adult Sim may try to flirt with another Sim who in-story is supposed to be their parent. Yikes.
Also before I installed a mod to TS4 that removes the happy moodlet that nice surroundings give, I had some trouble with trying to shoot some of my angry ghost scenes. My ghost was always turning green because the surroundings were nice. So he was like: "Oh, I'm so filled with rage for my untimely death, and I... man, this room is well decorated!"
The Fey of Life - fairytales in life are few and far between (Forum thread HERE)
The Chrysanthemum Tango - a story about life, death, magic, and how to be a good landlady (Forum thread HERE)
Forget-Me-Not - some things just refuse to stay buried; an Ambrosia Challenge story (Forum thread HERE)
I think of the Reaper as being a very specific type of NPC. After all, he's one that doesn't show up in "Manage Worlds" in TS4, the way all the other NPCs and Townies do.
Also... In TS4, there isn't just ONE Reaper. There are many! When I played the legacy, we probably had about eight different reapers throughout the ten generations. Some of them became family friends, some were fat, some were thin. Some liked to watch TV and answer teens' questions about woo-hoo. Some liked to play the gaming console. One got teased by an evil kid!
Sometimes, we had as many as three reapers around! We saw two at the gym working out, then when it was time for someone to be reaped at the home lots, a new one showed up!
I've also discovered that in TS4, they don't all have the same traits. Very cool. So, in my TS4 lore, I see them as a company with many representatives.
I do, especially after what happened in that recent chapter of My Digital Life.
At one time, I had this Reaper who was really good friends of one of the Sims at the home lot and he used to call her up often to chat. I loved that and it got me to think about them as individuals.
In my lore, there's no choice: it's just who one is, spawned into the company of Reapers.
Because the Reaper is so much a part of Sims lore to me, he only shows up in those stories that are set in a Sims world. If I'm writing different types of fiction that aren't meant to be explicitly Sim (such as Thirty Sims on Three Rivers, some of the short stories, or Shift), then the Reaper doesn't show up. Those stories often deal with the passing of a loved one or mortality as a theme, but if someone passes on in the story, I don't show the reaper.
I wonder about this because Sims get so sad when they witness a reaping, and ghosts, too, will mourn at their own or others' graves. So Sims must feel that something is lost when they transform into transparency. Of course, it's just they way they're coded.
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
In TS2, there is apparently only one Reaper, however. He's a universal NPC so he's the same EVERYWHERE in the game (though according to the Sims Wiki, his interests may vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood). I think that's really cool too.
Also I really like your Reapers, @CathyTea ! They're always so sympathetic and I like the idea of there being a company of them.
...And now I imagine a bunch of Grimmies chatting at a water cooler.
Now that we're talking about multiple Reapers, I was reminded that I didn't put in any info on how my personal lore addresses the multiple Reapers -thing. So here goes:
- While one universe has only one Death, this Death can appear everywhere at once, as it/he/she/they is omnipresent. If they choose to, they can split their being into multiple aspects that may then develop more individual personalities. However, they are always still the same being. The more physical Tad we usually see in Tango is technically one such aspect, but he's one the Death in that universe actively focuses on, so his growth and changes affect the entire Death.
The Fey of Life - fairytales in life are few and far between (Forum thread HERE)
The Chrysanthemum Tango - a story about life, death, magic, and how to be a good landlady (Forum thread HERE)
Forget-Me-Not - some things just refuse to stay buried; an Ambrosia Challenge story (Forum thread HERE)
I'm so sorry I didn't see this. It's a continuation? but so many things have changed now. i'm not sure how to update it. Things change fast lol. Skye's not a third party in the relationship anymore now. I'm getting my new game set up to play more and I should be able to do it illustrated instead of just writing.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
And as for Darkness May Dream, I've got another chapter posted on my Simblr - Extend .
Thanks everyone for your thoughts on the Reaper. I will post my thoughts soon.
Edit: Opps... forgot the link.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest