I just realised how many of us have tea as a sort of important theme in our stories.
Also thank you! @AdamsEve1231 ! I really like a mix of realism and fantasy too (unsurprisingly), and I also like the mix of happiness and sadness, positive and negative, love and death etc. I try to find my balance in my writing, and in life, though the balance isn't really the sort of balance that would be measured by a scale, but more floating, like waves - or pendulums, like you said (pendulums are maybe more reliable ) Lately I've been thinking a lot of how life seems to have its happy times, and then suddenly it'll dump a whole lot of sadness and pain on a person and everything will be darker for a while, and then... it usually goes back to happier times. Well, depending on the time and place and a lot of other factors, of course. But even in a very challenging environment, happiness blooms, even though it can often be taken apart by tragedy. (Wow, I apologise for this unnecessarily flowery and kind of freeflowing/not sense-making writing. I'm tired).
My point is that yes, I like what you (and your boss) said about balancing things in life and seeing all these cycles and aspects and the shifting of them.
i think i said this in the lounge but not here. i like tea but i love coffee. which i always find weird because i'm half scotch and tea is big deal. i've never actually been to scotland though so maybe thats why.
I just realised how many of us have tea as a sort of important theme in our stories.
Also thank you! @AdamsEve1231 ! I really like a mix of realism and fantasy too (unsurprisingly), and I also like the mix of happiness and sadness, positive and negative, love and death etc. I try to find my balance in my writing, and in life, though the balance isn't really the sort of balance that would be measured by a scale, but more floating, like waves - or pendulums, like you said (pendulums are maybe more reliable ) Lately I've been thinking a lot of how life seems to have its happy times, and then suddenly it'll dump a whole lot of sadness and pain on a person and everything will be darker for a while, and then... it usually goes back to happier times. Well, depending on the time and place and a lot of other factors, of course. But even in a very challenging environment, happiness blooms, even though it can often be taken apart by tragedy. (Wow, I apologise for this unnecessarily flowery and kind of freeflowing/not sense-making writing. I'm tired).
My point is that yes, I like what you (and your boss) said about balancing things in life and seeing all these cycles and aspects and the shifting of them.
i think i said this in the lounge but not here. i like tea but i love coffee. which i always find weird because i'm half scotch and tea is big deal. i've never actually been to scotland though so maybe thats why.
@friendsfan367 And I love tea and don't care for coffee (as a drink; I like coffee beans and coffee chocolate and such, though), even though I'm from Finland, where coffee is a huge deal (it has the largest coffee consumption per capita in the world)! Let's break drink traditions together!
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 just realised how many of us have tea as a sort of important theme in our stories.
Also thank you! @AdamsEve1231 ! I really like a mix of realism and fantasy too (unsurprisingly), and I also like the mix of happiness and sadness, positive and negative, love and death etc. I try to find my balance in my writing, and in life, though the balance isn't really the sort of balance that would be measured by a scale, but more floating, like waves - or pendulums, like you said (pendulums are maybe more reliable ) Lately I've been thinking a lot of how life seems to have its happy times, and then suddenly it'll dump a whole lot of sadness and pain on a person and everything will be darker for a while, and then... it usually goes back to happier times. Well, depending on the time and place and a lot of other factors, of course. But even in a very challenging environment, happiness blooms, even though it can often be taken apart by tragedy. (Wow, I apologise for this unnecessarily flowery and kind of freeflowing/not sense-making writing. I'm tired).
My point is that yes, I like what you (and your boss) said about balancing things in life and seeing all these cycles and aspects and the shifting of them.
i think i said this in the lounge but not here. i like tea but i love coffee. which i always find weird because i'm half scotch and tea is big deal. i've never actually been to scotland though so maybe thats why.
And I love tea and don't care for coffee (as a drink; I like coffee beans and coffee chocolate and such, though), even though I'm from Finland, where coffee is a huge deal (it has the largest coffee consumption per capita in the world)! Let's break drink traditions together!
yeah someone who understands. also its cool to finally know where your from.
But even in a very challenging environment, happiness blooms, even though it can often be taken apart by tragedy. (Wow, I apologise for this unnecessarily flowery and kind of freeflowing/not sense-making writing. I'm tired).
Yes--I usually find that my times of most intense happiness (and also even, peace, for that matter) usually come when my heart's been opened by sadness.
The ten years I spent mourning my dad were full of strange joy and really deep experiences...
I like that openness that comes with deep feeling.
I'm trying to make peace with boredom, actually, and those moments when not much happens, the non-peak times. When I can explore what stillness feels like, then those plateaus feel interesting and worth exploring...
@CathyTea
If it helps at all, there are more positive instances where food and drink is involved. For example:
Waaaay back at the very beginning of Arc 1 (as in, the third chapter), Sinbad suggests ordering a pizza for dinner. His reasoning is that hopefully this'll cheer up Shark, as the latter has just found out his parents are getting divorced. So it's meant to be used as a sort of comforting presence, one that a character is utilizing in an effort to cheer up his beloved.
Later on, in Arc 5, pizza is used again. But this time, it has a slightly different role; Sinbad gets it after he and Shark have, um, "reunited". So in this case, it's used to more or less confirm that yes, these two are finally back together.
And there's tea involved, also!
In this case, it's meant to be used as another bonding method (even, in a twisted way, when Annette is having her 'tea parties', but let's not go too deep into that end).
In Chronicles, tea is more or less Harwood's favorite drink (being a man who is very in touch with the Chinese half of his heritage). He even brings some out when he first meets Annette.
He also attempts to have his two boys drink some, to varying degrees of success. (Marc very much enjoys teatime. Sinbad doesn't really see the point, but he joins anyway because family)
And it is, in fact, at a teahouse that Sinbad and Shark meet again for the first time in over a year (and unofficially, the two families becoming a sort of familial amalgam.)
I was joking, really--because food plays such an important role in your story! Ice cream! And also, think of all those scenes where Sinbad is making breakfast... and then everyone's sneaking treats to Sagebear. Food seems to function as an expression of love and nurturing in The Chronicles.
Also here are the personality test results for some of my Tango -characters just for fun:
Amelia Sprigg: ENFJ-A (Protagonist)
Thanatos “Tad” Dustpine: INFJ-T (Advocate) - figures he'd get the same as me... no wonder he's so easy to write
Vanja Leifsdóttir: INTJ-T (Architect)
Novak Sanguine: ISTJ-A (Logistician) - He was only very narrowly introverted... I think his asociality has more to do with his cynicism and his mistrust towards people rather than his introversion, really.
All in all I'd say they all fit really well. And also I'm pleased to find out I've managed to write somewhat diverse characters (at least personality-wise).
This is so neat! These all seem to fit, too!
And it's interesting to note which characters we feel like we'd get along with, and which get under our skin: pretty much fits the people I know of those different types!
Ah. Sad thought. Do any of you remember MOOs? I was really involved in an eduMOO about 22 years ago (Oh. Reality check. Right. You wouldn't remember, unless they were around for longer or if you got into them when you were really young [like in the womb]!) Anyway, these were the coolest online environments--very creative, very collaborative text-based worlds. And I really hoped they'd last forever! I got out of them due to circumstance about 19 years ago... then, as far as I could tell, they about disappeared.
Here's something really neat though! One of my current colleagues is someone I knew back through the MOO! Took us a while to figure it out, for she had gone through a name change (which is how she refers to her gender-identity change). But after a casual reference to MOOing, we connected the dots...
Guess that's my long-winded tangent for good things remaining even when the technology platform disappears...
@CathyTea 22 years ago, I was only 5 or 6 years old. But it sounds like a nice platform for creation. I think I've heard of them.
I started a new story tonight. Kind of nuts, considering that I have 14 currently unfinished stories which I consider still in-progress (as in not abandoned.) But this one will be wordless, and it's sort of just roaming around having fun playing and taking lots of screenshots. I made my SimSelf a teen male, named him Silas Raptor, and moved him into the little empty lot on the island in Windenburg where he's camping. It is super fun.
I know the feeling. I have 7 unfinished stories, so only half, but I still have many many more ideas that haven't yet reached the blogs. Sometimes it can be nice to get sidetracked into one. I feel like I never run out of material and I avoid writer's block this way.
My boss talked about several different responses to the work-life imbalance. Dropping everything? Quitting non-essentials? Becoming less busy? Becoming hermits? He spoke about none of the above being the real solution. The real solution is to step into the rhythm and allow it to flow. We need to understand our seasons - a time to work, play, grow, and rest. He talked about our personal seasons mimicking nature- springtime (seasons of growth, renewal, restoration), summer (seasons of play, abundance, and relaxation), autumn (seasons of change, letting go, and work), and winter (seasons of reflection, recovery, and soul-searching). We need to be strategic about our work and about our rest. When we move with our natural seasons, we are enabled to be better workers, better students, better significant others, better friends, and better versions of ourselves.
This is so great for me to hear! I'm at a funny place with my work where I goof off a lot--I go for long walks, I pop into the Forums, I sit on the roof and look at the mountains. I'm still getting everything done, and doing a lot each day, but the rhythm has lots of down-time, too. I think it might be partially because we have a huge project that's getting started, so I know busier times are coming, and now, while I have slack waiting for others to do their bits, I'm sneaking in relax time.
As I've been with both my current jobs since 1997 (which is such a long time by current standards), I've been through so many cycles of rest, work, relaxation, slow, and fast pace. I've come to trust it and not to freak out when there's tons to do.
I do a lot of my work from home so I easily pop in and out of the forums and gaming and writing with my actual work. It's a nice balance. I also like how my cat is the only one who interrupts me. Today I let the game load new content while I edited my peer review for my graduate paper, and then I let the game load up while I put the finishing touches on my work newsletter. Now I'm "resting" and perusing the forums and loading another game, of course. I'm on a role with fresh ideas for a few of my serieses.
Do you like the idea of the pendulum and rhythm? Have you heard it before? How does it affect the way you approach stories? I'm a big believer of our life philosophies and values being reflected in our writing, and since I like this concept of rhythms and pendulums, it'll probably show up in my writing.
Oh, yes. As you've probably gathered if you've read my blog or listened to me here, I'm generally tuned into the astrological transits I experience, and they fit in very well with this idea. For example, Mercury retrograde will pretty much demand that everyone slow down their travel, daily transportation, online transporting of ideas, and communication. Natural flows are simply built in to life on this planet, and it can effect all aspects of our life.
I think we live our lives at breakneck speed sometime. Slowly down in travel and transportation and even in our communication is important and really necessary sometimes. I struggle with impatience when driving. I want everyone to drive properly and use turn signals and not cut in front of me and go when the light turns green and I want everyone to drive at my speed. No one seems to do that. I have to remind myself to take deep breaths and relax. I listen to jazz and classical in the car for this reason. Sometimes I rock out to a few of my favorite bands when I've had a stressful day on my drive home or when I need to stay awake after my late night class.
I just realised how many of us have tea as a sort of important theme in our stories.
Also thank you! @AdamsEve1231 ! I really like a mix of realism and fantasy too (unsurprisingly), and I also like the mix of happiness and sadness, positive and negative, love and death etc. I try to find my balance in my writing, and in life, though the balance isn't really the sort of balance that would be measured by a scale, but more floating, like waves - or pendulums, like you said (pendulums are maybe more reliable ) Lately I've been thinking a lot of how life seems to have its happy times, and then suddenly it'll dump a whole lot of sadness and pain on a person and everything will be darker for a while, and then... it usually goes back to happier times. Well, depending on the time and place and a lot of other factors, of course. But even in a very challenging environment, happiness blooms, even though it can often be taken apart by tragedy. (Wow, I apologise for this unnecessarily flowery and kind of freeflowing/not sense-making writing. I'm tired).
My point is that yes, I like what you (and your boss) said about balancing things in life and seeing all these cycles and aspects and the shifting of them.
@RipuAncestor Freeflowing - not making sense kind of writing is the best! I understood what you were trying to say.
Also here are the personality test results for some of my Tango -characters just for fun:
Amelia Sprigg: ENFJ-A (Protagonist)
Thanatos “Tad” Dustpine: INFJ-T (Advocate) - figures he'd get the same as me... no wonder he's so easy to write
Vanja Leifsdóttir: INTJ-T (Architect)
Novak Sanguine: ISTJ-A (Logistician) - He was only very narrowly introverted... I think his asociality has more to do with his cynicism and his mistrust towards people rather than his introversion, really.
All in all I'd say they all fit really well. And also I'm pleased to find out I've managed to write somewhat diverse characters (at least personality-wise).
I knew Amelia was an ENFJ... it's fitting. And Tad... woot for another INF-er in here! I like him a lot.
i think i said this in the lounge but not here. i like tea but i love coffee. which i always find weird because i'm half scotch and tea is big deal. i've never actually been to scotland though so maybe thats why.
I love coffee. I drink way less than I used to, but I still drink 5-6 cups a week. I do like tea too, but I prefer green tea or blueberry tea.
I just realised how many of us have tea as a sort of important theme in our stories.
Also thank you! @AdamsEve1231 ! I really like a mix of realism and fantasy too (unsurprisingly), and I also like the mix of happiness and sadness, positive and negative, love and death etc. I try to find my balance in my writing, and in life, though the balance isn't really the sort of balance that would be measured by a scale, but more floating, like waves - or pendulums, like you said (pendulums are maybe more reliable ) Lately I've been thinking a lot of how life seems to have its happy times, and then suddenly it'll dump a whole lot of sadness and pain on a person and everything will be darker for a while, and then... it usually goes back to happier times. Well, depending on the time and place and a lot of other factors, of course. But even in a very challenging environment, happiness blooms, even though it can often be taken apart by tragedy. (Wow, I apologise for this unnecessarily flowery and kind of freeflowing/not sense-making writing. I'm tired).
My point is that yes, I like what you (and your boss) said about balancing things in life and seeing all these cycles and aspects and the shifting of them.
@RipuAncestor Freeflowing - not making sense kind of writing is the best! I understood what you were trying to say.
Also here are the personality test results for some of my Tango -characters just for fun:
Amelia Sprigg: ENFJ-A (Protagonist)
Thanatos “Tad” Dustpine: INFJ-T (Advocate) - figures he'd get the same as me... no wonder he's so easy to write
Vanja Leifsdóttir: INTJ-T (Architect)
Novak Sanguine: ISTJ-A (Logistician) - He was only very narrowly introverted... I think his asociality has more to do with his cynicism and his mistrust towards people rather than his introversion, really.
All in all I'd say they all fit really well. And also I'm pleased to find out I've managed to write somewhat diverse characters (at least personality-wise).
I knew Amelia was an ENFJ... it's fitting. And Tad... woot for another INF-er in here! I like him a lot.
Yay for understanding! And I also figured Amelia would be an ENFJ... she's a pretty clear case indeed. I also guessed Tad would be the most likely to get a similar type to me... though some of the questions were really difficult to answer as him because they involved things he just doesn't understand ! I'm glad you like him!
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'm curious about your thoughts. I am a baker, I believe. Outside of my computer screen, I prefer baking, although I enjoy both. I love the satisfaction of something turning out just right. And I have a huge sweet tooth although I've been trying my hand at breads. I do occasionally experiment with baking and I don't always measure exactly and eyeball it instead and sometimes I do that in writing too and just go with what feels right.
I am a planner by nature. This gets me into trouble when I spend so much time planning and not enough time actually writing. I do like having detailed outlines, maps, character sketches, histories, etc but I'm not afraid to go "off script" if need be, but then I spend hours, and potentially days, fixing my outlines, sketches, backgrounds, etc. Part of the reason I enjoy being a baker is I like to get to know my characters really in depth. I like to get inside their heads, to know every makes them tick, what inspires them, what would absolutely crush them, why they are the way they are, how they view the world, and what encourages them to act. If I were to collaborate, it would probably help to do so with a cook.
I guess from what I read in the first paragraph, I'm a cook. (I don't usually do well with strict requirements on something. Just give me some basic instructions, and let me interpret it however I like)
Anyway, this chapter today (I tried to take enough pictures for two or three days, before I go back in-game to get more) gives a very important lesson:
I'm a cook, for sure! Love the savory! My style with SimLit is generally to play, to observe what story unfolds, then to select and order the screenshots, and to write from there. I often have a loose idea of what I'll write, but it's very loose with lots of room for rambling and discovering the voice, theme, and primary symbols.
With the short stories, I'll often write first, and then I usually have a rough idea of what I want to write, while still leaving lots of room for discovery. I'll come up with a "shot list" for the short stories, so the game-play is more focused than my usual approach.
In the kitchen, I'm a baker and a cook! I learned to bake as a kid and developed a feel for it. Now, when I bake, I don't use recipes or measure. My baked goods tend towards rustic (we sweeten with dates, moisten with yogurt, and we grind our own oat flour, grinding steel-cut oats in a coffee grinder), so there's lots of margin for variety. It's a "by-feel" thing for me.
My tastes now veer toward the savory: sauteed carrots, kale, onions, garlic, ginger with roast butternut squash and ground pumpkin seeds is about my favorite thing to eat, ever!
(And I have lots of reading for tonight! Thanks, everyone! I love our circle's stories! )
I just did Marigold (from Whisper) 's personality test: ENFP-A
Here's this about romance, which totally fits her:
"Long-distance relationships are quite common among Campaigners, as they view physical distance as just another idea, no match for concepts like love."
Now I'll need to have Shannon Arker take the test!
Interesting! I'm 100% a cook in real-life. I don't measure and still am kind-of at the mercy of whatever my mum buys for cobbling together dinner (I never forward shopping lists to her). My favorite thing to bake is pie because you can play fast and loose with how you measure and put together a filling and it'll still be fine.
But as a writer, I'm a cook who wants to be a baker. Because I start with the loose and fast and unmeasured approach and then think "I can turn this into something planned" and it's...difficult. It's working so far for Cicadas, but it's why I've been hanging with Lyra. I had a vision of the end result (say a delicious cake) but no desire to bake the cake. And now I realize that I don't have any of my ingredients in place and started off poorly with something mor.onic like mistaking guar gum for flour. Or thinking that the foundation of a story can be "eh, I can think of a mission (a.k.a. basically the point of the whole story) for the four ladies later".
I do wonder if the "dinner" approach is what's kept me focused on the Waverlys for (when including their original story) almost three years now. Quickly create a lot of odds and ends, make a dinner with them later. It usually works. I didn't do anything like that for Lyra. Funny enough, it was enough to teach me what to do for story idea #3, which is gonna have another dinner-esque approach.
(I just wanted to rant about Lyra in detail, sorry )
@CathyTea: Since you mentioned the use of ice cream in Chronicles, I do wonder how universal of a feel-good experience that is to use in writing.
Interesting! I'm 100% a cook in real-life. I don't measure and still am kind-of at the mercy of whatever my mum buys for cobbling together dinner (I never forward shopping lists to her). My favorite thing to bake is pie because you can play fast and loose with how you measure and put together a filling and it'll still be fine.
But as a writer, I'm a cook who wants to be a baker. Because I start with the loose and fast and unmeasured approach and then think "I can turn this into something planned" and it's...difficult. It's working so far for Cicadas, but it's why I've been hanging with Lyra. I had a vision of the end result (say a delicious cake) but no desire to bake the cake. And now I realize that I don't have any of my ingredients in place and started off poorly with something mor.onic like mistaking guar gum for flour. Or thinking that the foundation of a story can be "eh, I can think of a mission (a.k.a. basically the point of the whole story) for the four ladies later".
I do wonder if the "dinner" approach is what's kept me focused on the Waverlys for (when including their original story) almost three years now. Quickly create a lot of odds and ends, make a dinner with them later. It usually works. I didn't do anything like that for Lyra. Funny enough, it was enough to teach me what to do for story idea #3, which is gonna have another dinner-esque approach.
(I just wanted to rant about Lyra in detail, sorry )
@CathyTea: Since you mentioned the use of ice cream in Chronicles, I do wonder how universal of a feel-good experience that is to use in writing.
So... when you were mentioning being not sure what to do with Lyra, one of the ideas I had was just to be fast and loose with it... I mean, you have four amazing (and amazingly beautiful) characters that your readers are already very invested in... you almost don't need to do anything with them...
Oh! I'm so excited, because this leads into something that @RipuAncestor and I were thinking about talking about here on this thread, anyway, seeing as she just wrote an amazing action chapter, you ( @InfraGreen ) write great action scenes, @AdamsEve1231 and @JLBDreamer write fantastic action AND since @rednenemon is the writer of the fortnight AND writes gripping, can't-stop-reading action...
Anyway... back to the ramble before my excited outburst... because I care so much about your characters, I'd really read them doing anything: eating ice cream. Watching stars. Becoming friends. Developing rivalries... it's like Arc 1 of Racket-Rotter: all I needed was to see that OTP and their fam and friends doing anything...
So, I also have a feeling that as you play around with them, stuff will happen, and after a few la-di-da chapters, you'll get an idea for action--or some of those threads you've already dangled will come into play...
And this also sort of reminds me of what's happening in Chrysanthemum Tango: Yeah, there's a McGuffin, but what really draws me in (and likely most of us?) are how utterly charming and quirky Tad is, the relationship between Amelia and Tad, the intriguing questions of identity and approval that Novak and Ms. Deacon pursue... and of course, for me, the real clinchers are those beautiful philosophical meanderings woven throughout...
So you know your end-point: and you've got your characters. And there's already tension between them... As a reader, I'd enjoy a few seasons of sitcom or just little stuff, then waiting to see what big stuff arises out of that...
I know that approach can feel awkward for a writer: that's how I'm feeling with New World Symphony. And I also know that, to some degree, we can trust the process, and, I feel, the Sims to show us where the plots are...
----
And now for the thing that Rip and I were thinking of talking about: writing action. How do you do it? How is the process for you? Do you feel confident with it? What do you focus on in your writing when you write action?
And now for the thing that Rip and I were thinking of talking about: writing action. How do you do it? How is the process for you? Do you feel confident with it? What do you focus on in your writing when you write action?
Believe it or not, I've tried to avoid writing action scenes when possible. Mostly since I associate action with fight scenes, and I don't consider myself very good at writing those.
Of course, there were times I pretty much had to write such scenes, one example being in Arc 5. And in fact there's a bit of a double meaning there:
Just like I couldn't avoid writing a fight scene at that point, Sinbad couldn't avoid confronting his past.
However, I pretty much had to write such an event, or else the story would probably not have advanced properly. In the story itself, Sinbad pretty much had to kill his former boss and her cronies, otherwise they'd have killed his family and likely even him.
Finally, I thought of the potential rewards if I finished writing this scene; I would get to write a hopefully sweet reunion scene afterwards, and Sinbad would be able to rescue his dad and half-brother.
So... when you were mentioning being not sure what to do with Lyra, one of the ideas I had was just to be fast and loose with it... I mean, you have four amazing (and amazingly beautiful) characters that your readers are already very invested in... you almost don't need to do anything with them...
Oh! I'm so excited, because this leads into something that @RipuAncestor and I were thinking about talking about here on this thread, anyway, seeing as she just wrote an amazing action chapter, you ( @InfraGreen ) write great action scenes, @AdamsEve1231 and @JLBDreamer write fantastic action AND since @rednenemon is the writer of the fortnight AND writes gripping, can't-stop-reading action...
Anyway... back to the ramble before my excited outburst... because I care so much about your characters, I'd really read them doing anything: eating ice cream. Watching stars. Becoming friends. Developing rivalries... it's like Arc 1 of Racket-Rotter: all I needed was to see that OTP and their fam and friends doing anything...
So, I also have a feeling that as you play around with them, stuff will happen, and after a few la-di-da chapters, you'll get an idea for action--or some of those threads you've already dangled will come into play...
And this also sort of reminds me of what's happening in Chrysanthemum Tango: Yeah, there's a McGuffin, but what really draws me in (and likely most of us?) are how utterly charming and quirky Tad is, the relationship between Amelia and Tad, the intriguing questions of identity and approval that Novak and Ms. Deacon pursue... and of course, for me, the real clinchers are those beautiful philosophical meanderings woven throughout...
So you know your end-point: and you've got your characters. And there's already tension between them... As a reader, I'd enjoy a few seasons of sitcom or just little stuff, then waiting to see what big stuff arises out of that...
I agree that @InfraGreen has such interesting characters that I can read about them doing basically nothing and be invested.
Also, aaw, thanks, @CathyTea! I'm glad the actual focus of my story is what draws you in. The McGuffin-related "plot" of Tango really isn't the main point why I'm writing it either; it was just an excuse to get Death into the human world and to bring in some of the other characters too... though I still am trying to develop it into something that ties things together somewhat.
As for the cook/baker thing, I think I'm a mix of both. In the kitchen and as a writer, really. I like cooking, and I usually don't measure things when I cook and most of the time just throw things together. But if I'm trying something new I'm probably going to follow a recipe pretty closely to first get a feel of how it can be done, and then later improvise. I also really like baking; I think I really got into it after I started vegan baking, because it's about thinking outside the box and finding different replacements for some of the usual baking ingredients (though I usually just find already veganised recipes and then follow them, but I've sometimes done my own variations too).
As a writer, I plan and I outline, sometimes more and sometimes less, depending on the scene or how much ideas I already have. But when I'm actually writing, I usually let the words flow and see where that goes.
And now for the thing that Rip and I were thinking of talking about: writing action. How do you do it? How is the process for you? Do you feel confident with it? What do you focus on in your writing when you write action?
I'm a very... careful action-writer. As in I plan the action scene a lot before I write it (so I guess I'm an action-baker, if we want to connect this into the cook/baker -thing). When I write action, it's like constructing a comic book page or rehearsing a play or like the times me and my friends plan scripted "movie" fight scenes for our club's demonstrations. I'm constantly thinking stuff like: this person goes here and does X, then this person punches Y, and while that happens this third person needs to somehow get to this point so they can do Z etc. And then I try to write it in a somewhat flowing and interesting way.
If I'm writing fight scenes I try really hard to find a balance between what's interesting and fun to read and what actually works in real life and is more or less realistic. I also need to think of what kind of fighters the characters are and how they would react in certain moments. I also try really hard not to make my characters be stupid fighters (like a lot of action-film characters are ), unless it's a part of the plot or the characters. Sometimes I do research on things I don't know well enough (there was this one time - when I was writing one of my NaNoWriMos - when I read quite a lot on proper firearm safety just so I could write a character handling his firearm more or less sensibly). So yeah, I get hung up over details a lot, and I might put in stuff like vague mentions of pressure points or joint locks and stuff to create an illusion that I know what I'm talking about (while at the same time being vague enough so that a reader is probably not going to be tempted to try to replicate what's happening). I'm actually quite confident with writing fight scenes, even though I'm definitely not going to claim that I'm an expert in fighting or self-defence things. As for other action scenes... it depends of the scene, really. With chases I mostly just like having fun and trying to put my chases into interesting or nice environments, for example.
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)
The question about action is very interesting, but my scheduled Eight Cicadas chapter pasted before I could process much of an answer for it. But unlike @RipuAncestor, I'm a bad researcher and the details in my action might look cool but be pretty shoddy in the real world.
ANYWAYS, happy noontime again! I’m running out of regular chapters, but there’s one I’m happy to finally get to...
I guess from what I read in the first paragraph, I'm a cook. (I don't usually do well with strict requirements on something. Just give me some basic instructions, and let me interpret it however I like)
Anyway, this chapter today (I tried to take enough pictures for two or three days, before I go back in-game to get more) gives a very important lesson:
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i think i said this in the lounge but not here. i like tea but i love coffee. which i always find weird because i'm half scotch and tea is big deal. i've never actually been to scotland though so maybe thats why.
@friendsfan367 And I love tea and don't care for coffee (as a drink; I like coffee beans and coffee chocolate and such, though), even though I'm from Finland, where coffee is a huge deal (it has the largest coffee consumption per capita in the world)! Let's break drink traditions together!
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 someone who understands. also its cool to finally know where your from.
Yes--I usually find that my times of most intense happiness (and also even, peace, for that matter) usually come when my heart's been opened by sadness.
The ten years I spent mourning my dad were full of strange joy and really deep experiences...
I like that openness that comes with deep feeling.
I'm trying to make peace with boredom, actually, and those moments when not much happens, the non-peak times. When I can explore what stillness feels like, then those plateaus feel interesting and worth exploring...
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
I was joking, really--because food plays such an important role in your story! Ice cream! And also, think of all those scenes where Sinbad is making breakfast... and then everyone's sneaking treats to Sagebear. Food seems to function as an expression of love and nurturing in The Chronicles.
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
This is so neat! These all seem to fit, too!
And it's interesting to note which characters we feel like we'd get along with, and which get under our skin: pretty much fits the people I know of those different types!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
@CathyTea 22 years ago, I was only 5 or 6 years old.
We'd be happy to help @InfraGreen.
I know the feeling. I have 7 unfinished stories, so only half, but I still have many many more ideas that haven't yet reached the blogs. Sometimes it can be nice to get sidetracked into one. I feel like I never run out of material and I avoid writer's block this way.
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I do a lot of my work from home so I easily pop in and out of the forums and gaming and writing with my actual work. It's a nice balance. I also like how my cat is the only one who interrupts me.
I think we live our lives at breakneck speed sometime. Slowly down in travel and transportation and even in our communication is important and really necessary sometimes. I struggle with impatience when driving. I want everyone to drive properly and use turn signals and not cut in front of me and go when the light turns green and I want everyone to drive at my speed. No one seems to do that. I have to remind myself to take deep breaths and relax. I listen to jazz and classical in the car for this reason. Sometimes I rock out to a few of my favorite bands when I've had a stressful day on my drive home or when I need to stay awake after my late night class.
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@RipuAncestor Freeflowing - not making sense kind of writing is the best! I understood what you were trying to say.
I knew Amelia was an ENFJ... it's fitting. And Tad... woot for another INF-er in here! I like him a lot.
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I love coffee. I drink way less than I used to, but I still drink 5-6 cups a week.
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Yay for understanding!
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)
What Kind of Writer Are You: Cook or Baker?
I'm curious about your thoughts. I am a baker, I believe. Outside of my computer screen, I prefer baking, although I enjoy both. I love the satisfaction of something turning out just right. And I have a huge sweet tooth although I've been trying my hand at breads. I do occasionally experiment with baking and I don't always measure exactly and eyeball it instead and sometimes I do that in writing too and just go with what feels right.
I am a planner by nature. This gets me into trouble when I spend so much time planning and not enough time actually writing. I do like having detailed outlines, maps, character sketches, histories, etc but I'm not afraid to go "off script" if need be, but then I spend hours, and potentially days, fixing my outlines, sketches, backgrounds, etc. Part of the reason I enjoy being a baker is I like to get to know my characters really in depth. I like to get inside their heads, to know every makes them tick, what inspires them, what would absolutely crush them, why they are the way they are, how they view the world, and what encourages them to act. If I were to collaborate, it would probably help to do so with a cook.
Thoughts? Are you a cook or a baker?
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I guess from what I read in the first paragraph, I'm a cook. (I don't usually do well with strict requirements on something. Just give me some basic instructions, and let me interpret it however I like)
Anyway, this chapter today (I tried to take enough pictures for two or three days, before I go back in-game to get more) gives a very important lesson:
Don't insult Sagebear, or her baby.
Life Is An Upset She-Dog
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)
With the short stories, I'll often write first, and then I usually have a rough idea of what I want to write, while still leaving lots of room for discovery. I'll come up with a "shot list" for the short stories, so the game-play is more focused than my usual approach.
In the kitchen, I'm a baker and a cook! I learned to bake as a kid and developed a feel for it. Now, when I bake, I don't use recipes or measure. My baked goods tend towards rustic (we sweeten with dates, moisten with yogurt, and we grind our own oat flour, grinding steel-cut oats in a coffee grinder), so there's lots of margin for variety. It's a "by-feel" thing for me.
My tastes now veer toward the savory: sauteed carrots, kale, onions, garlic, ginger with roast butternut squash and ground pumpkin seeds is about my favorite thing to eat, ever!
(And I have lots of reading for tonight! Thanks, everyone! I love our circle's stories!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Here's this about romance, which totally fits her:
"Long-distance relationships are quite common among Campaigners, as they view physical distance as just another idea, no match for concepts like love."
Now I'll need to have Shannon Arker take the test!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Interesting! I'm 100% a cook in real-life. I don't measure and still am kind-of at the mercy of whatever my mum buys for cobbling together dinner (I never forward shopping lists to her). My favorite thing to bake is pie because you can play fast and loose with how you measure and put together a filling and it'll still be fine.
But as a writer, I'm a cook who wants to be a baker. Because I start with the loose and fast and unmeasured approach and then think "I can turn this into something planned" and it's...difficult. It's working so far for Cicadas, but it's why I've been hanging with Lyra. I had a vision of the end result (say a delicious cake) but no desire to bake the cake. And now I realize that I don't have any of my ingredients in place and started off poorly with something mor.onic like mistaking guar gum for flour. Or thinking that the foundation of a story can be "eh, I can think of a mission (a.k.a. basically the point of the whole story) for the four ladies later".
I do wonder if the "dinner" approach is what's kept me focused on the Waverlys for (when including their original story) almost three years now. Quickly create a lot of odds and ends, make a dinner with them later. It usually works. I didn't do anything like that for Lyra. Funny enough, it was enough to teach me what to do for story idea #3, which is gonna have another dinner-esque approach.
(I just wanted to rant about Lyra in detail, sorry
@CathyTea: Since you mentioned the use of ice cream in Chronicles, I do wonder how universal of a feel-good experience that is to use in writing.
outrun / blog / tunglr
So... when you were mentioning being not sure what to do with Lyra, one of the ideas I had was just to be fast and loose with it... I mean, you have four amazing (and amazingly beautiful) characters that your readers are already very invested in... you almost don't need to do anything with them...
Oh! I'm so excited, because this leads into something that @RipuAncestor and I were thinking about talking about here on this thread, anyway, seeing as she just wrote an amazing action chapter, you ( @InfraGreen ) write great action scenes, @AdamsEve1231 and @JLBDreamer write fantastic action AND since @rednenemon is the writer of the fortnight AND writes gripping, can't-stop-reading action...
Anyway... back to the ramble before my excited outburst... because I care so much about your characters, I'd really read them doing anything: eating ice cream. Watching stars. Becoming friends. Developing rivalries... it's like Arc 1 of Racket-Rotter: all I needed was to see that OTP and their fam and friends doing anything...
So, I also have a feeling that as you play around with them, stuff will happen, and after a few la-di-da chapters, you'll get an idea for action--or some of those threads you've already dangled will come into play...
And this also sort of reminds me of what's happening in Chrysanthemum Tango: Yeah, there's a McGuffin, but what really draws me in (and likely most of us?) are how utterly charming and quirky Tad is, the relationship between Amelia and Tad, the intriguing questions of identity and approval that Novak and Ms. Deacon pursue... and of course, for me, the real clinchers are those beautiful philosophical meanderings woven throughout...
So you know your end-point: and you've got your characters. And there's already tension between them... As a reader, I'd enjoy a few seasons of sitcom or just little stuff, then waiting to see what big stuff arises out of that...
I know that approach can feel awkward for a writer: that's how I'm feeling with New World Symphony. And I also know that, to some degree, we can trust the process, and, I feel, the Sims to show us where the plots are...
----
And now for the thing that Rip and I were thinking of talking about: writing action. How do you do it? How is the process for you? Do you feel confident with it? What do you focus on in your writing when you write action?
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Believe it or not, I've tried to avoid writing action scenes when possible. Mostly since I associate action with fight scenes, and I don't consider myself very good at writing those.
Of course, there were times I pretty much had to write such scenes, one example being in Arc 5. And in fact there's a bit of a double meaning there:
However, I pretty much had to write such an event, or else the story would probably not have advanced properly. In the story itself, Sinbad pretty much had to kill his former boss and her cronies, otherwise they'd have killed his family and likely even him.
Finally, I thought of the potential rewards if I finished writing this scene; I would get to write a hopefully sweet reunion scene afterwards, and Sinbad would be able to rescue his dad and half-brother.
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)
Also, aaw, thanks, @CathyTea! I'm glad the actual focus of my story is what draws you in. The McGuffin-related "plot" of Tango really isn't the main point why I'm writing it either; it was just an excuse to get Death into the human world and to bring in some of the other characters too... though I still am trying to develop it into something that ties things together somewhat.
As for the cook/baker thing, I think I'm a mix of both. In the kitchen and as a writer, really. I like cooking, and I usually don't measure things when I cook and most of the time just throw things together. But if I'm trying something new I'm probably going to follow a recipe pretty closely to first get a feel of how it can be done, and then later improvise. I also really like baking; I think I really got into it after I started vegan baking, because it's about thinking outside the box and finding different replacements for some of the usual baking ingredients (though I usually just find already veganised recipes and then follow them, but I've sometimes done my own variations too).
As a writer, I plan and I outline, sometimes more and sometimes less, depending on the scene or how much ideas I already have. But when I'm actually writing, I usually let the words flow and see where that goes.
I'm a very... careful action-writer. As in I plan the action scene a lot before I write it (so I guess I'm an action-baker, if we want to connect this into the cook/baker -thing). When I write action, it's like constructing a comic book page or rehearsing a play or like the times me and my friends plan scripted "movie" fight scenes for our club's demonstrations. I'm constantly thinking stuff like: this person goes here and does X, then this person punches Y, and while that happens this third person needs to somehow get to this point so they can do Z etc. And then I try to write it in a somewhat flowing and interesting way.
If I'm writing fight scenes I try really hard to find a balance between what's interesting and fun to read and what actually works in real life and is more or less realistic. I also need to think of what kind of fighters the characters are and how they would react in certain moments. I also try really hard not to make my characters be stupid fighters (like a lot of action-film characters are
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)
ANYWAYS, happy noontime again! I’m running out of regular chapters, but there’s one I’m happy to finally get to...
”...There’s a lot the coroner won’t tell you guys.”
And an unrelated pic of Hannah in lieu of an actual preview (sorry!):
outrun / blog / tunglr
@rednenemon *gasp* Never insult Sagebear! Who would do that? Guess I'll have to wait forever to find out since I'm still so far behind.
Find me elsewhere:
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Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
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My Sims Pinterest
@friendsfan367 She deserves it!
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest