It's so exciting to see this thread so active. I participated a good bit much earlier in this thread. I've been absent from the Sims forums for awhile, but I'm hopping back in and getting my feet wet.
I see some recent questions that I'd love to answer.
How long does it usually take you to write a chapter?
I write until I'm done writing. I don't really have a set time or process. I just go. When I'm inspired, I have a burst of creativity and just write until a natural stopping point. Could be 30 minutes, could be hours. Depends on my schedule for the day. I'm most inspired to write at night. That's when the house is quiet, and I can knock out 2-4hrs of writing. I typically let the chapter sit and return to it the following day or two days later. Then I read, review, edit, and make a few tweaks before releasing.
It can take hours though if I write first and then game because I have to get everything set up just right for screenshots. I'm experimenting with poses, but plumbobs! That takes so much effort and time. Eek! All in all, it probably takes me an average of 1-2 days to write and capture the screenshots if I'm motivated and inspired or 3-5 days if I have an especially busy schedule at work or in personal life.
@SirianaSims wrote about ADHD and rewriting if the screenshots don't quite fit the writing. I have a similar process and allow the game to influence the rewrite. I also work on multiple chapters at once and push scenes around as needed. Actually I relate to a lot of what you wrote. I have ADHD too.
Do you have a save file just for playing, or do you mostly/entirely use the game for the purposes of SimLit?
Yes, I do. I call it my MEGA save file. I plop all my Sims from all my stories into this save, including Sims that others have submitted. And then I just pick a household to start on a whim and just play. It's fun because sometimes things that happen in my "just for fun" save actually turn out to be really interesting and they get a story of their own.
Sometimes I just have fun playing around in the game and sometimes I find epic crossovers or a burst of inspiration. It's hard for me to play just to play anymore, but I do find this MEGA save useful as a sandbox for my ideas, testing gameplay elements, poses, etc. and often turn to it when I need to feel inspired.
I posted this question over in the Writer's Lounge, but maybe it's better suited here. What do you do when you have so many great story ideas at once? For those of you who juggle multiple stories, what's your process or plan?
I have one story, but it has multiple protagonists and like a soap opera I go from one sub-plot to another and back again. Story ideas are easier to work out because the setting is already established I don't have to spend much time setting the scene, introducing the characters and delving into backstories. The biggest challenge I have right now is remembering the plot continuity of all the different sub-plots.
What do you do when you have so many great story ideas at once? For those of you who juggle multiple stories, what's your process or plan?
@AdamsEve1231 Thanks for an interesting question.
I only write one story at a time. I have been writing my current story for two years and I have actually planned an ending in advance.
I get so many new ideas now that my personal gallery has become more developed. This applies both to the individual Sim, as the dialectic with their surroundings. I therefore do not have a clear answer right now, as I myself am making some considerations about whether I should release the universe when I have reached the goal I have set in advance.
I wish I had a clear answer myself, but I love a question and a statement that makes me reflect and look for answers.
Story ideas are easier to work out because the setting is already established I don't have to spend much time setting the scene, introducing the characters and delving into backstories.
@Kellogg_J_Kellogg I really buy this statement. It often takes a while for a story and its universe to really gain a foothold, so why throw all this overboard? Another thing to take into consideration
What do you do when you have so many great story ideas at once? For those of you who juggle multiple stories, what's your process or plan?
For me, it's not so much a plan as it is just chaos. First of all, I write all ideas down so I have them for later. I don't trust that I'll remember anything, so I just have documents for everything I'm currently writing, and then one for new ideas that may later become their own story. So whenever I have an idea I type it into the most relevant document.
The Duchelli Legacy is my main story, and apart from my recent exam hiatus, I try to push out a chapter at least every two weeks or so, but since I don't write them ahead of time, and since the ADHD sometimes cannot be controlled, I may wait longer - but I may also post twice in one week. I have my document of future scenes and notes for all 12 generations, and then I work on the next few immediate chapters in Wordpress and simply publish each one when they're done.
I also have some stand-alone stories like my Hallmark-inspired parody of The Strauds, and a spicy story about Don Lothario teaching Goopy Gilscarbo and Komei Tellerman how to meet ladies, but in Sims 4. These are just silly side projects, the Hallmark story was a Christmas special and the Don story is just some silliness on the side and a half-serious prequel about the Don of the Duchelli Legacy.
I have recently started doing makeovers of every single pre-made Sim in the game, plus a few Maxis-made Sims 2 character from the gallery, giving them backstories and relationships, and this is now spiralling out of control, so I also have plot lines, dialogue, and entire scenes. So this will probably become a thing on my Tumblr after the makeovers are all finished. The great thing about this project is that I can use a lot of the little ideas that won't fit into the Duchellis, and instead use them for some of the pre-made characters and their stories.
@MonaSolstraale and I have a similar approach when it comes to writing our story. We both began with one central character but now we've got a community of protagonists and we switch from character to character to tell the story. Where we differ is that each chapter of Sim 66 features one family at a time whereas each chapter of Tusnelda & Trix switches between the characters.
@SirianaSims Those are great makeovers. There's a little scar on Hugo's lip...It makes you wonder how he got it!
What do you do when you have so many great story ideas at once? For those of you who juggle multiple stories, what's your process or plan?
I have two active stories and I recently tried releasing new chapters every Friday. That set schedule really didn't work out very well for me. I found myself having more writers block than normal because of the pressure of a deadline. If a storyline didn't present itself quickly I felt that deadline approaching like the zombie in the opening scene in 'Night Of The Living Dead'. In those situations I can almost hear the brother saying, "They're coming to get you Barbara". I've kicked the strict deadlines out and I'm finding the writers block isn't nearly so bad.
I try to release a chapter of one story then do one from the other. Last time around when I posted new chapters they were both from Under The Tartosan Sun. I felt like I didn't 'stick the landing' at the end of the previous chapter. The most recent chapter picked up from that point and filled in all the detail I left out previously. As far as the content, it's a mix of gameplay and scripted action. Even when I'm staging scenes to get shots to go with the dialogue I'm watching little things to see if something useful and interesting happens that can provide more storylines. When I'm not staging scenes to support dialogue I sit back and let the characters go about their business except for work activities that I have to step in and make them do since they won't on their own. I have a lot characters who are actresses, and some stand up comics and a work-from-home romance novelist. And romantic scenes are another thing I stage. Autonomous proposals always happen 'off camera' and I can't let characters get engaged and not show it, especially in Under The Tartosan Sun. Weddings obviously have to be staged but I love all the detail that goes into setting them up and filming them so even if they could happen autonomously I wouldn't allow it.😊
@MonaSolstraale thanks for your reply. My current (newest) release has a "planned" ending of sorts because I already have all of the following generation mapped and near complete. It's strange in a way going back and writing the prequel. In a way, it's a rewrite since the original featured my Simself and now this version features a different character so the story can be more divergent (and I don't have to retcon my Simself having magical abilities). I have so many ideas also and I have pages and pages and pages of OneNote documents to prove it. Half-finished story ideas, half-finished musings, some of them half-baked, others fully fleshed out. I don't know if I'll ever write all of them, but I do have certain goals for myself to complete a certain grouping of them. I have an entire universe that has been slowly taking shape over a decade. I am always interested and curious about others' worldbuilding so if you should release your universe, I'd love to know more about it.
I am planning to reply to everyone's responses, but I'm finally back at work and alas! My break time is up.
What do you do when you have so many great story ideas at once? For those of you who juggle multiple stories, what's your process or plan?
Here's an idea:
1. Make a separate document for each story (like in Word or something)
2. Whichever story chapter you feel the most like writing, do so.
3. When a chapter looks like it's ready to submit, do so.
I am always interested and curious about others' worldbuilding so if you should release your universe, I'd love to know more about it.
@AdamsEve1231 I've read some of your worldbuilding before and it's impressive. If you're interested in others' lore, I have whole lore pages dedicated to my two main universes, the 'Aliens' universe and the 'Magic' universe (first lore page, second lore page.)
It turns out I've broken my own lore rules over and over, especially in the newest story. X_X I just roll with it.
@AdamsEve1231 When I write universe it is probably because I lack the correct English word. I don't think worldbuilding is comprehensive, as I have only changed the game's plots to a limited extent. Perhaps society is a better term. Friendships and the interaction between the individual characters of the story.
I will say that EA's update where they introduced Story Progression messed up my story so much. Suddenly the Sims had children and relationships all over the place and it has cost me a lot of time and effort to clean up the mess....Which must mean that I'm not completely indifferent to the world structure
I'm so impressed with your structured worldbuilding and lore pages @SnowBnuuy and I think it's very inspiring.
My own working method is probably more intuitive, even if I have some kind of overall script (which I break time and time again )
It strikes me repeatedly how different our working methods are (Here I mean everyone in the Simlit community). In this there is absolutely no kind of assessment between right and wrong.
NB: In order not to reveal myself as a totally unstructured mess, here's a sneak peak at my image/chapter archive.
Of course I have blurred the planned titles of the upcoming chapters and Don is always willing to make himself available for additional exposure when required
What do you do when you have so many great story ideas at once? For those of you who juggle multiple stories, what's your process or plan?
Multiple ideas at once…. the bane of my life LMAO. That’s the thing with game-driven stories like Magical Mastersons… I don’t have elaborate plots to write out and the characters aren’t hugely fleshed out with detailed backstories and motivations. There’s very little in terms of “lore”, if anything.
Like I said earlier in the thread, I do have another story idea in my head that is much more plot-driven. I’ve done a fair amount of planning mentally, and have put some of it into writing. I’ve even googled CC that I could use and everything I’m probably going to have to put it into action one day or it’ll drive me mad But I want to refine things more, and write some chapters.
I've realised that I'm just 11 chapters away from 200 instalments of Sim 66 and I'm planning something to celebrate achieving a milestone. So the question for the group is...
Do you plan for "special" chapters to mark X number of episodes, or season endings or any other milestone or do you prefer to just go with the flow of your stories? Also, do you like to write character bios or "behind the scenes" sections of the stories?
Hmm, special chapters isn’t really something I’ve thought of doing! But it could be fun.
Character bios are fun to come up with, but not really something I’ve done in a concrete way (as in written them out to put on my blog).
Another thing… I don’t use poses a whole lot, but I do look them up for occasional screenshots. What I’ve found is that it’s sometimes really hard to find a pose set that fits what I have in mind! Like a while ago when I wanted some sitting-and-talking poses for a screenshot in my Parker Saga story. I tried “sofa poses” first… either they were stiff, formal, “family portrait” type poses or they were weird “model” type poses that were a bit racy and not what I wanted. I did find something eventually, but it was freaking hard! You’d think there’d be loads of “sitting and talking” poses but there really weren’t many.
Do you plan for "special" chapters to mark X number of episodes, or season endings or any other milestone or do you prefer to just go with the flow of your stories? Also, do you like to write character bios or "behind the scenes" sections of the stories?
I haven't done a special chapter to mark milestones. Under The Tartosan Sun is the only one close to what you would call a milestone, 50 chapters, but I'm only up to 37. Schemes and Dreams is just getting started. I haven't done traditional bios for either story but I did post a brief character synopsis for UtTS on page one. For Schemes and Dreams I did a prologue and let the characters introduce themselves to the readers.
@Lucy_Henley I don't use poses a lot either. I have the same problem finding the right poses but even worse is trying to get poses with more than one sim to work. I can never get two sims who are supposed to be holding hands or walking together, etc, properly aligned. All I can do with holding hands is use the default social even if it's not what I had in mind. Walking side by side, holding hands or not, is just something I have to write up and let the reader draw a mental picture of. If anyone has a foolproof hack that makes it work I'm all ears.🙂
@DaniRose2143 Just on the off-chance, If you can't get poses aligned, have you tried using the Teleport Any Sim mod? Almost all of the 2-person poses use that mod for them to work properly.
@DaniRose2143 Teleport any sim is the easiest way to do it. Loads of poses actually depend on that to work. I didn't know about it at the beginning of my story and i was so confused - I couldn't get anything to work properly without it. Alternatively, if you have the MCCC mod you can go into sim commands > teleport to this sim (I think) and get two sims essentially stacked on top of each other ready to pose into a couple pose. Also the TOOL mod is a must have for moving sims around. I learned all of this from the people on this thread - I'd be lost without all the help!
Do you plan for "special" chapters to mark X number of episodes, or season endings or any other milestone or do you prefer to just go with the flow of your stories? Also, do you like to write character bios or "behind the scenes" sections of the stories?
I plan to do a big 'behind the scenes' thing about Divided once I finish it, with all of the scrapped ideas that didn't make the cut. I don't make special chapters to mark any milestone, I just do them if and when I feel like them, if the story needs a break from doom and gloom, or for specific seasonal events (like Xmas / Valentine's day pics.) . (It seems the Divided side material generates more interest than the actual story chapters do, actually ) Sometimes I'll do just pics, sometimes backstory side chapters for characters, that sort of thing.
I do have character profiles for all my characters on my 'Lore' page on my blog, with short bios for everyone. I need to re-do all the pictures.
@hellohannah2 I didn't know that about MCCC! Lifesaver for poses where I need them both somewhere where I can't put a TaS statue. Thank you!!!
Do you plan for "special" chapters to mark X number of episodes, or season endings or any other milestone or do you prefer to just go with the flow of your stories? Also, do you like to write character bios or "behind the scenes" sections of the stories?
Interesting questions!
I haven't gotten anywhere near a major milestone yet and hadn't thought about it. I suspect it will depend on how much time I have for doing something like that and whether or not I have an idea I like. Probably would be more of a few cute/gag screenshots of the main characters rather than a whole chapter though, unless it would really fit in with where the story is going. @SnowBnuuy once compared my story to anime, so I may just have to do a "beach episode" at some point...
For Seventeen & Maldusk, I do have a "characters" page and a "bloopers and extras" behind the scenes section, which I have been adding to as I post chapters.
The character bios are very short and only include things that are already in the posted chapters (no extra information), so they are really just intended as a guide to help keep track of who is who as the size of my cast inflates beyond all common sense. But sometimes some of the early entries are humorous until I have more information to put in there.
@hellohannah2 Thank you for the tips.❤️ I didn’t know that about Tool. I use WonderfulWhims to pose sims. Turbodriver worked with Andrew to come up with a version of Pose Player that is built into WW. It’s really handy.
I’ve considered getting TOOL. I remember using the move objects cheat in Sims 3 to grab my Sims and move them around, but it always messed up my game unfortunately. Only later did I realise that Pose Player existed for Sims 3… I don’t play it anymore sadly.
Speaking of TOOL, someone on Tumblr suggested this mod World Edit where you can edit the world terrain a bit easier. I haven't tried it yet but if so WICKED because I can get rid of all the modern vehicles and streetlights and I don't have to keep being restrictive about lots and camera angles!
Congrats for being so close to such a milestone with your chapters count @Kellogg_J_Kellogg !
As for your question:
Do you plan for "special" chapters to mark X number of episodes, or season endings or any other milestone or do you prefer to just go with the flow of your stories? Also, do you like to write character bios or "behind the scenes" sections of the stories?
Um... With my Miller Legacy I don't tend to pay much attention to the chapters count, I knew from the beginning that reaching Gen 10 would have taken some time. So that my story is a Legacy, probably the main milestones correspond to the end of the generations anyway. As the people who follow my story have probably noticed, I mostly decided to close each generation with a summary of what happened to that heir. This is something I added to the translated version of the Legacy for the sake of clarity and to make it easier to navigate the earlier parts of the story, as I was noticing that in the original version even I was starting to find it difficult to find again some older scenes. To make it worse, in the original version I decided not to restart the chapters numbering at the end of each generation, and now I find myself at the beginning of Gen 10 with a very long and uninterrupted sequence of chapters behind and chapter 219 to write and post (as a reference, the last chapter I posted in English corresponded more or less to chapter 90 in the original numbering).
From time to time I like to add chapters which are not really related to the main plotline and focus on some funny side-story or some side-character, and sometimes I like to end the chapter with some funny screenshots I took while preparing that chapter. For the Millers I don't think I've ever done real bios pages, but for the story I wrote prior to it I used to make something resembling an ID card for the main characters summarising their main features and including a few lines describing them.
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.18 posted on the 23th of April 2024*
Comments
I see some recent questions that I'd love to answer.
How long does it usually take you to write a chapter?
I write until I'm done writing. I don't really have a set time or process. I just go. When I'm inspired, I have a burst of creativity and just write until a natural stopping point. Could be 30 minutes, could be hours. Depends on my schedule for the day. I'm most inspired to write at night. That's when the house is quiet, and I can knock out 2-4hrs of writing. I typically let the chapter sit and return to it the following day or two days later. Then I read, review, edit, and make a few tweaks before releasing.
It can take hours though if I write first and then game because I have to get everything set up just right for screenshots. I'm experimenting with poses, but plumbobs! That takes so much effort and time. Eek! All in all, it probably takes me an average of 1-2 days to write and capture the screenshots if I'm motivated and inspired or 3-5 days if I have an especially busy schedule at work or in personal life.
@SirianaSims wrote about ADHD and rewriting if the screenshots don't quite fit the writing. I have a similar process and allow the game to influence the rewrite. I also work on multiple chapters at once and push scenes around as needed. Actually I relate to a lot of what you wrote.
Do you have a save file just for playing, or do you mostly/entirely use the game for the purposes of SimLit?
Yes, I do. I call it my MEGA save file. I plop all my Sims from all my stories into this save, including Sims that others have submitted. And then I just pick a household to start on a whim and just play. It's fun because sometimes things that happen in my "just for fun" save actually turn out to be really interesting and they get a story of their own.
Sometimes I just have fun playing around in the game and sometimes I find epic crossovers or a burst of inspiration. It's hard for me to play just to play anymore, but I do find this MEGA save useful as a sandbox for my ideas, testing gameplay elements, poses, etc. and often turn to it when I need to feel inspired.
I posted this question over in the Writer's Lounge, but maybe it's better suited here.
What do you do when you have so many great story ideas at once? For those of you who juggle multiple stories, what's your process or plan?
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
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 only write one story at a time. I have been writing my current story for two years and I have actually planned an ending in advance.
I get so many new ideas now that my personal gallery has become more developed. This applies both to the individual Sim, as the dialectic with their surroundings. I therefore do not have a clear answer right now, as I myself am making some considerations about whether I should release the universe when I have reached the goal I have set in advance.
I wish I had a clear answer myself, but I love a question and a statement that makes me reflect and look for answers.
@Kellogg_J_Kellogg I really buy this statement. It often takes a while for a story and its universe to really gain a foothold, so why throw all this overboard? Another thing to take into consideration
For me, it's not so much a plan as it is just chaos. First of all, I write all ideas down so I have them for later. I don't trust that I'll remember anything, so I just have documents for everything I'm currently writing, and then one for new ideas that may later become their own story. So whenever I have an idea I type it into the most relevant document.
The Duchelli Legacy is my main story, and apart from my recent exam hiatus, I try to push out a chapter at least every two weeks or so, but since I don't write them ahead of time, and since the ADHD sometimes cannot be controlled, I may wait longer - but I may also post twice in one week. I have my document of future scenes and notes for all 12 generations, and then I work on the next few immediate chapters in Wordpress and simply publish each one when they're done.
I also have some stand-alone stories like my Hallmark-inspired parody of The Strauds, and a spicy story about Don Lothario teaching Goopy Gilscarbo and Komei Tellerman how to meet ladies, but in Sims 4. These are just silly side projects, the Hallmark story was a Christmas special and the Don story is just some silliness on the side and a half-serious prequel about the Don of the Duchelli Legacy.
I have recently started doing makeovers of every single pre-made Sim in the game, plus a few Maxis-made Sims 2 character from the gallery, giving them backstories and relationships, and this is now spiralling out of control, so I also have plot lines, dialogue, and entire scenes. So this will probably become a thing on my Tumblr after the makeovers are all finished. The great thing about this project is that I can use a lot of the little ideas that won't fit into the Duchellis, and instead use them for some of the pre-made characters and their stories.
A few makeovers for the curious:
@SirianaSims Those are great makeovers. There's a little scar on Hugo's lip...It makes you wonder how he got it!
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 have two active stories and I recently tried releasing new chapters every Friday. That set schedule really didn't work out very well for me. I found myself having more writers block than normal because of the pressure of a deadline. If a storyline didn't present itself quickly I felt that deadline approaching like the zombie in the opening scene in 'Night Of The Living Dead'. In those situations I can almost hear the brother saying, "They're coming to get you Barbara". I've kicked the strict deadlines out and I'm finding the writers block isn't nearly so bad.
I try to release a chapter of one story then do one from the other. Last time around when I posted new chapters they were both from Under The Tartosan Sun. I felt like I didn't 'stick the landing' at the end of the previous chapter. The most recent chapter picked up from that point and filled in all the detail I left out previously. As far as the content, it's a mix of gameplay and scripted action. Even when I'm staging scenes to get shots to go with the dialogue I'm watching little things to see if something useful and interesting happens that can provide more storylines. When I'm not staging scenes to support dialogue I sit back and let the characters go about their business except for work activities that I have to step in and make them do since they won't on their own. I have a lot characters who are actresses, and some stand up comics and a work-from-home romance novelist. And romantic scenes are another thing I stage. Autonomous proposals always happen 'off camera' and I can't let characters get engaged and not show it, especially in Under The Tartosan Sun. Weddings obviously have to be staged but I love all the detail that goes into setting them up and filming them so even if they could happen autonomously I wouldn't allow it.😊
I am planning to reply to everyone's responses, but I'm finally back at work and alas! My break time is up.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
Here's an idea:
1. Make a separate document for each story (like in Word or something)
2. Whichever story chapter you feel the most like writing, do so.
3. When a chapter looks like it's ready to submit, do so.
Just a suggestion.
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)
It turns out I've broken my own lore rules over and over, especially in the newest story. X_X I just roll with it.
I will say that EA's update where they introduced Story Progression messed up my story so much. Suddenly the Sims had children and relationships all over the place and it has cost me a lot of time and effort to clean up the mess....Which must mean that I'm not completely indifferent to the world structure
I'm so impressed with your structured worldbuilding and lore pages @SnowBnuuy and I think it's very inspiring.
My own working method is probably more intuitive, even if I have some kind of overall script (which I break time and time again
It strikes me repeatedly how different our working methods are (Here I mean everyone in the Simlit community). In this there is absolutely no kind of assessment between right and wrong.
NB: In order not to reveal myself as a totally unstructured mess, here's a sneak peak at my image/chapter archive.
Multiple ideas at once…. the bane of my life LMAO. That’s the thing with game-driven stories like Magical Mastersons… I don’t have elaborate plots to write out and the characters aren’t hugely fleshed out with detailed backstories and motivations. There’s very little in terms of “lore”, if anything.
Like I said earlier in the thread, I do have another story idea in my head that is much more plot-driven. I’ve done a fair amount of planning mentally, and have put some of it into writing. I’ve even googled CC that I could use and everything
Do you plan for "special" chapters to mark X number of episodes, or season endings or any other milestone or do you prefer to just go with the flow of your stories? Also, do you like to write character bios or "behind the scenes" sections of the stories?
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
Character bios are fun to come up with, but not really something I’ve done in a concrete way (as in written them out to put on my blog).
Another thing… I don’t use poses a whole lot, but I do look them up for occasional screenshots. What I’ve found is that it’s sometimes really hard to find a pose set that fits what I have in mind! Like a while ago when I wanted some sitting-and-talking poses for a screenshot in my Parker Saga story. I tried “sofa poses” first… either they were stiff, formal, “family portrait” type poses or they were weird “model” type poses that were a bit racy and not what I wanted. I did find something eventually, but it was freaking hard! You’d think there’d be loads of “sitting and talking” poses but there really weren’t many.
I haven't done a special chapter to mark milestones. Under The Tartosan Sun is the only one close to what you would call a milestone, 50 chapters, but I'm only up to 37. Schemes and Dreams is just getting started. I haven't done traditional bios for either story but I did post a brief character synopsis for UtTS on page one. For Schemes and Dreams I did a prologue and let the characters introduce themselves to the readers.
@Lucy_Henley I don't use poses a lot either. I have the same problem finding the right poses but even worse is trying to get poses with more than one sim to work. I can never get two sims who are supposed to be holding hands or walking together, etc, properly aligned. All I can do with holding hands is use the default social even if it's not what I had in mind. Walking side by side, holding hands or not, is just something I have to write up and let the reader draw a mental picture of. If anyone has a foolproof hack that makes it work I'm all ears.🙂
I plan to do a big 'behind the scenes' thing about Divided once I finish it, with all of the scrapped ideas that didn't make the cut. I don't make special chapters to mark any milestone, I just do them if and when I feel like them, if the story needs a break from doom and gloom, or for specific seasonal events (like Xmas / Valentine's day pics.) . (It seems the Divided side material generates more interest than the actual story chapters do, actually
I do have character profiles for all my characters on my 'Lore' page on my blog, with short bios for everyone. I need to re-do all the pictures.
@hellohannah2 I didn't know that about MCCC! Lifesaver for poses where I need them both somewhere where I can't put a TaS statue. Thank you!!!
Interesting questions!
I haven't gotten anywhere near a major milestone yet and hadn't thought about it. I suspect it will depend on how much time I have for doing something like that and whether or not I have an idea I like. Probably would be more of a few cute/gag screenshots of the main characters rather than a whole chapter though, unless it would really fit in with where the story is going. @SnowBnuuy once compared my story to anime, so I may just have to do a "beach episode" at some point...
For Seventeen & Maldusk, I do have a "characters" page and a "bloopers and extras" behind the scenes section, which I have been adding to as I post chapters.
The character bios are very short and only include things that are already in the posted chapters (no extra information), so they are really just intended as a guide to help keep track of who is who as the size of my cast inflates beyond all common sense.
As for your question:
Do you plan for "special" chapters to mark X number of episodes, or season endings or any other milestone or do you prefer to just go with the flow of your stories? Also, do you like to write character bios or "behind the scenes" sections of the stories?
Um... With my Miller Legacy I don't tend to pay much attention to the chapters count, I knew from the beginning that reaching Gen 10 would have taken some time. So that my story is a Legacy, probably the main milestones correspond to the end of the generations anyway. As the people who follow my story have probably noticed, I mostly decided to close each generation with a summary of what happened to that heir. This is something I added to the translated version of the Legacy for the sake of clarity and to make it easier to navigate the earlier parts of the story, as I was noticing that in the original version even I was starting to find it difficult to find again some older scenes. To make it worse, in the original version I decided not to restart the chapters numbering at the end of each generation, and now I find myself at the beginning of Gen 10 with a very long and uninterrupted sequence of chapters behind and chapter 219 to write and post (as a reference, the last chapter I posted in English corresponded more or less to chapter 90 in the original numbering).
From time to time I like to add chapters which are not really related to the main plotline and focus on some funny side-story or some side-character, and sometimes I like to end the chapter with some funny screenshots I took while preparing that chapter. For the Millers I don't think I've ever done real bios pages, but for the story I wrote prior to it I used to make something resembling an ID card for the main characters summarising their main features and including a few lines describing them.