How do you write your stories?

nastyjman

Hey simmers, I wanted to ask how you write your stories, what method you use to do it.

I'm doing one right now, and it is my first time doing so. Basically, when I'm playing my challenge, I just take screenshots on things that might be pertinent or not. I go screenshot trigger-happy sometimes. After having a lot of material, I'll try to think of a narrative based on the screenshots alone.

I'm not sure if this is an effective method, but it's a start for me as a first-timer. For the veterans out there with a lot of stories and legacies on their belt, I wanted to know what your methods are to craft your narrative.

AkramA

There are several approach!

There's play and tell which basically just play the games and tell what happen. My tips is just to capture the most important moment. This is going to be interesting if you have a goal. Also make the story after you play the game because you might forgot what happen in that screenshot. Work well with any sims challenge.

There's also make up story and play, this is usually hard because you really have to modify the mood of the sims. You have to learn how to make them emote as your story goes. A perfect screenshot is needed to capture every single emotion.

There's a structural one, which just like the first one but instead of just playing you also set a goal when you're playing. It make your story much easier to write because you already know what to do when writing.

There's also your approach which is my favorite, play and make up stories. This require a lot of imagination and a lot of screenshot. Why? Because you can't make one if you don't have many screenshot. Capture everything even when the sims are taking a dump, cook, and other stuff that might not be important but when writing you actually need it. I suggest you to learn how to edit the picture so you can crop someone who're not supposed to be there or maybe some object that are not going well with the story and other.

nastyjman

@Akrama Thank you for this! :-)

AkramA

Your welcome!

DavidMCSessy

About my stories, first of all, I think about the idea and what I want to tell and implement with the story. Then I start writing everything that comes to my mind in a little notebook and I decide what will be included later and what is more appropriate. Don't be afraid to write everything down that comes to your mind, because I forget easily. Haha!

After I've written the story, I go in the game and start taking pictures, as much expressive as I can and making them match the quotes/lines of my characters.

Since I have a comic story, I edit my comics with Photoshop CC, and after making sure that everything is perfect and ready to go, I post it on my Tumblr.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

DizziestSims

I like to play my game as I normally would and take photos as I go along.
Don't plan too much, just like to go with the flow.
I try to take cues from my Sims of what they want to do and the interactions that naturally happen with NPCs.

If important moments happen where I think I could tell a story I save the game and return to it later.
At some point I open the save and take better photos recreating the moments.
Then I embellish the story a little to make it more engaging.

In the beginning I used to take multiple photos of every moment.
I found that it interrupted my gameplay too much and I wasn't enjoying that.
Returning to the saves helped me to enjoy playing while still storytelling.

Bilmonaghan

Back in the Sims 2, a started making up stories because of a glitch that lead to a headmaster visit after the kids were already in a different private school, so the Curious Brothers and their kids decided to throw the worst party possible to see how low of a score they could get with the headmaster. Then I started following my Sims around with a camera all the time and just making up stories about what they seemed to be doing. After a while a story line started to emerge. I started assigning Sims interactions to move the story forward, but I left their autonomy on full, so sometimes they would take the story somewhere I didn't expect.

Now I'm mostly working on a Legacy Challenge story, which gives you a broad story line to follow and leaves them plenty of freedom to get their on their own.

If you want your Sims to play out a story you've written, you might want to get acquainted with some of the testing cheats so you have more control over how they perform.

Nicarra60

Definitely, the easiest is take pictures of the Sims and tell a story to go with the pictures.

If you write a story then try to get the screenshots - you may have to use mods to get the right expression/pose/interactions between the Sims.

Sometimes I use an in-between method. I prewrite the story. Get screenshots that match the story in general - then rewrite what I have to in order to match the screenshots.

Of my Sims 3 blogs, Hi Mum, It's Sammy has used all of those techniques. Sims 3 Short Stories mostly use the in-between method. The other two are nearly entirely just taking pictures and telling a story to go with.

I haven't organised a place to put Sims 4 stories yet.

CathyTea

I play, giving my Sims lots of freedom and letting them basically determine the direction by following whims, aspirations, career needs, and their own autonomous actions. Like you, I try to take lots of photos--but sometimes I get so caught up in the game that I forget. When it seems like lots has happened, I'll write a chapter. I like to have a focus for each chapter, for example, focusing on a specific Sim or on a relationship or a major life event (and those are always happening in legacies!). Sometimes when lots happens during a few gameplay sessions, I'll have plenty for a few chapters, and then I divide the content thematically.

I use a blog, and so sometimes, I'll draft the chapter first, then upload and place the photos. This works well if I've been thinking about it and I know what I want to say. Other times, I'll upload the photos first, and that will help me shape the storyline.

For my Legacy, I'm the narrator, so I'll talk to my Sims in the story, and I'll share my perspective and my thoughts and observations and opinions.

For the Wonder Child challenge, the father (Harrington) was the narrator--the story was his blog. But he let his wife write one entry, and his daughter (the Wonder Child) hacked in and wrote another entry. It was fun to write these from the first person point of view.

For the Houseful of Hippies (a Roomie Challenge), the playable character is the narrator.

For the Drifter story (a Mooch off Your Neighbor challenge), the drifter, Jack Bivouac, is the narrator. I'm just basically having him write in his voice about his adventures, and as he changes through his life, his perspective will be changing, too, I'm sure.

I want to write a Three Little Sims challenge once the Drifter story is done, and then, I'll tell the story from each of three characters, alternating.

Thanks for sharing this thread! It's really fun to hear everyone's style of writing and playing!

nastyjman

Thanks for the input everyone! A lot of methods, and no one way to capture a story. I'll try out some of the methods mentioned. @Nicarra60 I think a new list needs to be stickied for stories. :-) Reading some legacies and stories have been inspiring for someone who's been struggling.

Nicarra60

@nastyjman Feel free to start a list. Maintaining one major list is quite enough for me. It probably should be divided into sections by challenge plus a section for people just doing their own thing. If the list gets enough attention, it should get stickied - eventually.