Since this idea was suggested in the Writer's Lounge, I thought it deserved its own thread.
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@CathyTea that I'm stealing (just because they're really well-written.)
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Comments
you might want to add for all games so no one feel excluded. but i love the idea.
My hubby causes chaos in How To Live With Grace - - Pine Point tells Miranda Cole's survival tale - - Criminals build legacies in Glassbolt Prison
It's right here, but I'll add it to the title as well
Book O' Spells: The Life and Times of Lady Ravendancer Goth
The Shadow Over Newcrest - Revised Story Blog
**trying to think what ideas I want to bounce off**
OK... here's sort of a stylistic question. @15aewar and @Karilan and sissy @friendsfan367 I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, since I think you're also writing a lot of stories in diary/journal/letter form...
Currently, I've noticed that most of my active stories are written as diaries/journals or letters. This always leads me into somewhat of a stylistic dilemma. If you read most people's letters or diaries, they tend not to be that descriptive and, unless written by someone with a literary bent, they tend not to be that literary. For example, you won't often find dialogue in a letter... Most letters and journal entries written by real people are written in summary or reflection, rather than in scene.
I usually start my letters or journal entries in reflective mode or summary, but then, once I feel the reader has transitioned into them, I slide into scene, showing what happened, using dialogue, and so on...
Does this break the illusion of the letter or journal entry?
Does it matter if it does?
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
bouncing in a thread sounds painful.
If you think on it as more of a "Blog Entry" instead of a letter or journal, than it all fits. Blog authors tend to be a bit more descriptive and definitely have a sort of flair to their writing.
it was just a suggestion since the thread that inspired this is also in sims 4 people from other games felt they couldn't post there.
I did throw around the idea of writing a story with journals, letters, and a lot of misc. "found material" in the vein of Dracula, and letting the words say the barest minimum and pictures tell the parts of the story we missed. I guess having them function like memories. It's really hard to make that sacrifice though. Dialogue is too much fun.
outrun / blog / tunglr
i do both. i had recently named the thing the benders write updates in but then the game broke and i had to start over. tonight i had fun confusing jes . that should get her back for all the nights i don't sleep.
Hmm, now that I think of it, Seb's journal entries do tend to slip into narrating a scene. Honestly though, I didn't notice until you brought it up and I don't think it's a bad thing or a bad way of writing. I think by the end of the chapter I'm aware that it's not quite a journal entry anymore, unless you include a paragraph of reflection which you often do. Perhaps ending on reflection is key.
I'm chatting with my fiance about this and he suggests making the transition between journal and scene obvious. Perhaps finding a way to simulate the "fade in/out" scenario that TV shows have when someone is reminiscing about a conversation? I think you could do this with line breaks or filters on the screenshots that occur during the conversation portion?
First person is my absolute favorite because I find it easier to explore a character's feelings. Pine Point is the first story where I call attention to using a journal for chapters and you're right, I write the entries reflectively. I get off easy since there is no dialogue to be had, but I struggled to include music to the chapters.
For my Alien Adoption story I'm adopting a similar cheat/crutch. My caregiver will tell the story through journal entries, and again there is no dialogue to be had, but my alien's chapters will be first or third person, not written in a journal.
My hubby causes chaos in How To Live With Grace - - Pine Point tells Miranda Cole's survival tale - - Criminals build legacies in Glassbolt Prison
That's what it always comes down to with me: dialogue is SO much fun to write! I've thought about trying to write realistic letters... but, at least for me thinking on most of the letters I've received, they tend to be kind of boring! My sister, though, she's a great letter writer! She had this huge adventure on the Northern California coast last winter--in the midst of flooding rains!--when her rental car broke down on this tiny road near the beach, and she had to rely on kind strangers to help her... when she wrote about that adventure, it was riveting!
I try to get past it by having very literate characters, like Sebastion, or very reflective characters, like Sept... I'm glad you haven't noticed it break the illusion!
Do you remember S-GAS and Summer Camp? I tried to tell those in documentary style, with journal entries, v-logs, transcripts, and so on. That was very fun!
I like your idea of using "found material..." That sounds neat, especially if it's for a second story or for fill-in, so that you still get the fun of writing dialogue and more descriptive parts, too!
I might sometime try writing realistic letters. I corresponded through email for a while with a high school friend, who, although conventions of writing seemed to elude him, wrote some of the most interesting and engaging emails I've ever read! (Of course, deciphering his spelling may have contributed to the level of engagement! )
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
I have a story I hope to release soon that is exclusively told through letters, but you only get to read one half of the letters (not the responses)
I'm having trouble deciding whether to only include screenshots that the character would include as photographs in the letter, or include screens of the writer's life as well.
For example, I have one birthday entry where she sends a gift with the card, but obviously does not state what the gift is because everyone opens the card first. If I don't include any "over the shoulder" type screen shots of the writer's life, you'll never know what the gift was, but to be honest I'm not sure if it's important?
My hubby causes chaos in How To Live With Grace - - Pine Point tells Miranda Cole's survival tale - - Criminals build legacies in Glassbolt Prison
like the *cough* the newspapers *cough* in my Swanson story?
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
i think first there should be a conversation between adrian and maggie about how to explain it but iget stuck after that.
why do i love the benders so much they complicate my story?
Well, you could go ahead and write that conversation... sometimes I find that solutions come to me after I've written the first bit of the tricky part...
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
i love writing letters well not in real life but in sims.
i do include dialoge which up until yesterdday wasn't confusing . last time i finally came up with a name for what i call the book that the benders write in i mentioned it once then my save broke.
and tonight that distracted from the story. but thats what edit is for.
so my anser is no. i'm basing my answer on the fact guliana and ayden write each other and i only get confused as to who needs to write,
I've thought about this, too. Although, as @Karilan and @InfraGreen said, I don't think it matters too much.
If it helps, here's my thoughts on writing letters in The Shadow Over Newcrest.
Another passage that hints at his eidetic memory: Mortimer, like most people, only remembers the gist of things. If it were Alexander, he'd have the whole letter written down.
But didn't Bliss recall the words of a sailor, misspellings and all? Yep, but she was probably looking at a transcription of the original documents at the time.
Book O' Spells: The Life and Times of Lady Ravendancer Goth
The Shadow Over Newcrest - Revised Story Blog
Or something more dramatic like the current generation?
Of Myth and Magic
Everyday struggles can be lots of fun - especially if your child sims go through phases.
Book O' Spells: The Life and Times of Lady Ravendancer Goth
The Shadow Over Newcrest - Revised Story Blog
True, he's going to have to deal with his dog driving him nuts and a certain girl chasing him everywhere.
Of Myth and Magic
Book O' Spells: The Life and Times of Lady Ravendancer Goth
The Shadow Over Newcrest - Revised Story Blog
One topic I've been thinking about lately and would be interested in opinions on is balancing the downtime of a story with the more exciting/dramatic parts. Obviously a story can't just be exciting 24 7 and needs it's ups and downs to keep things from being overwhelming, and especially with my story the whole idea of light and dark necessitates the more serious plot driven moments and the lighter family moments being there, but I still keep feeling especially with the lighter last couple chapters that the lighter downtime stuff is just kind of boring in comparison. I do try to mix in some plot or character progression and I don't necessarily want to spice things up to make it interesting because it's supposed to be downtime where the characters get to just relax and have a bit of a normal life but I also don't want people to feel those chapters are boring or filler either. Do you think it's okay to have those "boring" segments of a story or do you think there needs to be some form of aspect to constantly grab and hold the readers attention. Do you have any methods you use to try to keep things interesting during this kind of chapter when you are trying to give the characters some quiet time or doing a set up chapter before things get more dramatic?