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"It's Done!" - Charliimai's The Lost Dancer

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    ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    CathyTea wrote: »
    ThePlumbob wrote: »
    CitizenErased14 You definitely should :) I reckon you'll read it all in one go - I was so eager to learn more after each update!

    As for the discussion day, July and I agreed that Sunday evening (European time) will work the best; that way the folks in the US should also be able to participate real time since it's the weekend :)

    Sounds great! Let's be sure to announce it at the Lounge, and I'll do some official announcing of it here on this thread... when I can find my "official" hat!

    I'll definitely post an announcement in the lounge a bit closer to the day! :)
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    Julyvee94Julyvee94 Posts: 6,694 Member
    @CitizenErased14 The story is not going anywhere xD But you might be spoilered by the discussion if you haven't read it by then *totally no pressure* xD I keed I keed, don't stress yourself, it ruins the fun ^^
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    cully_ccully_c Posts: 655 Member
    edited November 2015
    Ahhh @ThePlumbob @Julyvee94 I'm so excited! Guess I should get my butt in gear and finish Discovery, huh? :tongue:

    I'd better get started reading too!!


    Edit: Finished! Loved it, very clever!

    Post edited by cully_c on
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    cully_ccully_c Posts: 655 Member
    edited November 2015
    Ok... *pants* *pants again* *falls down*...

    It's done.... I hope it's right but I'm going for release anyway, I've read it over so many times now it doesn't even look like English anymore! LOL!

    So I am going for it!

    Ta DAAAAAA!

    The Wonderchild Project - The Dark Truth

    And for those looking for it
    The Story's Thread on the Forum
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    CathyTeaCathyTea Posts: 23,089 Member
    cully_c wrote: »
    Ok... *pants* *pants again* *falls down*...

    It's done.... I hope it's right but I'm going for release anyway, I've read it over so many times now it doesn't even look like English anymore! LOL!

    So I am going for it!

    Ta DAAAAAA!

    The Wonderchild Project - The Dark Truth

    And for those looking for it
    The Story's Thread on the Forum

    I'm adding it! Great story, too! Congrats on your score, and I really enjoyed the way you told the story!
    Cathy Tea's SimLit Anthology

    Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
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    CitizenErased14CitizenErased14 Posts: 12,187 Member
    Julyvee94 wrote: »
    @CitizenErased14 The story is not going anywhere xD But you might be spoilered by the discussion if you haven't read it by then *totally no pressure* xD I keed I keed, don't stress yourself, it ruins the fun ^^

    I am going to try so hard to read it @Julyvee94 ! I've already read the first three chapters a while ago, but I will probably re-read those because it's been so long haha. D2D is distracting me so much :tongue: But I'm sure I can read it by Sunday for you so I can participate in the fun discussion! Wooh! :smiley:
    snvAF3B.png
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    ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    edited November 2015
    Wrap Up Discussion - @Julyvee94 's Discovery

    Happy timezones everyone, I'm here with the very first Wrap Up Discussion, so I hope you join in! The very first piece we will be chatting about is no other than Julyvee's Discovery, a mystery story that both excites and boggles the mind!

    The premise of the chat is simple; if you've read the story, I can only imagine you've got a million questions that you'd like to ask July - I know I do! This is your opportunity to ask them! I will be starting us off with some of my own questions, and I'll be back to ask more throughout the evening.

    Just to point out, if you haven't read Discovery, there's more than likely to be spoilers all around. Spoiler warning!

    Without further ado, he's my first round of questions for July:

    Round 1 – Introductory Questions:
    1) Did you have the whole story planned out from the start?
    2) Did the story you made up inspire you to start a room challenge, or was it the other way around (i.e. did the challenge inspire the story)?
    3) The pacing of the story is on point; how did you decide what/how much to reveal when?

    I'll be back with two more rounds of questions soon:

    Round 2 – The Characters
    Round 3 – The Ending and Beyond
    Post edited by ThePlumbob on
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    Julyvee94Julyvee94 Posts: 6,694 Member
    First of all I am so giddy excited to discuss Discovery today :) It was really a story I was very excited about when I started writing it and I feel very accomplished to have finished ^^ And thanks @ThePlumbob for setting this up.

    1) Did you have the whole story planned out from the start?

    When I started the story, I set it up as a room challenge and didn't yet have a specific plot in mind. After I think 2 chapters I had the idea for the plot rumbling in my head and it all just went from there! :) Though once I had the idea, I pretty much had the ending in mind already. Some of the subplots came to me later, like the text message, but most of all I knew what was going to happen :)

    2) Did the story you made up inspire you to start a room challenge, or was it the other way around (i.e. did the challenge inspire the story)?

    It was the challenge that inspired the story! As I said above for the first two or three chapters I had no idea what to do with the plot. But then I thought "When will this story end? Where is it heading?". As you can probably see I did think of having some plot even in the first two chapters (e.g. when she thinks about her family) but I didn't yet know how to resolve this. I thought of "What could be the explaination for someone to be trapped in a tiny house?"

    3) The pacing of the story is on point; how did you decide what/how much to reveal when?

    For the first few chapters I felt like the story went very slowly and things were getting repetetive, that's when I decided to reveal more each chapter. I know mystery stories that have a lot of build up but take their time in revealing things and I didn't want it to be like that. I had multiple facts that the reader didn't know and decided to reveal one of them in each chapter or give hints, e.g. "My world is not real", "There is someone watching me", "Why are the scientists there" etc. :) That's also why it's fairly short because I didn't want to drag things out and get repetetive with my clues ^^
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    ra3reira3rei Posts: 2,418 Member
    The room challenge is just perfect for plot driven stories isn't it?! I thought you did a great job with it and the pacing did go quite well. It kind of reminded me of tales from the twilight zone. They do a lot of stories where folks are in weird places and no idea why. i often steal pieces and ideas from around like that. Did anything influence your story that way?
    Check out Raerei's Fortress for Builds, Short Stories, and maybe some longer stuff.
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    Julyvee94Julyvee94 Posts: 6,694 Member
    ra3rei wrote: »
    The room challenge is just perfect for plot driven stories isn't it?! I thought you did a great job with it and the pacing did go quite well. It kind of reminded me of tales from the twilight zone. They do a lot of stories where folks are in weird places and no idea why. i often steal pieces and ideas from around like that. Did anything influence your story that way?

    Yes definitely! My plot idea was a crossover between a book series I had read recently (Wayward Pines) and the movie Source Code. I wanted to have Elements from both - the virtual world and the ending was inspired by source code while the scientist/background part of the story came from Wayward pines. I liked to combine both stories and add my own little spin (the "mental training" after suspension) to create something new. And I agree room challenges are great for plots! All those I've read so far have great plots.
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    ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    Julyvee94 wrote: »
    When I started the story, I set it up as a room challenge and didn't yet have a specific plot in mind. After I think 2 chapters I had the idea for the plot rumbling in my head and it all just went from there! :) Though once I had the idea, I pretty much had the ending in mind already. Some of the subplots came to me later, like the text message, but most of all I knew what was going to happen :)

    From what I've seen the room challenge really seems to get people's imaginations going! Since so little happens in the challenge by default, you really have to look for ways to make the story interesting. I really admire the creative takes on it! (I considered doing the challenge at one point, but I just don't think I could have made it as interesting!)
    Julyvee94 wrote: »
    For the first few chapters I felt like the story went very slowly and things were getting repetetive, that's when I decided to reveal more each chapter. I know mystery stories that have a lot of build up but take their time in revealing things and I didn't want it to be like that. I had multiple facts that the reader didn't know and decided to reveal one of them in each chapter or give hints, e.g. "My world is not real", "There is someone watching me", "Why are the scientists there" etc. :) That's also why it's fairly short because I didn't want to drag things out and get repetetive with my clues ^^

    I was so happy with the length of the story! You really did learn something new in each chapter, which drove the story forward. I could definitely see a story like this being stretched out, but I don't think it would work as well, keeping it compacts as you did really made the story keep its momentum, as opposed to it dragging.

    I'll be posting the second round of questions shortly! :)

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    ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    Questions Round 2 – The Characters:
    1) Let’s start with the controversial one, Ballinger. He’s the story’s villain, but it’s made clear that he’s not exactly evil. His story is quite the cautionary tale of pursuits of “greater good” gone wrong. How did you come up with his character, and how did you balance it?

    2) I always wondered about what Jennifer’s childhood would have been like, what kind of relationship did she have with her parents before suspension?

    3) Helen is an understated heroine in the story. We only get glimpses of her, but she seems to be the easiest to identify with thanks to her relatable moral values. Can you tell us more about why you decided to include her in the story?

    4) We only get to see a surface level of all of these characters, but you must have known so much about their background. How did you decide what to include in the story?
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    Julyvee94Julyvee94 Posts: 6,694 Member
    Aaaah the characters, I was looking forward to talk about them! :) I think I will be making a character's page soon.

    1) Let’s start with the controversial one, Ballinger. He’s the story’s villain, but it’s made clear that he’s not exactly evil. His story is quite the cautionary tale of pursuits of “greater good” gone wrong. How did you come up with his character, and how did you balance it?

    The model for Ballinger was the actual professor from Wayward Pines, I always forget his real name XD .. David Pilcher! While David Pilcher is a lot older I made Tony a rather young way to ambitious man who doesn't yet have the life experience of age but wanted to create a world which needs that - thus he makes some questionable decisions. I wanted him to have a different name too. I don't know why but when I thought about the scientists plot the line "Tony, this was not supposed to happen" caught in my head. The name Ballinger also popped up though I later noticed that this is also a name from Wayward. I swear I didn't realise beforehand xD
    So while the story of him creating the future world is taken from Wayward Pines, other aspects I made up or twisted. I wanted him to seem nice at first but then later he kind of "goes mad" when he loses control over the situation and doesn't seem so likeable anymore. Also why his enthusiasm for his project is something that might seem likable about him, at the same time I wanted the reader to get that Ballinger is going too far. That's why there were the chapters from Helen's perspective.

    2) I always wondered about what Jennifer’s childhood would have been like, what kind of relationship did she have with her parents before suspension?

    Hm I always assumed that she had an intimate relationship with her mother who cared for her while her father was always working. I think that's the reason why she remembers Francesca but not Tony. I guess her father was always in a working frenzy and she also didn't have the typical childhood since her father was also a public figure, so she grew up secluded and mostly in company of her mother.

    3) Helen is an understated heroine in the story. We only get glimpses of her, but she seems to be the easiest to identify with thanks to her relatable moral values. Can you tell us more about why you decided to include her in the story?

    Helen is a character I made up all myself. When presenting the scientists side of the story I wanted to include a contrapoint to Ballinger to give a different perspective on his questionable values. I also didn't want to write the story from Ballinger's perspective since he's kind of a fanatic and I can't write that very well.

    4) We only get to see a surface level of all of these characters, but you must have known so much about their background. How did you decide what to include in the story?

    Hm that's a tough one ^^ I think I already explained a lot of it above. I didn't want to go in too much detail about their background to keep their story mysterious ^^ Ballinger and Helen are sort of opposites character wise so I wanted to make sure we knew about Helen's values and Ballinger. I just included enough of their characters to let readers know what they are like and spray in bits and bats of their background but not too much to not strech out the story. Most of the background included refers to the future-past situation and why that happened.
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    sabreenesabreene Posts: 1,152 Member
    These questions are so much fun, I love reading the answers!!

    I really liked the length of the story. I don't know if you've had a chance to see the Wayward Pines mini-series yet, but it felt sort of like that to me. You learn new information and new answers with each chapter/episode, but in each one it raises the level of mystery! Right up until the end!
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    ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    Julyvee94 wrote: »
    Helen is a character I made up all myself. When presenting the scientists side of the story I wanted to include a contrapoint to Ballinger to give a different perspective on his questionable values. I also didn't want to write the story from Ballinger's perspective since he's kind of a fanatic and I can't write that very well.

    Personally I think Helen was really key to the story. It highlighted Ballinger's behaviour, and made it more believable than if he only had drone-like coworkers who agreed with everything. To me she's like the voice of audience within the story. I hope life was kind to her after the events of the story were concluded.

    I'll post the last round of questions in about 15-20 minutes :)
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    Julyvee94Julyvee94 Posts: 6,694 Member
    sabreene wrote: »
    These questions are so much fun, I love reading the answers!!

    I really liked the length of the story. I don't know if you've had a chance to see the Wayward Pines mini-series yet, but it felt sort of like that to me. You learn new information and new answers with each chapter/episode, but in each one it raises the level of mystery! Right up until the end!

    Yeah I saw it! It was awesome ^^ it differed from the book in a few ways but that also made it interesting again.
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    ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    sabreene wrote: »
    These questions are so much fun, I love reading the answers!!

    I'm so happy I have the opportunity to ask them, I felt like I had so many questions when I finished reading!
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    ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    Round 3 – The Ending and Beyond (This of course is spoiler central. proceed with caution!)

    1) Did you play around with multiple endings in the early days, or were you always set on this one? (I guess you partially answered that already!)

    2) What do you imagine Jennifer’s life in her new reality to be like after the events of Discovery?

    3) What about the world seen in the story; are the people Ballinger rescued completely free of the threat of turning into monsters?

    4) Was Jennifer the only one whose body didn’t survive suspension, or were there more incidents like this?

    Those are all of my questions at the moment, but I'd encourage people to ask their own - I'm sure @Julyvee94 wouldn't mind answering them later throughout the week either if you're behind on the story!
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    Julyvee94Julyvee94 Posts: 6,694 Member
    Thanks for doing this discussion @ThePlumbob ^^ if you don't mind I will answer these tomorrow because I'm on mobile right now. But I loved the questions you posed!
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    ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    Julyvee94 wrote: »
    Thanks for doing this discussion @ThePlumbob ^^ if you don't mind I will answer these tomorrow because I'm on mobile right now. But I loved the questions you posed!

    Of course, how tedious would typing all that out on mobile be! I look forward to seeing your answers tomorrow :)
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    anaitapevaanaitapeva Posts: 917 Member
    I'm very happy for having found this thread! Completed stories to enjoy while I wait for the ones still in development. :wink:

    I have a few blogs that I wrote to get lots of stories that take my mind while I play. I write/blog with a nickname (Sigourney), I hope it doesn't matter!
    Here are the links:
    The Cookes Legacy - a Random Legacy challenge in Sims 3 - my first ever challenge and my favorite for the same reason ;)
    Living in the streets (and parks) - a Teenager Runaway challenge, a short story in 4 posts and my first Sims 4 challenge :)
    The Cookes Legacy in Willow Creek - Random Challenge in Sims 4, with the descendants of my beloved Cookes family xD
    Princess Challenge (not really being so creative for names, sorry) for Sims 4
    That's it, I'm not half as talented as the rest but I hope the readers can have some fun, as I had playing and writing for my sims! :D:heart:
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    CathyTeaCathyTea Posts: 23,089 Member
    @anaitapeva Ooooh! Thanks so much for sharing these links! I will add them to our list tomorrow! :)
    Cathy Tea's SimLit Anthology

    Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
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    Julyvee94Julyvee94 Posts: 6,694 Member
    Phew the last set of questions ^^ I think I might copy these over to my blog in case people missed it :)

    1) Did you play around with multiple endings in the early days, or were you always set on this one? (I guess you partially answered that already!)

    Partially :D I did know that Jennifer would finally be able to walk out of the house and create a parallel reality but I wasn't yet sold on the details of Ballinger's, Helen's and Francesca's fate. That's a reason why I created the epilogue. I liked the ending so much and it HAD to be the ending but there were still a lot of unanswered questions. I decided to unravel a few of them, like what happens to Helen and Francesca but leave some things unsolved like Jennifer's new life or if she would ever meet her mother again.

    2) What do you imagine Jennifer’s life in her new reality to be like after the events of Discovery?

    Well since it is a parallel reality, things would be mostly normal - no apocalypse, no monsters, no fence. Just a normal world. Basically, Jennifer's mind created the world she lives in now so her surroundings are subject to her imagination - subconciously. And thus it looks like what she is used to. Except there are not the same people living there. A reunion with her mother is not possible, since they live in different worlds now (how text messages transfer through that, don't ask me! I just liked the detail there).

    3) What about the world seen in the story; are the people Ballinger rescued completely free of the threat of turning into monsters?

    This is probably a question that is already answered if you have seen the show Wayward Pines because the monster background is taken from there - I'll try to explain. The story takes place almost 2000 years in the future, over A LOT of generations, human genom has mutated and gradually turned humans into the monsters they are now. It's not like a zombie movie where you get bitten and turn into a zombie too. Since the people who live in the town were taken for the "project" after the first mutations were discovered by Ballinger, they will not turn into monsters themselves, but their children's children's children... (you catch my drift) will. The people who live in the town are only at threat of being killed by the monsters if the fence fails - which doesn't happen during my story but who knows, it's a dangerous world they live in.

    4) Was Jennifer the only one whose body didn’t survive suspension, or were there more incidents like this?

    Jennifer is a special case. Her body didn't survive suspension, but her mind did. Her mental training (the house) went perfectly normal it was just clear that she would never wake up. I think in some conversation Helen (or Ballinger) mentions that there were others that didn't survive, but neither their body nor their minds did - or their body did but not their mind. Jennifer's case is unique in it's constellation, that's why Ballinger was so fascinated by it in the first place.

    If you have any more questions feel free to ask :)
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    NewToTheSimsNewToTheSims Posts: 1,160 Member
    @CathyTea Thanks so much for adding my story to your directory! ^_^ <3
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    CathyTeaCathyTea Posts: 23,089 Member
    @CathyTea Thanks so much for adding my story to your directory! ^_^ <3

    You're welcome! :)
    Cathy Tea's SimLit Anthology

    Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
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