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The Art of Sims Storytelling
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Thank you so much for the reply. I hadn't thought of saving at different times, that's genius and I wish I would've thought of that before, haha. Better late than never, I guess! And yes, I try to back up often as well, The Sims makes me paranoid honestly, you never know when it might decide to corrupt a save or anything really!
Are you one who uses poses, or do you go mostly vanilla when it comes to screenshots?
I haven't come that far in my development, you could say
I try to take advantage of the game's poses. I have a kind of dualistic working method where I try to push my characters in a certain direction and where I then use what I later find in the pictures to create my text. Often I am surprised that something unplanned happens, which I find quite inspiring.
I take a lot of pictures while playing and I would say that the Pause key and the Tab key are my most important tools. They allow me to change the camera angle when taking pictures.
I won't deny that I will eventually use poses, as it can be quite a time-consuming process to capture a desired facial expression or body expression.
I constantly get new inspiration from following other writers' stories in the simlit community.
For the rest, it really depends a lot on the kind of story. I see simlit as being mostly divided between game-driven storytelling, where people tell what happens when playing their game (for example, following challenges like a legacy), and plot-driven stories in which there usually is a strong effort with the preparation of peculiar settings, poses, cc etc... to make the perfect screenshot to describe whatever story you may have in mind. I like both these kinds of simlit, even if to make them is really something completely different.
They do say that reading is the most important tool for inspiration, knowledge, and growth for writers, so that only makes sense!
@HermioneSims Haha, yeah, that's totally true. It's fun to see how people's inspiration plays out in game, but the other way around is just as inspiring.
To answer your questions for my own simlit...
How I use Sims 4 for my storytelling
I have a bunch of saves I just play with, and a few I write about in a "writing about the gameplay" manner, but these are mostly for my own amusement and I haven't shared them online as written stories yet.
But the story I think of as my "simlit story" is the one shown in my signature, Seventeen & Maldusk. I actually started working on writing it about 4 years ago, but only started sharing it online a couple months ago (mostly because I just wasn't ready before now). For this story, I pretty much use the game as a creative studio to get the screenshots I want, for a story I plan and write in advance. I use the in-game animations (though not necessarily the actual gameplay) along with custom poses to get the shots I want.
In the beginning, I was using custom poses that other creators made, but eventually I learned how to make my own (in fact, Chapter 8, which I just posted) is the point where I started making my own poses.
Getting ahead of the posted story
I just posted Chapter 8 in Season One. But created that chapter a few years ago. I am currently working on Season Two, with about half of it completed. Part of the reason for this is that I don't write in a linear fashion. I write whatever part I am imagining. I jump around, work forwards, work backwards, rearrange things, remove things, add things... This is just the way I always write stories, including novels. So for something like simlit where I want to share it in a serial manner, I need to get way ahead of where the readers are. Basically I didn't start sharing Season One until I was certain I wouldn't want to change it any more.
So for me "playing ahead" of the posted story's chapters... is pretty much what I'm always doing.
The only drawback (for me) about working so far ahead is it can be challenging to interact with readers without accidentally giving away spoilers.
Organization and motivation
The main thing that helps me get motivated when I feel stalled out is brainstorming with my husband. Usually when I start feeling like I can't write, it's because there is something bothering me about what I have planned that needs to be figured out or fixed. He's awesome at helping me think outside the box. And once I do, I'm off and running again.
For organization, I plan each season out on the living-room wall with sticky notes. Seriously.
And just like @MonaSolstraale I have several saves I use for this story, and the number keeps growing. I do this so that I can work on different scenes or different chapters, jumping around as I normally do, without messing up stuff for a different scene I might still be working on. I also have saves for backstory stuff, and extra saves just because I need more lots for all my different buildings, and more space to store all the sims I make to be side characters, walk-ons, and extras.
On staying organized and motivated -- well, I'm still on a break (which I hope to end very soon) so I can't really say anything about staying motivated. I got busy with other things. I also traveled 20k+ miles in 3 weeks, which I do not recommend and which exhausted me... For me, it's helpful to take breaks to keep from completely burning out. As for organization, I create brief outlines of events after I play. Like everyone else here, I also have a ton of backup saves everywhere: on various computers, in the cloud, etc.
I like to play ahead of where I write. I'm currently much farther ahead than I would like to be, but I'm just going to keep playing. If it becomes an issue, I can write the story differently. My goal though is to have my legacy follow my gameplay. I don't play that much, though, so I'm not generations ahead. I also do not use poses or script things out. I try, especially more recently, to have pretty screenshots, but 95% of my posts are from authentic gameplay. I focus on my Sims as characters and want to see how much depth I can pull from the game itself (and mods).
@haneul Taking breaks seems like it can be crucial to not get burned out, so I'm definitely going to take that with me and remember that it's ok and that most – if not all – readers will understand. I'm the same there, I play ahead. I think note-taking is crucial, then. Taking little snippets of information and inspo that come to me during gameplay so as to not forget or lose the “trail”/“red thread.”
For me, TS4 is more or less just a glorified story simulator at this point. I use GShade (graphics injector), CC and poses and I use it purely for storytelling, creating Sims and building houses or lots. Gameplay has little place in my storytelling nowadays.
My main motivation is the fact that TS4 has been a hyperfixation since 2019. I like having something to think about, characters and a plot, it's a nice distraction. Not gonna lie, there's also the validation aspect, but that's a perk and definitely not the main reason : P I write for myself first. Then throw it at everyone else : P
'Game getting too far ahead of the story' happened to me during...so I tried to extend a 3 gen challenge story into a legacy. Played too far ahead and then lost story context with the screenshots and discontinued. I know @haneul annotates their screenshots, which I probably should have did to remember the narrative context of the pictures. Now I mostly plan what's going to happen each chapter, though some recent ones have been more of a 'by the seat of my pants' job.
I have separate saves, but most of those are just backups. The only truly 'separate' save is my freeplay which I barely use, and any 'flashback' saves for specific scenes.
i love that your on a brak talking about motivation. sorry i worked today i expected a easy day 3 days before thanksgiving. it wasnt easy but i had fun. i'm on a break too just til curseforge goes live.
I’m having so much fun with my own story which I never imagined would turn into what it’s become. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole process of creating and building a story. I’ve never done anything like this before and never thought I had this creativity in me. The little I’ve read has been inspiring.
Under The Tartosan Sun
Schemes and Dreams
It begins with the concept. So I have a setting and a time period: Sim City in 1966. That's the starting off point. I don't bother with CC poses but I do use a lot of CC clothing, hairstyles, make up and furnishings to recreate the 1960s. The game play I leave untouched with mods.
Gameplay drives a lot of the story but with each chapter I look at what happened previously and work from there in terms of plotting. I'll read back the last few chapters of the story to see what plot threads there are and then play through a day or two of the game steering the characters where I want them to go but letting the game action dictate all the little bits of story and tone. As I go along I screen cap interesting parts of what happened in the game using classic cinematic framing: 2 shots, 3 shots, establishing shots and the T-Principle (look up "Classical Hollywood Cinematic techniques").
After I've saved the game I then write it all up. What happened in the game? How does it fit in with the rest of the story so far? Where do I want it to go?
I've developed what I call a "voice" for each character. I know them so well I can even write with the sound of their voice in my mind and how they speak. And after that....I don't know, really, I go with the flow. Once I get started writing I'm quite instinctive and ideas just spring forth and I think "does it work if they say this? Would this be better?" I love writing dialogue and like to keep it fast flowing. Often I don't bother with lots of exposition or blocks of descriptive prose. I let the screen caps and dialogue do most of the work.
I do cheat in one thing though: I have a duplicate saved game world: All the buildings are the same and the main characters are duplicated as well. I have a couple of characters who work in an office building (which functions as a library in game terms) but to get the look of lots of office workers coming and going everyone in this world is wearing a business suit.
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
If you have a question or a consideration you are struggling with when it concerns Simlit and your writing process, this is the place where you can often find someone to reflect with.
Another time I will stage scenes is if something significant happens ‘off screen’. Marriage proposals are a perfect example. I’ve had two autonomous proposals in my main cast and I couldn’t let that go without depicting how I thought it happened. That’s why I have the main save and two backups. One back is there just in case and the other is for staged scenes.
Under The Tartosan Sun
Schemes and Dreams
Under The Tartosan Sun
Schemes and Dreams
@SnowBnuuy Yeah, I noticed that as soon as I started writing SimLit, I didn't have the same urge to play the game and then inevitably just starting a new save. Now I play to write, so I hear you on the glorified story simulator part. How does one annotate the screenshots? Like naming them things on the hard drive?
@DaniRose2143 That's so fun to hear that you've found something new about yourself. I used to love “regular” writing when I was younger, but fell out of it because of mental health issues. SimLit is what has allowed me to find my love for writing again, and it's such a good feeling that I've been longing to experience again! And P.S. I honestly didn't read the previous pages of this thread at all, I just jumped right in, geronimo!
@Kellogg_J_Kellogg Haha, I love that! Interesting to get some insight into your process! And that sounds hilarious, everyone walking around in business suits. It's fascinating how different everyone's process is. I'm a lot less involved. I hop in the game, play, and just take random screenshots that I think will fit into the story. No poses, no fixing of townies or anything like that, very organize. But it's mostly because I'm lazy and just want to get to writing! I guess I just have a lot less focus on getting good screenshots than a lot of people.
I don't know what to call mine, a mix between story-driven inspired by gameplay perhaps? I follow the challenge and get story inspiration from that, and then let the sims flavor the story.
@riverbloe The main place I store them is on my hard drive. I am a bit unusual in that I basically only play 1 save that I've had since 2018. I have other saves/games, but I don't really mess with them much, so I back up my main save, mods, and screenshots everywhere (in the cloud with Google, on an external HD, and on another computer). I also have most of the screenshots I've finished with on both imgur and my website. Because I'm heavily gameplay-based, I'd be in trouble if I lost my game.
I do not take extensive notes while I play. I like just playing the game, but I honestly am addicted to screenshots so I pause a lot for screenshots. These days I tend to get a screenshot snippet of the UI instead of notes. For example, if certain Sims have certain sentiments about other Sims or if a significant level was gained or there was a certain reaction, I try to get a picture of that. Later, when I put it together for my posts, I start writing things out. To be clear, I do not post all the screenshots I take. I'm still posting most of them, but once my story catches up more to my gameplay, I'll be posting maybe 10%. A lot are redundant. Some are boring. Others are just too random and don't fit with anything. One of my poor Sim's storyline just gets cut all the time for being random.
I think I was mentioned as annotating screenshots. My writing has changed since I started my legacy, but because I'm doing this for fun, I have always written in a way that makes the process fun for me. What I like the most (and have liked the most from the beginning) is trying to write the story my Sims give me instead of making my own story for them to act out. Lately, I have also enjoyed having a layered sort of story, so even though I'm gameplay-based, there's a lot of stuff going on: symbolism, foreshadowing, and other types of references to outside things. I use OneNote/Scrivener to outline and I tend to copy images into OneNote and literally write beside them. When I prepare a group of posts/chapters, I write a brief list of what happened/what I have screenshots of that I cross off as I go. Then, I have a more detailed sketch of things that includes the pictures. My posts/chapters are never chronologically picture-by-picture and I try to create a balanced tone (by including some nonsense or something silly in almost every post).
My pace is extremely slow. I like characters, nuance, details, slice of life stuff and I am not interested in using my Sims to manufacture action/drama with cheats or a predetermined storyline. So I try to push the bigger plot points and skip over some of the other stuff in order to make progress because otherwise nothing would happen at all. It's barely happening as it is.
--
Now, that I am hopefully coming back into things, I'm catching up on others' SimLit little bit by little bit for inspiration, which has been great. I've also opened my game, made mental note of all the mods I need to carefully update, and just messed around freely with everything (while taking screenshots of course
ETA: I found the image I posted before of an outline.
This is something I've been trying to work on for a long time too, and it's so tricky to answer. It depends on your style I think. For me I like enough detail so that the reader has a picture in their mind of who the characters are, where they are and what they're doing, but I have to work hard to omit anything that is unnecessary fluff. If something doesn't directly serve the plot/isn't going to be relevant later/isn't giving some important information, I'll try to cut it. Sometimes I feel like I want to expand on things just for the luxury of getting to describe something i think is interesting, but I have to try and reign it is so that I'm not being too self-indulgent and the book doesn't end up being a thousand pages long!! this is MY preference though, and certainly shouldn't be taken as a general rule. People's work can be as long or as short as they want it to be!
I think many people struggle with the opposite problem though, which is having things move too quickly, especially relationships. It's hard to remedy this as we already know who these people are in our minds, and we already know all the details of their relationship without having to spell it out. Sometimes we just want to get to the good parts quickly!! But filler is fun to read too. Reading other work helps a lot - I read with a lot of intention and focus now that I'm writing again, and I have a kindle so I can highlight the things that I think are especially effective and work really well. Maybe think about your favourite books or movies. What story are they trying to tell? What hints are they dropping about what's to come? How does this affect the pacing? Are there times that you feel bored? Can you put your finger on why? What about times that you feel on the edge of your seat! What has the writer done to make you feel this way?
I was a film student in university, so I've done countless analytics of story and plot, and also written my fair share of scripts, and I have to say that it helps a lot! It enhances the enjoyment if you understand the way that a story is constructed.
I hope this is helpful!! As always, if in doubt, just do what you want!! No matter what your story is like, I guarantee there's someone who will be inspired by it. Good pacing or not
Quite a bit of criticism? ....That doesn't sound very developing.
It is always rewarding and satisfying if you get some form of dialogue or feedback with your readers. Pointless criticism is not useful.
I would say that you must become aware of your purpose. Do you write to satisfy your readers or do you write to satisfy your own urge to create? Hopefully you hit somewhere in between.
There will definitely be some readers who look elsewhere after reading a few chapters, but hopefully you'll also gain some followers along the way.
My personal experience is that it kills my energy and creativity when I try to be something I'm not. I assume that I can take it quite easy since I don't have to make a living from my writing
I hope that roughly answers your question, otherwise take what you can use and leave the rest. Best of luck with your development
It's REALLY hard to get pacing 'right' because it depends on so much more than the plot. Like in the case of a romance, it's more dependent on the character on how quickly (or not) they get involved, then it really is on the plot.
Pacing is something I feel like I don't do very well. I've never been good at getting my thoughts across in the least amount of words. When I'm done with a chapter of my story I'm often left thinking I've made it too long, that I've been too detailed in my dialogue. I haven't had any readers tell me my chapters are too long, but I still worry that I'm going to chase readers away. I get caught up in this spiral when I write a chapter. The more I write, the more screenshots I add. As I add more screenshots they spark more writing. After almost every chapter I'm left thinking to myself that I'm going to chase people off because my chapters are too long. Nobody has ever said they were too long and I've asked for feedback from readers about the length. I still can't shake the feeling though, but I also haven't mastered storytelling without a lot of screenshots. That's a product of my inexperience and the fact that I'm still feeling my way through this.
Under The Tartosan Sun
Schemes and Dreams
I ask because I myself use large amounts of images. Pictures speak to me as my way of understanding the world is very visual.
I have always enjoyed reading comics because I enjoy looking at pictures.
Personally, I find it difficult to read stories that are too text-heavy because I have to translate the texts first. It requires an extra effort.
Does this mean that there is something wrong with long texts? No! But this means that sender and receiver must share a common venue.
NB. I am still not sure I understand the term pacing?
With images, Its probably more of an expression thing. I love taking and using lots of images, but I try not to go overboard because I know some reader’s computers struggle to load images. I use higher resolution images which makes it even harder and for them I try to keep the number of images down. The inexperience is more in finding a good balance between text, images, and length of the chapter.
Under The Tartosan Sun
Schemes and Dreams