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The Kindness Bench for SimLit Writers - For All Games!

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  • mercuryfoammercuryfoam Posts: 1,156 Member
    edited July 2020
    @Groomy Hey there m8.

    I think your partner should do whatever challenge that interests her. As long as she maintain consistency and have fun in the process she'll attract those who like her playstyle/choreography/machinimas. Instead of a specific challenge, you could focus on marketing her videos instead, getting it to the right audience.

    Is your partner active on the forums? Maybe suggest to her to frequent the Artists & Video Haven thread, and specifically give herself a shout out in this and this thread. She could potentially make a personal thread dedicated to her videos there too.

    There's also the 'How to Grow a Sims Youtube Channel' thread that you might find better suggestions. I just checked. There's an amazing reply there that has some awesome answers.
  • Dollyllama108Dollyllama108 Posts: 268 Member
    I've been feeling isolated as of late.

    It's already difficult for me to communicate because the way my brain works is off-putting to many people. The way I'm wired, I'm happiest when I'm synthesizing new ideas. I can't change that. The problem is, many people don't respond well to unexpected or unfamiliar outbursts. What often happens in conversation is that I'll mention something I've been thinking about or find interesting, and the other person doesn't know what to say to that, so they just... don't respond. (This doesn't happen with everyone.) And it hurts, because I'm genuinely trying to connect with them in a way that makes sense to me.

    That's the context for my story, because man, that thing is DENSE. I started writing because I keep seeing the same destructive messages in fiction, over and over again, and wanted to write something that reflected the way I saw the world. Something nuanced that captures how little we really understand, but that we have to hold improvable beliefs to keep moving forward. And over the course of the story, I've managed to throw around dozens, if not hundreds, of concepts that healed me and changed my life, and that I have not seen adequately addressed in any other work of fiction. (Doesn't mean works like that don't exist; I just haven't found them.) I've gotten a lot out of writing it.

    But of course, stories where the author is trying to interweave all these lofty concepts are... not digestible. That's the kiss of death on social media.

    I can't compete with legacy challenges. I can't compete with pictures of cool builds or pretty sims. Every attempt I've made at sharing my work---and I hate self-promoting, absolutely loathe it---has been strongly discouraged. Even when I try to write accessible, digestible content, it's dead in the water. I intellectually understand there's nothing wrong with me, but it sure feels that way sometimes.

    I don't mean to shame those who produce easier-to-swallow content; I get it, we all only have so much mental energy to devote to entertainment, sometimes you need an escape from the world. There's nothing wrong with wanting something lighter. If someone comes along and decides my story isn't for them, that's totally understandable! What bothers me is that intricate stuff gets so buried that the people who really want to sink their teeth into something can't find each other.

    So what I'm saying is it feels like I'm doomed to be cut off from most of the simmers I could have connected with. I'm not looking for advice here---nothing I do is going to change this; no one trusts fanfic authors to accurately assess the quality of their own work, so I have to rely on the kindness of others---but am wondering if anyone else out there wants to commiserate.

    Anyone else feel like they're being punished for putting loads of effort into their story?
    banner_both.jpg
    Catastrophe Theory: If, through loose ends, we could resume/Unrav'ling defects from the loom/And soften as the shuttle mends---/Then save for me a few loose ends!
    Haunted: Picture Oscar Wilde dating Willy Wonka, also Oscar Wilde is still dead
  • rosenero10rosenero10 Posts: 536 Member
    @Dollyllama108
    I think you're probably quite an intelligent person. Higher than average, in fact. And you've got no problem in expressing yourself.
    And you could look deeper and deeper into a variety of areas to find what you're looking for.
    And I could commiserate with you for the struggle you go through to gain readership. I don't know too many who have never struggled.

    But sometimes you can't compensate; change or even apologize for your own literary style. It is what it is .And yes, it can be developed.
    But did any of the great Artists of Cubism ever do that with their work of art?
    No, they just did what they did and their work was appreciated by some, but not everyone.

    You can write what you write, but just know who your target audience is and aim the story at them.

    I once wrote a Star Trek Illustrated Story, but I knew just because I illustrated it with TS3 didn't mean players of TS3 would flock to read it.
    In fact 90% of the readership are Star Trek fans, not The Sims fans. And in the early days of that story, I gained more readers from being in Star Trek fan group forums than for being in The Sims fan group forums.

    So for you it might be a case of finding the right target audience. And perhaps a web presence that lends itself better to a worldwide audience and the way social media likes; comments and shares your work.
  • ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    edited July 2020
    Hi @Dollyllama108 <3

    I'm sorry you're feeling down! Obviously I can only speak for book I of your story so far, but I like that it's not cookie-cutter! Your characters feel like real people, with plenty of subtle nuances and layers, just living within the framework of the game. You're right that the story messages in each of your chapters are dense, and I can't claim to pick up on every single one of them, but maybe that's the beauty; there's so much in there everyone can pick out a theme that resonates with them. By which logic, you've written a highly accessible story, contrary to what you're saying!

    I think everyone should write for themselves first, whether that be healing purposes like you said, or simply pursuing themes they personally find interesting (like you also said :D ). I don't know if many people set out to write something that fits a perfectly boxed formula, unless this is something they are being paid for - because surely that would feel deeply unsatisfying, replicating something that's already out there. Most people write because they want to explore their own take on things.

    I don't know about legacy challenges - are those even still popular? I guess they're a classic, and they had a bit of a boom back in the day, but most stories I see around these days aren't legacies. Or maybe that's just reflective of the kind of stories I look for. But even the stories I read that are technically called legacies aren't really legacies in the traditional sense. I've given my story the whole "cursed legacy" tagline, but if I'm perfectly honest, it's not really a legacy (I mainly called it that because the main protagonist starts off broke, same way legacy founders do, but that's about it), so I'm planning to ditch that tagline. But I struggle with neatly summarising what a central theme to the story is - maybe for similar reasons to yourself, that there is not a single central theme :D It's just a story I've been craving to write. I wrote the intro blurb a few times and I'm still not happy with it (I even called my story a romance in one of the blurb versions, but then I realised that would give people false expectations, because while there is a heavy focus on relationships, I would really not call it romantic haha).

    Not sure where I'm necessarily going with this waffle (surprise), and I'm not really here to commiserate (I'm not claiming to have many deep themes in my story by any means, and I wouldn't say our stories are particularly similar), I just wanted to reassure you that your story doesn't have to be neatly packaged and categorised to speak to people - I've been enjoying your story! It IS different from most simlit I've seen, but so is everything else I'm currently reading, surely that's the point - who wants to read the same story over and over? So forget about bright vibrant colours that hurt your eyes (she says, while her banner has plenty of vibrant colours that hurt your eyes - I blame the game lol) and appealing to everyone, and keep telling the story that you want to tell - that's what makes it unique. I'm no expert, obviously - not that one can be an expert on what people enjoy, imagine that job title :D But I firmly believe that if the author is enjoying their story, it's guaranteed someone else will.
    Post edited by ThePlumbob on
  • Dollyllama108Dollyllama108 Posts: 268 Member
    @rosenero10, @ThePlumbob, everyone who PM-ed me, my friend who's not on the forums and who clued me in that my official job title was fancier than I thought it was (not super on-topic but it did improve my mood), thank you! I'm feeling better about it now.

    When I say 'digestible', what I mean is that it takes less time and energy to look at a picture of a cute kitten than it does to read a 4.5k-word blog post. And it takes less time and energy to read a conventional story than a 4.5k-word blog post where some of those words are 'concupiscence' and 'uxoricide' because I thought it was funny to throw them into a SimLit.

    If you go back a page in this thread, you'll see me giving a pretty similar pep talk. I'm not planning on giving up or trying to change what I'm doing to suit others, but am rather disappointed that the community is structured s.t. these sorts of stories get buried. New people are going to come into the community and if they don't see anything they like, they're going to leave. People assume work like mine doesn't exist, so they won't look for it. It's impeding diversity. It's choking the genre.

    Finding an audience and building a presence elsewhere is a nice sentiment, but it's harder to carry out than it looks, and I'd like that to be acknowledged rather than having it be presented as a solution. In this case, my work is so unusual that there's not an identifiable core demographic of people I can target. (Maybe HSPs? That's the closest.) So I have to build one from scratch, so my work has to reach enough people so that it spreads organically---and that isn't happening. It's not like COVID-19. It has a low infection rate and it's going to keep being excruciatingly slow; I know that, I'm just temporarily frustrated. On top of that, the qualities that make it hard to market are exactly what I like about it.

    I mostly wrote this to reach out to anyone with similar problems. Like, if what you do is so weird that you can't file it under an established genre like "mystery" or "romance" and have to call it "post-postmodern metafiction." Yeah, that's catchy. Flock to me!

    For now, I'll just keep waiting. Eh! The only thing that's helped is scouring the forums for stories I want to read, so I'll keep doing that. And again, thank you!

    (Yo! What's funny is that Book II makes Book I look like a steaming excrement pile, and Book III will do the same for Book II. I usually try to steer people away from Book I, lol. And vibrant colors that hurt your eyes! I took down my banner because it was A LOT, but now it's back temporarily so you can see how A LOT it is, and also a total lie because Book II isn't done yet.)
    banner_both.jpg
    Catastrophe Theory: If, through loose ends, we could resume/Unrav'ling defects from the loom/And soften as the shuttle mends---/Then save for me a few loose ends!
    Haunted: Picture Oscar Wilde dating Willy Wonka, also Oscar Wilde is still dead
  • MonaSolstraaleMonaSolstraale Posts: 1,372 Member
    edited July 2020
    @Dollyllama108 I happened to be aware of the thoughts you shared about feeling isolated.
    There were thoughts I can recognize and thoughts I feel a little provoked by (in the good way)
    First of all, I can recognize the need to get feedback. That is the whole reason why I have chosen to share stories in a language that is not my native language.
    At the same time, language becomes my handicap, because I have a very hard time following stories that become too text-heavy. I orientate myself especially in relation to images that speak to me.
    That said, I think @rosenero10 says something significant when he writes that you need to know who your target audience is.
    I think it was your remark about easier-to-swallow content that provoked me to write :lol:
    Not everyone may have the ability to read complicated texts and therefore you will not get the answers you are missing.
    There are so many simlit writers to choose from and they each have their motives for expressing themselves.
    I have looked at your Blog and I really like the whole visual expression :love: The dark background that supports the theme you are dealing with. Your little "header pictures" that illustrate the different books make me curious to see more. I really like the images that support your text. I can see you have been thinking about camera angles and Sims' expressions ....
    I'm sorry if I misunderstood your post on this page (It happens to me quite often ;) ). I think you have a fair amount of followers on your Blog ... and that you just have to keep up the good work :)
  • Dollyllama108Dollyllama108 Posts: 268 Member
    @MonaSolstraale Thank you! I know I use a lot of words, so sometimes it's hard for people to understand what I say. I'm going to use pictures to see if I can communicate it better. (And thank you for the graphic design comments, haha. It's a joke between me and my co-author that it's supposed to look like an edgy 11-year-old designed it, see the site logo, but Wordpress's dark templates look too good for that.)

    Let's say there are some people who are going to like your story and some who aren't. I've highlighted people who are willing to give the story a shot in purple, which is the best color. So maybe it looks something like this.
    crowd1.jpg

    This is true for everybody. And for most of us, because we're such a tiny community, we can maybe reach a small number of people, even though there are many more out there who might enjoy the story.
    crowd2.jpg

    I'd agree that everyone's story has something in it that appeals to people outside of SimLit! I also agree that people feel better when they find their audience. Let's say their story is about... uh, vampire romance... and they can post it to a vampire romance forum. They've found a place where the purple people group together.
    crowd4.jpg

    At least that's what I think you all are saying. (I know it's more complicated than that, and if you read my story you'll notice I'm well aware that people make mistakes when they ignore nuance, so you don't need to tell me that nuance exists.)

    The thing that is different from my story, and the thing that is making me lonely, is that my story is so unusual that no such collection of purple people exists yet. You have to trust me on that. To steal the Cubism comparison, before the Cubist painters did their thing, it did not have an easily identifiable target audience. There was no group of people sitting in a circle saying "gee, I wish someone would invent Cubism already." Not that I'm trying to misrepresent or diminish this argument, because I agree with the basic message. It's more that the idea I'm trying to express is uncommon because the situation I'm in is uncommon.

    I can't find my audience because I have to build one from scratch. There are a couple ways I could try to do that.

    I can try to expand my influence using social media, so the green bit looks more like this.
    crowd3.jpg
    But my work is not easy to interact with, so it doesn't perform well on social media. On top of that, when an outsider sees the Sims community, the only things they see are the ones that perform well on social media. What you know, and what I know, is that the community goes beyond what is popular. I am trying to get people to realize that. Sometimes I promote authors whose work is more accessible than mine (ayyyy @FeroshaCoutora) but because I'm not good at social media, that often fizzles out, too.

    I can try to find forums or groups of people whose interests align with my story and talk about it there. This is hard for me to do for many reasons. One reason is that it's hard for me to talk about things I like about my work without sounding mean. If I say I spend hours each week poring over usage dictionaries and can copy edit at a professional level, sometimes it makes other people feel bad about themselves because they don't do that. And I don't want to discourage anyone else, because I respect their effort, so I don't talk about it. And because I don't talk about it, very few people know.

    In fact, that's one of the reasons it's so hard for me to find people to connect with. It's because sometimes just saying my work is different rubs people the wrong way. Everyone's work is unique! I enjoy looking through what people write to see what makes them special. The problem is that I like to create my own framework from scratch rather than relying on existing tropes or structure, so I'm putting a lot of effort into things that go unnoticed or are hard to describe. These are things no one trusts the creator to have an accurate opinion of. If I say I can break a ton of narrative rules and make the story work anyway, who's going to believe me? That sounds arrogant and pretentious. If someone else says it, that's different. But I can't control that.

    It's like if on a baking show (got that on the mind... lol), one person made a beautiful cake from a tried-and true recipe and spent their time executing it well, and another person made a totally new recipe on the fly that stretched the boundaries of what 'cake' meant, who do you think is going to win? Person 2 is at a huge disadvantage. "Yes, it's impressive that you could create a whole other recipe from scratch, but... the other one just looks and tastes better." Maybe it doesn't even look and taste better; maybe it's just closer to what the judges think of as 'cake,' and they like what they know.

    And if Person 2 tries to complain about their efforts going to waste, very few people are going to understand what they're talking about. Instead, it often looks like Person 2 is bellyaching because they think they're soooooo much better than everyone else with their new recipes. That's what I meant when I said I felt "punished." Person 1 will get recognized for their effort immediately. It might take years for people to come around to Person 2's cake, and it might never happen---we can all name people throughout history who died before their ideas were accepted---and on top of that, Person 2 may not be able to talk about it openly because most bakers are like Person 1. It's true they can listen to and understand each other but it's a touchy subject.

    I don't even want to talk about it anymore. I don't even want to post this. I'm tired of justifying being different.

    Another reason I can't target specific groups of people is that the concrete topics my story covers are---not the best for promoting a silly Sims blog. I'm not going to sell myself on forums for abuse survivors or depressed HSPs. (But I am learning to draw and making a spinoff comic for the story's only stable romance. That's more conventional!)

    I can try to look for other people who already exist in the community, who already feel isolated because they haven't found their people yet. This is the only thing I've had any success with. I'm trying to un-bury other people; that's the purpose of this message. We're a small enough group that what benefits one person benefits all of us (sans beefs).

    To repeat myself, though I appreciate the gestures and you all are very kind, I am not looking for reassurance or advice. I'm trying to find people who feel like their work is unpopular precisely because it is too far out of the box.

    Anyone?
    banner_both.jpg
    Catastrophe Theory: If, through loose ends, we could resume/Unrav'ling defects from the loom/And soften as the shuttle mends---/Then save for me a few loose ends!
    Haunted: Picture Oscar Wilde dating Willy Wonka, also Oscar Wilde is still dead
  • SimsophoniqueSimsophonique Posts: 1,410 Member
    edited July 2020
    Hello. How are everybody?
    I am back at the simlit community after struggling with my game issues for months and time to have my new medication dosage to be effective, it takes months to be balanced. I am still tired but I got free days without sleeping all days to write again. So I started over Miss V Detective I hope it is better.
    I refollowed back a couple of my old readers and friends in wordpress but none of them followed me back . Wordpress is a pain in a plumbob because it does not allow me back to get my nickname and my blog adress as simsophonique only (I am thesimsophonique for the blog adress and simsophoniquesims for the gravatar profile). I was right to move on to dreamwidth because the new features on wp gives me nauseas, really I hate it, I post excerpts only there.
    If you liked my story or wants to speak to me I am still there even though since I am diagnosed Autistic Asperger I rather slow down my communication with the community ,to avoid to be not well understood, in private I had arguments I do not want to be angry with anybody.I only speak for saying something interesting. I also slow down my readings as well. Too much information are hard to keep in mind especially when I read in a language that isn't yours but you understand it globally not fully.
    ---
    About the target audience mine is close to 0 even 0. Simmers do not seems to be ready for a rewriting of the existing sims story with my sims/characters instead of the premades and much influenced by how I play the game. I dont care, I write and share for myself first. I have nothing to prouve to somebody but to myself. Playing writing and sharing are just hobbies. If people doesn't like I rather them to keep silence instead of insulting me, pushing me down, targetting me all the time at simsecrets or getting bad comments.
    Follow and read Miss V Detective (ts3 story)
    on wordpress: thesimsophonique.wp.com / on dreamwidth: simsophonique.dreamwidth.org
    Follow me on tumblr (sims only)
    simsophonique.tumblr.com (please no triggers I am autistic asperger)
  • lone_catlone_cat Posts: 417 Member
    @Dollyllama108 I can sort of relate to this. I wouldn't say that my story is completely out of the box or original, but I think it's different enough that it doesn't get read as much as other stuff. I focus on a central mystery or a whodunnit, and I think that makes it a little different than what is currently out there. I do use supernaturals in my story, but I put new spins on them and try to come up with my own lore around them. I take some responsibility for my story not being read as much. I would say I'm a mediocre writer at best, but I'm learning the more I write. I have a lot of ideas in my head, it's just sometimes hard for me to say exactly what I want, or it might not translate as well as I expected. I also don't like to self-promote and only post my story links on my own thread.

    But yeah, it can be frustrating when your story doesn't have a lot of readers or isn't reaching your target audience. And it can feel very isolating. I know I question my writing all the time or if I should even continue to write the story. But I find that writing in itself is therapeutic, and really that's the main reason I write. Even if my story isn't the most thought-provoking or popular, I reason that if a few people enjoy it, and I have fun writing it, then I accomplished my goal.

    Anyway, I don't think this exactly what you were getting at and I rambled on, but I thought I'd throw some of my thoughts out there.
  • ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    @lone_cat Just going to interject here really briefly to say that you're far from a mediocre writer! I actually think your story is the rare kind that would still work even if it had absolutely nothing to do with the Sims, which can't be said about a lot of simlit.
  • candycottonchucandycottonchu Posts: 906 Member
    @Dollyllama108 I have not read yet much of your story (real life + internet problems kinda kept me from that lol), but if you're interested in making your work more accessible, I could give you my first impression.
    I am not a native English speaker, and maybe that's a problem, but I have a hard time following the language of your chapters. It is very complex. And while I really admire the broad vocabulary, and really like the sentence constructions, it is something that hinders the immersion of just getting drowned in the story itself.
    Honestly I doubt that heavier themes or unusual story plots may repel most readers, on the contrary, I often found many people are pleasantly surprised if a story goes differently than they expected, even if it is not a happy ending.
    Anyway I definitely want to catch up with your story, because I got curious where Claudia is heading (also, I love how you write her inside life + feelings), I hope I have more time this weekend :)
  • Dollyllama108Dollyllama108 Posts: 268 Member
    Hey @Simsophonique! Long time no see! I can't find you on Wordpress, so link me please :)

    Thanks for following up, @lone_cat and @candycottonchu! I'm starting a Discord for fanfiction authors whose writing priorities differ from those their general audience looks for to evaluate a work as "good." For example, people who throw a ton of foreshadowing into a fic where the audience isn't primed to expect foreshadowing and who get sad when it goes unnoticed. I have other friends who feel this way, so that should help with the loneliness.

    I'm okay now, everyone! Thank you!

    @candycottonchu, oh man, good on you for sticking it out! My favorite author is David Foster Wallace, and if you know anything about him, it's probably that his novels are so dense and the language is so challenging that most native speakers refuse to read them. LOL. One stylistic thing he does, that I love, is that he pushes the limits of the English language. He understands the logic behind grammatical rules and knows when it's okay to break them, he can phrase mundane things in unusual ways, and he even finds constructions that should theoretically be possible, based on all the other rules, but that no one uses.

    That's the style I'm going for. It's a difficult style to pull off, so my story isn't as good in the beginning. Unfortunately, yes, it makes it hard for non-native speakers to read. I don't write because I want my style to be less accessible---actually, it blows my mind when non-native speakers can get anything out of this, because it's hard for even most native speakers to parse, so SERIOUS KUDOS---it's because I enjoy writing this way more than writing simple language.

    I agree that there are many people who like heavy themes and unusual plots. But often these themes and plots are presented in a context where the reader knows to expect certain things, such as 'mystery' or 'romance' or 'fantasy.' I can present my genre as 'black dramedy,' which is alright but still doesn't tell the audience what to expect, or 'post-postmodern metafiction,' which REALLY doesn't tell the audience what to expect. People also think metafiction is too hard for amateur authors to write (ouch, this prose makes me want to punch something). That's what makes it different from a heavy story that's also a thriller, for example.

    Incidentally, making your use of language so jarring that the reader gets snapped out of the story is a metafictional technique. The silly photo captions are another one, since they're where the author talks directly to the reader. (I wouldn't classify this story as metafiction for those alone, though; meta-properties of the work are central to the plot in a subtle way.) Yeah... it's weird.

    It's very cool when people write in a second language; I'm sorry that English has so many rules and makes no earthly sense.

    @lone_cat, I'm happy that writing is therapeutic for you, and do enjoy mysteries. You might catch me lurking around in the comment section later!
    banner_both.jpg
    Catastrophe Theory: If, through loose ends, we could resume/Unrav'ling defects from the loom/And soften as the shuttle mends---/Then save for me a few loose ends!
    Haunted: Picture Oscar Wilde dating Willy Wonka, also Oscar Wilde is still dead
  • ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    For example, people who throw a ton of foreshadowing into a fic where the audience isn't primed to expect foreshadowing and who get sad when it goes unnoticed.

    @Dollyllama108 That sounds interesting. Although I really can't complain, my audience is small, but very thoughtful (mostly since they all write too haha), so my readers do pick up on hidden nuances often, or at least know when things feel off. Not a 100% of the time and not on everything - but that's normal, that's why it's called foreshadowing and not hitting someone in their face :D Somebody would have to be inside your brain to pick up on everything you try to allude to, but then they wouldn't be an interesting reader, since their thoughts would just mirror yours. Besides, if people could guess where I was going with the story all the time, I might as well pack up and go home.
  • Dollyllama108Dollyllama108 Posts: 268 Member
    @ThePlumbob Yeah, I'm jumping for joy at all the things my readers pick up on! It's not a problem if something goes unnoticed. I have another friend who's in a community where no one cares about that and laughs at her for including it (it seems to mostly be this one writing server), so that's what I was thinking about.
    banner_both.jpg
    Catastrophe Theory: If, through loose ends, we could resume/Unrav'ling defects from the loom/And soften as the shuttle mends---/Then save for me a few loose ends!
    Haunted: Picture Oscar Wilde dating Willy Wonka, also Oscar Wilde is still dead
  • ThePlumbobThePlumbob Posts: 4,971 Member
    @Dollyllama108 That's so sad, I feel bad for your friend. Honestly, if people only read something for the sake of tearing down the effort the author put in, they should really have a think about how they choose to spend their spare time.
  • SimsophoniqueSimsophonique Posts: 1,410 Member
    @Dollylama108 : Hello ! I was so much troubled I deleted my old wordpress so I made a new one a month or two ago when I was completely back at my story and my gameplay , it was so compromised for months I wasn't sure I might start something this year.
    My new wordpress is : thesimsophonique.wordpress.com but I moved on dreamwidth for the whole story because this is easier for me. WP new features makes me very frustrated so I only post excerpts.
    Follow and read Miss V Detective (ts3 story)
    on wordpress: thesimsophonique.wp.com / on dreamwidth: simsophonique.dreamwidth.org
    Follow me on tumblr (sims only)
    simsophonique.tumblr.com (please no triggers I am autistic asperger)
  • mercuryfoammercuryfoam Posts: 1,156 Member
    @Simsophonique If you mean the block editor feature is confusing, you can switch back to classic editor using the 'three dots'/More options located on the top right corner when you write a new post.
    4.png

  • emorrillemorrill Posts: 8,110 Member
    ThePlumbob wrote: »
    @Dollyllama108 That's so sad, I feel bad for your friend. Honestly, if people only read something for the sake of tearing down the effort the author put in, they should really have a think about how they choose to spend their spare time.

    ^So much AMEN to this!!
    52607642900_bbbac3a314_c.jpg
  • MadameLeeMadameLee Posts: 32,748 Member
    I been having major fast-food withdrawal since April.. but I don't have access to either delivery apps OR restaurant apps and my parents don't trust the former (they would just prefer to go and use a drive-thru and they haven't gone through a drive thru since I was 7 or 8 after they realized a Smoothie? wasn't as healthy as they thought it was) what happened to option 3: calling a phone # and then ordering like people used to do with food like pizza before apps or the internet were a thing? The other problem is Dad doesn't like me eatting 'high calorie content" so its not like I can ask him (when he's the ONLY driver in the house) to drive me to Tim's and get myself an Oreo Ice Cap and BLT sandwhich. Or go to McDonald's and get myself a wrap, fries, pop and maybe a McFlurry for lunch. Also how do you pay in a drive-thru if you're not the one actually DRIVING the car?
    6adMCGP.gif
  • lisabee2lisabee2 Posts: 3,708 Member
    Just passing thru to sit on the bench for a bit. Feeling like 3rd grade me .. always wondering what the heck is wrong with me. Dusting off my behind and headed back to "class" .. ty for the respite.
    SebEwnF.jpg
    LisabeeSims
    New readers can visit here first: In-a-NUTSHELL
    #EAgamechanger
  • MadameLeeMadameLee Posts: 32,748 Member
    edited August 2020
    The last week of July-my program had sent out their August calendar (via email)-saying that there would be a meet-up this past week. I had sent an email back asking several questions and from Saturday-Thursday.. I looked religiously at my email-normal 'other' and junk and I didn't get any response back and today when I called a friend of mine from the program and she said their *had* been a gettogether at the park. This is about the 4th time since I first joined the program in 2013 which I don't get any information (only the 2nd since we actually got a phone tree something I had been arguing about for years last year). When I didn't hear back I just assumed it wasn't going to happen.. because I thought people weren't interested because there wasn't going to be any food. So I'm really ticked off about the lack of information (again)
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  • SimsophoniqueSimsophonique Posts: 1,410 Member
    edited August 2020
    @Simsophonique If you mean the block editor feature is confusing, you can switch back to classic editor using the 'three dots'/More options located on the top right corner when you write a new post.
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    @mercuryfoam : I am sorry for my silence I wasn't connected in the forum lately. Thank you for the help but I do not really care of wordpress nobody follows me back and nobody visits it except me. :'( At least at dreamwidth I do not have this trigger. I do not know how many people visits it and that's fine.

    --
    @madamelee : if the program you are going to follow is made by administration make sure you won't know anything about it until day one 1.
    Follow and read Miss V Detective (ts3 story)
    on wordpress: thesimsophonique.wp.com / on dreamwidth: simsophonique.dreamwidth.org
    Follow me on tumblr (sims only)
    simsophonique.tumblr.com (please no triggers I am autistic asperger)
  • MadameLeeMadameLee Posts: 32,748 Member
    [quote="Simsophonique;c-17615505"

    --
    @madamelee : if the program you are going to follow is made by administration make sure you won't know anything about it until day one 1.[/quote]

    Well the last week of July the program said we would have a meet-up at the park the following week-the major days that the program would normally have a meet-up would be either Monday OR Thursdays (we never EVER had anything on Fridays. Since the Monday of the following week that meant Thursday was most obvious choice for the meet-up. I replied back to the calendar email (mentioning-the meet-up in said email) and asked questions like 1)what day is the meet-up, 2)what time, and 3)if i needed to bring food. That week from Saturday-Wednesay I religiously looked at my email and I got 0 response in any of the emails sections-not in "other" not in "junk". I then last Sunday talked to one of my friends from the program and she said the meet-up was suppose to have been on Friday. I emailed the leader again and their excuse was "well there could only be a limited amount of people and only 14 people showed interested but no one showed up on Friday". But I would have shown up had I known what the DAY Was..and like I said- we never had anything on the Friday-so I think people showed up on the Thursday and was wondering where the leader was.. and this is the 4th time the leaders have failed to communicate properly-twice without a phone/email tree, and twice with a phone/email tree.
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  • CathyTeaCathyTea Posts: 23,088 Member
    I've been feeling isolated as of late.

    It's already difficult for me to communicate because the way my brain works is off-putting to many people. The way I'm wired, I'm happiest when I'm synthesizing new ideas. I can't change that. The problem is, many people don't respond well to unexpected or unfamiliar outbursts. What often happens in conversation is that I'll mention something I've been thinking about or find interesting, and the other person doesn't know what to say to that, so they just... don't respond. (This doesn't happen with everyone.) And it hurts, because I'm genuinely trying to connect with them in a way that makes sense to me.

    That's the context for my story, because man, that thing is DENSE. I started writing because I keep seeing the same destructive messages in fiction, over and over again, and wanted to write something that reflected the way I saw the world. Something nuanced that captures how little we really understand, but that we have to hold improvable beliefs to keep moving forward. And over the course of the story, I've managed to throw around dozens, if not hundreds, of concepts that healed me and changed my life, and that I have not seen adequately addressed in any other work of fiction. (Doesn't mean works like that don't exist; I just haven't found them.) I've gotten a lot out of writing it.

    But of course, stories where the author is trying to interweave all these lofty concepts are... not digestible. That's the kiss of death on social media.

    I can't compete with legacy challenges. I can't compete with pictures of cool builds or pretty sims. Every attempt I've made at sharing my work---and I hate self-promoting, absolutely loathe it---has been strongly discouraged. Even when I try to write accessible, digestible content, it's dead in the water. I intellectually understand there's nothing wrong with me, but it sure feels that way sometimes.

    I don't mean to shame those who produce easier-to-swallow content; I get it, we all only have so much mental energy to devote to entertainment, sometimes you need an escape from the world. There's nothing wrong with wanting something lighter. If someone comes along and decides my story isn't for them, that's totally understandable! What bothers me is that intricate stuff gets so buried that the people who really want to sink their teeth into something can't find each other.

    So what I'm saying is it feels like I'm doomed to be cut off from most of the simmers I could have connected with. I'm not looking for advice here---nothing I do is going to change this; no one trusts fanfic authors to accurately assess the quality of their own work, so I have to rely on the kindness of others---but am wondering if anyone else out there wants to commiserate.

    Anyone else feel like they're being punished for putting loads of effort into their story?

    I only saw this message today. So that's why late-responding. But I want to say that your story, your way of writing and thinking and observing and processing are a balm to me, a reader also isolated while deeply connected to life and one who continually gets ostracized due to slice judgements and others not knowing what to say in response to me sharing myself as best I can.

    I feel a home in your writing, and for socially isolated people, that's a true gift. Though I'm not as smart as most of your characters, I could see myself fitting into the world you write and maybe even making a friend or two. At least I wouldn't be the only one not knowing what to do with my hands!

    I know one grateful reader doesn't make a crowd of readers, but I truly feel it counts for something.

    Most of the work I love the most has few readers. But I think there's an immeasurable gift in writing for us. No one else does, and we need to read these worlds in which we feel we could belong.

    Plus, deep thinking is cool.
    Cathy Tea's SimLit Anthology

    Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
  • CathyTeaCathyTea Posts: 23,088 Member
    lisabee2 wrote: »
    Just passing thru to sit on the bench for a bit. Feeling like 3rd grade me .. always wondering what the heck is wrong with me. Dusting off my behind and headed back to "class" .. ty for the respite.

    Hi, my friend! I'm wishing you well! You are perfect and beautiful!
    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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