Was not expecting this answer but it definitely hits the mark. Thanks for the fun quiz.
Hope
You create from hope. In spite of everything, you maintain a fervent hope deep inside you that things can always be better. It is a stubborn and tenacious hope that you take care to cultivate because you would be lost without it. Art is an outlet for your hopes, a way of expressing your most optimistic wishes for the world. It reveals your ideals and everything you value most. Your work is a declaration of hope for yourself and the world, an adamant assertion that a better reality is within reach. In a world so rife with disillusionment, you strive to send out a message of stubborn encouragement. It is a call to action for everyone on the verge of giving up. Though you may doubt yourself at times, your hopes are what inspire you the most.
I'm amazed so many people get the lighter responses as the questions and answers were all pretty heavy, biased and to extremes. I didn't even know spiteful art was a thing.
If I give this any credit, I suppose I do like to show the unpretty behind the pretty and not just in writing; maybe it's that. *shrugs*
@SnuffyBucket I like pretty things, so that's probably how my results came out as they did. But I think I've just now reached the point in Almost Eternal where the "unpretty" is exposed, and the grit and difficulty behind unexpectedly becoming an occult is beginning to be explored. It'll be fun to read, especially because in my own writing I tend to have lines that even my less than appealing characters don't cross.
@SnuffyBucket@haneul I did struggle to answer some of them, mainly the ‘what picture describes you best?’ Because it was all either pretty things or edgy things, no inbetween, whereas the picture that describes me best is like…that photo of the possum screaming in the rubbish bags.
That was a fun quiz. Having your sense of self absolutely demolished from someone's multiple choice online quiz is a trend that'll never die and I love it.
Alienation
You create from alienation. There is a distance not only between yourself and others, but between yourself and what you are expected to be, yourself and your own humanity. Your honest self feels too divorced from what it should be for it to have any place among everyone else. Your art is an expression of your estrangement from normalcy and other's expectations. It is strange and shocking because you feel that is what you are when you are not pretending to be otherwise. You do not create things to be pretty or pleasing to others, but to be raw and confusing. You have always felt different, so you want to create things that are remarkably different from the norm. It is an expression of your own strangeness, which seems to have no place but in your art. Your work is a sanctuary for everything that alienates you from the world at large.
That scans. A lot of my life feels like that, but I also like "fish out of water" scenarios as a plot device.
@InfraGreen True, but maybe the joys of these 'I feel attacked' quizzes don't quite beat those old-school 'What Character Are You?' quizzes where it's incredibly dreadfully obvious which character your choices will lead you to be XD Takes me back to my early teens.
I think your result is more 'me' than the result I got to be honest.
@InfraGreen True, but maybe the joys of these 'I feel attacked' quizzes don't quite beat those old-school 'What Character Are You?' quizzes where it's incredibly dreadfully obvious which character your choices will lead you to be XD Takes me back to my early teens.
I think your result is more 'me' than the result I got to be honest.
You can't disrespect where you came from! [shakes cane] Maybe I just miss 2008 internet, but it's nicer to be a sims storyteller in 2021. There's more to work with and I heard making poses for TS2 is harder than for the other titles. Those tutorials gave me a headache.
Hmm I forget if "Fascination" or something equivalent was an option on that quiz. That might suit you better.
@haneul Fun questions! I hope you’ll be answering them yourself, too!
How do you keep your stories interesting?
That’s a hard one to answer. I don’t know what other people find interesting; I only know what my own interests are, and what kind of story would keep me hooked. So that’s what I write. Something that I myself would want to read. My story is incredibly niche because of it, but it’s also what still makes it fun to write after more than a year of working on it.
How long does it take you to prepare each chapter and what is the most difficult part about it?
At minimum, it takes me a full week to prepare a chapter. I don’t have a lot of time during the day and at night, the lighting in my home isn’t good enough to do proper editing, so I have to plan my moments. The most difficult part is finding poses that work and setting up everything to take good screenshots, though editing and resizing the screenshots afterwards is the most tedious.
What's something you really like about your own writing (for example, a favorite character, scene, or story arc)?
Lots of things. If I go with the first thing to pop into my mind... I have fun making the overall storyline, but I adore the moments where I can just let the cast be silly. Arthur’s kid chapters, Morgana and Arthur bickering on the way to Scarborough, the random silliness that are most of the bonus chapters. My story is very tense and dark a lot of the time and because of it, I really enjoy the light moments where you know there's no danger. The ones where you can relax.
Hosting D&D sessions on the side. Interested in playing through some fantasy-themed shenanigans? Send me a message 😘
. How do you keep your stories interesting?
Conflict of some kind helps to spice things up, and in the current story, enhancing the magic duels with an art processing program so they look cooler. Sometimes I do character ‘interludes’ so we’re not listening to the same 2-3 characters, but they’re not as much of a thing in newer stories. If not, just throw some cute animal pics in there or something XD
. How long does it take…most difficult part about it?
The fact my game constantly crashes, the ‘musical chairs’, the ‘let’s stand here and do nothing for 7 sim hours instead of what you told me to do…’ is one of the hardest parts of it. I’d say it’s probably more infuriating Sometimes the limits with poses etc can be irritating, but I just work around that with the actual writing instead of worrying too much about the pictures.
Chapter prep can take anything from a day to a week, writing out the events that happen in each chapter. I work out the order of those events when I come to actually write the chapter, and some scenes and plot points end up cut or just delayed until later. I do my screenshots before I write anything, and they can take forever due to lag and crashes. When it comes to actually writing, I currently don’t have much of an attention span for it so it can take up to a week to actually finish the writing part.
. What’s something you like about your own writing?
The fact that I am unapologetically cringe and don’t over-think how good or bad my writing actually is. I bang out a chapter about a chaotic person who wears nothing but all-black and eventually they make a bad decision and everything gets crazy and that’s it, and I don’t pretend my writing is any deeper than it is. There’s deeper meaning in some bits here and there sure, but at the most it’s just me hyperfixating on some subject and wanting to shove that hyperfixation down the throats of the Creative Corner. Also I like that I managed to ditch my ‘let’s carbon copy a particular author’ phase in my teens. Readers seem to appreciate the various subversions in my work, and turning a few common SimLit tropes (and personal pet peeves) on their heads. Won’t go into specific characters or scenes for sake of not spoiling anything and also I’d be here forever if I did XD
@_sims_Yimi Thanks for answering. Your answers are really interesting.
My story is incredibly niche because of it, but it’s also what still makes it fun to write after more than a year of working on it.
The only "niche" thing about your story to me is the Sims aspect. Your pacing is excellent. Honestly, your story is full of fun elements as well as action, so I imagine it appealing to tons of people. As long as they start and get a few chapters in, they can get absolutely hooked.
@SnowBnuuy Thanks for the answers. You've made me think about some things.
I hope your game just miraculously starts behaving itself a bit better. No more lag or crashes. Does the first part of "chapter prep" happen in your head and then you go directly to taking screenshots of what you've thought of? Is the writing part a little annoying? Is that what you mean by you don't have much of an attention span for it? Sorry if this is too many questions. I'm enjoying your stories, so I'm curious.
I love that you're unapologetic about your writing.
Now, to answer my own questions.
How do you keep your stories interesting?
I like reading about really high stakes conflicts, but I also like reading pieces where the conflict is much more subtle. With writing, I think I default to subtlety so it can get boring. I try to be careful about that and keep things fairly short and a little over-the-top/humorous to help.
How long does it take you to prepare each chapter and what is the most difficult part about it?
It takes me a while, several hours. The most difficult part for me is writing in a way that's interesting and cohesive. BUT I don't have a lot of other steps. I don't use poses (unless my Sims are posing for a picture in game) and I don't have lag. I take screenshots of my gameplay and sometimes I miss the moment or otherwise make a mistake with that, but taking screenshots while playing isn't a difficult process.
What's something you really like about your own writing (for example, a favorite character, scene, or story arc)?
I like how I interpret my Sims' actions and give meaning to meaningless things if that makes sense. That's the basic concept/vehicle for my legacy. I also really like for there to be reasons and meaning behind things, so a lot (but not all) of the aspects of my story have some kind of reason behind it. I try not to over-indulge in this or symbolism, allusions, or odd word choices, but I definitely do include them (because it's fun ). An easy example of this would be that I'm careful about my Sims' names. A self-indulgent example is starting my legacy with the 4th generation and numbering my chapters beginning with 4.
How long does it take you to prepare each chapter and what is the most difficult part about it?
What's something you really like about your own writing (for example, a favorite character, scene, or story arc)?
1. During gameplay I'm making notes of what goes on between characters and things that happen to them so it's about being alert to potential plot points and knowing when to screen cap a moment that, when it comes time to writing, will illustrate and signpost what's going on. I like to add new characters or develop them more to keep things interesting. Having a distinct idea of each character's voice helps a great deal. As my story is set in a historical time period I make sure everything and everyone depicted evokes the era to make the screencaps more interesting.
2. One day of gameplay, making notes as I go, and then a week of writing. Earlier this year I could get a chapter out every 4 days but real life means it's more like a week to 10 days now. The difficult part is finding the time to write.
3. I like the way I write dialogue. I try to make it flow without encumbering the reader with too much text description or exposition as characters talk to each other. If you get the pacing and choice of words right, the reader can pick up the tone and reactions easier. It doesn't need a lot of "he said, in an expectant mood" descriptors if you get the words and pacing right.
My favourite character in Sim 66: Julia Epstein. She's always easy to write for and she's become a favourite for a lot of the readers as well. She's a prim and proper young woman with a point to prove and a disdain for the instant pleasures of life but she does have a heart of gold for those struggling, especially children, and you just know at some point the big brainy spectacles are going to come off and the hair loosened from pigtails.
Favourite story arc: I think for me it was the attack on Lily Feng and Alan Cuffe's house which led to John Action chasing the leading suspect and ended up with his memory being erased.
@haneul I’m glad you like my writing and it’s great to have a new regular reader on board ^u^ It means a lot! I’ll get to Fier catchup eventually, a lot is going on ATM and not in a good way /n\ Also no such things as too many questions! At least not when it comes to SimLit : p
Same! The save isn’t that old so not sure what the issues are really.
I don’t go straight from ‘thoughts in my head’ to screenshots purely because I need to organise exactly what’s going on before I can attempt to put it into pictures. My brain is a mess and incapable of any coherent thought process, so I need to get it written down before I can get any pictures together. Even with the writing down of ideas first I still end up with at least 4-5 scrapped screenshots every chapter.
I do enjoy the writing most of the time, it’s just I’m easily distracted and can never just sit down and write a whole chapter out these days. It takes me hours to write a chapter though so probably good not to do it in one sitting XnX I am glad you’re on board with unapologetic fantasy wish fulfilment : p
I too like the way you write and all the little bits of subtle meaning sprinkled through. Also I like the variety of personalities in the Fier family.
I don’t go straight from ‘thoughts in my head’ to screenshots purely because I need to organise exactly what’s going on before I can attempt to put it into pictures. My brain is a mess and incapable of any coherent thought process, so I need to get it written down before I can get any pictures together. Even with the writing down of ideas first I still end up with at least 4-5 scrapped screenshots every chapter.
@SnowBnuuy Oh okay, interesting. So you have an outline or list of ideas first? Because my process is different, I smile at the thought of scrapping only 4-5 screenshots. That's very efficient IMO. Maybe on a good day or on a day when I don't have options I can be that efficient... but more recently, and not always but more often than I should be I've been going completely overboard (the results of which have not shown up on my blog yet) and I'm scrapping closer to 50 than 4 (as was the case with the image in my signature). I know if I set up shots in my legacy it would be like that where I take 20-50 pictures for each scene. I like taking too many screenshots, I guess. idk.
I do enjoy the writing most of the time, it’s just I’m easily distracted and can never just sit down and write a whole chapter out these days. It takes me hours to write a chapter though so probably good not to do it in one sitting XnX
True. It's good to move around and let the writing sit for a bit.
I too like the way you write and all the little bits of subtle meaning sprinkled through. Also I like the variety of personalities in the Fier family.
Thank you.
My favourite character in Sim 66: Julia Epstein. She's always easy to write for and she's become a favourite for a lot of the readers as well. She's a prim and proper young woman with a point to prove and a disdain for the instant pleasures of life but she does have a heart of gold for those struggling, especially children, and you just know at some point the big brainy spectacles are going to come off and the hair loosened from pigtails.
@Kellogg_J_Kellogg Thanks for answering my questions and that's interesting! I like Julia as one of my favorites, but I thought the general favorite would be Suzy Kent or Action. I haven't gotten to your favorite story arc yet, so I'll have to see about that.
Hi to everyone on this thread. I hope you don't mind someone new joining in. I've been looking for a good thread to hang out with other SimLit writers, with a slower pace of conversation than the Writers' Lounge, because I often can't be on the forum more than once or twice a week, and also I get overwhelmed by fast-paced conversations. I found this thread and feel like it might be the right place for me. It's one of the few threads where I actually read nearly every post all the way from the beginning, because the topics and discussions are so interesting.
I'm currently working on two SimLit stories. Both are created in a (sort-of) comicbook style. One is about students at a high school for vampires. The other is an urban-fantasy, supernatural soap-opera, for lack of a better description. It has aliens in it. And vampires. I like sci-fi and fantasy, if you can't tell.
At this point, I haven't posted either of them on line. I've only been sharing them with a few friends and family members. I work slow, for one thing, and I want to get much further ahead so that readers wouldn't have to wait long periods between posts. I also, just as the way I naturally write stories, jump around in the story timeline as I create things and do a lot of re-writing and re-organizing before I am satisfied, so I like to not be stuck with what I posted as I'm still working on the story. And, I'm shy about sharing my stories with people as well, and get pretty anxiety-ridden when considering opening them up to the public. Which is one of the things I'm curious how other SimLit writers feel about. So maybe a topic for this thread at some point.
Most of my life, I've been trying to write novels, with marginal success and a lot of deadends. I went into a slump a few years ago that I was having a hard climbing out of, creative writing wise. Working on these SimLit stories has made me realize I actually love storytelling using pictures more than I like doing all of it in writing.
@haneul I like your questions. It's interesting to me to see the different responses. I've put my answers in the spoiler to keep this post from looking too long.
How do you keep your stories interesting?
Keeping it interesting for me mostly comes down to having multiple points of view characters with very different personalities, opinions, values, motives, relationships, and backgrounds. Keeping it interesting for other people... uh... mostly I try to have some kind of actual plot. My natural tendency is to focus on exploring the characters' internal and external lives. Without a couple helpful test readers (mostly my brother and my husband), I can get too wrapped up in that and forget to have something actually happening plot-wise. But I'm getting better at it.
How long does it take you to prepare each chapter and what is the most difficult part about it?
Because both of my SimLit stories are very planned out, rather than gameplay driven, the amount of time it takes to complete a single chapter varies wildly depending on how hard it is to get screenshots of the exact thing I want. My shortest time is one day. My longest time, so far, was nine months. The nine-month chapter needed several cc items my husband made for me, and a ton of custom poses that I made. Finally got it done over this recent Thanksgiving break I took, and I was so happy! A lot of my chapters take me a couple months to do, between the challenge of the chapter itself and all my real-life commitments.
Typically actually writing the chapter is something I do in fairly short time. Since both of my stories are done in a comicbook-like manner with the dialog as speech balloons, and just that chapter's POV character's personal thoughts narrating between the pictures, there is minimal stuff to write. I do a lot of the storytelling through the pictures rather than written narrative, so what I write down in advance looks more like a script for a play than a novel. Then, after taking the screenshots, I do image editing (mostly brightness and contrast to get the feel of the scene how I want it) and add all the dialogue balloons and so forth. That can take me a few days depending on what's needed.
I try to use in-game animations for a lot of the scenes because the style of animations works well for my comicbook style, but that can actually increase the time spent getting screenshots for me, because trying to get specific scenes shot the way I want them with the Sims is like trying to produce a movie with all the actors being toddlers. Sometimes I take the EA animations and make single frame poses out of them to get the timing of everything how I want it. And I also make a lot of my own custom poses for anything I need that isn't in the game.
What's something you really like about your own writing (for example, a favorite character, scene, or story arc)?
I like my characters. That's how I get into a story in the first place (both my own writing and for stories I experience through reading, watching, listening etc.). It's mostly about the characters for me.
@GlacierSnow Good to have someone else on board! Comicbook style sounds cool. I did make a SimLit comic once editing the screenshots to look like comic book art, but I took it down off my blog for multiple reasons. I don’t know if I have the patience to do another one anytime soon but we’ll see! Occults are always fun. My two story ‘universes’ revolve around aliens and spellcasters respectively.
Yeah there are some things I don’t share for various reasons, and as much as I like sharing SimLit the thought of sharing it with more people than I already do is nerve wracking X_x for reasons completely unknown. I have a few original story projects, one I never started writing and one that I’ve been rebooting on and off for years and ditched in favour of SimLit. It’s easier not having to come up with absolutely everything for the storytelling with SimLit : p
Relying on in-game animations to get the shots you want can be nightmarish. I’ve had to rely on art processors and free-use effects to make spellcasting look cooler : p And yeah characters are a good focus to have. I’ve read stories with good characters and thin plot that I’ve enjoyed, but IMO no great plot is going to be a good story if the characters aren’t interesting. Plot is a weak point of mine anyway because I struggle to organise ideas, which I’m working on.
@GlacierSnow Thanks for joining us and answering my questions - your approach seems really different from mine, so I appreciate hearing your perspective. It's super interesting because it's almost the opposite of what I do. I go from screenshots to story whereas you seem to go from story to screenshots, which is the approach of several people here, but most don't go to the extent of having a comicbook style. So that's quite cool of you.
I feel like I'm the wild one in this thread though because I don't really plan anything. I just try to make it look like I had a plan.
I'm shy about sharing my stories with people as well, and get pretty anxiety-ridden when considering opening them up to the public. Which is one of the things I'm curious how other SimLit writers feel about. So maybe a topic for this thread at some point.
I think it's fun to share. I don't think this community is about critiquing one another's work so much as it is about sharing something we all enjoy and trying to be supportive. I find that people also get better at things by doing them, so whether improvement is a goal or not, it's easier to improve when in an environment where people are encouraged to continuing pursuing writing/storytelling as a hobby, vocation, or whatever. I've gotten a LOT of helpful feedback from people here.
But I also understand writing without any particular readers in mind and writing with things out of order, taking your time, and just not sharing - there's a lot of value to that as well.
My longest time, so far, was nine months. The nine-month chapter needed several cc items my husband made for me, and a ton of custom poses that I made. Finally got it done over this recent Thanksgiving break I took, and I was so happy!
Hi everyone! Also welcome, @GlacierSnow ! Always good to see new people here! Your stories sound interesting and cool.
I'm also kind of anxious and shy about sharing my stories, but I also love sharing my work and seeing if people think anything about it. I also like the sense of community that reading someone else's story and them reading mine brings. It's just nice seeing what other people create and it's also nice if someone happens to like what I do. I feel like it's got easier with time and I'm less nervous about sharing my stories now than I was at the start.
When it comes to SimLit I mostly just write what I like. I try to keep things happening while also using a lot of time for character moments and meandering talks about life and death or the universe because I just find that interesting. I am aware that I don't have many readers and my story doesn't have that much mainstream appeal, but that's fine.
I find it interesting when characters going through situations that test them or help them grow. I also like clever writing. Some conflict is a good one too.
How long does it take you to prepare each chapter and what is the most difficult part about it?
Too long? Right now I'm working on my Sims stories very inconsistently, but even when I do work, it takes days of semi-active work to get them done. First I draft the chapter and write the main bulk of it. That can take anything from a day to a week if I write actively. Then I reserve at least one day for screenshotting, more if it's a tricky shoot or if I have to build sets or make Sims for it. I mostly play in TS3, and its loading times are... bad. It usually takes me about half an hour just to get the game actually running. I use a lot of poses and animations so the screenshotting takes a long time even without the loading time at the start. After that I go back to my text and edit it to more closely match the screenshots I took, and also make several proofreading rounds to make sure I can minimise errors. Then I have to edit the pics, which usually takes maybe an hour? More if I need to do something other than just adjusting the lighting and colour. Then I put the whole thing together, which I usually also reserve a day or an evening for. So... some time?
Nowadays I post maybe twice a year, so... I'm being very distracted by other things.
What's something you really like about your own writing (for example, a favorite character, scene, or story arc)?
I feel like I'm fairly okay with dialogue... though I have some mannerisms I have to watch out with that. I write characters better than I write plot. I've been told my characters are likable so I guess I'm pretty good at them.
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)
I don't think this community is about critiquing one another's work so much as it is about sharing something we all enjoy and trying to be supportive. I find that people also get better at things by doing them, so whether improvement is a goal or not, it's easier to improve when in an environment where people are encouraged to continuing pursuing writing/storytelling as a hobby, vocation, or whatever.
Yeah, I feel this. With SimLit there's so many different ways to tell your story, but also there's at least a handful of people for each different way you want to tell your story. Whether it's funny commentary, more of a narrative touch, just little statements to go with the pictures or whatnot. I think it's really good we have this spot with a somewhat broader outlook on storytelling than you'll find in other places. A lot of other writing communities are seeped in a) elitism and b) 'there's only one way to tell a story!' types. Thankfully there's not too much of that here. And yeah, I used to always think 'improvement is always key you must be constantly trying to improve your creativity!!!' but now honestly it's just a case of whatever, just have fun with whatever you're doing. Who cares if it isn't the best thing on Earth? Have fun with it, do whatever it takes to get a sliver of serotonin from your hobby : P
I feel like I'm the wild one in this thread though because I don't really plan anything. I just try to make it look like I had a plan.
Funnily enough this is what Untamed and TSAHF were like. Planning those was just the odd few idea lines written in a word document. For TSAHF I had most of the rough plot outlined in my head right away, but with the third story, it's a bit more complex given the size of the cast, and also the 'by the seat of my pants' writing style is painfully obvious by the third story because the idea I started off with, ended up not being the idea I ended up with halfway through. : P Also the reason I didn't answer your 'favourite character/scene' question was because most of those favourites are in TSAHF and I don't want to spoil!
So the way I'm actually planning the third story, is with a table, which is just one column with a bunch of boxes. It goes in order of:
- Initial ideas box (the very earliest planning bit )
- the chapter outlines, each box is for one chapter
- 'upcoming', ideas for scenes that will happen eventually but not too sure when they will.
- 'to remember' - bits I have to try and keep in mind because I will otherwise end up with a ton of plot holes (there are already one or two XC)
I end up moving around particular scenes quite often, changing orders of events within a chapter and even delaying certain scenes until a later chapter on occasion.
I feel like I'm the wild one in this thread though because I don't really plan anything. I just try to make it look like I had a plan.
Funnily enough this is what Untamed and TSAHF were like. Planning those was just the odd few idea lines written in a word document. For TSAHF I had most of the rough plot outlined in my head right away, but with the third story, it's a bit more complex given the size of the cast, and also the 'by the seat of my pants' writing style is painfully obvious by the third story because the idea I started off with, ended up not being the idea I ended up with halfway through. : P Also the reason I didn't answer your 'favourite character/scene' question was because most of those favourites are in TSAHF and I don't want to spoil!
So the way I'm actually planning the third story, is with a table, which is just one column with a bunch of boxes. It goes in order of:
- Initial ideas box (the very earliest planning bit )
- the chapter outlines, each box is for one chapter
- 'upcoming', ideas for scenes that will happen eventually but not too sure when they will.
- 'to remember' - bits I have to try and keep in mind because I will otherwise end up with a ton of plot holes (there are already one or two XC)
I end up moving around particular scenes quite often, changing orders of events within a chapter and even delaying certain scenes until a later chapter on occasion.
@SnowBnuuy So I really look forward to getting into TSAHF now. It's good to know it has some of your favorite bits. As far as planning goes, it's at odds with my approach, so my solution is to get better at making it look like I have a plan (which I think is true for some of my more recent posts) because part of the appeal of the Sims to me is the challenge of putting together a cohesive narrative from what the game gives me without cheating in game or otherwise. Outlining beforehand is kind of cheating/not organic enough for that/my concept for me personally, but I use mods freely (just not poses) and I do have ideas and a basic premise (a semi-legacy). Some of my interpretations of what happened in my game may be a bit sketchy, but I try to stay true to my concept.
I think having a table like you do is very smart. I want to organize my process a little bit better and a table might help me. I'll have to think about it. In short, what I have are screenshots and a list of things that happened with the list being based on the screenshots. I also have a few notes (really just keywords) about points to emphasize and some general ideas about things to try in game. But to be fair, I don't play and then immediately write because I need time to consider how things fit together, so there's a huge amount of lag built into my process.
How long does it take you to prepare each chapter and what is the most difficult part about it?
What's something you really like about your own writing (for example, a favorite character, scene, or story arc)?
believe it or not i just found this even though its been around since the year i started writing the benders
1 i try and addnew situations sometimes its hard but the benders love to help me decide the first time i wrote it was this cute funny story. then i experimented well not really i got mods and things went off the rails . ayden my generation2 heir was not like his parents somehow he broke all the rules in 10 sim days.
the mos
t difficult part is i can't plan cause the one time i tried even writing it down things went the total opposite in game.
3 i liked writing the scene in the first version where ayden had a fight with elsa then later that night ends up in the hospital with appendcitis because it made one of my readers upset. most people would hate upsetting someone and i hated that i did later but i'm not much of a writer so it meant i got the emotions right.
Hi there, I've been writing my story since 2016. Well, with 5 years of breaks in between. I originally stopped working on it when Photobucket revolted in 2017 because I had thousands of pictures at that point and it was too much work to move them all - and without them, the story was no fun. But I loved my sims, and I missed them, and eventually I steeled myself for the massive amount of work it would be to move the story and it's picture host.
So here we are. I've lost all my readers because of the super long break, plus moving to my own site. I don't think a single person looks at it at this point. But I really enjoy doing this, and it's okay. I'm just happy it can exist again where I can enjoy it. I am still reposting my old content, but hopefully sometime next year I can resume the file and finish the story!
How do you keep your stories interesting?
Well, are they interesting? I don't know, I hope so. Assuming my story is interesting, it probably isn't anything I can pat myself on the back for. I think it'd be interesting just because that's the way the game played out, plus the requirements from the challenge keeps things hopping. If I really had to give myself credit, maybe I can say the story is just a little bit funny
How long does it take you to prepare each chapter and what is the most difficult part about it?
I don't prepare for writing the chapters at all... I think what I struggle with the most isn't the writing process, but including some of my spare sims. I have a really hard time finding time and room for them to have a part in the story and they tend to just fall by the wayside. Especially as the family has grown and gotten bigger, and more relationships outside of the family start to happen. But as for the process I tend to just narrate the photos, easy-peasy and interesting to fit a story to them.
What's something you really like about your own writing (for example, a favorite character, scene, or story arc)?
I really like writing the relationships between my sims. It's a lot of fun, my favorite part!
@maice Good to have someone else in the thread : ) You could always post a link to your new SimLit site in the Writers’ Lounge, or put a link in your signature and hopefully you can get some new readers. (If you already have it on your signature, ignore me- I’m on the mobile version of the site so can’t see any sigs.) Moving all those pics sounds like hard work, but it’s good you managed to keep all of those images!
Including spare Sims is always hard. I ended up doing little Interlude chapters for some side characters, except for in my latest one where there’s just a lot of POVs and occasionally it’s from the side character, with no particular chapter dedication to it.
Writing the relationships is definitely the fun part. I mostly write about familial stuff, but I sort of include romance sometimes. It’s never a massive focus in my work though.
@maice Good to have someone else in the thread : ) You could always post a link to your new SimLit site in the Writers’ Lounge, or put a link in your signature and hopefully you can get some new readers. (If you already have it on your signature, ignore me- I’m on the mobile version of the site so can’t see any sigs.) Moving all those pics sounds like hard work, but it’s good you managed to keep all of those images!
Including spare Sims is always hard. I ended up doing little Interlude chapters for some side characters, except for in my latest one where there’s just a lot of POVs and occasionally it’s from the side character, with no particular chapter dedication to it.
Writing the relationships is definitely the fun part. I mostly write about familial stuff, but I sort of include romance sometimes. It’s never a massive focus in my work though.
Luckily for me, even though Photobucket did what it did (which was to stop allowing images to be hotlinked and demand payment) it did not delete the images. So I'm really grateful for that, because I have just shy of 3,000 screenshots. Right now it seems like they've reverted their ways, and are even being generous with the amount of free space. But for several years they sent messages that I needed to upgrade because I was over the limit. All seems okay for now, but I've been pretty anxious to get my pictures off that site in case they do start deleting. I have about 1100 transferred so far.
And I'm lucky I managed to keep my game as well, because in recent years I've gone through a hard drive failure and lost everything! Luckily I was pretty religious about backing up the file in my google drive. In fact my most recent backup was a couple years after I even stopped playing that particular file, so it should still be right where I left off!
My relationships tend to focus on the friendships the most. It wasn't planned, it's just that 5 friends are required for each generation in the challenge, including one BFF. And as for romance? Not required, just need for having the next heir. So the romance (and the spouses) have fallen by the wayside every generation so far in favor of focusing on the friends. Such is life. But I'm not much for romance anyway, I guess.
And my spares barely exist anymore... Since I'm doing an immortal dynasty, all my previous generation heirs are still there as well. So it's enough trying not to leave them out without trying to write for spare children and spouses and all, as well!
@friendsfan367 I wonder how you missed this thread before. I still remember one of your Sims dying. The Benders have a lot happening.
@maice Welcome! 3,000 screenshots is a ton. It would be devastating to lose that, so I'm glad Photobucket didn't delete them. I hope it remains stable and that you're able to transfer everything safely.
I like how you've approached your founder, Luke's, friendship with Don. It's fun and seems like it was unplanned. Don was just constantly around and irresistibly friendly. I'm not familiar with the rules of the challenge, so I'll need to look at them, but it sounds like you have a full cast and I imagine it's difficult to manage that many Sims. 5 friends + the founder/heir + siblings + spouse + children/parents = so so many. I know that some of your Sims are/will become immortal, but with aging on, I've found that there's a definite limit to how many Sims I can feature on a timely basis, so I've reduced my household size. At the same time, though, not every Sim needs to be featured and "background characters" can add a lot to a story.
@friendsfan367 I wonder how you missed this thread before. I still remember one of your Sims dying. The Benders have a lot happening.
@maice Welcome! 3,000 screenshots is a ton. It would be devastating to lose that, so I'm glad Photobucket didn't delete them. I hope it remains stable and that you're able to transfer everything safely.
I like how you've approached your founder, Luke's, friendship with Don. It's fun and seems like it was unplanned. Don was just constantly around and irresistibly friendly. I'm not familiar with the rules of the challenge, so I'll need to look at them, but it sounds like you have a full cast and I imagine it's difficult to manage that many Sims. 5 friends + the founder/heir + siblings + spouse + children/parents = so so many. I know that some of your Sims are/will become immortal, but with aging on, I've found that there's a definite limit to how many Sims I can feature on a timely basis, so I've reduced my household size. At the same time, though, not every Sim needs to be featured and "background characters" can add a lot to a story.
yeah elsa cathteas favorite died in a fire once. but we got in a did not did to argument over ayden and elsa once too. thats the part i was talking about last night.
Comments
Hope
You create from hope. In spite of everything, you maintain a fervent hope deep inside you that things can always be better. It is a stubborn and tenacious hope that you take care to cultivate because you would be lost without it. Art is an outlet for your hopes, a way of expressing your most optimistic wishes for the world. It reveals your ideals and everything you value most. Your work is a declaration of hope for yourself and the world, an adamant assertion that a better reality is within reach. In a world so rife with disillusionment, you strive to send out a message of stubborn encouragement. It is a call to action for everyone on the verge of giving up. Though you may doubt yourself at times, your hopes are what inspire you the most.
@SnuffyBucket I like pretty things, so that's probably how my results came out as they did. But I think I've just now reached the point in Almost Eternal where the "unpretty" is exposed, and the grit and difficulty behind unexpectedly becoming an occult is beginning to be explored. It'll be fun to read, especially because in my own writing I tend to have lines that even my less than appealing characters don't cross.
That scans. A lot of my life feels like that, but I also like "fish out of water" scenarios as a plot device.
outrun / blog / tunglr
I think your result is more 'me' than the result I got to be honest.
You can't disrespect where you came from! [shakes cane] Maybe I just miss 2008 internet, but it's nicer to be a sims storyteller in 2021. There's more to work with and I heard making poses for TS2 is harder than for the other titles. Those tutorials gave me a headache.
Hmm I forget if "Fascination" or something equivalent was an option on that quiz. That might suit you better.
outrun / blog / tunglr
How do you keep your stories interesting?
That’s a hard one to answer. I don’t know what other people find interesting; I only know what my own interests are, and what kind of story would keep me hooked. So that’s what I write. Something that I myself would want to read. My story is incredibly niche because of it, but it’s also what still makes it fun to write after more than a year of working on it.
How long does it take you to prepare each chapter and what is the most difficult part about it?
At minimum, it takes me a full week to prepare a chapter. I don’t have a lot of time during the day and at night, the lighting in my home isn’t good enough to do proper editing, so I have to plan my moments. The most difficult part is finding poses that work and setting up everything to take good screenshots, though editing and resizing the screenshots afterwards is the most tedious.
What's something you really like about your own writing (for example, a favorite character, scene, or story arc)?
Lots of things. If I go with the first thing to pop into my mind... I have fun making the overall storyline, but I adore the moments where I can just let the cast be silly. Arthur’s kid chapters, Morgana and Arthur bickering on the way to Scarborough, the random silliness that are most of the bonus chapters. My story is very tense and dark a lot of the time and because of it, I really enjoy the light moments where you know there's no danger. The ones where you can relax.
. How do you keep your stories interesting?
Conflict of some kind helps to spice things up, and in the current story, enhancing the magic duels with an art processing program so they look cooler. Sometimes I do character ‘interludes’ so we’re not listening to the same 2-3 characters, but they’re not as much of a thing in newer stories. If not, just throw some cute animal pics in there or something XD
. How long does it take…most difficult part about it?
The fact my game constantly crashes, the ‘musical chairs’, the ‘let’s stand here and do nothing for 7 sim hours instead of what you told me to do…’ is one of the hardest parts of it. I’d say it’s probably more infuriating Sometimes the limits with poses etc can be irritating, but I just work around that with the actual writing instead of worrying too much about the pictures.
Chapter prep can take anything from a day to a week, writing out the events that happen in each chapter. I work out the order of those events when I come to actually write the chapter, and some scenes and plot points end up cut or just delayed until later. I do my screenshots before I write anything, and they can take forever due to lag and crashes. When it comes to actually writing, I currently don’t have much of an attention span for it so it can take up to a week to actually finish the writing part.
. What’s something you like about your own writing?
The fact that I am unapologetically cringe and don’t over-think how good or bad my writing actually is. I bang out a chapter about a chaotic person who wears nothing but all-black and eventually they make a bad decision and everything gets crazy and that’s it, and I don’t pretend my writing is any deeper than it is. There’s deeper meaning in some bits here and there sure, but at the most it’s just me hyperfixating on some subject and wanting to shove that hyperfixation down the throats of the Creative Corner. Also I like that I managed to ditch my ‘let’s carbon copy a particular author’ phase in my teens. Readers seem to appreciate the various subversions in my work, and turning a few common SimLit tropes (and personal pet peeves) on their heads. Won’t go into specific characters or scenes for sake of not spoiling anything and also I’d be here forever if I did XD
@SnowBnuuy Thanks for the answers. You've made me think about some things.
I love that you're unapologetic about your writing.
Now, to answer my own questions.
How do you keep your stories interesting?
I like reading about really high stakes conflicts, but I also like reading pieces where the conflict is much more subtle. With writing, I think I default to subtlety so it can get boring. I try to be careful about that and keep things fairly short and a little over-the-top/humorous to help.
How long does it take you to prepare each chapter and what is the most difficult part about it?
It takes me a while, several hours. The most difficult part for me is writing in a way that's interesting and cohesive. BUT I don't have a lot of other steps. I don't use poses (unless my Sims are posing for a picture in game) and I don't have lag. I take screenshots of my gameplay and sometimes I miss the moment or otherwise make a mistake with that, but taking screenshots while playing isn't a difficult process.
What's something you really like about your own writing (for example, a favorite character, scene, or story arc)?
I like how I interpret my Sims' actions and give meaning to meaningless things if that makes sense. That's the basic concept/vehicle for my legacy. I also really like for there to be reasons and meaning behind things, so a lot (but not all) of the aspects of my story have some kind of reason behind it. I try not to over-indulge in this or symbolism, allusions, or odd word choices, but I definitely do include them (because it's fun
1. During gameplay I'm making notes of what goes on between characters and things that happen to them so it's about being alert to potential plot points and knowing when to screen cap a moment that, when it comes time to writing, will illustrate and signpost what's going on. I like to add new characters or develop them more to keep things interesting. Having a distinct idea of each character's voice helps a great deal. As my story is set in a historical time period I make sure everything and everyone depicted evokes the era to make the screencaps more interesting.
2. One day of gameplay, making notes as I go, and then a week of writing. Earlier this year I could get a chapter out every 4 days but real life means it's more like a week to 10 days now. The difficult part is finding the time to write.
3. I like the way I write dialogue. I try to make it flow without encumbering the reader with too much text description or exposition as characters talk to each other. If you get the pacing and choice of words right, the reader can pick up the tone and reactions easier. It doesn't need a lot of "he said, in an expectant mood" descriptors if you get the words and pacing right.
My favourite character in Sim 66: Julia Epstein. She's always easy to write for and she's become a favourite for a lot of the readers as well. She's a prim and proper young woman with a point to prove and a disdain for the instant pleasures of life but she does have a heart of gold for those struggling, especially children, and you just know at some point the big brainy spectacles are going to come off and the hair loosened from pigtails.
Favourite story arc: I think for me it was the attack on Lily Feng and Alan Cuffe's house which led to John Action chasing the leading suspect and ended up with his memory being erased.
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
Same! The save isn’t that old so not sure what the issues are really.
I don’t go straight from ‘thoughts in my head’ to screenshots purely because I need to organise exactly what’s going on before I can attempt to put it into pictures. My brain is a mess and incapable of any coherent thought process, so I need to get it written down before I can get any pictures together. Even with the writing down of ideas first I still end up with at least 4-5 scrapped screenshots every chapter.
I do enjoy the writing most of the time, it’s just I’m easily distracted and can never just sit down and write a whole chapter out these days. It takes me hours to write a chapter though so probably good not to do it in one sitting XnX I am glad you’re on board with unapologetic fantasy wish fulfilment : p
I too like the way you write and all the little bits of subtle meaning sprinkled through. Also I like the variety of personalities in the Fier family.
True. It's good to move around and let the writing sit for a bit.
Thank you.
@Kellogg_J_Kellogg Thanks for answering my questions and that's interesting! I like Julia as one of my favorites, but I thought the general favorite would be Suzy Kent or Action. I haven't gotten to your favorite story arc yet, so I'll have to see about that.
I'm currently working on two SimLit stories. Both are created in a (sort-of) comicbook style. One is about students at a high school for vampires. The other is an urban-fantasy, supernatural soap-opera, for lack of a better description.
At this point, I haven't posted either of them on line. I've only been sharing them with a few friends and family members. I work slow, for one thing, and I want to get much further ahead so that readers wouldn't have to wait long periods between posts. I also, just as the way I naturally write stories, jump around in the story timeline as I create things and do a lot of re-writing and re-organizing before I am satisfied, so I like to not be stuck with what I posted as I'm still working on the story. And, I'm shy about sharing my stories with people as well, and get pretty anxiety-ridden when considering opening them up to the public. Which is one of the things I'm curious how other SimLit writers feel about. So maybe a topic for this thread at some point.
Most of my life, I've been trying to write novels, with marginal success and a lot of deadends. I went into a slump a few years ago that I was having a hard climbing out of, creative writing wise. Working on these SimLit stories has made me realize I actually love storytelling using pictures more than I like doing all of it in writing.
@haneul I like your questions. It's interesting to me to see the different responses. I've put my answers in the spoiler to keep this post from looking too long.
Keeping it interesting for me mostly comes down to having multiple points of view characters with very different personalities, opinions, values, motives, relationships, and backgrounds. Keeping it interesting for other people... uh... mostly I try to have some kind of actual plot.
How long does it take you to prepare each chapter and what is the most difficult part about it?
Because both of my SimLit stories are very planned out, rather than gameplay driven, the amount of time it takes to complete a single chapter varies wildly depending on how hard it is to get screenshots of the exact thing I want. My shortest time is one day. My longest time, so far, was nine months.
Typically actually writing the chapter is something I do in fairly short time. Since both of my stories are done in a comicbook-like manner with the dialog as speech balloons, and just that chapter's POV character's personal thoughts narrating between the pictures, there is minimal stuff to write. I do a lot of the storytelling through the pictures rather than written narrative, so what I write down in advance looks more like a script for a play than a novel. Then, after taking the screenshots, I do image editing (mostly brightness and contrast to get the feel of the scene how I want it) and add all the dialogue balloons and so forth. That can take me a few days depending on what's needed.
I try to use in-game animations for a lot of the scenes because the style of animations works well for my comicbook style, but that can actually increase the time spent getting screenshots for me, because trying to get specific scenes shot the way I want them with the Sims is like trying to produce a movie with all the actors being toddlers. Sometimes I take the EA animations and make single frame poses out of them to get the timing of everything how I want it. And I also make a lot of my own custom poses for anything I need that isn't in the game.
What's something you really like about your own writing (for example, a favorite character, scene, or story arc)?
I like my characters. That's how I get into a story in the first place (both my own writing and for stories I experience through reading, watching, listening etc.). It's mostly about the characters for me.
Yeah there are some things I don’t share for various reasons, and as much as I like sharing SimLit the thought of sharing it with more people than I already do is nerve wracking X_x for reasons completely unknown. I have a few original story projects, one I never started writing and one that I’ve been rebooting on and off for years and ditched in favour of SimLit. It’s easier not having to come up with absolutely everything for the storytelling with SimLit : p
Relying on in-game animations to get the shots you want can be nightmarish. I’ve had to rely on art processors and free-use effects to make spellcasting look cooler : p And yeah characters are a good focus to have. I’ve read stories with good characters and thin plot that I’ve enjoyed, but IMO no great plot is going to be a good story if the characters aren’t interesting. Plot is a weak point of mine anyway because I struggle to organise ideas, which I’m working on.
I feel like I'm the wild one in this thread though because I don't really plan anything. I just try to make it look like I had a plan.
I think it's fun to share. I don't think this community is about critiquing one another's work so much as it is about sharing something we all enjoy and trying to be supportive. I find that people also get better at things by doing them, so whether improvement is a goal or not, it's easier to improve when in an environment where people are encouraged to continuing pursuing writing/storytelling as a hobby, vocation, or whatever. I've gotten a LOT of helpful feedback from people here.
But I also understand writing without any particular readers in mind and writing with things out of order, taking your time, and just not sharing - there's a lot of value to that as well.
I applaud such dedication! Wow!
I'm also kind of anxious and shy about sharing my stories, but I also love sharing my work and seeing if people think anything about it. I also like the sense of community that reading someone else's story and them reading mine brings. It's just nice seeing what other people create and it's also nice if someone happens to like what I do. I feel like it's got easier with time and I'm less nervous about sharing my stories now than I was at the start.
When it comes to SimLit I mostly just write what I like. I try to keep things happening while also using a lot of time for character moments and meandering talks about life and death or the universe because I just find that interesting. I am aware that I don't have many readers and my story doesn't have that much mainstream appeal, but that's fine.
I find it interesting when characters going through situations that test them or help them grow. I also like clever writing. Some conflict is a good one too.
Too long? Right now I'm working on my Sims stories very inconsistently, but even when I do work, it takes days of semi-active work to get them done. First I draft the chapter and write the main bulk of it. That can take anything from a day to a week if I write actively. Then I reserve at least one day for screenshotting, more if it's a tricky shoot or if I have to build sets or make Sims for it. I mostly play in TS3, and its loading times are... bad. It usually takes me about half an hour just to get the game actually running. I use a lot of poses and animations so the screenshotting takes a long time even without the loading time at the start. After that I go back to my text and edit it to more closely match the screenshots I took, and also make several proofreading rounds to make sure I can minimise errors. Then I have to edit the pics, which usually takes maybe an hour? More if I need to do something other than just adjusting the lighting and colour. Then I put the whole thing together, which I usually also reserve a day or an evening for. So... some time?
Nowadays I post maybe twice a year, so... I'm being very distracted by other things.
I feel like I'm fairly okay with dialogue... though I have some mannerisms I have to watch out with that. I write characters better than I write plot. I've been told my characters are likable so I guess I'm pretty good at them.
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)
Yeah, I feel this. With SimLit there's so many different ways to tell your story, but also there's at least a handful of people for each different way you want to tell your story. Whether it's funny commentary, more of a narrative touch, just little statements to go with the pictures or whatnot. I think it's really good we have this spot with a somewhat broader outlook on storytelling than you'll find in other places. A lot of other writing communities are seeped in a) elitism and b) 'there's only one way to tell a story!' types. Thankfully there's not too much of that here. And yeah, I used to always think 'improvement is always key you must be constantly trying to improve your creativity!!!' but now honestly it's just a case of whatever, just have fun with whatever you're doing. Who cares if it isn't the best thing on Earth? Have fun with it, do whatever it takes to get a sliver of serotonin from your hobby : P
Funnily enough this is what Untamed and TSAHF were like. Planning those was just the odd few idea lines written in a word document. For TSAHF I had most of the rough plot outlined in my head right away, but with the third story, it's a bit more complex given the size of the cast, and also the 'by the seat of my pants' writing style is painfully obvious by the third story because the idea I started off with, ended up not being the idea I ended up with halfway through. : P Also the reason I didn't answer your 'favourite character/scene' question was because most of those favourites are in TSAHF and I don't want to spoil!
So the way I'm actually planning the third story, is with a table, which is just one column with a bunch of boxes. It goes in order of:
- Initial ideas box (the very earliest planning bit )
- the chapter outlines, each box is for one chapter
- 'upcoming', ideas for scenes that will happen eventually but not too sure when they will.
- 'to remember' - bits I have to try and keep in mind because I will otherwise end up with a ton of plot holes (there are already one or two XC)
I end up moving around particular scenes quite often, changing orders of events within a chapter and even delaying certain scenes until a later chapter on occasion.
@SnowBnuuy So I really look forward to getting into TSAHF now.
I think having a table like you do is very smart. I want to organize my process a little bit better and a table might help me. I'll have to think about it. In short, what I have are screenshots and a list of things that happened with the list being based on the screenshots. I also have a few notes (really just keywords) about points to emphasize and some general ideas about things to try in game. But to be fair, I don't play and then immediately write because I need time to consider how things fit together, so there's a huge amount of lag built into my process.
believe it or not i just found this even though its been around since the year i started writing the benders
1 i try and addnew situations sometimes its hard but the benders love to help me decide the first time i wrote it was this cute funny story. then i experimented well not really i got mods and things went off the rails . ayden my generation2 heir was not like his parents somehow he broke all the rules in 10 sim days.
the mos
t difficult part is i can't plan cause the one time i tried even writing it down things went the total opposite in game.
3 i liked writing the scene in the first version where ayden had a fight with elsa then later that night ends up in the hospital with appendcitis because it made one of my readers upset. most people would hate upsetting someone and i hated that i did later but i'm not much of a writer so it meant i got the emotions right.
So here we are. I've lost all my readers because of the super long break, plus moving to my own site. I don't think a single person looks at it at this point. But I really enjoy doing this, and it's okay. I'm just happy it can exist again where I can enjoy it. I am still reposting my old content, but hopefully sometime next year I can resume the file and finish the story!
How do you keep your stories interesting?
Well, are they interesting? I don't know, I hope so. Assuming my story is interesting, it probably isn't anything I can pat myself on the back for. I think it'd be interesting just because that's the way the game played out, plus the requirements from the challenge keeps things hopping. If I really had to give myself credit, maybe I can say the story is just a little bit funny
How long does it take you to prepare each chapter and what is the most difficult part about it?
I don't prepare for writing the chapters at all... I think what I struggle with the most isn't the writing process, but including some of my spare sims. I have a really hard time finding time and room for them to have a part in the story and they tend to just fall by the wayside. Especially as the family has grown and gotten bigger, and more relationships outside of the family start to happen. But as for the process I tend to just narrate the photos, easy-peasy and interesting to fit a story to them.
What's something you really like about your own writing (for example, a favorite character, scene, or story arc)?
I really like writing the relationships between my sims. It's a lot of fun, my favorite part!
Maice Sims
Including spare Sims is always hard. I ended up doing little Interlude chapters for some side characters, except for in my latest one where there’s just a lot of POVs and occasionally it’s from the side character, with no particular chapter dedication to it.
Writing the relationships is definitely the fun part. I mostly write about familial stuff, but I sort of include romance sometimes. It’s never a massive focus in my work though.
Luckily for me, even though Photobucket did what it did (which was to stop allowing images to be hotlinked and demand payment) it did not delete the images. So I'm really grateful for that, because I have just shy of 3,000 screenshots. Right now it seems like they've reverted their ways, and are even being generous with the amount of free space. But for several years they sent messages that I needed to upgrade because I was over the limit. All seems okay for now, but I've been pretty anxious to get my pictures off that site in case they do start deleting. I have about 1100 transferred so far.
And I'm lucky I managed to keep my game as well, because in recent years I've gone through a hard drive failure and lost everything! Luckily I was pretty religious about backing up the file in my google drive. In fact my most recent backup was a couple years after I even stopped playing that particular file, so it should still be right where I left off!
My relationships tend to focus on the friendships the most. It wasn't planned, it's just that 5 friends are required for each generation in the challenge, including one BFF. And as for romance? Not required, just need for having the next heir. So the romance (and the spouses) have fallen by the wayside every generation so far in favor of focusing on the friends. Such is life. But I'm not much for romance anyway, I guess.
And my spares barely exist anymore... Since I'm doing an immortal dynasty, all my previous generation heirs are still there as well. So it's enough trying not to leave them out without trying to write for spare children and spouses and all, as well!
Maice Sims
@maice Welcome! 3,000 screenshots is a ton. It would be devastating to lose that, so I'm glad Photobucket didn't delete them. I hope it remains stable and that you're able to transfer everything safely.
I like how you've approached your founder, Luke's, friendship with Don. It's fun and seems like it was unplanned. Don was just constantly around and irresistibly friendly.
yeah elsa cathteas favorite died in a fire once. but we got in a did not did to argument over ayden and elsa once too. thats the part i was talking about last night.