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The Art of Sims Storytelling

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  • haneulhaneul Posts: 1,952 Member
    A question for you all...

    Has your story ever gone in a direction you never thought it would?
    Yes, I try to go with the flow and adapt to the change. I don't have concrete plans, though. To a certain extent, I never know what type of Sims are going to be in my game or when they're going to be born. My first gen 5 Sim just appeared one day. (Since then, I have put an artificial cap on babies because I don't want a household of 7-8 right now).
    Surprise deaths, fire, satelite, murphy bed, anything. Do you change the story and go with it or exit without saving?

    I haven't had any big deadly surprises, but I take a lot of precautions (for example, there are no murphy beds in my Sims' homes). My Sims also have death flowers, books of life, and my vampires have sun protection. I'm not really the type to quit without saving. When minor things happen, I just let it go.

  • HermioneSimsHermioneSims Posts: 774 Member
    Surprise deaths, fire, satelite, murphy bed, anything. Do you change the story and go with it or exit without saving?

    That's a difficult question to answer without spoiling the chapters I still have to post :#
    I'm also a bit reluctant at bragging about how lucky my sims have been up to now because, in my country, there is a very strong superstition based on the fact that saying that things are going well will cause an unbelievable amount of bad luck in the near future. Thus, objectively I have to say that my sims haven't unexpectedly died during my legacy or stories (and, by writing this, I'm already feeling the bad luck reaching me and now I expect my sims to start dropping like flies starting from the next time I start the game). Anyway, in my legacy, I always try to include the unexpected events in play because that's the whole point of the challenge for me, for the moment the most troublesome episodes which were a real struggle to include in the written story in a way that made sense were the alien abductions, there were a few points where I really made up absurd stories to justify them at that point in the story...
    2if86miljyb3.png
    You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.12 posted on the 25th of March 2024*
  • Kellogg_J_KelloggKellogg_J_Kellogg Posts: 1,548 Member
    I love Tusnelda and Trix!
    A question for you all...

    Has your story ever gone in a direction you never thought it would?

    All the time. Partly because of the gameplay and partly because I get ideas to take the story into another direction. That's a benefit of having a soap opera, multi-protagonist story.
  • Kellogg_J_KelloggKellogg_J_Kellogg Posts: 1,548 Member
    I know most likely asked many times, but not starting to search over 80 pages :) Plus opinions in these issues may change.
    To most likely more towards gameplay driven story writers,
    Surprise deaths, fire, satelite, murphy bed, anything. Do you change the story and go with it or exit without saving?

    I think you have to go with it. The one time I didn't save up a day in the life of one of my characters and junked the whole game session was when the game had all his needs down in the red and I couldn't restore them and get them to work and then interact with other characters before the day was out. So I spent one day just attending to the needs and then the second day they could have a story and adventures. That second day became the chapter.
  • DaniRose2143DaniRose2143 Posts: 8,667 Member
    I ran into this with the latest chapter of my story and I’m interested to hear if it’s happened to anybody else?

    Have you ever started writing a chapter and then start feeling like you don’t have as much material to work with as you planned? If that happens do you go with what you have even if it means a short(er) chapter? Or do you go back into the game to find more material ?
  • EllupelluelluEllupelluellu Posts: 6,783 Member
    _sims_Yimi wrote: »
    (Gawain keeps lighting all the darn fireplaces in the castle 😂)
    This made me picture it im my head and laugh out loud :P Fits so well to him :P

    I try to protect my sims from that kind of sudden death by upgrading murphy beds and making sure their skills are high enough before they're allowed to repair electrical items and cook meals over fire.
    Oh yes. me too, totally. But still it has happened a few times, most often my own fault, like forgetting to pause, and of course in those times game gave me no popups what would of auto-paused it. I come back and find picture of gravestone and a reminder this is supposed to be a life simulator :)

    It all depends on who it is. If it's one of my main characters, I'm definitely exiting without saving. Their dying is not part of the story. Everybody else is fair game.
    Yes, I totally understand that :)

    haneul wrote: »
    I haven't had any big deadly surprises, but I take a lot of precautions (for example, there are no murphy beds in my Sims' homes). My Sims also have death flowers, books of life, and my vampires have sun protection. I'm not really the type to quit without saving. When minor things happen, I just let it go.
    Yes, like I mentioned above I try to be too, still has happened, often my own fault :)
    I usually not quit without saving, if not game bug causing something bigger, have had few of those after patches. I do play offline, I am often months without patch, but Origin surprised me two times by enabling auto-update by itself.


    (and, by writing this, I'm already feeling the bad luck reaching me and now I expect my sims to start dropping like flies starting from the next time I start the game). Anyway, in my legacy, I always try to include the unexpected events in play because that's the whole point of the challenge for me, for the moment the most troublesome episodes which were a real struggle to include in the written story in a way that made sense were the alien abductions, there were a few points where I really made up absurd stories to justify them at that point in the story...

    I most sincerely hope that was not the case :smile:


    I think you have to go with it. The one time I didn't save up a day in the life of one of my characters and junked the whole game session was when the game had all his needs down in the red and I couldn't restore them and get them to work and then interact with other characters before the day was out. So I spent one day just attending to the needs and then the second day they could have a story and adventures. That second day became the chapter.

    Ouch , sometimes it takes a bit much more what you planned originnally , I suppose :)


    Thank you all for answering my curious questions, will be back bugging all when something else pops in my mind :D
    My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
    Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
    My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
    Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..

    My Story:Villa Catarina
  • haneulhaneul Posts: 1,952 Member
    edited December 2022
    Have you ever started writing a chapter and then start feeling like you don’t have as much material to work with as you planned? If that happens do you go with what you have even if it means a short(er) chapter? Or do you go back into the game to find more material?


    @DaniRose2143 Yes, I feel like that all the time. I think I've gotten better at handling it, but it's what I like most and why I'm gameplay-based: the challenge of coming up with a story largely based on what happens in game without cheats or other shenanigans. I either cut problem bits (having a shorter chapter), just go with it with limited images, or restructure so that something else is doing more work. On the rare occasion, I might use a photo editor or find filler images.

    For non-gameplay Simmers, I think going back into the game to try to further flesh something out can definitely be worth it (within reason). If I'm just doing random screenshots, I have 0 issue retaking shots. I'll exit the game, notice something that I don't like, open it again and redo everything, which is annoying, but I'm learning in the process so it's okay.

    As a little and non-spoiler example, last year I did some Christmas/Winterfest shots. I dislike red (but sometimes I try to lean into a "vampire" aesthetic and green/red are Christmas-y, so I tried to use a bit of red). Anyway, after reviewing my images, I decided the red dress was too much. Then, I did it again and realized the fairy lights were not on and there was no snow, so I did it again...
    I found one of the red dress photos (that I didn't delete) and then what I actually went with is after it.
    umN2okV.jpg
    MbRNqZs.jpg
  • SnowBnuuySnowBnuuy Posts: 1,767 Member
    Have you ever started writing a chapter and then start feeling like you don’t have as much material to work with as you planned? If that happens do you go with what you have even if it means a short(er) chapter? Or do you go back into the game to find more material?

    I do yeah, but I never worry about chapter length. I don't make any chapter longer than it needs to be, even if it means having super short and super long chapters now and again. I cut the chapter off when it feels right to. Only time I go back for more material is if I might need to take another screenshot for a scene, if the scene doesn't work the same with the shots I already have.
    they/them or she/her
  • DaniRose2143DaniRose2143 Posts: 8,667 Member
    haneul wrote: »

    For non-gameplay Simmers, I think going back into the game to try to further flesh something out can definitely be worth it (within reason). If I'm just doing random screenshots, I have 0 issue retaking shots. I'll exit the game, notice something that I don't like, open it again and redo everything, which is annoying, but I'm learning in the process so it's okay.

    This is easily the part that slows me down the most while I'm putting a chapter together. I have several moments when I'm writing that I feel I need to go back in and take more shots.


    SnowBnuuy wrote: »
    I do yeah, but I never worry about chapter length. I don't make any chapter longer than it needs to be, even if it means having super short and super long chapters now and again. I cut the chapter off when it feels right to. Only time I go back for more material is if I might need to take another screenshot for a scene, if the scene doesn't work the same with the shots I already have.

    Part of my learning process is keeping an open mind when I start writing. I feel like the problem yesterday was I came in with a preconceived notion of how much story there was to tell. I started writing and sooner than I was expecting I was done. I didn't make the mistake of trying to force something that wasn't there or doing major rewrites to try to coax more out of it. I did spend some time after I posted it feeling like I hadn't done my job as a writer. I felt like I didn't lay the story out in my head properly and that's why I was caught by surprise at how quickly I reached the end. There is still more to explore in that storyline but it would require a time jump that would put that storyline further ahead of the rest of the story then I want it to be.

  • SnowBnuuySnowBnuuy Posts: 1,767 Member
    @DaniRose2143 Yeah I feel that. It's wild how different my story always turns out compared to my plan, same with my chapters as well. I always end up shifting or delaying events until later on. I can't show it without spoiling, but my messy chapter planning document has a lot of sidenotes saying 'DOESN'T HAPPEN YET' or 'SAVE IT FOR LATER' or 'Maybe this is where X happens?'
    they/them or she/her
  • hellohannah2hellohannah2 Posts: 839 Member
    A question for you all...

    Has your story ever gone in a direction you never thought it would?

    Not my current one, I feel as though i (broadly) know what I'm doing with it. I mean, of course I dream new things up to happen, or new ways to reach the ultimate destination, but no. My characters, who they are and where they're going is pretty clear. I have experienced a story going in an interesting direction though. My previous story for TS3 back in the day started off one way and then completely veered in another. So much so, actually, that I ended up hating the prologue because of how irrelevant it became. I think if anything, that experience taught me to be a better planner, and maybe avoid a prologue until i was sure of what I was going to do later hehe.

    Surprise deaths, fire, satelite, murphy bed, anything. Do you change the story and go with it or exit without saving?

    This one made me laugh - because yes, this happened to be last week. All six characters I was playing with died of heatstroke at the same time, I was too wrapped up trying to pose everyone into the right spots that I ignored the game's warning message. oops. I immediately quit without saving. I couldn't have Evie, Jude, Claire, Jen and Shane all just dropping dead, it'd be an absurd twist!

    Have you ever started writing a chapter and then start feeling like you don’t have as much material to work with as you planned? If that happens do you go with what you have even if it means a short(er) chapter? Or do you go back into the game to find more material ?

    Oh yes of course - sometimes an idea just doesn't naturally flesh itself out like you wanted it to, and it can be frustrating. I'm a little bit opposed to throwing in random filler just for the sake of making a chapter longer, so I think I'd probably go the route of a shorter chapter. This happened to me with chapter 19 of Lucky Girl actually. I just had nothing else to say, so I ended it. Funny, because I thought it'd be a long one, being the second last in the series. Oh well, some times you just have to roll with it :smile:
    s54gWQ5.png
  • EllupelluelluEllupelluellu Posts: 6,783 Member
    . All six characters I was playing with died of heatstroke at the same time, I was too wrapped up trying to pose everyone into the right spots that I ignored the game's warning message. oops. I immediately quit without saving. I couldn't have Evie, Jude, Claire, Jen and Shane all just dropping dead, it'd be an absurd twist!

    Oh no! :D All of them !? LOL talking about a twist indeed :D
    My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
    Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
    My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
    Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..

    My Story:Villa Catarina
  • rednenemonrednenemon Posts: 3,206 Member
    A question for you all...

    Has your story ever gone in a direction you never thought it would?

    Let's just say that Chronicles didn't just go in a different direction.

    It wound up in a whole different continent. :p
    AO3: Silver_Shortage_in_Markarth <(Where I'm usually at nowadays)
    MQ2gUyY.jpg
    Part One(Complete 9/24/16) /Part Two(on hold)/Short Stories(on hold)/Twinbrook 1996(on hold)/Ten Crystal Hearts (on hold)
    I own the TS3 Store as of 12/11/16 (sort of. It's complicated)
  • DaniRose2143DaniRose2143 Posts: 8,667 Member
    SnowBnuuy wrote: »
    @DaniRose2143 Yeah I feel that. It's wild how different my story always turns out compared to my plan, same with my chapters as well. I always end up shifting or delaying events until later on. I can't show it without spoiling, but my messy chapter planning document has a lot of sidenotes saying 'DOESN'T HAPPEN YET' or 'SAVE IT FOR LATER' or 'Maybe this is where X happens?'

    I'm getting better with my note taking and I hope with those improvements I can do better in the new story coming up. I never broke the story for Tartosan Sun down into parts. It's just been one long 'This day in the life of...'. With the new one I want break it up into parts and making a planning document like you do would be helpful.
  • SnowBnuuySnowBnuuy Posts: 1,767 Member
    edited December 2022
    @DaniRose2143 I made two planning documents that might help if you want a pre-laid-out one! It's more cleaner layout than how I actually do it, but it might be a start. .doc and odt. < 3
    they/them or she/her
  • DaniRose2143DaniRose2143 Posts: 8,667 Member
    edited December 2022
    @SnowBnuuy Thank you so much. The .doc will work nicely. This will be a big help because I haven't really made notes about backstories for the Schemes and Dreams cast. Not the whole cast anyway. I have backstories for Judith, Rayvn, and Mimi, but I need to get the rest of them done. I'm having to bite my tongue, metaphorically speaking, because I'm dying to blurt out Rayvn's backstory and how it's going to set up the end of Season One.
  • haneulhaneul Posts: 1,952 Member
    haneul wrote: »

    For non-gameplay Simmers, I think going back into the game to try to further flesh something out can definitely be worth it (within reason). If I'm just doing random screenshots, I have 0 issue retaking shots. I'll exit the game, notice something that I don't like, open it again and redo everything, which is annoying, but I'm learning in the process so it's okay.

    This is easily the part that slows me down the most while I'm putting a chapter together. I have several moments when I'm writing that I feel I need to go back in and take more shots.

    @DaniRose2143 If I had an open-ended story, I think that everything would take me forever and that I wouldn't want to stop redoing things at a reasonable point, so I definitely understand how reshooting a scene can slow someone down. I'm already really slow. I think I've gotten better at going from images to crafting a story, but it still takes me forever (even without reshooting). For example, for my next chapter, I intend to have 3-5 scenes. For the first scene, I have my images already and they're not quite right (they never are, but that's gameplay). Out of the 13 I took, I'll probably use 7 at most. I always take backup/extra shots, but it's still difficult to figure out how to use the chosen ones. I don't think I'm forcing anything as much as I'm trying to sort out what the images say and if that will match the tone of the rest of the chapter (or if it needs to be skipped or cut because it's too boring or too over the top). This is just the first scene as well. Aspects of the other scenes are going to be more difficult to do. I tend to redo things (in this case rewrite) until I run out of time or get tired and then I just hit publish.
  • DaniRose2143DaniRose2143 Posts: 8,667 Member
    @hanuel That sounds a lot like how I put my chapters together. Right now I'm in a place creatively where I'm writing first and then looking for screenshots to fit the writing. For the longest time it was the other way around. I'm finding now that I really analyze the picture, right down to body language, facial expressions, and hand gestures to get the best fit possible. I pause a lot while I take pictures and I take lots of them. I take pictures from multiple angles and different degrees of zoom in or zoom out. I usually take anywhere from 50 pictures up to 200+ for a single chapter, but I only use a relative handful.

    I can totally relate to the redoing things. The next chapter of my story that I hope to have up tomorrow has gone through the same 10 hour span before, during, and after the Starlight Accolades 4 times now. The first time was good, but I thought it could be better so I did it all over again. Now I keep finding little details I don't like so I keep going back to that same save point 2 hours before the show starts and redoing it. The last one was because I'm using the same lot to host the Accolades in both Tartosan Sun and Schemes and Dreams, but they aren't crossover stories. So I felt I needed to renovate the lot to make it easy for readers to tell the two versions apart.

    I can also relate on the running out of time. I feel like that often, or sometimes it's just a case of feeling like the chapter is getting too long so I get in hurry to wrap things up. I often feel like the dialogue in the last paragraph or two is really rushed so that I can make self imposed deadlines or stay under a certain length.
  • haneulhaneul Posts: 1,952 Member
    For everyone - we’ve discussed this before, but are there any specific or general things that you try to accomplish with each chapter?

    @DaniRose2143 Was there anything that inspired you to change to mostly writing first now and then taking screenshots?

    I probably don’t take as many screenshots as I think because I’ve never had 200 for one chapter. I take extra shots, but I don’t capture everything and I even miss important ones. I realized I struggle (and it’s not a bad thing) because recently I’m trying to include a bunch in each short chapter, with only a few exceptions: a simple/logical connection to the past/future, a lighthearted moment (ranging from one that’s kind of sweet/funny to silly/absurd depending on the chapter’s tone), screenshots that do work (at least one screenshot should be “pretty” or a sequence of them should do some storytelling by themselves), and something with a double or symbolic meaning.

    As I was thinking about the next chapter, I was evaluating the first scene, trying to sort out what it accomplishes. Its screenshots are okay. The last scene will check off my “pretty” requirement. This first group is simple images so coming up with dialog that works is easy, but it became more difficult as I tried to keep the tone reasonable (despite the scene including one of my wackier Sims) and I wanted to include references to something else (for my own fun and not in a way that burdens readers) while also incorporating X & Y other ideas and keeping the scene short. Now I have a clear idea of what I want to include, but nailing down the exact language will still be hard.

    The middle scenes are supposed to push the plot. I anticipate it won’t quite come together neatly because of the tone and I’m okay with that because I don’t have infinite time to sort it out.

    I don’t write the parts of a chapter in order so if I’m rushing something it may not be at the end. I think the middle is where I’m most likely to be weird.

    For the record, I haven’t noticed any rushed dialogue in Under the Tartosan Sun. I’ve like each iteration of your Starlight Accolades venue, but I have to admit I like the most recent one with the fancy windows best.
  • Kellogg_J_KelloggKellogg_J_Kellogg Posts: 1,548 Member
    haneul wrote: »
    For everyone - we’ve discussed this before, but are there any specific or general things that you try to accomplish with each chapter?

    As Sim 66 is an open ended, multiple character soap opera I decide which character should be the focus of the chapter, take a look at where they were in their previous appearance and how I think things should reasonably progress in the next chapter. I do have some ideas for each character's long term story arc but each chapter is a stepping stone for them.

  • DaniRose2143DaniRose2143 Posts: 8,667 Member
    haneul wrote: »
    For everyone - we’ve discussed this before, but are there any specific or general things that you try to accomplish with each chapter?

    @Kellogg_J_Kellogg perfectly summed up my feelings and my approach to Under the Tartosan Sun. It is a 'Day in the life of 'X'' story where the characters are evolving and growing as the story moves along. I try to write dialogue and find pictures that help form a bond between the reader and the characters or to reinforce an existing bond.

    My writing first and finding pictures later started when I had an idea come to me for a few lines of dialogue and I wanted to 'get it down on paper' as it were. The next thing I knew I had several paragraphs written. Then I realized it sped up the process of creating a chapter a little bit and it kind of stuck. That said, the latest chapter of my story is back to the chaotic creative process I'm used to. That has a lot to do with the realization over the last couple of days that I hadn't done nearly enough to separate Schemes And Dreams from Under the Tartosan Sun. I had lots and the NPCs, especially the celebrity NPCs, that would be appearing in both that might blur the line between the two. I've been trying to sort out what is the best way to handle the NPCs to maintain that separation.
  • SnowBnuuySnowBnuuy Posts: 1,767 Member
    For everyone - we’ve discussed this before, but are there any specific or general things that you try to accomplish with each chapter?

    For me it’s a case of somehow, the circumstances need to be different here than they were last time. Either it furthers the plot, or provides more information about a character that we didn’t previously know. I’m not against doing a filler chapter if I need some downtime from the plot (for example if there’s a lot of heavy stuff going on, as a break from the drama) but my only goal is for each chapter to reveal something new, or to further someone’s subplot (or the main plot) even if only slightly.
    they/them or she/her
  • GlacierSnowGlacierSnow Posts: 2,301 Member
    are there any specific or general things that you try to accomplish with each chapter?

    To write something that entertains people. That's honestly my only goal. Some chapters might advance the plot (if there even is a plot 😜 ), some explore characters or relationships, some might be designed to tug at the heartstrings, and some are just made up of stuff that I think is funny. Or whatever bizarre mix of all those things my brain thinks it wants to throw at people.

    At the end of the day, all I really want is for readers to enjoy spending time with the characters. That's the only thing that really matters to me when I'm reading, and I've come to accept that that's all I genuinely care about when I'm writing too. So what I try to accomplish with each chapter is just doing what I do, as well as I can.
    Forum-Banner-01.jpg
    Seventeen & Maldusk Forum thread link
    My name on AHQ (and the upcoming sims forum) is "GlacierSnowGhost".
  • haneulhaneul Posts: 1,952 Member
    Thanks, everyone. I see... :no_mouth: I don't prioritize having an entertaining story or having readers bond with my characters, so I have the goals of pretty screenshots and lighthearted moments to keep my readership above 0.
  • GlacierSnowGlacierSnow Posts: 2,301 Member
    @haneul Your story is on my list to read though I haven't quite gotten to it yet. But from what I have seen of screenshots you share here and on other threads, you take really beautiful pictures. I liked your advice about constructing lighting using the Moschino pack studio lights, that you shared here some time ago, and it has helped me a lot in recent scenes I've worked on.
    Forum-Banner-01.jpg
    Seventeen & Maldusk Forum thread link
    My name on AHQ (and the upcoming sims forum) is "GlacierSnowGhost".

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