Hi and welcome writers (and readers) alike,
This is
the official page for the Willingly Writing Reading Circle.
~ designed by the lovely
@xJojox
Want to know what a reading circle is? Click
here on the main thread - Reading Circles.
Our reading circle's central idea or goal is to discuss story-driven or scripted SimLit stories (as opposed to game-driven) and the things such as creating backstory, characters, plot and narrative, dialogue, world building, and anything other elements related to storywriting
or how we allow the gameplay to help us craft our stories.
Our guidelines for this group...
* follow EA forums rules
i.e. be a decent human
* have a current blog/story/platform
*make an effort to read other participant's stories and give feedback here
at least once a month (no pressure to do it every time or participate in every question/discussion, etc)
*to be considered an active participant, you should read at least 1 chapter of each story during its rotation
*if you are unable to participate and you don't make an effort to read others' stories, please request a hiatus or leave out of consideration for others and in spirit of fairness
*inactive members for more than 2 months (without notifying me in post or PM about what's going on) will be removed, but are welcome to rejoin
Special note to lurkers: feel free to tag along and share relevant thoughts, ideas, and questions. Officially joining is just making a promise to read, but you can still participate in discussions without joining.
Our current participants:
1.
@friendsfan367 August 17th
2.
@Shadami July 26th
3.
@LegacySims2017 November 4th
4.
@MISSInsanity245
Members on Hiatus: @xJojox@Simcraft81@Adamseve1231
Please let us know if you are participating what story you want us to read/follow and I'll add it next to your name up here. Feel free to lurk though.
If you've joined, please introduce yourself:
your name (
whatever you would like to go by in this discussion thread)
your blog/story platform title and link (or WIP)
a little bit about your story
anything else you think would be useful, interesting, or relevant
random fact about yourself
Happy Simming/Reading/Writing!
With these forums closing down, stay connected.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life StoriesMy Worldbuilding BlogSimblrMy Sims Pinterest
Comments
Forums Name: @friendsfan367 My friends on the forums call me friendsfan or ff.
Author Bio : I never really considered myself a writer. The benders was accident . I was writing to distract myself from new years eve fireworks. And it wasn't supposed to go this far. Lol. But when I posted what I wrote during that night people loved it. I guess that's what's called a happy accident.
Story Link: https://friendsfan36.wordpress.com/
Story Overview: It starts off with Noel and Lauren, an interracial couple. Now the kids have their own kids and it's gone rotational.
Forums Name: @LegacySims2017
Author Bio: Living in the good ‘ol USA, I am a single gentleman. My job consists of dealing with people 40+ hours a week. I play The Sims as a relaxing time for myself. I am known for using the emoji on these forums. Whenever some see it now, they think of me...lol!
Story Link: #BuildNewcrest Challenge: Simself Legacy Edition
Story Overview: Hence the title, the SimLit is based on the Build Newcrest Challenge. Using my sim selfie as the Founder, the story progresses as my family’s generations build Newcrest into a fun part of town. Each Generation consists of sim selfies from the forum community. Look forward to a good dramedy.
Author Bio: I'm a small town girl from upstate NY, and I come from a large family. Me, I'm the fourth of five children, but my parents are both from families of eight. So family is very important to me. It also meant that I desperately needed someone outside the family to be my best friend, in Kindergarten I met her, and in 5th grade, we solidified our friendship and we've been friends since. She introduced me to writing, and I've been writing ever since. One day I hope to be published, but for now, I have been content to write as a hobby because I just love telling stories and showing what my mind sees when I look at things. It is almost meditative for me, and a release from the hustle and bustle of being a stay at home mom. I could go on about myself but I'm boring, the real reason we're here is that we all love the sims and we all love stories! If you do have any other questions though, I'd be happy to answer.
Random fun fact: My grandmother was a librarian.
Links to my Story:
To my entire Wordpress
To the table of contents for my ISBI challenge story
Story Summary:
Antwan [plum] has decided that he wants to get out on his own and find love and have a family. Sometimes life throws some curveballs at you that you don't expect though, especially when it comes to love. This first story is about his life until his first heir takes over. It is three "chapters" long.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
Featured Order:
Upcoming Schedule:
TBD
March 3-16 @Adamseve1231 - The Krazy Crazy Life of Kassiopeia Fullbright (Second Edition)
February 17-March 2 @Shadami - 7 Deadly Sins Returns
January 6-19 @LegacySims2017 - #BuildNewcrest Challenge: Simself Legacy Edition, Gen 1: Joseph Simself
January 20-February 2 @Piazzagirl1015 - Race Against Time
February 3-16 @candycottonchu - Neighbourhood Talk: Paris Retrospective
October 1-14 @Piazzagirl1015 Romance on the Horizon
October 15-28 @candycottonchu Neighbourhood Talk
October 29-November 11 @Maladi777 Heffner Legacy
November 12-24 @Shadami The Plum Legacy
November 25-December 8th @AdamsEve1231 La Vita Bella
December 9th-22nd @friendsfan367 The Benders
December 23-January 5 (Catch up/General reading/writing discussion) July 22nd- August 4th @Maladi777 The Heffner Legacy
July 8th-July 21st - @candycottonchu Neighbourhood Talk
June 10th-June 23rd @Adamseve1231 Livin' A Simmin' Life
June 24th-July 7th @Piazzagirl1015 A Race Against Time
May 27th-June 9th @xJojox Chasing Hearts
April 29th-May 12th @candycottonchu Neighbourhood Talk Discussion starts here
May 13th-May 26th @friendsfan367 The Benders
April 1-April 14th @Piazzagirl1015 A Race Through Time Discussion starts here
April 15th-April 28th @Maladi777 The Heffner Legacy Discussion starts here
March 18th-March 31st - Livin' A Simmin' Life (anything through part one) @Adamseve1231 Discussion starts here
March 4th-March 17th @Piazzagirl1015 A Race Against Time Generation 4 Chapters 30-46
February 18th-March 3rd @friendsfan367 The Benders
February 4th-February 17th @Simcraft81 Sim Stories... O'Raj's Journal
January 21st-February 3rd @Adamseve1231 From Riverview With Love Prologue and Part 1
@Simcraft81 Battle for Bridgeport [November 4th - November 17th Discussion starts here
@xJojox Fine Lines Oct 21st-Nov 3rd Discussion starts here
@Adamseve1231 Interludes & Solitude Lucky Palms Episodes 1-20 October 7th-October 20th Discussion starts here
@Munterbacon Ironbound September 23rd - October 6th Discussion starts here
@Piazzagirl1015 Race Against Time (Gen 1-3; Ch 1-29) September 3rd - September 22nd Discussion starts here
@friendsfan367 The Benders August 20th- September 2nd Discussion starts here.
August 6th - August 19th @swcheppes Super Dating Discussion starts here
July 23rd- August 5th @Arrowleaf The Landon Legacy July 23rd - August 5th Discussion starts here
July 9th - July 22nd @Simcraft81 Sim Stories July 9th - July 22nd Discussion starts here
June 25th - July 8th@xJojox Fine Lines Discussion starts here.
June 14th - June 24th @Adamseve1231 The Krazy Crazy Life of Kassiopeia Fullbright June 12th-June 23rd Discussion starts here
May 16-June 13th (double length) @Yushika The Curse Legacy Discussion starts here
May 5-May 15th General Writing/Catch-up Reading and Discussion
April 21-May 4 @Arrowleaf The Landon Legacy Discussion starts here - http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/15709518/#Comment_15709518
April 6-April 20th - @IllusoryThrall Spectres of the Past Discussion starts here
03/23/17-04/05/17 - @DreamsinPixels Dusk and Dawn Discussion starts here
03/13/17-03/23/17 - @Simcraft81 Holiday and Sunset Valley's Most Wanted Discussion starts here.
03/01/17-03/12/17 - @xJojox Fine Lines Discussion startshere.
02/015/17-02/24/17 - @AdamsEve1231 The Krazy Crazy Life of Kassiopeia Fullbright chapters 1-10 Discussion starts Here
02/01/17-02/10/17 - @Dancer-freak's Blakesley Legacy Discussion starts here
12/16/16-12/29/16 - @Niemalyn97 Evermore Legacy
12/2/16-12/15/16 - @JLBDreamer Wild Hearts Vampiracy
11/8/16-12/1/16 - @xJojox Fine Lines
10/21/16-11/3/16 - @Simcraft81 Sim Stories
10/7/16 - 10/20/16 - @Adamseve1231 The Krazy Crazy Life of Kassiopeia Fullbright
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
General Reading Circle Questions for Readers:
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
@friendsfan367 daily
@Piazzagirl1015 TBD
@LegacySims2017 TBD
@Shadami TBD
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
I'll do my intro here.
I'm @AdamsEve1231 here on the forums and livinasimminlife everywhere else (drr... not being able to change username). I go by Lizzie online so you can call me that if you'd like.
My main blog is thekrazycrazylifeofkass.wordpress.com where both my stories for my character, Kassiopeia Fullbright, reside. I do have another blog livinasimminlife.wordpress.com where I have other stories (though my only story I'm really actively writing right now is the Colt Family Traitacy).
All my stories are set on a fictional planet called Simterra in an unnamed star system. On my main blog (KCLKF), I have detailed pages about the world, history, SimNatives, military, war, politics, religion, society, and my theories on aliens and supernaturals. I'm updating my maps so for now it's unavailable. I did change and tweak a few things about the stories and I'm currently going through and editing things to correct for continuity errors, spelling and grammar issues, and other minor tweaks. These will be included in author notes at the bottom of each edited chapter.
The Kassiopeia Fullbright Mystery Series is intended to be multiple stories surrounding Kassiopeia Fullbright, a young investigative reporter. My goal is to play a story in each of the worlds I have. I play on epic life span and I'm not above resetting ages if it suits the story. Right now, I plan to have Kass age normally (that is as if she were aging in the real world instead of the Sims).
The Krazy Crazy Life of Kassiopeia Fullbright is the set-up to the series and is part coming-of-age, part romance, part drama, part adventure, part slice of life. I shared a synopsis above in our story overviews section.
Kassiopeia Fullbright and the Lost Legacy is the second story in the series and again it's a lot of set-up initially. I am a very detailed writer and I love deep character development and backstory. A little over a year has passed since KCKLF and she's moved to her great-grandmother's estate in Bay City. You can safely read KFLL without reading KCKLF since I do a lot of recap, but if you want the full story, you should read KCKLF, although I think I improve as a writer by the time KFLL starts.
I prefer to create the story and then play the game. I have detailed outlines, character development documents, plot ideas, tidbits of inspiration, floating dialogue, etc all on a Word doc or OneNote on my computer. I do have a quite complex sticky notes system above my computer on the wall for fun.
Let me know if you have any questions. Both of the above stories are on the same blog and are actually one long story.
I am a late 20s-something grad student. I freelance write and I'm currently job hunting so I have a weird schedule right now. My beverage of choice is coffee with a smidge of 2% milk, just enough to color, and a bit of sugar.
I'll stick an example of my intro for the section above so you all have an idea of what I'm looking for and that way we can have all this info at the top instead of hunting for it.
I'm looking forward to reading everyone's stories and interacting here. The stories added thus far look intriguing.
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
Okay so here's me: My name is Julia, but everyone calls me July (spoken as Julie), I'm German and also live in Germany although I grew up in England until I was 5 years old. I'm in my early twenties and currently completing my bachelor's degree in scientific programming. I'm not a very sporty person but I do go swimming twice a week, which I enjoy. My hobbies (apart from The Sims and writing of course) are reading, video games of all sorts and occasionally drawing.
Here are the random facts again I posted on the other thread (just for being complete here)
Random facts about myself:
- I love journals and note books, I could buy tons of them but I almost never fully use them (random obsession there).
- As with Journals, I love buying video games, but I don't play all of them (I'm super obsessed with the sims though it's the one game I stick to)
- I used to be a member of multiple Harry Potter Role Playing forums, I guess that's where I started writing. Though the characters sheets were the most fun part for me
- I tought myself HTML by being a moderator on one of these Role Playing forums. In 9th grade I held a lecture about it in my computer class and my teacher took notes because he didn't know HTML
- I once had to write lines as punishment for playing a game in class. I wrote them in runes and my teacher was extremely mad. I had to do it again. Seeing his face was totally worth it though.
- In 6th grade I didn't do my homework essay for German class. I got called to read mine out loud, so I just made one up. I got busted when the teacher asked me to repeat the second to last sentence.
- I like stuff with chocolate like cookies but I don't like chocolate as a pure taste, like chocolate ice cream or pudding
I'll just copy my blog and story introduction from the other thread:
I'm hosting several sims stories on my wordpress blog, my newest project being my plot-driven story "Until It Breaks". Here's what it's about (I just copied that from my blog, sry xD)
My stories are all very different. My Amazon story started out as game driven but is now a little more plot-driven and also challenge based, but it's currently on hiatus. I have the plot for gen 3 planned out though. Discovery started out as game-driven as well but soon turned super plot-driven. It's a very short story and also completed. I'd call it story-driven as a whole. It was inspired by a movie and a book series, I mashed them up and added my own elements. Vee is for Vortex is super casual, it's game-driven and mostly written in observatory style, also acknowleding the characters as sims.
Until It Breaks is my new project, it's completly story driven and NOT challenge based, I consider it an original story. It's the first time I've done something like this so I hope you guys will like it I took tons of notes for the plot development and the characters but they are all over the place! I enjoy creating the plot but I believe I think about it too much and it sometimes gets complicated. I'm slowly embracing the occasional simplification.
Until It Breaks (Complete!) | Tribe Arayeo | Discovery (Complete!) | Vee is for Vortex
Julyvee Twitter | Julyvee Youtube | A Quick Guide to SimLit | PARTY IN THE USA
Origin ID: Julyvee94
Until It Breaks (Complete!) | Tribe Arayeo | Discovery (Complete!) | Vee is for Vortex
Julyvee Twitter | Julyvee Youtube | A Quick Guide to SimLit | PARTY IN THE USA
Origin ID: Julyvee94
Question - is this thread also for posting mini-updates about your story? Like, say, your household has welcomed new children. Would it be okay to post pictures of them here and brag a little? Or is this just for major chapter updates?
Another question - how are we going to choose whose story to read first? By shortest? By one that needs the most "catch up" work?
I'm not sure how other circles handle it but since this is our circle and thread I think we can decide that ourselves ^^ mini updates are fine with me! Let's hear what the others say about it
In my other circle we had a "catch up week" (or maybe two weeks if needed) to catch up on everyone's stories, but everyone decided the order of reading for themselves. This approach worked well for me it's less stressful ^^ We could do that here too, but I'm open to other suggestions
Until It Breaks (Complete!) | Tribe Arayeo | Discovery (Complete!) | Vee is for Vortex
Julyvee Twitter | Julyvee Youtube | A Quick Guide to SimLit | PARTY IN THE USA
Origin ID: Julyvee94
Since Adam wanted ideas for what should go in those empty slots...maybe we could choose a Sim of the week? We nominate a sim from each other's stories and take a vote (it's really not that hard to set up a basic poll elsewhere; I could even do it), then put up a picture/date chosen of the winning Sim.
Nevermind this. I'll just continue to lurk and hope a spot is available when I'm ready to join. I have no idea when the bugs will be fixed, but I have no hope of it being this month.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
I love the detail you put into your introduction. I share your journals addiction and the problem with completing them. Lol. I feel like I should add more random facts about myself.
* I've been writing since I was five years old. My first story was about a pink hat I wanted from a thrift store and I didn't have the money for it so I wrote about what I'd do if I could have the pink hat.
* My first computer game was the Game of Life for a Windows 95. I decided to write little stories based on the "avatars" I created for this game.
* I fell in love with mysteries when reading Nancy Drew, Boxcar Children, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, and Happy Hollisters even if the reading material was before-my-time.
* My second computer game was MindMaze on Microsoft Encarta Encylopedia and from there, I really began to be interested in fantasy because the trivia game is set in a castle with lots of interesting characters along the way.
* My third introduction to computer games was Nancy Drew games from Her Interactive and I've been collecting and playing them ever since, even though I haven't completed half of the ones I own so it's a similar problem that @Julyvee94 described. So far, my favorite has been The Phantom of Venice.
* In high school, I was a member of Creative Writing Club all four years, but my college didn't have anything like it. Nonetheless I prevailed because I had plenty of friends who wrote fiction and poetry.
* When I began playing TS3 and shortly thereafter discovered stories, I figured it was only natural that I'd start writing my own given my love of writing and character development.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
Mini updates would be great! Please share!
I like the idea of 2 catch up weeks, depending on how fast people read and if people desire to comment along the way (and if that's the case, maybe 2 1/2?) In my other circle, everyone reads at their own pace and I think that's the least stressful way.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
I like the idea of Sim of the Week (SOTW). That could go in one of the empty slots above. @CreamierThanMami if you want to set up a poll great, put the link here or PM me, and I'll post it above in a specified section.
How will we choose a SOTW - like do we nominate a character from our own stories or do we pick someone else's character we really enjoyed during our weekly reading?
I suggest putting up the poll on a Friday and selecting a SOTW by Monday. Then we can put a picture of that Sim, what story the Sim is from, and maybe a little tidbit about the Sim (which we can share below and again, I'll copy/paste above, or people can send me via PM).
If every week is too much, we can just do a Sim of the Month (SOTM) instead and this might be easier and less pressure than a weekly poll, especially since it's summer and people might be traveling, away from their computers, etc. If monthly is too infrequent, we could do every two weeks and at this point I'm out of acronyms because SOTETW (Sim of the Every Two Weeks) is an insane acronym. LOL.
Thoughts everyone?
As for the other "reserved" sections, I was thinking one of them can be our schedule once we figure it out, that way newcomers can figure it out or even when we need a reminder, we can pop back to this first page. I'm thinking giving ourselves to the end of June would be a good catch-up period. That's 2 extra days than a 2 week period from today. How does that sound?
Then beyond that, we can read at our own pace. I currently am in another circle and I commit to reading 1 post from each person's story for the week. This works great for me, but I am open to suggestions from everyone else. It also depends on how often you all post. I try to do a weekly post on Saturdays so mine could be theoretically the last post anyone reads if we're doing the Sunday-Saturday schedule. I'm hoping to have a new chapter up by this weekend. I'm working hard on it.
Let me know what you all think.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
I haven't made one yet, but I would probably use this site: http://www.strawpoll.me/. Very, very easy to use; takes literally six seconds to make a poll.
I would say we nominate characters from one another's stories...but I suppose that could get confusing fast; what if one person has a lot of nominations for their one story? Let's figure that out.
Here's what I'm thinking. I think we should all get caught up or at least underway on the reading. Then maybe we can nominate Sims here via the comments section during the last week in June and on July 1st, if you want to throw up a poll naming all the Sims we've nominated @CreamierThanMami we can vote and then see the results by should we say Monday, the 4th or Tuesday the 5th?
When you nominate, you can name the Sim you're nominating, the story the Sim is from, and maybe 1-2 sentences about why you're nominating this Sim OR link to a specific section highlighting this Sim giving your reason for nominating. You can nominate for humor, best attire, attitude, dialogue, backstory, reaction, description, etc, to name a few different reasons. We can even select a specific set of parameters if we want like July will be "the funniest Sim," and then August will be "the best dressed Sim" or we can just do a general nomination for SOTM. I think it's fair to say you can't nominate one of your own characters unless someone objects to this rule.
During the month that the Sim is SOTM, we can discuss why we like the character or a certain section of a story featuring that character (in addition to other topics that come up as we go). The person whose Sim is featured can maybe give a mini bio for the character and include a picture to be featured above for SOTM. This doesn't have to be done immediately fyi since the Sim will be featured for the whole month so it can be as we go.
What do you all think? If you agree, if you wouldn't mind, just saying YAY below and then I'll know we're a go for these "guidelines." Then if you have any objections, thoughts, or ideas to expand or do things differently, let me know. Once we get everyone's YAY, I'll add this to a "reserved" post above.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
I'm reading Krazy Life of Kass so far, and good god, everything is so detailed! I'm really enjoying it so far.
Great question! No, it doesn't have to be 100% plot driven to be apart of this group. I let the game dictate quite a few things and often go off on lovely tangents because the game made things interesting or opened up a new avenue of opportunity for me. I say I'm story driven though because I do have an overarching plot, outline, and deep character development and backstory and I do a lot of future planning. I prefer longer prose to short, and Kass' story has a large plan through multiple future stories, for a full-length series, in fact.
So if you've got a story that's got game-driven parts, sure, that's okay by me. I think the important part of this group is we will focus on discussing the story-driven aspects and things like character development, plot, background, planning, outlining, etc. However, I think it'd be perfectly fine to share about the fun things that happen in our games that we include in our stories because hey! it happens to everyone.
Hope this helps, @JLBDreamer.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
Thanks, @CreamierThanMami. I am a detail-oriented person. Sometimes I worry if I'm too detailed. But I'm glad you're enjoying.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest