Hi! I'm not sure if I've used this thread before so wanted to say hello first, I'm Lizzie (She/Her) and I write SimLit using The Sims 3. My main projects are rebooting (mainly just redoing screenshots) my legacy from 2015 and writing a legacy I started in February that I'm super proud to say is still going! 😂 I thought I'd jump right in and answer the latest discussion points if that's ok ❤️
@SnowBnuuyWhat are your New Year's resolutions regarding your SimLit writing / gameplay writing, if you have any?
My plan for 2024 is to finish Evergreen on my end and have it scheduled to run through until the end of 2025. So far I'm writing chapters that will be up in June (the end of Generation 6) and am really hopeful I can do it! I also want to finish rebooting Moonchild so that I can continue it where I left off (I think the game crashed and I stopped writing after Generation 6 or 7 ended?).
I guess the goal to get to these points is to keep writing as much as I can, be kind to myself and take breaks from the story when I need to.
I'm not sure what I'll do when I finish Evergreen, it's hard to imagine a world without it! 😂
@simgirl1010Do you actually play the game or do you prefer to use it as a vehicle to tell your stories? Do your characters haves careers and aspirations. Do they skill up? Do they sleep and eat? In other words, do they have a life outside of your story?
I base my stories off challenges that I come up with. Evergreen is a Sims Through The Ages Challenge where every generation is dedicated to an expansion pack and the Sims must achieve relevant lifetime wishes, goals and skills. I don't like using my game as a dollhouse or a photoshoot and sometimes a lot of what happens in the story I didn't account for (the amount of untimely deaths is getting ridiculous now). I would say I very much play the game to achieve the screenshots and get from beginning to end of each generation, but the story I write is also of my own design it's not a report of the gameplay or the challenge. That means a lot of screenshots have to be staged to write the story properly, but I guess it's like they're actors in a movie who sometimes are onset being told what to do and other times more like a reality TV star being followed around with a camera 😂
Similarly to what @SnowBnuuy said, I don't even play The Sims 4 and can't imagine how hard it would be for me to write a story because I don't value the gameplay like I do with 3. Maybe I'll give it a go someday and see what happens!
Or maybe you have different saves for playing and storytelling.
I definitely have a few saves I dip in and out of. I have a Super Sim Legacy that I've been doing since 2021 which is purely for my own enjoyment and then I have different saves for streaming and for writing guides etc on my blog. I even create additional copies of Evergreen to test things out or create the banner for the generation so that I don't affect the "real" save.
@Lucy_Henley I aim for an end of year goal/aspiration and think of ways I'll mark milestones towards it because I, too, can't stick to resolutions. I prefer the idea of thinking "where do I want to be this time next year?" instead of "what thing am I promising to start from scratch and stick to, starting tomorrow?" one is a lot less daunting than the other haha
@MadameLee I am here for this! I had to hide my Switch so that I would stop playing Animal Crossing enough to actually get back into it this year😂
Happy Friday!! I have a question particularly for those who are more storyled than gameplay led, where did the idea of your story come from? Do you plan things out before writing and taking screenshots or just see what happens in game?
Happy Friday @lizzielilyy and thanks for the question
where did the idea for your story come from? Do you plan things out before writing and taking screenshots, or do you just see what's happening in the game?
For me it's a mix of both. In my current story, I was given a task from the start with some goals that had to be met.
In my previous story, the task was to create a teenager with three bound traits. I find such tasks very inspiring for a start.
Through my gameplay, I have been inspired for my further course. I have a script with some kind of roadmap and milestones. I take pictures according to this plan, but it happens more than once that a coincidence in the game or a comment from a reader inspires me to go in a different direction. I would say that I have a very broad plan. It is a model that suits me very well.
Happy Friday!! I have a question particularly for those who are more storyled than gameplay led, where did the idea of your story come from? Do you plan things out before writing and taking screenshots or just see what happens in game?
Well, this depends a bit on where you put the line between story-led and gameplay-led... Anyway, even for my legacy (which should be gameplay-led by definition), I tend to have a quite clear idea of the main events for that part of the story way before playing and writing that part. Often I let the sims' traits and behaviours inspire me in their characterization, and often I had to abandon ideas that were too complex to reproduce without cheats or poses (it's still a legacy challenge), but there are very few chapters where I was just playing without anything in mind beforehand.
All my previous stories are strongly story-led instead, so I usually write quite a detailed draft of the whole story before even starting, then I pass to the written part of the chapters, and only at the end I enter the game to take the screenshots.
Summarising, I'm definitively one of those who plan a lot before starting to write the real chapters or open the game for the screenshots.
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.19 posted on the 28th of April 2024*
Happy Friday @lizzielilyy and thanks for the question
For me it's a mix of both. In my current story, I was given a task from the start with some goals that had to be met.
In my previous story, the task was to create a teenager with three bound traits. I find such tasks very inspiring for a start.
Through my gameplay, I have been inspired for my further course. I have a script with some kind of roadmap and milestones. I take pictures according to this plan, but it happens more than once that a coincidence in the game or a comment from a reader inspires me to go in a different direction. I would say that I have a very broad plan. It is a model that suits me very well.
Thank you for answering!!
That’s so interesting, what is a bound trait? I agree having something to complete or achieve can really serve as inspiration.
That model does sound useful, it feels similar to me where I have a general idea of where my story and characters are headed but the game might give me ideas on what happens along the way.
Happy Friday! (*this is the last day of my vacations, I have to keep the motivation high! :P )
Well, this depends a bit on where you put the line between story-led and gameplay-led... Anyway, even for my legacy (which should be gameplay-led by definition), I tend to have a quite clear idea of the main events for that part of the story way before playing and writing that part. Often I let the sims' traits and behaviours inspire me in their characterization, and often I had to abandon ideas that were too complex to reproduce without cheats or poses (it's still a legacy challenge), but there are very few chapters where I was just playing without anything in mind beforehand.
All my previous stories are strongly story-led instead, so I usually write quite a detailed draft of the whole story before even starting, then I pass to the written part of the chapters, and only at the end I enter the game to take the screenshots.
Summarising, I'm definitively one of those who plan a lot before starting to write the real chapters or open the game for the screenshots.
Thank you for answering, I hope you had a lovely Friday!
I find it so interesting that you have made a shift from your previous style. I do it almost the opposite order, going into game first, taking screenshots and then writing!
This time with Evergreen I’ve written quite a detailed plot as I’ve gone along and am still very much figuring it out even now but I love how you’re sticking to the rules of the legacy. I use mods and cheats to shoot certain scenes in a separate save file to avoid “tainting” the original but still getting the story I was going for
I have a question particularly for those who are more storyled than gameplay led, where did the idea of your story come from? Do you plan things out before writing and taking screenshots or just see what happens in game?
Very little of my story is influenced by the game itself. As for where the story idea came from: Back when I did a challenge story, I did a non-challenge-related prequel for Morgyn Ember, and then this is a prequel for their predecessor which takes place 300 years in the past and looks at magic in the old days when it was far less widely accepted. A lot of the story is influenced by various fantasy media, mostly by Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, and some of the Final Fantasy games. It was originally meant to only focus on a few characters, then the cast kind of exploded. XD
The only gameplay influence on my story is that, to avoid plot convenience to some extent, if I'm writing a chapter that would have involved the werewolf character- if it's a full moon in-game as I'm planning to write that scene, they will be a werewolf, and I will change the scene if necessary. A lot of situations turned out very differently because of this.
I plan everything out before writing and taking pictures, but my plans are all over the place and scenes get swapped between chapters plans constantly. I need the pictures before I can do the bulk of the writing.
Thank you for answering!!
That’s so interesting, what is a bound trait? I agree having something to complete or achieve can really serve as inspiration.
That model does sound useful, it feels similar to me where I have a general idea of where my story and characters are headed but the game might give me ideas on what happens along the way.
Perhaps a bound trait is not a correct term. I use a Translate app to translate from Danish.
To elaborate on my answer, this means that I have to create a Sim with some Traits that are determined in advance. I'll hide the rest of the answer as it might get a bit nerdy.
We had a forum member in the Danish forum who was really good at setting up some minor challenges. Tusnelda was created by this forum member, as well as some quests I retold as an introduction to the story. What later happened in her life is created by my imagination and the random events of the game.
If you are curious, you can read the presentation of Tusnelda's trait and tasks here.
In another task, when The Sims 4: Jungle Adventure came out, we were given six traits to create two Sims to explore the jungle together. These traits were: (Romantic, Perfectionist, Self-assured, Kleptomaniac, Active, Nerd Brain) It was free how I put these Traits together. I created two guys who followed me for many years. I have written so many stories about them and their exploits on a Danish forum.
Now that I think about them I miss them quite a lot
I have a question particularly for those who are more storyled than gameplay led, where did the idea of your story come from? Do you plan things out before writing and taking screenshots or just see what happens in game?
The idea came from a confluence of two ideas that I had from visiting these very forums. One, people were doing the Decades Challenge and two, people were writing Simlit. So I combined the two.
I didn't want to do the full Decades Challenge and write it up as a story as I find most ones I read become a list of births, marriages, birthdays and deaths and you don't stay around a decade long enough to soak in the atmosphere so I settled on setting a story in one decade and switching the aging off. The decade I settled on was the 1960s because I just love the aesthetic and music from then and I know a lot of history of that era which I could incorporate into the story. The 1960s is a good gameplay-wise because you can do so much with base game clothing and furnishings and you don't have to have an extensive amount of overlay mods to replace appliances.
As for planning...it's a mixture. It all begins with the characters; they lead everything. Create strong enough characters, work out where they are at the start of a chapter, work out where you'd like them to be at the end and then run the game trying to steer it to the desired outcome and taking screen grabs along the way. That's my method. However, the game throws me curveballs and I adapt, improvise and modify the plot to account for someone showing up unannounced, or the sim you want to visit isn't home, or a work event happens, or an interaction with someone you didn't plan on featuring becomes the focal point of the chapter. What I do is keep a look out for what's going on in the world and look for plot hooks. I frequently pause the game to check out what else is going on in the neighbourhood because I might want to feature that. And then the other ingredient is drawing on my knowledge of films and TV from the 1960s to capture the speech of the time and the idioms.
I have a question particularly for those who are more storyled than gameplay led, where did the idea of your story come from?
I’m more gameplay-based than storyled, so the idea for my legacy came from my gameplay, what I enjoy about the game, and what I want to accomplish within the game. I decided to start the story in the middle of my 4th generation because I’d already played through gens 1-3. So many legacies start with 1 or 2 founders, 0 simoleons, no home, etc. that I thought it would be fine to do something different. I also wanted to tell a story that wouldn’t require me to start over or negatively affect the way I play.
How I tell my legacy has become more complicated and changed dramatically since the beginning, but that’s because it took me a while to sort out how I wanted to do things and I’ve also changed.
Do you plan things out before writing and taking screenshots or just see what happens in game?
My approach may be similar to Kellogg_J_Kellogg’s because my Sims largely drive the narrative. I wouldn’t say that I plan things out, but I look for and focus on certain things while playing. I take a ton of screenshots and those screenshots later become my slice-of-life (with occults) story.
My chapters are rarely if ever a retelling or listing of what happened while I played. I also take things extremely slowly to the extent that a chapter seldom covers more than 1 in-game day. This hopefully gives my Sims a chance to develop and show their personalities. They attend lots of events and travel off their home lot constantly. Every in-game hour is precious, and even though I don’t outline a schedule, there is a schedule in the game. I have a musical Sim, so now I focus on musical events and add to them with my own events/holidays (high school is M-F; karaoke contest is Tues., Thurs., and Sun.; talent showcase is Fri.; Finchwick Fair is Sat.; performance is Sat.; prom is Sat.; Starlight Accolades is Sun.; interest/income on investments is paid out on Sun. (so spending on big ticket items such as buildings for my Sims should be done after this), bills are Mon. … There is a lot to structure storytelling around.
For example, I have a Sim in high school. I don’t go to the high school every weekday. However, I rebuilt it, gave everyone uniforms, move the active classroom around the building, don’t always focus on what happens during class but on social interactions between my Sim and other students, created a club/team that’s not an official part of the pack, etc. So, when she goes to school, it’s hopefully a little more interesting because I wonder about what’s going to happen between her and certain other Sims based on her personality or what’s already happened, and I also get to interact with different parts of the building.
Whenever I put together a chapter, there are several things that I consider (What are the plot beats here and what progresses the plot? What is the point of this chapter? / writing quality / image quality (is there at least 1 good screenshot?) / Does anything have the potential to be funny? / tone / conflict or tension / opening). I don’t accomplish everything every time and I like to experiment with different things.
Overall, even though I don’t do much concrete planning, there is a lot that I take into consideration.
where did the idea of your story come from? Do you plan things out before writing and taking screenshots or just see what happens in game?
All of my stories start out as ideas that come into my head. I'll sketch out the basics like who's the main character, or characters, their motivations and goals. As I'm creating them in CAS I start to delve into their personalities as I put their outfits and looks together, adjusting the basic storylines as I go. Once all the characters are in place and I'm ready to go from that point on everything gets chaotic. The story is driving things while I get screenshots until something interesting happens in the gameplay that shows me new possibilities. It may be a new storyline or a new character. Even though the story is driving things I'm always open to the gameplay inspiring new storylines and/or characters. In Tartosan Sun it was gameplay that showed me the main character Danielle was a lesbian. Exploring that new storyline led me to a new character, Londyn. I'm so thankful that I didn't lock myself into the original story because adding Londyn has been a blessing.
That experience helped me immensely when Mimi and Anna dropped a bomb on the original storylines in my other story. Mimi's character exploded in ways and to degrees I never could have imagined when the story started. Anna's appearance alone in the story opened so many new possibilities that I've had to almost completely start over. Mimi's story hasn't really changed, but she's been such a joy to write and readers love her so much she's completely rearranged my approach to the story as a whole. She went from being a background character, to a supporting cast member, to a full blown star of the show. I've had to adapt as I go but she's been one of those surprises I'm always on the lookout for. Anna is the same deal. She was only supposed to appear in a handful of scenes, but after just one I knew she was going to be a focal point of the story. The way her introduction into the story happened it also made me rethink Judith's personality and how she is going to be portrayed, all because of one gameplay session.
@MonaSolstraale ah ok that makes sense, thank you! I like the term bound trait haha I think we've coined a new phrase there.
@Kellogg_J_Kellogg filtering down a challenge into one really thought out element is a really great idea. I think having strong characters that can lead the story is so integral but like you say, letting the game throw curveballs and paying attention to the world outside the active characters really develops an existing story too!
@haneul I really like the idea of starting in the middle rather than the usual beginning, I bet it was an interesting shift! It sounds like you really pay attention to the detail of the game and how that affects your Sims' experience. Like you say it may not be concrete planning but it is a lot of consideration and attention to detail.
@DaniRose2143 I love how the game took your story in such a new and exciting direction! I can't believe how much one gameplay session changed the trajectory of so many characters and the story itself. I'd love for that to happen to me haha but I'm not sure how I'd handle it.
@SnowBnuuy that's such a cool backstory and I love how it is influenced by fantasy media. The cast exploding sounds busy but exciting! Your planning sounds similar to me, I have to get all the screenshots together before I can put it in the right order and make sense of the plans.
Thank you all so much for your thought out answers, it's given me a lot to think about with my own writing! Particularly character development and designing a foundation for a story.
@lizzielilyy And thank you for asking such a good question, I always like an excuse to ramble about my story. XD
Yeah I get you, and also I need the screenshots first because - sometimes I have some dialogue bits in mind, but most of the actual dialogue I write after because I need to see their faces so I can sort of get the words to match if that makes any sense. Like when you see their faces you get a better idea of what they might be saying or now. Since you mentioned getting a better idea of developing a story and characters I wrote a Simlit writing guide which covers some ideas for building characters and plots, and also covers more challenge based stuff as well.
Short comment typed from a train station, waiting for a connection:
Instead the main reason why I prefer to write something before taking the screenshots instead is that, otherwise, I always think that some pictures are missing (which makes me start the game many more times)
I made most of my stories on slow PCs which could take 20 min to start the game, so adjusting the text to the expressions seemed much faster that it, no matter what XD
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.19 posted on the 28th of April 2024*
@lizzielilyy Having the gameplay inspire me to follow new storylines is something I embraced from the start of my adventures in SimLit. That first big change in Under The Tartosan Sun made it even easier to trust my instincts when the game shows me something different. Danielle is a young up and coming romance novelist. She moved to Tartosa to immerse herself in a romantic environment hoping to find her muse there. She was going to be looking for Mr. Right and go on this journey of romantic discovery of her own as she wrote about perfect romances in her novels. When she wasn't showing any interest in any of the male characters I realized I had used a previous version of her from my library and in that save she had been a lesbian. I ran with it and she very quickly found Londyn and I knew from watching them they'd both found the love of their lives. I threw away the original story idea and I've gone down a different path as I follow them and their close knit group of friends, two of which (Summer Holiday and Liberty Lee) have been her besties since elementary school. There too, bringing Summer into the story was a spur of the moment idea. Danielle was hanging out by the fountain in Porto Luminoso on her first day in Tartosa when Summer and her started chatting and connecting. That set off a series of events that ended with Summer and Liberty following their friend Danielle to Tartosa and starting new lives there too.
That put me in a good place to see and react to the big surprise that Schemes and Dreams threw me. The really big surprises are a great opportunity to reflect on where the story is and if there are any things you'd like to do differently. Anna's sudden emergence as a major character and the way it played out made me take another look at Judith Ward. I had set her up to be a really outlandish villain. She was going to be cartoonishly self centered and detached from reality because of her celebrity. I don't see her as a villain at all now. I see her as a flawed human being. She has some redeeming qualities that balance out her flaws. There's so much more room for great storytelling with a 'bad guy' who can play both sides of the good vs. evil trope convincingly. Oh she's going to do things to make readers dislike her, but she's also going to do things to make readers love her too. The thing with a character who starts out as outrageous and over the top is how do you keep them fresh? Where can I go except more over the top which risks getting wearisome for me as a writer and the reader? Characters like that are apt to get stale and possibly drag an entire story down with them. There's always been a part of me that has wanted to explore a version of Judith Ward that wasn't an unhinged diva as she so often seems to be portrayed, or how the devs envisioned her when they made her. I mean she comes preloaded with a seriously negative reputation and mean persona.
My best advice is stay open to the possibility of changing things up. Don't force it, let it happen. You'll know it when it happens. I let characters do their thing and I step in only if they do something I think is way outside of what I would expect from their personality. If something unexpected happens I may pause the game and sit there for a minute and think about what happened and the possibilities it provides. I may even save and exit and go think about it for a longer time.
Thanks @lizzielilyy Then we'll see if anyone buys that phrase
I have discovered that I often tend to choose the same positive traits for the sims I make myself. Then it helps as a form of leg brace that these traits are dictated from another side. It gives the character more depth.
I can see that several of us use the same method regarding whether text or images come first. I feel like commenting a bit more on that.
What I especially like about a loose structure in the planning is that you can use exactly what is happening in the pictures you take in the game to write a natural dialogue between the Sims. I sometimes use mood changing paintings or MCCC when I need the characters to get into a certain state of mind.
When I read stories where there is a disharmony between the text and the Sims' facial expressions, I feel that I can't really get into the character. Maybe it's because I love reading pictures. When the text e.g. says "she smiles at him" and I see a Sim in the picture with an expressionless mask, then it creates a distance in me. I find that some poses make the faces stiffen. I am not against Poses when they are done in detail right up to the eyes.
I often take additional pictures when I start writing my chapter based on the pictures I have. It could be some pictures of the exterior or another angle I'm missing. That's why I often save the game with a new name and number after the chapter. I always save the game right before a wedding or other important event because it allows me to exit the game without saving if something goes wrong. When I restart the game I don't have to repeat all the preparation, like inviting guests and setting up the stage. I only delete these extra Saves when I'm absolutely sure I'm done with it. Right now I think I have 126 Saves in my Sims4 Saves folder. Oops!
@MonaSolstraale Something I find with a lot of pose packs is that people don't often change the expressions, or if they do they don't change them very much and it can be tough getting hold of pose packs with useful expressions even when the pack is specifically meant to be for certain emotions. One set I use the most is the Emotions packs by SamsSims, and the Subtle Emotions poses- and I have a few personal edits of those poses to fit different characters. There is a 'arms crossed' one by Clumsyalien I think? Which is also great for expressions.
And you are spot on I used to do that pre-mods era, used to put emotion altering items around the house for certain scenes because these sims Cannot! Stop! Smiling like Cheshire cats about every small thing!
@lizzielilyy I'm a little late to the conversation, but I particularly like the first question you asked. The answers to that one have been really interesting, especially for the stories I am reading. So, I'll just throw in my answer as well.
where did the idea of your story come from?
I think the earliest inspirations for Seventeen & Maldusk were some 1940-1950s radio detective shows and the cartoon Invader Zim. I cannot explain or justify the thought process that went from those two things to whatever it is that I ended up creating. I do remember that I wanted to do a story about a vampire detective who lives with an alien. So, I guess I'm still sort of on target. But I don't have a good reason as to why I wished to do that. My two main characters were actually supposed to just be test sims I created to try stuff out when I bought Get to Work, but I loved them so much I just ran with them. I like characters with a lot of personality contrast, and these two just endeared themselves to me right away.
There are a few scenes early on that were gameplay inspired, and one major character/world building development that was completely born out of the sim obsession with their phones. But pretty much everything else has been meticulously planned. I usually write first and then get the screenshots. But that doesn't mean that I overall have a plan. I have no idea where this story is really going. Until I actually have to post it, everything from the scenes, to the order of the chapters, to the overall plot is in flux. I don't write stuff in the order it gets read in
Hi everyone! I very much have this bookmarked to reply to the discussion so please don’t think I’ve forgotten you. My 100 baby challenge completely distracted me today 😂😂 I hope you’ve all had comfy cozy weekends
I have a question particularly for those who are more storyled than gameplay led, where did the idea of your story come from? Do you plan things out before writing and taking screenshots or just see what happens in game?
Basically the founder and her husband, were based on my mixed Chinese-Canadian cousin dating a guy from India (they have broken up now). The plotline in Gen 2 was from a weird plotline I would play with my little People toys. I blame too much reading Nancy Drew or a Canadian Mysteries series for it. But I do get some inspiration from songs, and such or I think I found a cute/workable pose that might work for my story.
At the moment its basically stuff I have done before-but after I get the eldest two daughters (and Main characters) of Gen 7 married, I'm going to be at ground 0 because I have no idea where to go after that because I haven't ever gotten that far ever. I know there will be a chapter for their honeymoon and them having kiddos-and I might have an interlude for tadah -infants but other then that don't know.
I most of the time take screenshorts before writing it out but to help me think at the moment I'm trying to write the chapter first before "filming" to help with slumps I get.
Comments
@SnowBnuuy What are your New Year's resolutions regarding your SimLit writing / gameplay writing, if you have any?
My plan for 2024 is to finish Evergreen on my end and have it scheduled to run through until the end of 2025. So far I'm writing chapters that will be up in June (the end of Generation 6) and am really hopeful I can do it! I also want to finish rebooting Moonchild so that I can continue it where I left off (I think the game crashed and I stopped writing after Generation 6 or 7 ended?).
I guess the goal to get to these points is to keep writing as much as I can, be kind to myself and take breaks from the story when I need to.
I'm not sure what I'll do when I finish Evergreen, it's hard to imagine a world without it! 😂
@simgirl1010 Do you actually play the game or do you prefer to use it as a vehicle to tell your stories? Do your characters haves careers and aspirations. Do they skill up? Do they sleep and eat? In other words, do they have a life outside of your story?
I base my stories off challenges that I come up with. Evergreen is a Sims Through The Ages Challenge where every generation is dedicated to an expansion pack and the Sims must achieve relevant lifetime wishes, goals and skills. I don't like using my game as a dollhouse or a photoshoot and sometimes a lot of what happens in the story I didn't account for (the amount of untimely deaths is getting ridiculous now). I would say I very much play the game to achieve the screenshots and get from beginning to end of each generation, but the story I write is also of my own design it's not a report of the gameplay or the challenge. That means a lot of screenshots have to be staged to write the story properly, but I guess it's like they're actors in a movie who sometimes are onset being told what to do and other times more like a reality TV star being followed around with a camera 😂
Similarly to what @SnowBnuuy said, I don't even play The Sims 4 and can't imagine how hard it would be for me to write a story because I don't value the gameplay like I do with 3. Maybe I'll give it a go someday and see what happens!
Or maybe you have different saves for playing and storytelling.
I definitely have a few saves I dip in and out of. I have a Super Sim Legacy that I've been doing since 2021 which is purely for my own enjoyment and then I have different saves for streaming and for writing guides etc on my blog. I even create additional copies of Evergreen to test things out or create the banner for the generation so that I don't affect the "real" save.
@MadameLee I am here for this! I had to hide my Switch so that I would stop playing Animal Crossing enough to actually get back into it this year😂
For me it's a mix of both. In my current story, I was given a task from the start with some goals that had to be met.
In my previous story, the task was to create a teenager with three bound traits. I find such tasks very inspiring for a start.
Through my gameplay, I have been inspired for my further course. I have a script with some kind of roadmap and milestones. I take pictures according to this plan, but it happens more than once that a coincidence in the game or a comment from a reader inspires me to go in a different direction. I would say that I have a very broad plan. It is a model that suits me very well.
Well, this depends a bit on where you put the line between story-led and gameplay-led... Anyway, even for my legacy (which should be gameplay-led by definition), I tend to have a quite clear idea of the main events for that part of the story way before playing and writing that part. Often I let the sims' traits and behaviours inspire me in their characterization, and often I had to abandon ideas that were too complex to reproduce without cheats or poses (it's still a legacy challenge), but there are very few chapters where I was just playing without anything in mind beforehand.
All my previous stories are strongly story-led instead, so I usually write quite a detailed draft of the whole story before even starting, then I pass to the written part of the chapters, and only at the end I enter the game to take the screenshots.
Summarising, I'm definitively one of those who plan a lot before starting to write the real chapters or open the game for the screenshots.
That’s so interesting, what is a bound trait? I agree having something to complete or achieve can really serve as inspiration.
That model does sound useful, it feels similar to me where I have a general idea of where my story and characters are headed but the game might give me ideas on what happens along the way.
Thank you for answering, I hope you had a lovely Friday!
I find it so interesting that you have made a shift from your previous style. I do it almost the opposite order, going into game first, taking screenshots and then writing!
This time with Evergreen I’ve written quite a detailed plot as I’ve gone along and am still very much figuring it out even now but I love how you’re sticking to the rules of the legacy. I use mods and cheats to shoot certain scenes in a separate save file to avoid “tainting” the original but still getting the story I was going for
It’s so cool how much you plan and write first!
Very little of my story is influenced by the game itself. As for where the story idea came from: Back when I did a challenge story, I did a non-challenge-related prequel for Morgyn Ember, and then this is a prequel for their predecessor which takes place 300 years in the past and looks at magic in the old days when it was far less widely accepted. A lot of the story is influenced by various fantasy media, mostly by Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, and some of the Final Fantasy games. It was originally meant to only focus on a few characters, then the cast kind of exploded. XD
The only gameplay influence on my story is that, to avoid plot convenience to some extent, if I'm writing a chapter that would have involved the werewolf character- if it's a full moon in-game as I'm planning to write that scene, they will be a werewolf, and I will change the scene if necessary. A lot of situations turned out very differently because of this.
I plan everything out before writing and taking pictures, but my plans are all over the place and scenes get swapped between chapters plans constantly. I need the pictures before I can do the bulk of the writing.
To elaborate on my answer, this means that I have to create a Sim with some Traits that are determined in advance. I'll hide the rest of the answer as it might get a bit nerdy.
If you are curious, you can read the presentation of Tusnelda's trait and tasks here.
In another task, when The Sims 4: Jungle Adventure came out, we were given six traits to create two Sims to explore the jungle together. These traits were: (Romantic, Perfectionist, Self-assured, Kleptomaniac, Active, Nerd Brain) It was free how I put these Traits together. I created two guys who followed me for many years. I have written so many stories about them and their exploits on a Danish forum.
Now that I think about them I miss them quite a lot
The idea came from a confluence of two ideas that I had from visiting these very forums. One, people were doing the Decades Challenge and two, people were writing Simlit. So I combined the two.
I didn't want to do the full Decades Challenge and write it up as a story as I find most ones I read become a list of births, marriages, birthdays and deaths and you don't stay around a decade long enough to soak in the atmosphere so I settled on setting a story in one decade and switching the aging off. The decade I settled on was the 1960s because I just love the aesthetic and music from then and I know a lot of history of that era which I could incorporate into the story. The 1960s is a good gameplay-wise because you can do so much with base game clothing and furnishings and you don't have to have an extensive amount of overlay mods to replace appliances.
As for planning...it's a mixture. It all begins with the characters; they lead everything. Create strong enough characters, work out where they are at the start of a chapter, work out where you'd like them to be at the end and then run the game trying to steer it to the desired outcome and taking screen grabs along the way. That's my method. However, the game throws me curveballs and I adapt, improvise and modify the plot to account for someone showing up unannounced, or the sim you want to visit isn't home, or a work event happens, or an interaction with someone you didn't plan on featuring becomes the focal point of the chapter. What I do is keep a look out for what's going on in the world and look for plot hooks. I frequently pause the game to check out what else is going on in the neighbourhood because I might want to feature that. And then the other ingredient is drawing on my knowledge of films and TV from the 1960s to capture the speech of the time and the idioms.
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’m more gameplay-based than storyled, so the idea for my legacy came from my gameplay, what I enjoy about the game, and what I want to accomplish within the game. I decided to start the story in the middle of my 4th generation because I’d already played through gens 1-3. So many legacies start with 1 or 2 founders, 0 simoleons, no home, etc. that I thought it would be fine to do something different. I also wanted to tell a story that wouldn’t require me to start over or negatively affect the way I play.
How I tell my legacy has become more complicated and changed dramatically since the beginning, but that’s because it took me a while to sort out how I wanted to do things and I’ve also changed.
Do you plan things out before writing and taking screenshots or just see what happens in game?
My approach may be similar to Kellogg_J_Kellogg’s because my Sims largely drive the narrative. I wouldn’t say that I plan things out, but I look for and focus on certain things while playing. I take a ton of screenshots and those screenshots later become my slice-of-life (with occults) story.
My chapters are rarely if ever a retelling or listing of what happened while I played. I also take things extremely slowly to the extent that a chapter seldom covers more than 1 in-game day. This hopefully gives my Sims a chance to develop and show their personalities. They attend lots of events and travel off their home lot constantly. Every in-game hour is precious, and even though I don’t outline a schedule, there is a schedule in the game. I have a musical Sim, so now I focus on musical events and add to them with my own events/holidays (high school is M-F; karaoke contest is Tues., Thurs., and Sun.; talent showcase is Fri.; Finchwick Fair is Sat.; performance is Sat.; prom is Sat.; Starlight Accolades is Sun.; interest/income on investments is paid out on Sun. (so spending on big ticket items such as buildings for my Sims should be done after this), bills are Mon. … There is a lot to structure storytelling around.
For example, I have a Sim in high school. I don’t go to the high school every weekday. However, I rebuilt it, gave everyone uniforms, move the active classroom around the building, don’t always focus on what happens during class but on social interactions between my Sim and other students, created a club/team that’s not an official part of the pack, etc. So, when she goes to school, it’s hopefully a little more interesting because I wonder about what’s going to happen between her and certain other Sims based on her personality or what’s already happened, and I also get to interact with different parts of the building.
Whenever I put together a chapter, there are several things that I consider (What are the plot beats here and what progresses the plot? What is the point of this chapter? / writing quality / image quality (is there at least 1 good screenshot?) / Does anything have the potential to be funny? / tone / conflict or tension / opening). I don’t accomplish everything every time and I like to experiment with different things.
Overall, even though I don’t do much concrete planning, there is a lot that I take into consideration.
All of my stories start out as ideas that come into my head. I'll sketch out the basics like who's the main character, or characters, their motivations and goals. As I'm creating them in CAS I start to delve into their personalities as I put their outfits and looks together, adjusting the basic storylines as I go. Once all the characters are in place and I'm ready to go from that point on everything gets chaotic. The story is driving things while I get screenshots until something interesting happens in the gameplay that shows me new possibilities. It may be a new storyline or a new character. Even though the story is driving things I'm always open to the gameplay inspiring new storylines and/or characters. In Tartosan Sun it was gameplay that showed me the main character Danielle was a lesbian. Exploring that new storyline led me to a new character, Londyn. I'm so thankful that I didn't lock myself into the original story because adding Londyn has been a blessing.
That experience helped me immensely when Mimi and Anna dropped a bomb on the original storylines in my other story. Mimi's character exploded in ways and to degrees I never could have imagined when the story started. Anna's appearance alone in the story opened so many new possibilities that I've had to almost completely start over. Mimi's story hasn't really changed, but she's been such a joy to write and readers love her so much she's completely rearranged my approach to the story as a whole. She went from being a background character, to a supporting cast member, to a full blown star of the show. I've had to adapt as I go but she's been one of those surprises I'm always on the lookout for. Anna is the same deal. She was only supposed to appear in a handful of scenes, but after just one I knew she was going to be a focal point of the story. The way her introduction into the story happened it also made me rethink Judith's personality and how she is going to be portrayed, all because of one gameplay session.
its a good thing i never plan i hate life it keeps getting in the way of playtime. lol.
@Kellogg_J_Kellogg filtering down a challenge into one really thought out element is a really great idea. I think having strong characters that can lead the story is so integral but like you say, letting the game throw curveballs and paying attention to the world outside the active characters really develops an existing story too!
@haneul I really like the idea of starting in the middle rather than the usual beginning, I bet it was an interesting shift! It sounds like you really pay attention to the detail of the game and how that affects your Sims' experience. Like you say it may not be concrete planning but it is a lot of consideration and attention to detail.
@DaniRose2143 I love how the game took your story in such a new and exciting direction! I can't believe how much one gameplay session changed the trajectory of so many characters and the story itself. I'd love for that to happen to me haha but I'm not sure how I'd handle it.
@SnowBnuuy that's such a cool backstory and I love how it is influenced by fantasy media. The cast exploding sounds busy but exciting! Your planning sounds similar to me, I have to get all the screenshots together before I can put it in the right order and make sense of the plans.
Thank you all so much for your thought out answers, it's given me a lot to think about with my own writing! Particularly character development and designing a foundation for a story.
Yeah I get you, and also I need the screenshots first because - sometimes I have some dialogue bits in mind, but most of the actual dialogue I write after because I need to see their faces so I can sort of get the words to match if that makes any sense. Like when you see their faces you get a better idea of what they might be saying or now. Since you mentioned getting a better idea of developing a story and characters I wrote a Simlit writing guide which covers some ideas for building characters and plots, and also covers more challenge based stuff as well.
Instead the main reason why I prefer to write something before taking the screenshots instead is that, otherwise, I always think that some pictures are missing (which makes me start the game many more times)
I made most of my stories on slow PCs which could take 20 min to start the game, so adjusting the text to the expressions seemed much faster that it, no matter what XD
That put me in a good place to see and react to the big surprise that Schemes and Dreams threw me. The really big surprises are a great opportunity to reflect on where the story is and if there are any things you'd like to do differently. Anna's sudden emergence as a major character and the way it played out made me take another look at Judith Ward. I had set her up to be a really outlandish villain. She was going to be cartoonishly self centered and detached from reality because of her celebrity. I don't see her as a villain at all now. I see her as a flawed human being. She has some redeeming qualities that balance out her flaws. There's so much more room for great storytelling with a 'bad guy' who can play both sides of the good vs. evil trope convincingly. Oh she's going to do things to make readers dislike her, but she's also going to do things to make readers love her too. The thing with a character who starts out as outrageous and over the top is how do you keep them fresh? Where can I go except more over the top which risks getting wearisome for me as a writer and the reader? Characters like that are apt to get stale and possibly drag an entire story down with them. There's always been a part of me that has wanted to explore a version of Judith Ward that wasn't an unhinged diva as she so often seems to be portrayed, or how the devs envisioned her when they made her. I mean she comes preloaded with a seriously negative reputation and mean persona.
My best advice is stay open to the possibility of changing things up. Don't force it, let it happen. You'll know it when it happens. I let characters do their thing and I step in only if they do something I think is way outside of what I would expect from their personality. If something unexpected happens I may pause the game and sit there for a minute and think about what happened and the possibilities it provides. I may even save and exit and go think about it for a longer time.
I have discovered that I often tend to choose the same positive traits for the sims I make myself. Then it helps as a form of leg brace that these traits are dictated from another side. It gives the character more depth.
I can see that several of us use the same method regarding whether text or images come first. I feel like commenting a bit more on that.
When I read stories where there is a disharmony between the text and the Sims' facial expressions, I feel that I can't really get into the character. Maybe it's because I love reading pictures. When the text e.g. says "she smiles at him" and I see a Sim in the picture with an expressionless mask, then it creates a distance in me. I find that some poses make the faces stiffen. I am not against Poses when they are done in detail right up to the eyes.
I often take additional pictures when I start writing my chapter based on the pictures I have. It could be some pictures of the exterior or another angle I'm missing. That's why I often save the game with a new name and number after the chapter. I always save the game right before a wedding or other important event because it allows me to exit the game without saving if something goes wrong. When I restart the game I don't have to repeat all the preparation, like inviting guests and setting up the stage. I only delete these extra Saves when I'm absolutely sure I'm done with it. Right now I think I have 126 Saves in my Sims4 Saves folder. Oops!
And you are spot on I used to do that pre-mods era, used to put emotion altering items around the house for certain scenes because these sims Cannot! Stop! Smiling like Cheshire cats about every small thing!
where did the idea of your story come from?
I think the earliest inspirations for Seventeen & Maldusk were some 1940-1950s radio detective shows and the cartoon Invader Zim. I cannot explain or justify the thought process that went from those two things to whatever it is that I ended up creating. I do remember that I wanted to do a story about a vampire detective who lives with an alien. So, I guess I'm still sort of on target. But I don't have a good reason as to why I wished to do that. My two main characters were actually supposed to just be test sims I created to try stuff out when I bought Get to Work, but I loved them so much I just ran with them. I like characters with a lot of personality contrast, and these two just endeared themselves to me right away.
There are a few scenes early on that were gameplay inspired, and one major character/world building development that was completely born out of the sim obsession with their phones. But pretty much everything else has been meticulously planned. I usually write first and then get the screenshots. But that doesn't mean that I overall have a plan. I have no idea where this story is really going. Until I actually have to post it, everything from the scenes, to the order of the chapters, to the overall plot is in flux. I don't write stuff in the order it gets read in
Basically the founder and her husband, were based on my mixed Chinese-Canadian cousin dating a guy from India (they have broken up now). The plotline in Gen 2 was from a weird plotline I would play with my little People toys. I blame too much reading Nancy Drew or a Canadian Mysteries series for it. But I do get some inspiration from songs, and such or I think I found a cute/workable pose that might work for my story.
At the moment its basically stuff I have done before-but after I get the eldest two daughters (and Main characters) of Gen 7 married, I'm going to be at ground 0 because I have no idea where to go after that because I haven't ever gotten that far ever. I know there will be a chapter for their honeymoon and them having kiddos-and I might have an interlude for tadah -infants but other then that don't know.
I most of the time take screenshorts before writing it out but to help me think at the moment I'm trying to write the chapter first before "filming" to help with slumps I get.