@rednenemon I absolutely love this in any story, the 'how far people will go for the people they care about'. And I agree, sometimes it's more fun dealing with 'not exactly good but defo better than the antagonists' than it is with 'good' : P
What do you hope your readers 'take away' from your writing?
I'll try and expand this question, since IDK if it'll make sense to everyone, since it's pretty vague. - Are there any messages / life lessons etc. you try to get across in your story, or any themes you try to convey in your story?
- How do you generally aim to make the reader feel as they're reading your story?
What I want to achieve:
Life is hard and even though I take my times to rest and heal and cope, I know it's better to move on and have a little fun and make good memories.
So in my stories I try to take my readers away from their hardships for a while and on 'a ride and a half' (like one of my readers once said about my current story )
This story is my therapy and my Sims went through a lot (and still do).
So by telling their story I try to show ways of coping and healing.
Go a bit into philosophy (what is good/evil, what is real, the concept of death, viewing things from different angles).
I show how they deal with difficult people and hate.
How their personalities develop and what you can learn from failing and mistakes.
How to move on when all hope seems gone.
And how to keep relationships/friendships going under unfavorable circumstances.
But there are a lot of fun events too and since I'm with ADHD I'm unable to deliver one thing and that's -> boredom ^^'
I want to make my readers feel as if they'd spend an evening with their friends chatting at McLaren's Bar
I feel some of that, teenhood was just...ugh. I don't want to think about it. As for falling in love with your child/teenhood best friend, that did happen, though it isn't all it's cracked up to be XD We all love wish fulfillment!
It's always good to see stories where characters learn to cope and heal from things over time. I much prefer that to the stories where everyone overcomes everything by 'positive attitude uwu' alone.
I decided I wanna try reviving this thread again, so I went through some 'questions to ask writers' online and found one I don't think we've discussed this one yet
What do you hope your readers 'take away' from your writing?
I'll try and expand this question, since IDK if it'll make sense to everyone, since it's pretty vague. - Are there any messages / life lessons etc. you try to get across in your story, or any themes you try to convey in your story?
- How do you generally aim to make the reader feel as they're reading your story?
Ooh, fun! I love talking about themes. It has been interesting to read everyone's responses and see all the different ways people approach the themes and what the things they want to explore are.
I think that, generally speaking, my main themes are life, death, mortality, and hope.
In most of my SimLit, the stories are about dealing with death and mortality and people's different relationships to it all. It's also about finding meaning and joy in the little things even among hardship, or events and concepts that are too big to understand.
In Chrysanthemum Tango, it's probably the most obvious, as it was what I consciously built the story around and it's perhaps on the nose considering it's literally about befriending Death. And since Forget-Me-Not is an Ambrosia Challenge, it's also kind of inevitable that death and life are important themes.
I don't know if I was going for life lessons, as I was more focused on exploring my own feelings on the matter through the text, but I guess it's something something death is inevitable and it can be scary but it's also natural and you can make peace with it. Also universe is big and scary and has no meaning, but we can choose what makes our lives meaningful.
How I make my stories look like me? I love urban fantasy, and it's basically all I write. I suppose there will also inevitably be characters who wear some type of alt fashion. There will also probably be obscure or not-so-obscure references to something Finnish both for fun and because of me writing what I know Romance is usually not the focus, as I'm more comfortable writing platonic or queerplatonic relationships. If there is romance it will most likely be domestic or just kinda there. I don't know.
I like taking landscape screenshots, so there will be a lot of those, especially in transitions. The Grim Reaper will likely make an appearance in some way. People will drink tea.
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)
Seems like we’re getting a horses EP, which is great as I was wondering about using them in my royal story. I wonder if kids can ride them or not, since only teens and above could ride horses in Sims 3. I used to find that annoying because it’s fairly common for children to have riding lessons IRL, and farms often have pony riding sessions for children too.
@Lucy_Henley With any luck, it'd make sense to have it for kids too so let's hope so.
@RipuAncestor Interesting you mentioned those since a lot of it is a thing that always comes up somehow when I'm doing stuff, especially there always being an alt character somewhere. I'm not even alt myself, there's just always going to be someone dressed like that because it looks cool and black just goes with almost anything XD Honestly 'life lessons' was really bad wording on my part, I struggled to word the question properly.
@SnowBnuuy Nah, it's fine. I figured you were talking about themes and messages. It's great that you also have alt rep in your stories! I wear alt fashion (rocker fairy/elf aesthetic or something idk) and it's nice to hear people who don't consider themselves alt appreciating the fashions.
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)
Children can ride horses!! Yesssss this is perfect for my royal story. The palace I built doesn’t have space for a proper stable so I’ll have to build one elsewhere on the Crumbling Isle…
I decided I wanna try reviving this thread again, so I went through some 'questions to ask writers' online and found one I don't think we've discussed this one yet
What do you hope your readers 'take away' from your writing?
I'll try and expand this question, since IDK if it'll make sense to everyone, since it's pretty vague. - Are there any messages / life lessons etc. you try to get across in your story, or any themes you try to convey in your story?
- How do you generally aim to make the reader feel as they're reading your story?
Gonna try to keep the thread alive by answering SnowBnuuy's questions.
Each generation of the Duchelli Legacy is supposed to deal with different themes or a main struggle, many of them about love and relationships - to family, partners, and friends. And many of them about the struggles of being human (or humanoid). But at its core, the main point is that life is what happens while you were busy making other plans, and you are not in control of your destiny. You are only in control of the choices you make. Mistakes will happen, and how you deal with the mistakes you've made or the disaster that struck you shows who you are as a person. Sometimes you are able to fix things. Sometimes it's too late. Sometimes it wasn't your fault. Life isn't always fair.
I hope the people who read my story will be entertained, first and foremost, and I hope they take something away from it, but what they take away will be different for everyone. Some people like the jokes, others like the drama, a couple people have thanked me for tips on dealing with anxiety. I hope that people will laugh when I try to be funny, and get emotional when I write something sad, but ultimately, I just hope people will feel that their time was well spent, because life is short and if you decide to spend a few hours of your life reading something I wrote, it is an honour.
@SirianaSims I like your comment. I feel like this statement
I hope that people will laugh when I try to be funny, and get emotional when I write something sad, but ultimately, I just hope people will feel that their time was well spent
sums up what really am hoping for too when I write. My story is mostly meant as entertainment. But good entertainment stories still evoke emotions from the audience.
I’m sure you guys can relate… it’s always annoying when you come up with a storyline, only to later have doubts about it. Ok, it’s not the whole storyline, just part of it. Mostly I’m worrying about how realistic it sounds. I’m not even someone who wants her gameplay to be super-realistic. It’s to do with a particular character’s thoughts and beliefs about something, and whether someone would actually think like that or whether it’s too far-fetched, as in “no one would think like that, come on!” I can’t say too much without spoiling part of the story, so hopefully this makes sense.
@Lucy_Henley I can definitely relate to coming up with a storyline, getting into it, and then having doubts about it. Happens all the time to me.
When it comes to realism in characters, though, I think what really makes them believable or not believable has more to do with their own internal consistency than actual "realism". Even in real life, lots of people I personally know make choices I would never think to make, or think in ways I find it hard to even understand. So characters thinking, believing, doing things I find surprising is actually totally realistic. As long as there is consistency in who they are and how they think, practically any type of personality or skill set can be believable in a fictional character. What makes a characters seem "unbelievable" is when they make a choice or do something that doesn't fit well with who they have been all along throughout the story. They can certainly change or grow, or even go against their own nature when under pressure, but if it happens to suddenly or conveniently, without a really clear reason, it can seem unrealistic.
@GlacierSnow That makes sense and is reassuring. What I have in mind does fit the character, maybe it seems rather an odd thing to do but does make sense for this character, particularly considering their background and other things they’ve done/said.
@GlacierSnow That makes sense and is reassuring. What I have in mind does fit the character, maybe it seems rather an odd thing to do but does make sense for this character, particularly considering their background and other things they’ve done/said.
Then I think you can make it work. I have plenty of characters that I don't agree with or that make stupid decisions, but it made sense to the character at the time. Think of Luna in the Harry Potter series, she often does and believes weird things, but she's consistent about it so it fits her character.
Agree with @GlacierSnow, and I think a lot of readers' ideas of what's realistic is what they, and only they, would do, think or know. Or what like 3 other people they know would do in such a situation. Like I've realised lately that to a lot of people realism only revolves around their own experience and like a few people around them and anyone who fits even slightly outside of that box is immediately labelled 'unrealistic'.
Thanks for all the reassurance, everyone! People can do things out of desperation. It makes sense to them at the time, but afterwards they may realise it was a bit extreme/unnecessary.
Most Simlit stories, in my experience, aren't that realistic. You've got spellcasters, werewolves, vampires, aliens, people with green or purple skin and no explanation is given why they're like that, mermaids...you name it. On top of all that most characters, even when they're regular humans, have the weirdest fashion sense you just wouldn't see in real life...I'm just sayin'.
But you can be realistic and plausible within the setting you create. In a world where there's Xsomething present, how would people behave in that environment? And if you have a character who is individualistic in their thoughts then how they're presented within the framework helps the reader understand them better. Are they making sense to themselves or to others? Are they failing to connect or be understood? When writing such a character in the 3rd person you can use the narrator's voice as exposition. Otherwise the use of a reader's identification figure in the story query that character, or ponder why they're like that, can very very helpful in conveying what they're like to to the reader.
Have you experienced typist's block when trying to type out a story? How does one overcome it?
I ask this because I'm currently experiencing it right now.
Sims 4 Family: Benjamin, Shine, Princess Roddy, Sophia and Hamish Furystrykar and Shelly Heart. Princess Roddy is my avatar, and he's a boy!
@DreamPrincess sorry that you're experiencing that! Usually I walk away from it for a while, try to remember why I write in the first place, do other hobbies, read other stories - you'll get back in touch with your creativity soon
Have you experienced typist's block when trying to type out a story? How does one overcome it?
I ask this because I'm currently experiencing it right now.
Although I don't get writer's block over the plot I do get bogged down in details of prose and dialogue and it's sometimes difficult to write up one scene or section. I just take my time and refer back to the gameplay....I look at the screenshots I took and think of what I'm trying to get across to the reader. Those times are a matter of perseverance.
@Sims4MagicalTales, @hellohannah2, @Kellogg_J_Kellogg,
You'll be pleased to know that I overcame yesterday's writer's block by winging it. And listening to music. But the strange thing is, the writer's block always comes when I'm typing about my main family's paternal relatives, never the maternal relatives.
Sims 4 Family: Benjamin, Shine, Princess Roddy, Sophia and Hamish Furystrykar and Shelly Heart. Princess Roddy is my avatar, and he's a boy!
I sort of have typist's block, if by that you mean actually sitting down to do some writing rather than just keep it all in my head. I just did some screenshots for one of the later chapters in my royal story (since I'm playing the main character's parents from birth, and it's a flashback to the character's mother's childhood which is the life stage she (the mother) is currently in) and I'm pleased with how they ended up, so hopefully that'll give me some incentive to keep writing till I get to the flashback chapter and can use those screenshots.
I don't know if it's typist's block or just lack of self-discipline to sit down and write. I have ADHD and need medication, but I've tried to contact my GP twice in the past few months about it and haven't heard anything... *sigh*
Comments
Yeah, after a while, 'good vs evil' can get a bit tedious and boring.
That's probably just me, though.
Part One(Complete 9/24/16) /Part Two(on hold)/Short Stories(on hold)/Twinbrook 1996(on hold)/Ten Crystal Hearts (on hold)
I own the TS3 Store as of 12/11/16 (sort of. It's complicated)
What I want to achieve:
Life is hard and even though I take my times to rest and heal and cope, I know it's better to move on and have a little fun and make good memories.
So in my stories I try to take my readers away from their hardships for a while and on 'a ride and a half' (like one of my readers once said about my current story
This story is my therapy and my Sims went through a lot (and still do).
So by telling their story I try to show ways of coping and healing.
Go a bit into philosophy (what is good/evil, what is real, the concept of death, viewing things from different angles).
I show how they deal with difficult people and hate.
How their personalities develop and what you can learn from failing and mistakes.
How to move on when all hope seems gone.
And how to keep relationships/friendships going under unfavorable circumstances.
But there are a lot of fun events too and since I'm with ADHD I'm unable to deliver one thing and that's -> boredom ^^'
I want to make my readers feel as if they'd spend an evening with their friends chatting at McLaren's Bar
🎁 Best of Buydebug ☃️ Short trips to the Oggiverse - Short Clips 🎬 My Builds: Houses 🏘 Rooms 🛋 SciFi 👾 creatively edited Screenshots 🎨
@Lenny_Ogg
Ooh, fun! I love talking about themes. It has been interesting to read everyone's responses and see all the different ways people approach the themes and what the things they want to explore are.
I think that, generally speaking, my main themes are life, death, mortality, and hope.
In most of my SimLit, the stories are about dealing with death and mortality and people's different relationships to it all. It's also about finding meaning and joy in the little things even among hardship, or events and concepts that are too big to understand.
I don't know if I was going for life lessons, as I was more focused on exploring my own feelings on the matter through the text, but I guess it's something something death is inevitable and it can be scary but it's also natural and you can make peace with it. Also universe is big and scary and has no meaning, but we can choose what makes our lives meaningful.
How I make my stories look like me? I love urban fantasy, and it's basically all I write. I suppose there will also inevitably be characters who wear some type of alt fashion. There will also probably be obscure or not-so-obscure references to something Finnish both for fun and because of me writing what I know
I like taking landscape screenshots, so there will be a lot of those, especially in transitions. The Grim Reaper will likely make an appearance in some way. People will drink tea.
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)
@RipuAncestor Interesting you mentioned those since a lot of it is a thing that always comes up somehow when I'm doing stuff, especially there always being an alt character somewhere. I'm not even alt myself, there's just always going to be someone dressed like that because it looks cool and black just goes with almost anything XD Honestly 'life lessons' was really bad wording on my part, I struggled to word the question properly.
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)
Gonna try to keep the thread alive by answering SnowBnuuy's questions.
Each generation of the Duchelli Legacy is supposed to deal with different themes or a main struggle, many of them about love and relationships - to family, partners, and friends. And many of them about the struggles of being human (or humanoid). But at its core, the main point is that life is what happens while you were busy making other plans, and you are not in control of your destiny. You are only in control of the choices you make. Mistakes will happen, and how you deal with the mistakes you've made or the disaster that struck you shows who you are as a person. Sometimes you are able to fix things. Sometimes it's too late. Sometimes it wasn't your fault. Life isn't always fair.
I hope the people who read my story will be entertained, first and foremost, and I hope they take something away from it, but what they take away will be different for everyone. Some people like the jokes, others like the drama, a couple people have thanked me for tips on dealing with anxiety. I hope that people will laugh when I try to be funny, and get emotional when I write something sad, but ultimately, I just hope people will feel that their time was well spent, because life is short and if you decide to spend a few hours of your life reading something I wrote, it is an honour.
When it comes to realism in characters, though, I think what really makes them believable or not believable has more to do with their own internal consistency than actual "realism". Even in real life, lots of people I personally know make choices I would never think to make, or think in ways I find it hard to even understand. So characters thinking, believing, doing things I find surprising is actually totally realistic. As long as there is consistency in who they are and how they think, practically any type of personality or skill set can be believable in a fictional character. What makes a characters seem "unbelievable" is when they make a choice or do something that doesn't fit well with who they have been all along throughout the story. They can certainly change or grow, or even go against their own nature when under pressure, but if it happens to suddenly or conveniently, without a really clear reason, it can seem unrealistic.
Then I think you can make it work. I have plenty of characters that I don't agree with or that make stupid decisions, but it made sense to the character at the time. Think of Luna in the Harry Potter series, she often does and believes weird things, but she's consistent about it so it fits her character.
But you can be realistic and plausible within the setting you create. In a world where there's Xsomething present, how would people behave in that environment? And if you have a character who is individualistic in their thoughts then how they're presented within the framework helps the reader understand them better. Are they making sense to themselves or to others? Are they failing to connect or be understood? When writing such a character in the 3rd person you can use the narrator's voice as exposition. Otherwise the use of a reader's identification figure in the story query that character, or ponder why they're like that, can very very helpful in conveying what they're like to to the reader.
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
I ask this because I'm currently experiencing it right now.
Although I don't get writer's block over the plot I do get bogged down in details of prose and dialogue and it's sometimes difficult to write up one scene or section. I just take my time and refer back to the gameplay....I look at the screenshots I took and think of what I'm trying to get across to the reader. Those times are a matter of perseverance.
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
You'll be pleased to know that I overcame yesterday's writer's block by winging it. And listening to music. But the strange thing is, the writer's block always comes when I'm typing about my main family's paternal relatives, never the maternal relatives.
I don't know if it's typist's block or just lack of self-discipline to sit down and write. I have ADHD and need medication, but I've tried to contact my GP twice in the past few months about it and haven't heard anything... *sigh*