Hi, @pronterus ! That was a fun selection! I really enjoyed it when I read it in November, and I really enjoyed it in a second reading!
One of the things I love most about your writing are the voices of your characters. Can you share with us a little bit about how you develop a character's voice, and how that voice contributes to other aspects of your story?
How do you decide which character you will use as the POV character?
Your dialogue is always spot-on, thanks to your care with voice. Do you spend a lot of time listening to how people talk, when you're out and about? What techniques do you use to develop engaging dialogue?
You mentioned that the abduction happened when you were playing--what's the proportion, generally, between plot-driven and game-driven elements in your story?
Glad you enjoyed reading it! Now to answer the questions
One of the things I love most about your writing are the voices of your characters. Can you share with us a little bit about how you develop a character's voice, and how that voice contributes to other aspects of your story?
I start off with a general idea of how I want the character to be or look for an archetype to stick to. As I keep writing more lines for that character, I get a better idea of how I want them to be like. For example, I had difficulty with giving Antonio his own voice and felt that it didn't stand out unlike the others. But eventually, he found his own voice as I kept writing more from his POV.
How do you decide which character you will use as the POV character?
This is sometimes random. I sometimes have multiple chapters with the same character's POV in succession, but there are also chapters where I have different POVs.
Your dialogue is always spot-on, thanks to your care with voice. Do you spend a lot of time listening to how people talk, when you're out and about? What techniques do you use to develop engaging dialogue?
Aside from observing how people act in public and through personal experiences, I also watch a lot of shows that involve plenty of dialogue and see how characters get their chemistry, particularly comedy shows. (Some of my favorites are Silicon Valley and Fresh Off the Boat) Moreover, I've been role-playing for many years and that helps with the writing process. (Playing Dungeons and Dragons also helps) I put myself in my character and react to certain situations as I think they would.
You mentioned that the abduction happened when you were playing--what's the proportion, generally, between plot-driven and game-driven elements in your story?
I normally have a general plot in mind for my story complete with an outline. While I take screenshots for the scenes that I want to happen, the Sims that I control sometimes do interesting things, and then I think of a way that I could add it into the story or even change one part of the story entirely depending on what they do. So I'd say 50 percent plot-driven and 50-percent gameplay-driven.
I liked this tasty read, @pronterus. And the humor. Several lines really stuck out to me...
Yes, I eat cereal for dinner. There’s nothing wrong with that.
I love it. I eat cereal all the time for random meals or snacks during the day.
“Well? What are you staring at? Haven’t you seen a male vampire pregnant before?
And then the baby bites him.
Oh... must be the vampire-alien hybrid thing. Lol.
I'm curious, did you plan these humorous one-liners or did they just happen (meaning the intent wasn't humorous but it just worked out that way)? I haven't read more of this story but I must say I'm definitely intrigued.
That's awesome @AdamsEve1231 I liked writing those lines.
To answer your question, I never plan anything humorous to happen while writing. I actually try to make it look serious but then it slowly becomes funny as I make up more lines. The idea just pops out of nowhere after I think of a certain situation or find a funny screenshot to exploit.
I'm curious, did you plan these humorous one-liners or did they just happen (meaning the intent wasn't humorous but it just worked out that way)? I haven't read more of this story but I must say I'm definitely intrigued.
I felt the same way, and now that I have started reading your story from the very beginning I keep finding myself randomly breaking out in laughter over something seemingly random. I am loving that wit.
Now that I am hooked on Undead with Benefits, I am happy to see that Second Chances is up this week. I have had this on my "get around to reading" list for a while now.
@MadameLee will be our Coffee Hour host next week. (Magna, just check with me in our PM if you have questions about this.)
Enjoy the reading! Remember, this week, we share our responses informally, and next week, we'll have a conversation directed by our questions for fellow readers and the writer.
@MadameLee will be our Coffee Hour host next week. (Magna, just check with me in our PM if you have questions about this.)
Enjoy the reading! Remember, this week, we share our responses informally, and next week, we'll have a conversation directed by our questions for fellow readers and the writer.
Happy reading!
@CathyTea thanks for reminding me!! I almost forgot!! I need to think of questions..
Thanks to @CitizenErased14 and Trip, I was reminded that this was the week for my story. I am going to participate and answer any questions and all that. I should make note I am currently in the hospital, and have been since Sunday night. I had surgery yesterday, but the procedure was a failure. I'm supposed to have another surgery, but when... I do not know. Anyway, this will keep my mind off things while I wait and see what the heck my doctors are going to do. So, I should note, that though I plan on participating and being active, that it might not be as often as I planned when I first heard about it.
@MadameLee How would you like us to start? Would you like us to share our general responses and impressions, or the most pressing thoughts we have about this story?
@MadameLee How would you like us to start? Would you like us to share our general responses and impressions, or the most pressing thoughts we have about this story?
Yeah everyone can share their general responses/impressions about the story. OR what their most pressing thought is. I read a lot of news stories so that the Second chances was very believable for me.
@MadameLee How would you like us to start? Would you like us to share our general responses and impressions, or the most pressing thoughts we have about this story?
Yeah everyone can share their general responses/impressions about the story. OR what their most pressing thought is. I read a lot of news stories so that the Second chances was very believable for me.
And I've been out of the hospital for the few days. Am really excited to answer questions or whatnot.
@MadameLee How would you like us to start? Would you like us to share our general responses and impressions, or the most pressing thoughts we have about this story?
Yeah everyone can share their general responses/impressions about the story. OR what their most pressing thought is. I read a lot of news stories so that the Second chances was very believable for me.
And I've been out of the hospital for the few days. Am really excited to answer questions or whatnot.
Congrats on being back home! Hope you're feeling well.
I'd like to say that one of the things I like most about your story are some of the rhythms in your writing. Here's a great example:
All Grant had to go on for the other four liquor stores and gas stations was that he might have been black, he might have been Mexican, he might have had an accent, he was six foot, he was maybe 5’6”.
2) I like the dialogue a lot--what are some of your tips for writing dialogue?
3) What were some of the most challenging scenes or chapters to write, and what advice do you have for writers when writing emotionally or otherwise challenging chapters and scenes?
I don't have a question for @orangeplumbob but for everyone else: were you ever scared for Eli's life and fate in the story? And what attracts you to stories that follow criminals? Or was this an unexpected exception?
1) Which characters did you relate most to? What qualities of theirs did you respond to?
2) Were there any characters you especially didn't like?
3) Did your attitudes towards any of the characters change throughout the story?
4) What do you think about the specific challenges that Derek is facing and the way that he's facing those challenges?
@orangeplumbob from @AdamsEve1231
1) I love the images in this story. How do you achieve the pictures and how much time do you spend on getting screenshots, poses, edits, etc?
2) What inspired you to do a story that starts in a prison and to tell a story from an non-traditional protagonist's perspective?
I'd like to say that one of the things I like most about your story are some of the rhythms in your writing. Here's a great example:
All Grant had to go on for the other four liquor stores and gas stations was that he might have been black, he might have been Mexican, he might have had an accent, he was six foot, he was maybe 5’6”.
Thanks. Those come out of nowhere too. I don't plan on how those things come across, but when they do, even I sit back and go "now that's cool."
I came up with Second Chances shortly after I obtained Get to Work. I loved the Detective branch, and wanted to write a story about a criminal. I came up with the idea of the criminal falling for a police officer's daughter, and I ran with it, started to plan it. I didn't really have an idea of where the story would go either or if it would be a Legacy-style story. I thought of doing it where it would bounce around different households and stuff. The legacy part came much later. At the time, I wasn't sure how I would pose the story, or how it would work either, so I played around the detective career. I knew if I wanted to make this story and do it right, I needed poses like I had available in Sims 3. Andrew's Pose Player hadn't yet come out, and so I put the idea on the back burner. Then when City Living came out, I fell in love with San Myshuno, and knew then that my story was ready to start. SM was the perfect setting, and there was poses out.
2) I like the dialogue a lot--what are some of your tips for writing dialogue?
People watch. Seriously, when I go to a mall or ride a train, or stand in line anywhere, I eavesdrop and listen. I people watch too to see how they convey their emotions as they speak. It helps when learning how to write dialogue and not make the dialogue sound emotionless. I also let the characters tell me the story. Sounds weird, right? But I listen to them, and let the story flow through my fingers while I am in sort of a trance, and let the characters tell me their story, and what they want to say.
3) What were some of the most challenging scenes or chapters to write, and what advice do you have for writers when writing emotionally or otherwise challenging chapters and scenes?
The poker story was hard to write. I rewrote those chapters about five different times. I wanted to show things about Eli and Anthony, but not sure how to convey it correctly. In the end I think I found a way to make it work. The other plot was this last one with Olivia and Derek, and the drunken night. That was really difficult to write. I ended up asking for advice about that subject and how I should go about doing it without upsetting my readers. Funny enough, almost killing Eli off was one of the easiest things to write, but hardest to pose.
My advice is write from the heart. If you're writing something emotionally, as a writer you should feel that emotion too. I know the chapter or scene is going the way I want it to, if I am sitting there crying or getting really angry while I am typing it out. Best time to write tear-jerkers is when you have a need to cry. I find it therapeutic to write really emotional chapters when I'm down.
Also, if you are not sure how a chapter or a plot should go, write the end first. If you know where the story is going, it's a lot easier to pave the road there then to get lost by making a wrong turn. I have an entire outline for Derek and Gen 3, and most of Derek's story is written. I have three chapters to write, and they are all in the middle and are buffer chapters. Those are my struggle chapters, because they are just buffers between plots. So, that's another bit of advice, outline your story/generation and write the chapters that you can easily push out, and go back and write the more difficult ones when you have a clear view on where they should be heading to.
from @AdamsEve1231
1) I love the images in this story. How do you achieve the pictures and how much time do you spend on getting screenshots, poses, edits, etc?
Oh man, I spend way too much time getting screenshots. I tend to plan first where I want my photos to sit in the blog, so I know what I need to capture in game. Then I take roughly 3-4 different shots per scene. Sometimes, I only take 1 because I am totally happy with the the shot. Then, once I get the photo I want, I place it in my blog post just for placement. It can take between 3 to 6 hours to get the in-game shots I need per chapter. Depending on if I need to get specific settings, if someone aged, if I want to update family photos for the Ryder's apartment (which I also pose and think about before I take them in another save.)
Once I get all the photos needed for a chapter, I put them in a new folder in my Second Chances folder I have on my external harddrive. I open them all up in Photoshop and run two actions I have. One action I run is Yellow-Be-Gone and the other is one I made specifically for Second Chances. The first three chapters were re-edited after I discovered actions. So, those photos are a little different. I also, have learned over the year how to edit photos even better, and I keep learning tricks, so every chapter the photos come out better and better in my opinion. However, I've learned having really dark skinned sims tend to get really dark where you lose detail with my actions, so sometimes when I use Kellogg or another sim, the photos may look washed-out. I don't like it, but it's the only way to see any detail of the sim. Editing all the photos can take anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour.
2) What inspired you to do a story that starts in a prison and to tell a story from an non-traditional protagonist's perspective?
Get to Work was the inspiration. Like I answered above, I love the detective branch and the prison items, and the prison jumpsuit. I knew when GTW came out, I had to do something with those items, so the beginning plans for Second Chances started to flourish. I knew the story would have to be in a prisoner's POV rather than a police officer's. I then started some research so the story sounded believable. That's another thing I was determined to have: a believable story even if some of my plots were a bit stretched (Like Anthony working at the same prison that Eli was in. Real life, that would never happen,but I wanted that for the story and drama).
Thanks for posting my questions, @MadameLee and thank you @orangeplumbob for answering them. I'm always curious about author inspiration and what prompted writers to create a certain story. I can totally understand some things are necessary for drama and storytelling purposes. I find most of my readers are willing to suspend disbelief if I'm making minor tweaks.
I've got another question: What keeps you going when you're lacking motivation or face writer's block?
I don't have a question for @orangeplumbob but for everyone else: were you ever scared for Eli's life and fate in the story? And what attracts you to stories that follow criminals? Or was this an unexpected exception?
For your second question, I write them so I have no problem reading them. Colt Family Traitacy (and its spinoff, Thick As Thieves) plus My Life With Criminals (a sort-of prequel) are examples. I guess, you could argue Darkness May Dream has its criminals, though some of it is because of vastly different culture. I digress. Okay, I love seeing stories from an underdog's perspective because it makes me want to root for them if they have to overcome adversity or a plum set of cards in life. I also think it's interesting to delve into the psyche of criminals - what compels them to break the law and/or do horrible things and what possibly influenced their decisions? In CFT, it's the family business and ambition that drew Rachel and other characters in and/or out of the life. I really liked that this story, Second Chances, started with an arrest and a prison sentence and then deals with the consequences of decisions and criminal records. It is not necessarily a totally unique premise because of the epic amount of crime fiction out there, but I certainly haven't seen it done a whole lot in SimLit so it's a refreshing change of pace so I commend @orangeplumbob for taking this on. I feel like Second Chances, in terms of SimLit, has an interesting cast of characters, and makes me want to root for our protagonist.
Thanks for posting my questions, @MadameLee and thank you @orangeplumbob for answering them. I'm always curious about author inspiration and what prompted writers to create a certain story. I can totally understand some things are necessary for drama and storytelling purposes. I find most of my readers are willing to suspend disbelief if I'm making minor tweaks.
I've got another question: What keeps you going when you're lacking motivation or face writer's block?
Journaling keeps me going. I have a set of creative stories in journals that's for my eyes only. I'll either read through them, and try to pick off one of the stories to just get the stories flowing, or I start a new journal story. It keeps at least the motivation to write there, it also helps me get out of writer's block. Sometimes I'll create a really cool plot in the journal, and put it into my outline for Second Chances, and all I have to do is really change characters and settings from the journal entry. I actually wrote all of Gen's three adult story over the summer as one journal entry prior to outlining Gen three. I was bored and in a car ride, and just wanted to write. Because of that, it also got me back to writing Derek's Gen and then playing his Gen out on the Sims when I got back for a few chapters. (Then I had medical issues, that put me back on hiatus, and is still the cause of the most recent hiatus. Soon, this illness will be all over and I can do the stuff that I love.)
Also, I didn't know you wrote prison/criminal stories. I'll have to check them out, @AdamsEve1231
Thanks for posting my questions, @MadameLee and thank you @orangeplumbob for answering them. I'm always curious about author inspiration and what prompted writers to create a certain story. I can totally understand some things are necessary for drama and storytelling purposes. I find most of my readers are willing to suspend disbelief if I'm making minor tweaks.
I've got another question: What keeps you going when you're lacking motivation or face writer's block?
Journaling keeps me going. I have a set of creative stories in journals that's for my eyes only. I'll either read through them, and try to pick off one of the stories to just get the stories flowing, or I start a new journal story. It keeps at least the motivation to write there, it also helps me get out of writer's block. Sometimes I'll create a really cool plot in the journal, and put it into my outline for Second Chances, and all I have to do is really change characters and settings from the journal entry. I actually wrote all of Gen's three adult story over the summer as one journal entry prior to outlining Gen three. I was bored and in a car ride, and just wanted to write. Because of that, it also got me back to writing Derek's Gen and then playing his Gen out on the Sims when I got back for a few chapters. (Then I had medical issues, that put me back on hiatus, and is still the cause of the most recent hiatus. Soon, this illness will be all over and I can do the stuff that I love.)
Also, I didn't know you wrote prison/criminal stories. I'll have to check them out, @AdamsEve1231
@orangeplumbob I love journaling. It's such a wonderful creative outlet. The Colt Family Traitacy... I'd start there. It follows the criminal family of the Rackets in Twinbrook and the woman who will stop at nothing to achieve her goal... though with some serious consequences.
were you ever scared for Eli's life and fate in the story? And what attracts you to stories that follow criminals? Or was this an unexpected exception?
I was scared all the way through in reading this story! There hasn't been a time when I wasn't afraid for Eli. I wasn't really afraid for his life or fate much, but I've been afraid for his happiness and well-being. I was especially afraid when Derek felt that his dad hated him. Knowing what a lifeline his relationship with his son provided him, seeing that threatened made me worry for both Derek and Eli.
I don't really use subject matter or plot as a determining factor about what I'll read--so a story can be about any sort of character or setting. What I look at is character, writing, and what the story might show me about life or how it might foster compassion, healing, and love.
@orangeplumbob Thanks so much for sharing your tips and thoughtful advice! The people-watching one is especially great! And like learning about how you use journals!
Were you ever scared for Eli's life and fate in the story? And what attracts you to stories that follow criminals? Or was this an unexpected exception?
@orangeplumbob - I loved reading the answers to your questions. The people watching is such a great idea. I love to do that. My husband and I go Las Vegas a lot and since I am not a big gambler, sometimes I will sit and watch people and try to imagine their story. But I really never really listened to how they interacted. That is such a good idea!
As for my answer...I am a lot like @CathyTea - I was scared for Eli's life and his fate through the whole thing! I fell in love with him and so badly wanted his happy ending. He loved his family but things are hard when you are separated like they were. There were bound to be ups and downs in their relationships. As far as stories that have criminals? That really had nothing to do with why I read stories. It just looked like a good story and I was very pleasantly surprised. I got hooked immediately. I am looking forward to @orangeplumbob feeling better and being able to get back to her story. Sending get well wishes your way!
Comments
Glad you enjoyed reading it! Now to answer the questions
I start off with a general idea of how I want the character to be or look for an archetype to stick to. As I keep writing more lines for that character, I get a better idea of how I want them to be like. For example, I had difficulty with giving Antonio his own voice and felt that it didn't stand out unlike the others. But eventually, he found his own voice as I kept writing more from his POV.
This is sometimes random. I sometimes have multiple chapters with the same character's POV in succession, but there are also chapters where I have different POVs.
Aside from observing how people act in public and through personal experiences, I also watch a lot of shows that involve plenty of dialogue and see how characters get their chemistry, particularly comedy shows. (Some of my favorites are Silicon Valley and Fresh Off the Boat) Moreover, I've been role-playing for many years and that helps with the writing process. (Playing Dungeons and Dragons also helps) I put myself in my character and react to certain situations as I think they would.
I normally have a general plot in mind for my story complete with an outline. While I take screenshots for the scenes that I want to happen, the Sims that I control sometimes do interesting things, and then I think of a way that I could add it into the story or even change one part of the story entirely depending on what they do. So I'd say 50 percent plot-driven and 50-percent gameplay-driven.
Origin ID: pronterus || Gallery || Undead With Benefits||The Pronteran Builder Blog
That's awesome @AdamsEve1231
To answer your question, I never plan anything humorous to happen while writing. I actually try to make it look serious but then it slowly becomes funny as I make up more lines. The idea just pops out of nowhere after I think of a certain situation or find a funny screenshot to exploit.
Origin ID: pronterus || Gallery || Undead With Benefits||The Pronteran Builder Blog
I felt the same way, and now that I have started reading your story from the very beginning I keep finding myself randomly breaking out in laughter over something seemingly random. I am loving that wit.
@Minraed I reread the chapter this morning because I liked it so much and found myself laughing aloud a lot too.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
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@MadameLee will be our Coffee Hour host next week. (Magna, just check with me in our PM if you have questions about this.)
Enjoy the reading! Remember, this week, we share our responses informally, and next week, we'll have a conversation directed by our questions for fellow readers and the writer.
Happy reading!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
@CathyTea thanks for reminding me!! I almost forgot!! I need to think of questions..
LisabeeSims
New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
#EAgamechanger
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
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@AdamsEve1231 yes please
Second Chances | Different Rain
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
@MadameLee How would you like us to start? Would you like us to share our general responses and impressions, or the most pressing thoughts we have about this story?
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Yeah everyone can share their general responses/impressions about the story. OR what their most pressing thought is. I read a lot of news stories so that the Second chances was very believable for me.
And I've been out of the hospital for the few days. Am really excited to answer questions or whatnot.
Second Chances | Different Rain
Congrats on being back home! Hope you're feeling well.
I'd like to say that one of the things I like most about your story are some of the rhythms in your writing. Here's a great example:
I've got some questions for you, @orangeplumbob :
1) Where did you get your idea for the story?
2) I like the dialogue a lot--what are some of your tips for writing dialogue?
3) What were some of the most challenging scenes or chapters to write, and what advice do you have for writers when writing emotionally or otherwise challenging chapters and scenes?
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
outrun / blog / tunglr
For the readers
1) Which characters did you relate most to? What qualities of theirs did you respond to?
2) Were there any characters you especially didn't like?
3) Did your attitudes towards any of the characters change throughout the story?
4) What do you think about the specific challenges that Derek is facing and the way that he's facing those challenges?
@orangeplumbob from @AdamsEve1231
1) I love the images in this story. How do you achieve the pictures and how much time do you spend on getting screenshots, poses, edits, etc?
2) What inspired you to do a story that starts in a prison and to tell a story from an non-traditional protagonist's perspective?
Thanks. Those come out of nowhere too. I don't plan on how those things come across, but when they do, even I sit back and go "now that's cool."
I came up with Second Chances shortly after I obtained Get to Work. I loved the Detective branch, and wanted to write a story about a criminal. I came up with the idea of the criminal falling for a police officer's daughter, and I ran with it, started to plan it. I didn't really have an idea of where the story would go either or if it would be a Legacy-style story. I thought of doing it where it would bounce around different households and stuff. The legacy part came much later. At the time, I wasn't sure how I would pose the story, or how it would work either, so I played around the detective career. I knew if I wanted to make this story and do it right, I needed poses like I had available in Sims 3. Andrew's Pose Player hadn't yet come out, and so I put the idea on the back burner. Then when City Living came out, I fell in love with San Myshuno, and knew then that my story was ready to start. SM was the perfect setting, and there was poses out.
People watch. Seriously, when I go to a mall or ride a train, or stand in line anywhere, I eavesdrop and listen. I people watch too to see how they convey their emotions as they speak. It helps when learning how to write dialogue and not make the dialogue sound emotionless. I also let the characters tell me the story. Sounds weird, right? But I listen to them, and let the story flow through my fingers while I am in sort of a trance, and let the characters tell me their story, and what they want to say.
The poker story was hard to write. I rewrote those chapters about five different times. I wanted to show things about Eli and Anthony, but not sure how to convey it correctly. In the end I think I found a way to make it work. The other plot was this last one with Olivia and Derek, and the drunken night. That was really difficult to write. I ended up asking for advice about that subject and how I should go about doing it without upsetting my readers. Funny enough, almost killing Eli off was one of the easiest things to write, but hardest to pose.
My advice is write from the heart. If you're writing something emotionally, as a writer you should feel that emotion too. I know the chapter or scene is going the way I want it to, if I am sitting there crying or getting really angry while I am typing it out. Best time to write tear-jerkers is when you have a need to cry. I find it therapeutic to write really emotional chapters when I'm down.
Also, if you are not sure how a chapter or a plot should go, write the end first. If you know where the story is going, it's a lot easier to pave the road there then to get lost by making a wrong turn. I have an entire outline for Derek and Gen 3, and most of Derek's story is written. I have three chapters to write, and they are all in the middle and are buffer chapters. Those are my struggle chapters, because they are just buffers between plots. So, that's another bit of advice, outline your story/generation and write the chapters that you can easily push out, and go back and write the more difficult ones when you have a clear view on where they should be heading to.
Oh man, I spend way too much time getting screenshots. I tend to plan first where I want my photos to sit in the blog, so I know what I need to capture in game. Then I take roughly 3-4 different shots per scene. Sometimes, I only take 1 because I am totally happy with the the shot. Then, once I get the photo I want, I place it in my blog post just for placement. It can take between 3 to 6 hours to get the in-game shots I need per chapter. Depending on if I need to get specific settings, if someone aged, if I want to update family photos for the Ryder's apartment (which I also pose and think about before I take them in another save.)
Once I get all the photos needed for a chapter, I put them in a new folder in my Second Chances folder I have on my external harddrive. I open them all up in Photoshop and run two actions I have. One action I run is Yellow-Be-Gone and the other is one I made specifically for Second Chances. The first three chapters were re-edited after I discovered actions. So, those photos are a little different. I also, have learned over the year how to edit photos even better, and I keep learning tricks, so every chapter the photos come out better and better in my opinion. However, I've learned having really dark skinned sims tend to get really dark where you lose detail with my actions, so sometimes when I use Kellogg or another sim, the photos may look washed-out. I don't like it, but it's the only way to see any detail of the sim. Editing all the photos can take anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour.
Get to Work was the inspiration. Like I answered above, I love the detective branch and the prison items, and the prison jumpsuit. I knew when GTW came out, I had to do something with those items, so the beginning plans for Second Chances started to flourish. I knew the story would have to be in a prisoner's POV rather than a police officer's. I then started some research so the story sounded believable. That's another thing I was determined to have: a believable story even if some of my plots were a bit stretched (Like Anthony working at the same prison that Eli was in. Real life, that would never happen,but I wanted that for the story and drama).
Second Chances | Different Rain
I've got another question: What keeps you going when you're lacking motivation or face writer's block?
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
Ooo... I love this question @InfraGreen.
For your first question, yes.
For your second question, I write them so I have no problem reading them. Colt Family Traitacy (and its spinoff, Thick As Thieves) plus My Life With Criminals (a sort-of prequel) are examples. I guess, you could argue Darkness May Dream has its criminals, though some of it is because of vastly different culture. I digress. Okay, I love seeing stories from an underdog's perspective because it makes me want to root for them if they have to overcome adversity or a plum set of cards in life. I also think it's interesting to delve into the psyche of criminals - what compels them to break the law and/or do horrible things and what possibly influenced their decisions? In CFT, it's the family business and ambition that drew Rachel and other characters in and/or out of the life. I really liked that this story, Second Chances, started with an arrest and a prison sentence and then deals with the consequences of decisions and criminal records. It is not necessarily a totally unique premise because of the epic amount of crime fiction out there, but I certainly haven't seen it done a whole lot in SimLit so it's a refreshing change of pace so I commend @orangeplumbob for taking this on. I feel like Second Chances, in terms of SimLit, has an interesting cast of characters, and makes me want to root for our protagonist.
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Journaling keeps me going. I have a set of creative stories in journals that's for my eyes only. I'll either read through them, and try to pick off one of the stories to just get the stories flowing, or I start a new journal story. It keeps at least the motivation to write there, it also helps me get out of writer's block. Sometimes I'll create a really cool plot in the journal, and put it into my outline for Second Chances, and all I have to do is really change characters and settings from the journal entry. I actually wrote all of Gen's three adult story over the summer as one journal entry prior to outlining Gen three. I was bored and in a car ride, and just wanted to write. Because of that, it also got me back to writing Derek's Gen and then playing his Gen out on the Sims when I got back for a few chapters. (Then I had medical issues, that put me back on hiatus, and is still the cause of the most recent hiatus. Soon, this illness will be all over and I can do the stuff that I love.)
Also, I didn't know you wrote prison/criminal stories. I'll have to check them out, @AdamsEve1231
Second Chances | Different Rain
@orangeplumbob I love journaling. It's such a wonderful creative outlet. The Colt Family Traitacy... I'd start there. It follows the criminal family of the Rackets in Twinbrook and the woman who will stop at nothing to achieve her goal... though with some serious consequences.
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I was scared all the way through in reading this story! There hasn't been a time when I wasn't afraid for Eli. I wasn't really afraid for his life or fate much, but I've been afraid for his happiness and well-being. I was especially afraid when Derek felt that his dad hated him. Knowing what a lifeline his relationship with his son provided him, seeing that threatened made me worry for both Derek and Eli.
I don't really use subject matter or plot as a determining factor about what I'll read--so a story can be about any sort of character or setting. What I look at is character, writing, and what the story might show me about life or how it might foster compassion, healing, and love.
@orangeplumbob Thanks so much for sharing your tips and thoughtful advice! The people-watching one is especially great! And like learning about how you use journals!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
As for my answer...I am a lot like @CathyTea - I was scared for Eli's life and his fate through the whole thing! I fell in love with him and so badly wanted his happy ending. He loved his family but things are hard when you are separated like they were. There were bound to be ups and downs in their relationships. As far as stories that have criminals? That really had nothing to do with why I read stories. It just looked like a good story and I was very pleasantly surprised. I got hooked immediately.