Do you manage to post your chapters at a regular pace, or do you alternate long pauses to periods of frequent posting? If you have ever entered a long hiatus, what motivated you to return back to writing? And, after a long pause, do you manage easily to return back to your previous stories, or does your inspiration tell you to start new projects instead?
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.19 posted on the 28th of April 2024*
At first I tried to complete a chapter every 4-5 days but now it's more like every 7-8. That's down to many factors such as outside work, interests, family life and commitments...plus random things that get in the way.
Do you manage to post your chapters at a regular pace, or do you alternate long pauses to periods of frequent posting? If you have ever entered a long hiatus, what motivated you to return back to writing? And, after a long pause, do you manage easily to return back to your previous stories, or does your inspiration tell you to start new projects instead?
@HermioneSims Thanks for a new question. I post every 2-3 weeks. Ideally, that would be once every week or even twice a week, but it doesn't work out like that. I enjoy writing, so I don't really have to seek out motivation. But I am often very busy and sometimes I'm also frustrated. If I get frustrated or annoyed with a particular part in my legacy or how I wrote something, wanting to get to a certain future part can push me past that frustration. There are lots of little bits that I enjoy and look forward to sharing and I'd like to get there before the game ends, so I keep going. Since I'm overwhelmed by one project, I have no interest in starting another.
I love discovering important details when I read, so I don't want your efforts or anyone else's to feel wasted on me.
@haneul Don't worry! I wasn't thinking that at all. I'm just really fascinated by how different people's minds work. So this type of conversation gets me all excited and geeking out about mental experiences that are different from mine, and wanting to share what my experiences are. Didn't mean to come across as judgmental if I did at all.
@GlacierSnow You didn't come across as judgmental at all. I just wanted to express that I like foreshadowing and things too, despite not rereading. It's been about 5 years since I last tried to reread a novel, so I'll probably try again fairly soon with something I think I don't really remember like Persuasion by Jane Austen from 10-15 years ago (basically my childhood) and see how it goes .
@HermioneSims
Good question! I try to post roughly once per week, though which day exactly depends on how busy my week is. Sometimes I don’t have time. Or a scene takes longer than expected and as a result, it turns into two weeks. The fact that I have a rough schedule but no hard deadline to rush me works wonders in not making it feel like a chore.
I’ve seen writers come back from a long hiatus, but more often it seems the hiatus means the end of the story. The longest I’ve gone without posting on an active story was about a month. At that time ToC was in between arcs and though I didn’t post much, I was still writing.
What about yourself?
Hosting D&D sessions on the side. Interested in playing through some fantasy-themed shenanigans? Send me a message 😘
Do you manage to post your chapters at a regular pace, or do you alternate long pauses to periods of frequent posting? If you have ever entered a long hiatus, what motivated you to return back to writing? And, after a long pause, do you manage easily to return back to your previous stories, or does your inspiration tell you to start new projects instead?
@HermioneSims Thanks for the question.
It is my plan to publish a chapter every Sunday, as I think a regular publication is easier to relate to as a reader. It is a plan I can not abide by at all. However, I often manage to publish three to four chapters each month.
I took a longer hiatus last summer. After a long lockdown period, I got other priorities than writing Simlit. I found it more important to meet friends and family I had been cut off from for almost a year.
I experience many Simlit writers went on a hiatus during the same period and they have unfortunately never returned.
In January, I took an involuntary hiatus when I became infected with Corona. I did not get very ill, but it was enough to disturb my focus.
It can be difficult to regain motivation after a long hiatus. However, I would say that Tusnelda's story still lives on in me and I have decided in advance where the story should end, which helps me to continue.
Tusnelda's story is a retelling of an old story and I'm quite surprised at the journey it has taken me on. It makes me curious and preserves my motivation.
I do not usually start on new projects until a story is over. However, I have occasionally written short spin-offs for a story if I feel stuck. It can be a bi-character who in that way gets special attention before I continue with the main characters of the story.
Every so often I toy with the idea of doing another story...whether it's Sim 76, 86, 96, Sim 2066 or some other story with an unusual setting but I don't have the time...or the internal storage capacity for all the CC that would be required...to do so. In my case I want to focus on one project but, hey, those ideas haven't gone away.
@HermioneSims Do you manage to post your chapters at a regular pace, or do you alternate long pauses to periods of frequent posting? If you have ever entered a long hiatus, what motivated you to return back to writing? And, after a long pause, do you manage easily to return back to your previous stories, or does your inspiration tell you to start new projects instead?
I started off publishing three chapters per week, then two a week... now I'm mostly at one a week. Life commitments got in the way. And sleep, I need that too. Plus, now I make all the poses and edit my pictures which I wasn't doing at the start, so it takes ages to do each chapter, like 25+ hours worth of ages. I have mini breaks between 'books' but haven't had a long hiatus, and I second that writers who do seem to vanish completely.
That said, I am constantly inspired to start new stories and spin-offs. My game is a whole load of crazy with loads of stories to tell. I tend to indulge my need to divert off course by hiding these random little stories and hidden scenes on my website so I can keep my main focus on Almost Eternal. Otherwise it will become Actually Eternal and no one wants that. Least of all me. 😆
Every so often I toy with the idea of doing another story...whether it's Sim 76, 86, 96, Sim 2066 or some other story with an unusual setting but I don't have the time...or the internal storage capacity for all the CC that would be required...to do so. In my case I want to focus on one project but, hey, those ideas haven't gone away.
i got a idea your doing 66 thenwhen thats done you could so 76 and the heir for that would come from thelast generation of 66 then 86 and so on. i got 2 more weeks of masking upas they call it here then i can put glasses on agaan. i thinkthe exprts say one thing the govenor says another lol.
Thanks everyone for the answers! You all sound to have a much more regular pace than I have, at least for the writing part.
In this moment I could pass as a regular poster, but it's mostly because I'm translating a Legacy that I wrote some time ago, so it takes about one hour to adjust the translation and post a new chapter. This way, I manage to post at least one chapter per week even when I'm very busy at work.
In parallel, I'm also working on the newest and completely unpublished chapters of this Legacy (I'm about to start generation 9, so I'm confident to be able to finish it at some point ). At the very beginning I wrote quite short but frequent chapters, then for most of the legacy I switched to longer chapters once a week, and in the last couple of months I slowed down a bit and I'm posting every couple of weeks instead. To be fair, this is also a story in which I'm mostly reporting what's happening when I'm playing my Legacy Challenge, without much planning and with no picture editing at all, so it doesn't take much time to prepare one of those chapters either.
With my previous stories instead, including the one I was considering remaking in TS4, I used to prepare the chapters in advance and then to publish them once a week. So, even if I was not very regular in my writing, my weekend posts were quite reliable. On the other hand, when I finished a block of those chapters, I could make my readers wait for months before the following one was ready.
I also managed to have a quite long hiatus just before the conclusive part of one of these stories, concurrently with my master degree years and in particular with the thesis period. At first I made my readers wait for about 10 months for a bunch of spin-off chapters, and then one year and an half before finally dropping the final chapters (shame on me... Seriously, I was really studying like crazy back then, and the commuting was not helping either). I think I really had a strong attachment to those characters, for keeping thinking about that story for so long and managing to return back to it after so long. I actually still feel attached to them, which could be why a few pages ago I was writing about trying to remake and improve that story in TS4...
As extra miscellaneous information, I had some shorter hiatuses of few weeks/months when my internet connection was off and no one seemed to be able to repair it, during the university exams weeks, when I moved abroad, when I was writing my final thesis, or in periods in which I was always travelling to attend conferences or for participating to large experiments, but I really hope to not reach that one year and a half threshold again
Returning to the last part of my question, I actually feel some inertia when trying to return back writing a story I put aside for a while, I need to force myself a bit to write again one chapter but then usually the inspiration is back and I'm full of ideas for the following ones.
I can also say that I've never completely dropped any story before finishing it, up to now.
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.19 posted on the 28th of April 2024*
Do you manage to post your chapters at a regular pace, or do you alternate long pauses to periods of frequent posting? If you have ever entered a long hiatus, what motivated you to return back to writing? And, after a long pause, do you manage easily to return back to your previous stories, or does your inspiration tell you to start new projects instead?
There is/was no such thing as a regular posting schedule for anything I write, honestly.
I could post up to three chapters one day (admittedly shorter ones), and then go for a very long time without posting anything.
By now, when I do manage to update something I haven't worked on in a while, I don't really bother saying anything anymore about how late the update is (read the chapter, then go back to your other business). I don't try to say I'll post more often either; it never really happens that way.
Most of the time I aimed for a weekly schedule if I had the chapter/screenshots planned ahead. Sometimes I got two chapters published a week but that was rare.
Do you manage to post your chapters at a regular pace, or do you alternate long pauses to periods of frequent posting? If you have ever entered a long hiatus, what motivated you to return back to writing? And, after a long pause, do you manage easily to return back to your previous stories, or does your inspiration tell you to start new projects instead?
I'm not publishing online yet, but I send the chapters by email to friends and family. My record time between chapters so far is nine months, but it can be anywhere from weeks to months. I'm constantly working on it. I don't really take hiatuses. It's just that some chapters take a really long time to make, and others don't. If I do ever get around to publishing online, I want to be done with the story, or nearly done, so that I can publish on a regular schedule for those that like getting it that way. For me, as a reader of other writers' SimLit, though, regularity doesn't really matter. I often wait until there are a lot of chapters, and then binge-read to catch up. I'm more able to get immersed in the story that way.
Edit___ Almost forgot to answer the last question!
If I do take long pause from a story I am writing (this has happened more with novels than SimLit) it is usually because there is something about what I have already written that is really bothering me, and I can't seem to just ignore it and push on. Fixing the problem is key to whether I can ever return to that story or not. In some cases I was able, after some time away, to fix it and I went back to writing on it. And in other cases, I was not able to find a solution, or I did but it seemed like more work than it was worth, and I never returned to writing that story. At least not so far.
Do you manage to post your chapters at a regular pace, or do you alternate long pauses to periods of frequent posting? If you have ever entered a long hiatus, what motivated you to return back to writing? And, after a long pause, do you manage easily to return back to your previous stories, or does your inspiration tell you to start new projects instead?
Rolling into this question while procrastinating on a chapter
I try to post one chapter every two weeks and maybe a piece of bonus content in between that. It's really easy for me to slip into hyperfocus land and block everything out, but when I'm overwhelmed or too busy with work, I find it's too easy to fall off with my posting. I also tend to write pretty long chapters (le sigh, may the power of the plumbob help me self-edit) so a frequency beyond every two weeks is just not something I can maintain. I tried to do that with Baking By Death and it was a punishing pace that sort of forced me to limp towards the finish line.
Actually, for a while I thought about doing exactly like @GlacierSnow and trying to finish my story so I knew I could post consistently. But I'm too antsy for that so I compromised and just waited until I had a small bank of chapters so I'm always working a little bit ahead.
...er, when I'm not procrastinating on the forum...
::Edit::
I should also note that I make a fair number of short machinimas for chapters (sometimes I just can't describe a fight scene, I have to make it). Those can take a while to complete but they are a good distraction when I feel the urge to abandon ship and start working on something new!
So there’s an online writer group I follow that does a short story challenge called 12-months-12 stories. They come up with a word or phrase for the group every month, everyone thinks up a short story around it (It always has a word limit) and at the end of the month, people post them for others to read and give feedback on. Does something like that already exist on the forums? If not, would people be interested in trying it? 🤔
If not, that’s all fine, too 😊
Hosting D&D sessions on the side. Interested in playing through some fantasy-themed shenanigans? Send me a message 😘
@_sims_Yimi Sounds like it could be fun, but it’d depend with me on what time I have and what else is going on at the time (and what I can think of for the prompt XD) I might just have to make it pure narrative though since it’d be a nightmare doing all the screenshots but we’ll see.
@_sims_Yimi If I understand your question correctly then has @lisabee2 created such a monthly short story challenge, which is open to everyone to participate in. Each month has a new theme. You will find the Forum thread here
Personally, I have too much work to do with my current history so I dare not commit to more projects
Here is a question for those of you who have created your Blog on a WordPress website.
Since the topic is quite specific around updating WordPress, I have created the issue in this thread: WordPress. How to start for very beginners
Do you manage to post your chapters at a regular pace, or do you alternate long pauses to periods of frequent posting? If you have ever entered a long hiatus, what motivated you to return back to writing? And, after a long pause, do you manage easily to return back to your previous stories, or does your inspiration tell you to start new projects instead?
Hello, it's been so long since I've been here. It's exciting to see how active this thread is as I was there in the beginning. It's been hard for me to read and keep up with things, but I feel like this is a good question for me to answer.
I write as I want to write, which means I don't have a set schedule or plan when I write. I write when I'm in the mood, and avoid writing when I'm not. Sticking to a schedule has never been my forte.
It's funny. I do take long hiatuses, but when I return, I shoot out chapters in rapid fire succession and then I wait a long time again. It's just how I roll. I find reading other people's SimLit helps motivate me to return to writing. I also watch many YouTubers who play Sims and that helps motivate me. I tend to go back and watch older content and Let's Plays to find inspiration for my current writing/gameplay style. I become easily distracted with 10 new ideas and choose to focus on one at a time, or sometimes 2-3 at most.
Is it easy to return? Yes, when I'm motivated. No, when I feel like it might be a chore to capture images to fit the writing. Lately, I've been writing and gaming in tandem. I leave the game open in one window and write a bit in the next. That helps if I want to jump quick into the game for accuracy. I do have a higher end computer that lets me do that easily.
My advice is to write when you're most inspired and on what most inspires you. Forcing writing is never fun, and the point of SimLit is to have fun, in my opinion. I love capturing the crazy antics of my Sims and incorporating this into my storytelling.
I apologize if this question was asked recently: On a similar subject, what inspires your gameplay/storytelling? I have my own thoughts, and shared a bit above, but I'm curious what you all think.
On a similar subject, what inspires your gameplay/storytelling? I have my own thoughts, and shared a bit above, but I'm curious what you all think.
Thanks for the question
What originally got me started writing and playing Sims4 was a YouTube series by DevonBumpkin called 'San Mushuno High'. Unfortunately, he later deleted that series, as he has probably progressed since then. Back then, the series was very inspiring to me. I was very touched by his characters.
While playing Sims3 (and Sims2) my focus was mostly on building. I suddenly looked at the town houses with completely different eyes. Was it possible to build such a house in Sims?
That changed with Sims4. I think it's the Sims' ability to multitask and interact with each other that makes stories grow in my head. Part of that, of course, is pure imagination.
In addition, I am inspired by the relationships and experiences I have had in my life.
I can also be inspired by books and steaming series, but it has to give some sort of personal resonance before it gets integrated into a story.
On a similar subject, what inspires your gameplay/storytelling?
Depends on which universe I’m writing:
- most of the Magic Universe is inspired by the tabletop games Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons, even if there aren’t a terrible amount of similarities in the actual story. Most of the similarities to DnD/PF are in the background lore.
- A large portion of the third story is influenced by lore surrounding an alchemical symbol, and the inclusion of the Fae in it was inspired by Yimi’s work. The portrayal of Morgyn was inspired by a close off-site Simmer friend.
As for the Aliens Universe:
- some of the lore surrounding Sixamians is lightly inspired by Star Wars, as well as a lot borrowed from different SimLits as well- and there is something in that universe inspired by a whole bunch of IRL parasitoid life.
- To be fair most of the Aliens Universe was inspired by other people’s alien-related challenges, CathyTea’s ‘Septimus my Son’ was what pushed me to do the Alien Adoption Challenge and start the story off from there.
- Some of the lore from the story also comes partially from the bit of background story that ‘came with’ that challenge.
On a similar subject, what inspires your gameplay/storytelling?
One day I had an idea so I ran with it: To create a Sims game set in the 1960s and use my historical knowledge of the era to make it interesting as a setting.
I keep saying that a lot of inspiration for my story is the Sims 4 game itself. It seems to know just what I need dramatically at any given moment. If I need a character just show up, they do without my prompting. Once I set up all the pieces and plot threads, I just follow them through. In the back of my mind are thousands of old TV shows, films, books and articles that I use for inspiration. Sim 66, at times, runs on its own steam...it just needs me to type it all up.
On a similar subject, what inspires your gameplay/storytelling?
Inspiration for individual ideas can come from all sorts of places. But the inspiration to create stories in the first place mostly comes from being interested in the characters I created. Usually the characters come first, and everything else builds itself around them.
On a similar subject, what inspires your gameplay/storytelling?
Another great question! Thanks. I enjoy playing the game. I enjoy writing. I also enjoy taking pretty screencaps. My writing is based on my gameplay so inspiration comes very easily in that way. Additionally, my game looks so much better now, so I'm in a bit of a rush to get through old screenshots so I can show newer ones.
Outside sources like the media I consume (mainly music, but also TV shows, movies, YouTube and books) layer on top of and mix with what the gameplay naturally gives me. It helps that I'm not particularly interested in intense action or drama. I don't mind having a more character-driven narrative, which I think is easier to get from the Sims. I literally have 15 months worth of backlogged inspiration . It also helps that my concept is narrow and I generally only allow gameplay shots in my chapters (I let my Sims take photos of one another in game, in which case I'll use poses and I use a ton of mods - but I'm otherwise limited to pure gameplay shots with 2-5 small-ish exceptions in my 60+ posts so far).
But I am so slow. To inspire myself to be a bit faster, I try to push quantity over quality. I think quality is important, but I try not to care too much about it because it will result in my having 0 posts. After a while, I want to just post something even if I think it's questionable or don't like it 100% because the easiest way for me to figure things out/get better is to post and get feedback and to get more experience by writing other chapters instead of obsessing over one. I can always fix something later if I still dislike it. Learning as I go and trying different things is fun.
Hi everyone! I had a couple of quite busy weeks at work, but I'm starting to pick up with the pace again (sort of...)
So, even if it's quite late, here is my answer to:
On a similar subject, what inspires your gameplay/storytelling?
It depends a lot on whether I'm playing for a story-driven story, or for a legacy. In the former case, I tend to plan all the story in advance well before starting to play, and sometimes I also get annoyed because I'm not able to reproduce the scene I had in mind in the game (sims keeping changing their sits when talking, I'm looking at you). In this case, the plot tends to be strongly inspired by the books I read and the anime I watch.
With legacies instead I tend to try to explore different kinds of gameplay present in the game itself. For example, in the first generations of the Millers I was focusing on the active careers options in TS4, while later I tried to direct the story in a way that allowed me to explore other scenarios and gameplay options.
When writing this, I also thought about a new question for you all instead:
Simlit intrinsically put together writing with playing The Sims, but was there any instance in which you really struggled at conciliating them? Is there any game dynamics making it harder for you to deliver the story you have in mind? Did something completely unexpected happen in your game, obliging you to change your story plans?
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.19 posted on the 28th of April 2024*
Comments
Do you manage to post your chapters at a regular pace, or do you alternate long pauses to periods of frequent posting? If you have ever entered a long hiatus, what motivated you to return back to writing? And, after a long pause, do you manage easily to return back to your previous stories, or does your inspiration tell you to start new projects instead?
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
@HermioneSims
@GlacierSnow You didn't come across as judgmental at all. I just wanted to express that I like foreshadowing and things too, despite not rereading. It's been about 5 years since I last tried to reread a novel, so I'll probably try again fairly soon with something I think I don't really remember like Persuasion by Jane Austen from 10-15 years ago (basically my childhood) and see how it goes
Good question! I try to post roughly once per week, though which day exactly depends on how busy my week is. Sometimes I don’t have time. Or a scene takes longer than expected and as a result, it turns into two weeks. The fact that I have a rough schedule but no hard deadline to rush me works wonders in not making it feel like a chore.
I’ve seen writers come back from a long hiatus, but more often it seems the hiatus means the end of the story. The longest I’ve gone without posting on an active story was about a month. At that time ToC was in between arcs and though I didn’t post much, I was still writing.
What about yourself?
It is my plan to publish a chapter every Sunday, as I think a regular publication is easier to relate to as a reader. It is a plan I can not abide by at all. However, I often manage to publish three to four chapters each month.
I took a longer hiatus last summer. After a long lockdown period, I got other priorities than writing Simlit. I found it more important to meet friends and family I had been cut off from for almost a year.
I experience many Simlit writers went on a hiatus during the same period and they have unfortunately never returned.
In January, I took an involuntary hiatus when I became infected with Corona. I did not get very ill, but it was enough to disturb my focus.
It can be difficult to regain motivation after a long hiatus. However, I would say that Tusnelda's story still lives on in me and I have decided in advance where the story should end, which helps me to continue.
Tusnelda's story is a retelling of an old story and I'm quite surprised at the journey it has taken me on. It makes me curious and preserves my motivation.
I do not usually start on new projects until a story is over. However, I have occasionally written short spin-offs for a story if I feel stuck. It can be a bi-character who in that way gets special attention before I continue with the main characters of the story.
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
I started off publishing three chapters per week, then two a week... now I'm mostly at one a week. Life commitments got in the way. And sleep, I need that too. Plus, now I make all the poses and edit my pictures which I wasn't doing at the start, so it takes ages to do each chapter, like 25+ hours worth of ages. I have mini breaks between 'books' but haven't had a long hiatus, and I second that writers who do seem to vanish completely.
That said, I am constantly inspired to start new stories and spin-offs. My game is a whole load of crazy with loads of stories to tell. I tend to indulge my need to divert off course by hiding these random little stories and hidden scenes on my website so I can keep my main focus on Almost Eternal. Otherwise it will become Actually Eternal and no one wants that. Least of all me. 😆
i got a idea your doing 66 thenwhen thats done you could so 76 and the heir for that would come from thelast generation of 66 then 86 and so on. i got 2 more weeks of masking upas they call it here then i can put glasses on agaan. i thinkthe exprts say one thing the govenor says another lol.
In this moment I could pass as a regular poster, but it's mostly because I'm translating a Legacy that I wrote some time ago, so it takes about one hour to adjust the translation and post a new chapter. This way, I manage to post at least one chapter per week even when I'm very busy at work.
In parallel, I'm also working on the newest and completely unpublished chapters of this Legacy (I'm about to start generation 9, so I'm confident to be able to finish it at some point
With my previous stories instead, including the one I was considering remaking in TS4, I used to prepare the chapters in advance and then to publish them once a week. So, even if I was not very regular in my writing, my weekend posts were quite reliable. On the other hand, when I finished a block of those chapters, I could make my readers wait for months before the following one was ready.
I also managed to have a quite long hiatus just before the conclusive part of one of these stories, concurrently with my master degree years and in particular with the thesis period. At first I made my readers wait for about 10 months for a bunch of spin-off chapters, and then one year and an half before finally dropping the final chapters (shame on me... Seriously, I was really studying like crazy back then, and the commuting was not helping either). I think I really had a strong attachment to those characters, for keeping thinking about that story for so long and managing to return back to it after so long. I actually still feel attached to them, which could be why a few pages ago I was writing about trying to remake and improve that story in TS4...
Returning to the last part of my question, I actually feel some inertia when trying to return back writing a story I put aside for a while, I need to force myself a bit to write again one chapter but then usually the inspiration is back and I'm full of ideas for the following ones.
I can also say that I've never completely dropped any story before finishing it, up to now.
There is/was no such thing as a regular posting schedule for anything I write, honestly.
I could post up to three chapters one day (admittedly shorter ones), and then go for a very long time without posting anything.
By now, when I do manage to update something I haven't worked on in a while, I don't really bother saying anything anymore about how late the update is (read the chapter, then go back to your other business). I don't try to say I'll post more often either; it never really happens that way.
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)
I'm not publishing online yet, but I send the chapters by email to friends and family. My record time between chapters so far is nine months, but it can be anywhere from weeks to months. I'm constantly working on it. I don't really take hiatuses. It's just that some chapters take a really long time to make, and others don't. If I do ever get around to publishing online, I want to be done with the story, or nearly done, so that I can publish on a regular schedule for those that like getting it that way. For me, as a reader of other writers' SimLit, though, regularity doesn't really matter. I often wait until there are a lot of chapters, and then binge-read to catch up. I'm more able to get immersed in the story that way.
Edit___ Almost forgot to answer the last question!
If I do take long pause from a story I am writing (this has happened more with novels than SimLit) it is usually because there is something about what I have already written that is really bothering me, and I can't seem to just ignore it and push on. Fixing the problem is key to whether I can ever return to that story or not. In some cases I was able, after some time away, to fix it and I went back to writing on it. And in other cases, I was not able to find a solution, or I did but it seemed like more work than it was worth, and I never returned to writing that story. At least not so far.
Rolling into this question while procrastinating on a chapter
I try to post one chapter every two weeks and maybe a piece of bonus content in between that. It's really easy for me to slip into hyperfocus land and block everything out, but when I'm overwhelmed or too busy with work, I find it's too easy to fall off with my posting. I also tend to write pretty long chapters (le sigh, may the power of the plumbob help me self-edit) so a frequency beyond every two weeks is just not something I can maintain. I tried to do that with Baking By Death and it was a punishing pace that sort of forced me to limp towards the finish line.
Actually, for a while I thought about doing exactly like @GlacierSnow and trying to finish my story so I knew I could post consistently. But I'm too antsy for that so I compromised and just waited until I had a small bank of chapters so I'm always working a little bit ahead.
...er, when I'm not procrastinating on the forum...
::Edit::
I should also note that I make a fair number of short machinimas for chapters (sometimes I just can't describe a fight scene, I have to make it). Those can take a while to complete but they are a good distraction when I feel the urge to abandon ship and start working on something new!
So there’s an online writer group I follow that does a short story challenge called 12-months-12 stories. They come up with a word or phrase for the group every month, everyone thinks up a short story around it (It always has a word limit) and at the end of the month, people post them for others to read and give feedback on. Does something like that already exist on the forums? If not, would people be interested in trying it? 🤔
If not, that’s all fine, too 😊
Personally, I have too much work to do with my current history so I dare not commit to more projects
Since the topic is quite specific around updating WordPress, I have created the issue in this thread: WordPress. How to start for very beginners
Hello, it's been so long since I've been here. It's exciting to see how active this thread is as I was there in the beginning. It's been hard for me to read and keep up with things, but I feel like this is a good question for me to answer.
I write as I want to write, which means I don't have a set schedule or plan when I write. I write when I'm in the mood, and avoid writing when I'm not. Sticking to a schedule has never been my forte.
It's funny. I do take long hiatuses, but when I return, I shoot out chapters in rapid fire succession and then I wait a long time again. It's just how I roll. I find reading other people's SimLit helps motivate me to return to writing. I also watch many YouTubers who play Sims and that helps motivate me. I tend to go back and watch older content and Let's Plays to find inspiration for my current writing/gameplay style. I become easily distracted with 10 new ideas and choose to focus on one at a time, or sometimes 2-3 at most.
Is it easy to return? Yes, when I'm motivated. No, when I feel like it might be a chore to capture images to fit the writing. Lately, I've been writing and gaming in tandem. I leave the game open in one window and write a bit in the next. That helps if I want to jump quick into the game for accuracy. I do have a higher end computer that lets me do that easily.
My advice is to write when you're most inspired and on what most inspires you. Forcing writing is never fun, and the point of SimLit is to have fun, in my opinion. I love capturing the crazy antics of my Sims and incorporating this into my storytelling.
I apologize if this question was asked recently: On a similar subject, what inspires your gameplay/storytelling? I have my own thoughts, and shared a bit above, but I'm curious what you all think.
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What originally got me started writing and playing Sims4 was a YouTube series by DevonBumpkin called 'San Mushuno High'. Unfortunately, he later deleted that series, as he has probably progressed since then. Back then, the series was very inspiring to me. I was very touched by his characters.
While playing Sims3 (and Sims2) my focus was mostly on building. I suddenly looked at the town houses with completely different eyes. Was it possible to build such a house in Sims?
That changed with Sims4. I think it's the Sims' ability to multitask and interact with each other that makes stories grow in my head. Part of that, of course, is pure imagination.
In addition, I am inspired by the relationships and experiences I have had in my life.
I can also be inspired by books and steaming series, but it has to give some sort of personal resonance before it gets integrated into a story.
Depends on which universe I’m writing:
- most of the Magic Universe is inspired by the tabletop games Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons, even if there aren’t a terrible amount of similarities in the actual story. Most of the similarities to DnD/PF are in the background lore.
- A large portion of the third story is influenced by lore surrounding an alchemical symbol, and the inclusion of the Fae in it was inspired by Yimi’s work. The portrayal of Morgyn was inspired by a close off-site Simmer friend.
As for the Aliens Universe:
- some of the lore surrounding Sixamians is lightly inspired by Star Wars, as well as a lot borrowed from different SimLits as well- and there is something in that universe inspired by a whole bunch of IRL parasitoid life.
- To be fair most of the Aliens Universe was inspired by other people’s alien-related challenges, CathyTea’s ‘Septimus my Son’ was what pushed me to do the Alien Adoption Challenge and start the story off from there.
- Some of the lore from the story also comes partially from the bit of background story that ‘came with’ that challenge.
One day I had an idea so I ran with it: To create a Sims game set in the 1960s and use my historical knowledge of the era to make it interesting as a setting.
I keep saying that a lot of inspiration for my story is the Sims 4 game itself. It seems to know just what I need dramatically at any given moment. If I need a character just show up, they do without my prompting. Once I set up all the pieces and plot threads, I just follow them through. In the back of my mind are thousands of old TV shows, films, books and articles that I use for inspiration. Sim 66, at times, runs on its own steam...it just needs me to type it all up.
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
Inspiration for individual ideas can come from all sorts of places. But the inspiration to create stories in the first place mostly comes from being interested in the characters I created. Usually the characters come first, and everything else builds itself around them.
Another great question! Thanks. I enjoy playing the game. I enjoy writing. I also enjoy taking pretty screencaps. My writing is based on my gameplay so inspiration comes very easily in that way. Additionally, my game looks so much better now, so I'm in a bit of a rush to get through old screenshots so I can show newer ones.
Outside sources like the media I consume (mainly music, but also TV shows, movies, YouTube and books) layer on top of and mix with what the gameplay naturally gives me. It helps that I'm not particularly interested in intense action or drama. I don't mind having a more character-driven narrative, which I think is easier to get from the Sims. I literally have 15 months worth of backlogged inspiration
But I am so slow. To inspire myself to be a bit faster, I try to push quantity over quality. I think quality is important, but I try not to care too much about it because it will result in my having 0 posts. After a while, I want to just post something even if I think it's questionable or don't like it 100% because the easiest way for me to figure things out/get better is to post and get feedback and to get more experience by writing other chapters instead of obsessing over one. I can always fix something later if I still dislike it. Learning as I go and trying different things is fun.
So, even if it's quite late, here is my answer to:
On a similar subject, what inspires your gameplay/storytelling?
It depends a lot on whether I'm playing for a story-driven story, or for a legacy. In the former case, I tend to plan all the story in advance well before starting to play, and sometimes I also get annoyed because I'm not able to reproduce the scene I had in mind in the game (sims keeping changing their sits when talking, I'm looking at you). In this case, the plot tends to be strongly inspired by the books I read and the anime I watch.
With legacies instead I tend to try to explore different kinds of gameplay present in the game itself. For example, in the first generations of the Millers I was focusing on the active careers options in TS4, while later I tried to direct the story in a way that allowed me to explore other scenarios and gameplay options.
When writing this, I also thought about a new question for you all instead:
Simlit intrinsically put together writing with playing The Sims, but was there any instance in which you really struggled at conciliating them? Is there any game dynamics making it harder for you to deliver the story you have in mind? Did something completely unexpected happen in your game, obliging you to change your story plans?