It is so interesting to see how many thoughts lie behind the constructions of the stories and the characters. I can pretty much recognize them all, even though I use fewer words.
On one level, it makes me feel like an illiterate, or perhaps intellectually less gifted, because long English texts still require quite a lot of work for me to decode.
Thoughts are not a scarce commodity behind my skull, but we probably all have some ghosts of the past we struggle with.
I do not have to feel stupid. I have gone through more crises than average without ending up in depression.
I have now moved far away from the topic of character development and it makes me want to ask a question. Where do you find your motivation to write?
Personally, is my motivation to write solely driven by a desire to touch on some ethical and human dilemmas mixed with a reflection on the life I have lived, or perhaps a reflection on the life I could have had? It's probably a mixture of both.
I think I tend to fall into some fixed tracks. Maybe this is what several of you call the limitation of archetypes?
Jung mentions 12 archetypes and I think few of us choose to describe them purely. This does not mean that they do not appear in some compound form.
One of my critics calls me a hopeless romantic and I think: What !?
It is not my desire to write romantic stories. I want to hold on to the hope and desire to live.
It leads me to another important part of my motivation, namely the desire to play and the desire to develop new skills.
Oh, you've pulled me out of lurk mode! Your story is one of the brightest spots of the last year for me. When I was struggling to adjust to the changes and restrictions in my life, your story brought joy, hope, empathy, laughter, and some sadness and head-shaking, too! (Blue, I'm looking at you!)
I started writing a story in French, and it's so scary and challenging. How do I even say what I want? I have so much respect and gratitude for multilingual writers. You're awesome and you, @MonaSolstraale , contributed so much to my mental health this past year. Thank you!
I hadn't thought of archetypes in regards to your story... This is something for me to ponder!
@haneul Yeah, this is a good community! I don't mean to complain at all. People have different tastes and that's great.
I put loads of love into my story, but there's a huge chunk of the community who doesn't want to read it because it's not their thing. And that's ok. Doesn't mean the love doesn't matter without their blessing. That said, there are still those who connect with it on a deep level and they're my absolute favorites; they're so lovely.
Hopefully it didn't come off as whining. My intention was to convey the feelings of isolation people have from this vantage point, since it's something that doesn't get talked about much and people who write like I do are frequently considered acceptable targets for derision (see?! What even was that?).
It seems like you want to talk about the nationality/race thing, too. My peeps have nationalities in order to fight the impression that being light-skinned and having Western-sounding names, etc., is the "default." Also, it lets me throw shade at racists and give my friends/family cool characters that look like them.
(My goodness, I am going to blindside the smoke out of my readers with an anti-imperialism twist in the next year or two, and I am STOKED.)
It's my thing. (Another bright spot in a rough year or two.)
Carotid is a great word, though.
I woke up this morning realizing I'm feeling in-friend with Champei.... Like obsessively so. (And now I'm scared I've messed up the spelling of her name and have ruined any chance of friendship forever... Oh, wait. She's a cartoon character. Maybe she won't notice? She's not on the forums, is she?)
The comment has been deleted to prevent further misunderstanding. As the issue has been solved, I will not be discussing it any further.
Hugs. I love the way you've brought this thread back to life and I really appreciate your care to work through misunderstanding! (I came late, so all I'm seeing are deleted posts, but your consideration and care are so evident!)
Heya @CathyTea, a few people bought this thread back to life some time ago and I jumped on it. It's good to see you on here, IDK if I mentioned this but I commented on your Alien Adoption challenge a few years back and I remember how much I enjoyed it and your world building. It's cool to see you here too...though I feel like I read something of yours more recently than that? My memory is hazy at best.
- I want to be Tusnelda's friend, but I would hate to be her colleague
- Rasmus could be a nice faithful friend. He's the kind of guy I want to hug while I tell him everything's going well in the long run. In a way, that's probably what I'm already doing
- Martin? Will I just be his friend? Maybe he's more the man I wish I had ... even though I might already have certain parts of him sitting in my living room
- Trix! Who does not dream of a little furry friend? I already have two cats and could easily find an extra place for him
I'd give anything to be Rasmus' friend. I loved him from day one.
I'd be over the moon to be friends with any of the Benders, Sissy.
And I already mentioned my friend-obsession (and accompanying Social Anxiety) with Champei.
With my own Sims, I think I want to be friends with all of them and probably a main reason I play Sims. (Digital friends are cool!)
Oh! What about @RipuAncestor 's Tad? He's topped my friend list for ages.
To what extent would you like to be friends with one of your Sims/characters?
Hoo boy, this is going back some ways Simlit wise.
I'd probably want to be friends with all the dogs. Sagebear, Faridah, and all the other ones (which, including the aforementioned two, would make eight dogs. That's a lot of dog kisses ).
Oh, you've pulled me out of lurk mode! Your story is one of the brightest spots of the last year for me. When I was struggling to adjust to the changes and restrictions in my life, your story brought joy, hope, empathy, laughter, and some sadness and head-shaking, too! (Blue, I'm looking at you!)
Thank you very much @CathyTea
It's a tough time for all of us
You are always so kind to write a comment when I share a new chapter and you should know that I really appreciate it. It gives me the courage to keep going
NB: Rasnus definitely has a lot of friends.
Don would break an arm to reveal his secret
To what extent would you like to be friends with one of your Sims/characters?
Because my story is new, I don't have a lot of different characters to choose from. My lead, Cameron, is an amalgamation of three of my RL friends, so it's very easy for me to envision being friends with him. Cancer took one of them from this world in 2018, so I'm admittedly pulling for Cameron to achieve a long, happy life.
And, again, because I'm new to the group, I haven't had the opportunity to read much of what the rest of you are writing. I'm looking forward to exploring more of your stories in the weeks to come. I would enjoy hanging out with @Kellogg_J_Kellogg's John Action and Jeremy Saint, and I adore Julia Epstein. I would be best friends with @_sims_Yimi's Gawain, and I am crushing unapologetically on Sarah and Guinevere.
That's the correct spelling of her name. She'd be happy to be your friend, too.
As for everything else---hahaha, this is why I rarely say anything online. You know how many artists who we now recognize as innovators decided to unalive themselves, right?
I'm just saying. "Everyone's work has merit!" is 100% true, but when used as a gotcha against someone sharing their feelings of isolation, it becomes toxic positivity.
Aaand back to shutting up for another six months.
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
That's the correct spelling of her name. She'd be happy to be your friend, too.
As for everything else---hahaha, this is why I rarely say anything online. You know how many artists who we now recognize as innovators decided to unalive themselves, right?
I'm just saying. "Everyone's work has merit!" is 100% true, but when used as a gotcha against someone sharing their feelings of isolation, it becomes toxic positivity.
Aaand back to shutting up for another six months.
Was I being toxically positive?
I actually feel isolated so much of the time, that it felt boring to talk about feeling isolated (again), but I wasn't sure if the writers I'd mentioned knew how much they and their work meant to me (during times of isolation and a tricky transition), so I thought I'd share that they (and you're included in "they") made a huge difference in my life.
Really, my morning SimLit reading sessions have been a constant that I've relied on to get my mind regulated and emotions tuned up for the past several years. My sister asked me what I was reading recently, and I described these amazing novels and serials--and, yup--they're all SimLit!
I'm just saying. "Everyone's work has merit!" is 100% true, but when used as a gotcha against someone sharing their feelings of isolation, it becomes toxic positivity.
@Dollyllama108 I can only speak for myself, but I don't think "everyone's work has merit" was directed at you, but at those who may feel like their stories are without merit because they use archetypes or fit more neatly into a known genre.
I'm happy that other people are having fun and connecting to stories, even if I'm always going to feel like an outsider looking in.
I'm not sure why you feel like an outsider looking in, but maybe some SimLit is worth giving another try because it might not be quite as "box"-like and/or different from yours as you think. I'm not saying that you should read my work, but to use myself as an example, I'm not writing a vampire romance for the couple in my signature (the idea that I am is hilarious/baffling to me, but at the same time I need to reflect to see what is giving that impression). Honestly, everyone's story is unique and has something interesting to offer readers. Of course, everything might not suit your tastes, but that's totally fine. As for your writing, a lot of people enjoy it. I think the audience for SimLit is just really small.
To answer, my own question: to what extent would you like to be friends with one of your Sims/characters?
My Sims are kind of scary, so I would like to keep my distance, but I would enjoy being around my less competent and more fun loving Sims, so Darius, Dysis, and some of the E-generation that hasn't been introduced yet. I also like Aster because she's kind and strong. As for Asher, he would be a funny work colleague or classmate to observe from afar as long as he refrained from violence. @_sims_Yimi - I'm not as far along as other people, so I'm a bit concerned about why no one has picked Arthur. I like Arthur and want to be his friend, maybe. I think Sarah would be a great friend, though. She's smart and funny. I'd probably like Morgana too, but I doubt we'd be friends because of her obsession with chess. Gawain would probably get on my nerves... @SnowBnuuy - I like noisy, chatty people, so I think I'd like Leo as a friend. It'd be nice to have a powerful friend like him. @HermioneSims - I like Stuart Miller. He could teach me about astrophysics. @MonaSolstraale - I would like to be friends with Tusnelda because I admire her resilience, but I don't think she would like me much. Same with Trix. I love cats, but I don't think he would like me much.
There are others from other stories as well.
@haneul Tusnelda can make friends, so I can not see why you should not be able to become her friend?
As for Arthur from @_sims_Yimi 's "Tales of Camelot" you can be completely safe. He's a nice guy.
NB: Maybe I misunderstood your question because I had understood what we had to choose between our own characters. It makes me appear pretty self-absorbed
@MonaSolstraale I interpreted the question in the same way, after all the question asked about "your Sims/characters"
Anyway, most of the characters of the other stories I read up to now seem quite nice, maybe we would not be best friends but to have a nice talk with most of them quite easily.
The exceptions (up to now) are a couple of the Fiers, Asher in particular looks very scary!
Tusnelda instead could be one of those with which I could bond the most, we would have a lot to talk about (labs, cats, gardening...)
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.17 posted on the 18th of April 2024*
@haneul Tusnelda can make friends, so I can not see why you should not be able to become her friend?
As for Arthur from @_sims_Yimi 's "Tales of Camelot" you can be completely safe. He's a nice guy.
NB: Maybe I misunderstood your question because I had understood what we had to choose between our own characters. It makes me appear pretty self-absorbed
@MonaSolstraale You didn't misinterpret my question at all. I saw some answering with others' characters, thought that was a fun addition, and copied them. Sorry for causing confusion! I like Tusnelda and she seems like a calm and reasonable person. I'm generally calm too, but I also have a high-energy/no-patience personality and thought I might annoy her, but hopefully I wouldn't.
Oh wow, this thread has blown up! I couldn't even read everything without being overwhelmed, but I see there has been a lively discussion about many things going on. I'm glad to see this thread is thriving and that there are many old and new faces here!
Also cue me frantically googling what carotid means, and then realising I have misspelled "carotid artery" in my mind all this time. Good thing I've never had to write it. (Yes, English is my second language).
I personally agree that everyone's work has merit, no matter how formulaic or not it may be. Especially in communities where people write mostly for fun and practice. Exploring a familiar topic can be an easy way to learn new storytelling tools and basic structures, and finding your way of addressing the topic. Though admittedly if a story is officially published and people are expected to pay for it in some way, I do expect the writer(s) to at least put a bit of a spin on it.
I can also understand feeling isolated because you write something niche or different. My stories also fall into kind of a niche, I guess. They're story-driven fantasy-drama/comedies, which isn't all that special I guess, but I know the types of characters and the topics I like writing about aren't the most common SimLit archetypes. I think I have like... ten readers at most right now, and even that is a generous estimate. It does get a little discouraging sometimes, especially since my personality is that weird mix of extreme introvert and a sharer, who loves showing their work to people and getting feedback (preferably remotely, so online is an ideal setting) and talking about them despite also being very easily overwhelmed with social interaction.
That kind of brings me to what motivates me to write too. Mostly I write because it's fun and because I like telling stories. I also like exploring topics that make me think through my writing. Especially my death-related stories begun originally as a way for me to get my thoughts about death in order and to stop being so afraid and stressed about it. But I also do like sharing my stories and talking about them (and other people's stories too).
Oh! What about @RipuAncestor 's Tad? He's topped my friend list for ages.
Haha, thanks, @CathyTea ! Tad would like to be your friend too. He would like to be everyone's friend, no matter how bad he is at it.
I think I'd like to be Tad's friend too, but a lot of the other characters I might feel too intimidated by to befriend. Novak would be fun, but I feel like he'd just end up stealing my bike or something.
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)
Novak would be fun, but I feel like he'd just end up stealing my bike or something.
I don't know the character in question, but the description of him here made me laugh. I love it.
Also I agree with everything you've written, 100%. There's an audience for almost everything, no matter how formulaic or niche something may be. The audience may be bigger or smaller depending on your subject matter, genre etc, but the honest but-not-necessarily-comfortable truth is that it's just like that sometimes. As creatives we all go through periods of low readership and sometimes it can get us down, but also I see it as a chance to take a breather in a way. Whilst things are quiet, it's good to go through your blog or your story notes and fine-tune things.
My current stories revolve around fantasy and romance doesn't play a huge part. Judging by what I've read from other Simmers' comments on the forums (especially the occasional debates/arguments surrounding 'occults VS realism' in the Discussion forum...), a lot of people seem to prefer low-or-no-fantasy, and more romance. Although Simmers love legacies and familial themes too, so I wonder if it's the strong theme of family in my stuff that keeps people around. I'm trying to write romance more though, to change things up a bit. It's just never a focus.
I've learned to stop seeing periods of blog traffic silence as 'what am I doing wrong?' and more as 'It's not everyone's cup of tea, but someone'll get some enjoyment out of it at some point, even if it's just me re-reading all my favourite bits' which I do sometimes do. After all, a lot of what I do is self-serving. Whatever weird little fixation takes me at the time. My entire Magic Universe stuff is honestly just 'hee hee magic is cool!' and writing it got me back into fantasy in general.
I feel you though, it took me a while to get more readers. I have some new ones now that I'm grateful to have, and I have a comfortable level of 'wow, people actually read my blog and sometimes share their thoughts which is cool'- but not to the point where I'm fearful or overwhelmed by that. I also feel you in that I like to share my creative stuff but also am scared to. I don't know if I'd consider myself an introvert or not though. I'm just a mess.
You saying you use writing as a way to explore topics and make you think, brings me to a point I forgot to mention when I answered what motivates me to write. I do similarly, in that I do sometimes use it to deal with certain situations and fears, sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously. I've dealt with a lot of things in the context of the SimLit that I write, to be honest. Or it gives me a place to sort of talk about things without talking about things. I go careful doing this, though, because I don't want self-inserts and sometimes I run the risk of turning characters into mouthpieces.
@SnowBnuuy I've also noticed that romance is popular. I find romance very, very difficult to write. My demiromantic asexual self can barely understand romance, and I usually find it very boring. I'm mostly about the platonic feels, but I do sometimes try to squeeze in some romance too if it feels appropriate.
I think that my lack of readers is currently more because I don't update a whole lot (though updates are coming; I'm preparing for a long string of chapters now), and also because my stories are fairly old, so despite me still updating sometimes they are kind of forgotten by most now. Or the readers have stopped reading SimLit altogether, and it's difficult for new readers to get into my stories because there be lots of chapters and it's just a lot of rambling about anthills and universes and death. And tea. Lots of tea. Wow, I'm really selling my stories, aren't I ?
Your writing process sounds fun! I'm glad you enjoy what you do! Also you have a good attitude towards low readership.
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)
@RipuAncestor I'm glad you think so I have my creative friends to thank for that. When I get into low moods it bleeds into my creative work sometimes, and that tends to be when I go into 'everyone hates everything I do!' mode and then the likes of Yimi or Snuffy ends up having to talk me out of it, bless them both. I always make sure I'm writing for myself first and foremost, since if I don't enjoy what I'm doing neither will anyone else. Sometimes due to my moods and mental health I end up just not caring about my story, so sometimes I have to take a break until I find myself actually connecting with it again. I'm trying really, REALLY hard to not ruin my current story : P
In connection to what you were saying, you're right in that SimLit is a fun way for me to play around with things and test things out. It's teaching me how to organise things, how to write better dialogue, figure out plots, and deal with bigger groups of characters. This is the first time since my teens where I've tried to write an actual series of stories. I don't count the ones from my teens because they were awful, but at least I had a blast with them
To be fair there's nothing wrong with a focus on platonic relationships. I like reading about close friendships, and I think one thing that I don't see too much of is platonic male/female relationships which would be interesting to see more of in general. I see what you mean about the disconnect from romance. I'm quite an emotionally numb person so trying to write about strong feelings can be difficult sometimes. I think I manage though when it comes to writing stuff like that, for the most part.
This was an issue I had when I first joined. A lot of the writers I followed, and who were my readers, went on long hiatuses very soon after I arrived here, so getting used to the different 'cycles' of authors and readers can be hard to get used to. Of course, real life should always come first and we all go on and off certain games and hobbies- but still, I do miss some of my favourite stories getting updated at the same time : P
@RipuAncestor I do not think I know who Tad is but I remember I followed your Ambrosia story for a long time and I was very touched by it. I actually think I posted a link to the story on my blog
This was an issue I had when I first joined. A lot of the writers I followed, and who were my readers, went on long hiatuses very soon after I arrived here, so getting used to the different 'cycles' of authors and readers can be hard to get used to. Of course, real life should always come first and we all go on and off certain games and hobbies- but still, I do miss some of my favourite stories getting updated at the same time : P
@SnowBnuuy The same thing happened to me. I started in a period where a lot of others stopped writing. You are left in such a void and my thoughts often return to how their characters are doing. It takes time to open up to other stories for which one dares to count on?
I'm really happy with the activity on in this thread.
It is quite evolving to share experiences with other Simlit writers. Especially at the beginning of your writing. One just has to accept that some have long since passed that stage.
This thread always has a lot of interesting discussion going on...
I was reasoning about the readers as well, and my first impression was that a good percentage of Simlit readers were also writing and publishing their stories. Considering that it's hard to follow many stories at once (what could be an average? I would start to struggle around 10, more or less), on average the number of readers of each story should be of the same order of magnitude...
My attention was also caught by the comments about romance in Simlit, which is definitively not my strong point either. I usually struggle to remain interested in stories in which the only purpose of the characters is to pursue love, and I struggle even more at writing romance in my stories (I used to find it quite embarrassing, I'm getting better at that but still those parts remain the hardest to set up and to write for me XD ). Ah well, at least I'm getting some ideas about which stories to start reading next...
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.17 posted on the 18th of April 2024*
This thread always has a lot of interesting discussion going on...
I was reasoning about the readers as well, and my first impression was that a good percentage of Simlit readers were also writing and publishing their stories. Considering that it's hard to follow many stories at once (what could be an average? I would start to struggle around 10, more or less), on average the number of readers of each story should be of the same order of magnitude...
My attention was also caught by the comments about romance in Simlit, which is definitively not my strong point either. I usually struggle to remain interested in stories in which the only purpose of the characters is to pursue love, and I struggle even more at writing romance in my stories (I used to find it quite embarrassing, I'm getting better at that but still those parts remain the hardest to set up and to write for me XD ). Ah well, at least I'm getting some ideas about which stories to start reading next...
i'm better at it in 4. i tried once in 3 to do a traditional legacy i setting my sim up with a single female well several actually so what does he do gets a crush on nancy langrab whos not only married but his boss.
I have a more technical question for everyone. Where do you write? For example, what programs, applications and/or websites do you use?
This has been discussed a bit before, but I think it's worth revisiting.
My story isn't that complicated, so I mainly use OneNote and WordPress. I dump notes, thoughts, pictures, and whatever else into OneNote and transform them into something neater through WordPress. It's fairly straightforward. I know that @_sims_Yimi uses impressive color-coded spreadsheets as part of her process.
For the curious, my OneNote (with text/most spoilers blurred) is below the cut. It's not glamorous. I spent 24 years in school, but I was never much of a notetaker, especially not a neat one.
Normally, I don't have this much text, but if I have a situation that doesn't make sense, sometimes it takes me a moment to tie it together in a semi-logical fashion. I'm considering adding or switching to Scrivener, which I've used before, but not for the Sims. I've found that Scrivener is great for long non-linear writing projects with lots of bits.
Where do you write? For example, what programs, applications and/or websites do you use?
That's another interesting question.
I have tried to write down scripts and ideas in advance in word. It just does not work for me because the game suddenly shows me in a different direction. I have a main structure in my head and then I build the rest of the story up over images. I thrive best in a creative freedom that allows for interpretations while working on a chapter.
In Tusnelda's story, I was originally given a new goal every Friday by her founder. It was my only fixed frame.
In my rewriting of her story, I have moved far beyond the original story.
I have an extended system of folders and subfolders with pictures for the story. I have everything stored on a secondary drive, so as not to overload my c-drive.
I have taken some pictures of my folders to show that I have some kind of structure.
I do not necessarily use the pictures in the order I take them, but I save them in subject folders that I can retrieve when they fit in the story.
I write the text directly in Google Translate after I have selected the images I want to use for a chapter. I often have to find a new wording several times until I end up with a translation I find valid. It is a time-consuming process, but where my Danish vocabulary is quite nuanced, my active English vocabulary has large gaps.
Finally, I copy the sentences into WordPress.
Then I can start focusing on layout and details. Maybe remove one image and add another. Convert a text to an image.
.... then another week went by
Comments
Oh, you've pulled me out of lurk mode! Your story is one of the brightest spots of the last year for me. When I was struggling to adjust to the changes and restrictions in my life, your story brought joy, hope, empathy, laughter, and some sadness and head-shaking, too! (Blue, I'm looking at you!)
I started writing a story in French, and it's so scary and challenging. How do I even say what I want? I have so much respect and gratitude for multilingual writers. You're awesome and you, @MonaSolstraale , contributed so much to my mental health this past year. Thank you!
I hadn't thought of archetypes in regards to your story... This is something for me to ponder!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
It's my thing. (Another bright spot in a rough year or two.)
Carotid is a great word, though.
I woke up this morning realizing I'm feeling in-friend with Champei.... Like obsessively so. (And now I'm scared I've messed up the spelling of her name and have ruined any chance of friendship forever... Oh, wait. She's a cartoon character. Maybe she won't notice? She's not on the forums, is she?)
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Hugs. I love the way you've brought this thread back to life and I really appreciate your care to work through misunderstanding! (I came late, so all I'm seeing are deleted posts, but your consideration and care are so evident!)
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
I'd give anything to be Rasmus' friend. I loved him from day one.
I'd be over the moon to be friends with any of the Benders, Sissy.
And I already mentioned my friend-obsession (and accompanying Social Anxiety) with Champei.
With my own Sims, I think I want to be friends with all of them and probably a main reason I play Sims. (Digital friends are cool!)
Oh! What about @RipuAncestor 's Tad? He's topped my friend list for ages.
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Sagebear. Forever.
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
It's a tough time for all of us
You are always so kind to write a comment when I share a new chapter and you should know that I really appreciate it. It gives me the courage to keep going
NB: Rasnus definitely has a lot of friends.
Don would break an arm to reveal his secret
Because my story is new, I don't have a lot of different characters to choose from. My lead, Cameron, is an amalgamation of three of my RL friends, so it's very easy for me to envision being friends with him. Cancer took one of them from this world in 2018, so I'm admittedly pulling for Cameron to achieve a long, happy life.
And, again, because I'm new to the group, I haven't had the opportunity to read much of what the rest of you are writing. I'm looking forward to exploring more of your stories in the weeks to come. I would enjoy hanging out with @Kellogg_J_Kellogg's John Action and Jeremy Saint, and I adore Julia Epstein. I would be best friends with @_sims_Yimi's Gawain, and I am crushing unapologetically on Sarah and Guinevere.
Exie hay, cavero, mabza meeah vendarzo.
Yevsas mairzeemo!
That's the correct spelling of her name. She'd be happy to be your friend, too.
As for everything else---hahaha, this is why I rarely say anything online. You know how many artists who we now recognize as innovators decided to unalive themselves, right?
I'm just saying. "Everyone's work has merit!" is 100% true, but when used as a gotcha against someone sharing their feelings of isolation, it becomes toxic positivity.
Aaand back to shutting up for another six months.
Haunted: Picture Oscar Wilde dating Willy Wonka, also Oscar Wilde is still dead
Was I being toxically positive?
I actually feel isolated so much of the time, that it felt boring to talk about feeling isolated (again), but I wasn't sure if the writers I'd mentioned knew how much they and their work meant to me (during times of isolation and a tricky transition), so I thought I'd share that they (and you're included in "they") made a huge difference in my life.
Really, my morning SimLit reading sessions have been a constant that I've relied on to get my mind regulated and emotions tuned up for the past several years. My sister asked me what I was reading recently, and I described these amazing novels and serials--and, yup--they're all SimLit!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
i would love being friends with all of the benders just to know why they sometimes get in my head and say write this.
@Dollyllama108 I can only speak for myself, but I don't think "everyone's work has merit" was directed at you, but at those who may feel like their stories are without merit because they use archetypes or fit more neatly into a known genre.
I'm not sure why you feel like an outsider looking in, but maybe some SimLit is worth giving another try because it might not be quite as "box"-like and/or different from yours as you think. I'm not saying that you should read my work, but to use myself as an example, I'm not writing a vampire romance for the couple in my signature (the idea that I am is hilarious/baffling to me, but at the same time I need to reflect to see what is giving that impression). Honestly, everyone's story is unique and has something interesting to offer readers. Of course, everything might not suit your tastes, but that's totally fine. As for your writing, a lot of people enjoy it. I think the audience for SimLit is just really small.
To answer, my own question: to what extent would you like to be friends with one of your Sims/characters?
My Sims are kind of scary, so I would like to keep my distance, but I would enjoy being around my less competent and more fun loving Sims, so Darius, Dysis, and some of the E-generation that hasn't been introduced yet. I also like Aster because she's kind and strong. As for Asher, he would be a funny work colleague or classmate to observe from afar as long as he refrained from violence.
@_sims_Yimi - I'm not as far along as other people, so I'm a bit concerned about why no one has picked Arthur. I like Arthur and want to be his friend, maybe. I think Sarah would be a great friend, though. She's smart and funny. I'd probably like Morgana too, but I doubt we'd be friends because of her obsession with chess. Gawain would probably get on my nerves...
@SnowBnuuy - I like noisy, chatty people, so I think I'd like Leo as a friend. It'd be nice to have a powerful friend like him.
@HermioneSims - I like Stuart Miller. He could teach me about astrophysics.
@MonaSolstraale - I would like to be friends with Tusnelda because I admire her resilience, but I don't think she would like me much. Same with Trix. I love cats, but I don't think he would like me much.
There are others from other stories as well.
As for Arthur from @_sims_Yimi 's "Tales of Camelot" you can be completely safe. He's a nice guy.
NB: Maybe I misunderstood your question because I had understood what we had to choose between our own characters. It makes me appear pretty self-absorbed
Anyway, most of the characters of the other stories I read up to now seem quite nice, maybe we would not be best friends but to have a nice talk with most of them quite easily.
The exceptions (up to now) are a couple of the Fiers, Asher in particular looks very scary!
Tusnelda instead could be one of those with which I could bond the most, we would have a lot to talk about (labs, cats, gardening...)
@MonaSolstraale You didn't misinterpret my question at all. I saw some answering with others' characters, thought that was a fun addition, and copied them. Sorry for causing confusion! I like Tusnelda and she seems like a calm and reasonable person. I'm generally calm too, but I also have a high-energy/no-patience personality and thought I might annoy her, but hopefully I wouldn't.
Also cue me frantically googling what carotid means, and then realising I have misspelled "carotid artery" in my mind all this time. Good thing I've never had to write it.
I personally agree that everyone's work has merit, no matter how formulaic or not it may be. Especially in communities where people write mostly for fun and practice. Exploring a familiar topic can be an easy way to learn new storytelling tools and basic structures, and finding your way of addressing the topic. Though admittedly if a story is officially published and people are expected to pay for it in some way, I do expect the writer(s) to at least put a bit of a spin on it.
I can also understand feeling isolated because you write something niche or different. My stories also fall into kind of a niche, I guess. They're story-driven fantasy-drama/comedies, which isn't all that special I guess, but I know the types of characters and the topics I like writing about aren't the most common SimLit archetypes. I think I have like... ten readers at most right now, and even that is a generous estimate.
That kind of brings me to what motivates me to write too. Mostly I write because it's fun and because I like telling stories. I also like exploring topics that make me think through my writing. Especially my death-related stories begun originally as a way for me to get my thoughts about death in order and to stop being so afraid and stressed about it. But I also do like sharing my stories and talking about them (and other people's stories too).
Haha, thanks, @CathyTea ! Tad would like to be your friend too. He would like to be everyone's friend, no matter how bad he is at it.
I think I'd like to be Tad's friend too, but a lot of the other characters I might feel too intimidated by to befriend. Novak would be fun, but I feel like he'd just end up stealing my bike or something.
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)
Also I agree with everything you've written, 100%. There's an audience for almost everything, no matter how formulaic or niche something may be. The audience may be bigger or smaller depending on your subject matter, genre etc, but the honest but-not-necessarily-comfortable truth is that it's just like that sometimes. As creatives we all go through periods of low readership and sometimes it can get us down, but also I see it as a chance to take a breather in a way. Whilst things are quiet, it's good to go through your blog or your story notes and fine-tune things.
My current stories revolve around fantasy and romance doesn't play a huge part. Judging by what I've read from other Simmers' comments on the forums (especially the occasional debates/arguments surrounding 'occults VS realism' in the Discussion forum...), a lot of people seem to prefer low-or-no-fantasy, and more romance. Although Simmers love legacies and familial themes too, so I wonder if it's the strong theme of family in my stuff that keeps people around. I'm trying to write romance more though, to change things up a bit. It's just never a focus.
I've learned to stop seeing periods of blog traffic silence as 'what am I doing wrong?' and more as 'It's not everyone's cup of tea, but someone'll get some enjoyment out of it at some point, even if it's just me re-reading all my favourite bits' which I do sometimes do. After all, a lot of what I do is self-serving. Whatever weird little fixation takes me at the time. My entire Magic Universe stuff is honestly just 'hee hee magic is cool!' and writing it got me back into fantasy in general.
I feel you though, it took me a while to get more readers. I have some new ones now that I'm grateful to have, and I have a comfortable level of 'wow, people actually read my blog and sometimes share their thoughts which is cool'- but not to the point where I'm fearful or overwhelmed by that. I also feel you in that I like to share my creative stuff but also am scared to. I don't know if I'd consider myself an introvert or not though. I'm just a mess.
You saying you use writing as a way to explore topics and make you think, brings me to a point I forgot to mention when I answered what motivates me to write. I do similarly, in that I do sometimes use it to deal with certain situations and fears, sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously. I've dealt with a lot of things in the context of the SimLit that I write, to be honest. Or it gives me a place to sort of talk about things without talking about things. I go careful doing this, though, because I don't want self-inserts and sometimes I run the risk of turning characters into mouthpieces.
I think that my lack of readers is currently more because I don't update a whole lot (though updates are coming; I'm preparing for a long string of chapters now), and also because my stories are fairly old, so despite me still updating sometimes they are kind of forgotten by most now. Or the readers have stopped reading SimLit altogether, and it's difficult for new readers to get into my stories because there be lots of chapters and it's just a lot of rambling about anthills and universes and death. And tea. Lots of tea. Wow, I'm really selling my stories, aren't I
Your writing process sounds fun! I'm glad you enjoy what you do! Also you have a good attitude towards low readership.
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)
In connection to what you were saying, you're right in that SimLit is a fun way for me to play around with things and test things out. It's teaching me how to organise things, how to write better dialogue, figure out plots, and deal with bigger groups of characters. This is the first time since my teens where I've tried to write an actual series of stories. I don't count the ones from my teens because they were awful, but at least I had a blast with them
To be fair there's nothing wrong with a focus on platonic relationships. I like reading about close friendships, and I think one thing that I don't see too much of is platonic male/female relationships which would be interesting to see more of in general. I see what you mean about the disconnect from romance. I'm quite an emotionally numb person so trying to write about strong feelings can be difficult sometimes. I think I manage though when it comes to writing stuff like that, for the most part.
This was an issue I had when I first joined. A lot of the writers I followed, and who were my readers, went on long hiatuses very soon after I arrived here, so getting used to the different 'cycles' of authors and readers can be hard to get used to. Of course, real life should always come first and we all go on and off certain games and hobbies- but still, I do miss some of my favourite stories getting updated at the same time : P
I'm really happy with the activity on in this thread.
It is quite evolving to share experiences with other Simlit writers. Especially at the beginning of your writing. One just has to accept that some have long since passed that stage.
I was reasoning about the readers as well, and my first impression was that a good percentage of Simlit readers were also writing and publishing their stories. Considering that it's hard to follow many stories at once (what could be an average? I would start to struggle around 10, more or less), on average the number of readers of each story should be of the same order of magnitude...
My attention was also caught by the comments about romance in Simlit, which is definitively not my strong point either. I usually struggle to remain interested in stories in which the only purpose of the characters is to pursue love, and I struggle even more at writing romance in my stories (I used to find it quite embarrassing, I'm getting better at that but still those parts remain the hardest to set up and to write for me XD ). Ah well, at least I'm getting some ideas about which stories to start reading next...
i'm better at it in 4. i tried once in 3 to do a traditional legacy i setting my sim up with a single female well several actually so what does he do gets a crush on nancy langrab whos not only married but his boss.
Where do you write? For example, what programs, applications and/or websites do you use?
This has been discussed a bit before, but I think it's worth revisiting.
My story isn't that complicated, so I mainly use OneNote and WordPress. I dump notes, thoughts, pictures, and whatever else into OneNote and transform them into something neater through WordPress. It's fairly straightforward. I know that @_sims_Yimi uses impressive color-coded spreadsheets as part of her process.
For the curious, my OneNote (with text/most spoilers blurred) is below the cut. It's not glamorous. I spent 24 years in school, but I was never much of a notetaker, especially not a neat one.
I have tried to write down scripts and ideas in advance in word. It just does not work for me because the game suddenly shows me in a different direction. I have a main structure in my head and then I build the rest of the story up over images. I thrive best in a creative freedom that allows for interpretations while working on a chapter.
In Tusnelda's story, I was originally given a new goal every Friday by her founder. It was my only fixed frame.
In my rewriting of her story, I have moved far beyond the original story.
I have an extended system of folders and subfolders with pictures for the story. I have everything stored on a secondary drive, so as not to overload my c-drive.
I have taken some pictures of my folders to show that I have some kind of structure.
I do not necessarily use the pictures in the order I take them, but I save them in subject folders that I can retrieve when they fit in the story.
Finally, I copy the sentences into WordPress.
Then I can start focusing on layout and details. Maybe remove one image and add another. Convert a text to an image.
.... then another week went by