Yes, they were a lot of fun to play too. Also, for them both was the first time they saw snow (growing up without winter snow, I struggle to even imagine that!), so they really couldn't miss it!
As for the baby on the way, I admit that if this wasn't a legacy I could have made different choices for them. In this format, anyway, that's hard to avoid. That will surely be a big change for them, in any case, we'll see in the next few chapters what will happen more in detail...
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.21 posted on the 4th of May 2024*
It's good to see Eva and Caleb again. They seem to be doing all right. Juno and Iris' friendship is a delight.
Wow. That smog has gotten really bad there. I'm glad they were able to go to Sulani for a bit.
And now the little baby is born! Gaia is a really well chosen name. But, oh, her little frown in the last picture is just too adorable. She looks like she's already ready to get out and start doing things.
Thanks a lot for your comment @GlacierSnow , as always!
Eva and Caleb for sure grew a lot already, and they seem quite serene siblings, yup!
And Iris is clearly becoming a close friend to Juno too. With her it's either "being good friends" or "not really getting along" without much in between, so it was quite nice to see them actually being good friends!
The last picture instead is as The Sims as it can get, I always have a lot of fun with that animation too XD As for the name choice instead, Gaia has been actually quite popular around my place in the last 20 years or so, in particular among parents with Rowan and Juno's interests, so I couldn't miss it!
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.21 posted on the 4th of May 2024*
Jumping straight to the plot development at the end of 8.18...
Okay, backing up the earlier stuff. Little Gaia is adorable, but also quite a handful. I definitely feel for her exhausted parents. It's a lot to take care of with a kid and two very intense work-heavy careers. Nice that they got their new house though.
But the end of the last chapter. I'm very worried about both of them now.
I know, this part is very tough... It would actually be very tempting to write a story where everything is always perfect, but stories also need some drama to go on. This is definitively a different kind of drama than that shown in the previous generations though, there are definitively a lot of possible solutions to this nasty situation. I can't say much more because the next few chapters will clearly focus a lot on what is currently going on, there is definitively a lot to address right now
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.21 posted on the 4th of May 2024*
Just so you know, when I say "I'm worried about the characters" you should translate that as "This story is so GOOD!!!". I love the drama. And I love how every generation in your story is dealing with something different.
I've been binging this legacy for like 2 days now. Very much been enjoying it!! Toward the end of gen 7 now, and man just all the things these poor people have gone through.
I love that there is so much going on in the wider world, plus the general family shenanigans. It's so fun to see how they blend together.
(It's half made me want to try doing a SimLit story lol.)
Finished reading through the legacy! Lemme talk about it! :smiley:
So I don't know if I can say I have a favorite Gen, but Cass and Venus and then Sirio were so fun to watch play out. That particular couple gens were a big shakeup to the world at large and it was great. But also I have to shout out to Luke. He was just such an old man, even as a teen. It was great.
I wanted to gush more but I have realized I don't know how to spoiler on this forum, so I shall hold off. But very enjoyable legacy story!! I have to make sure to keep an eye out for the next chapter.
Also, what I meant with my previous comment, is mostly that writing chapters like the last one is often tough for me as the writer, in part because I feel sorry for my characters, and in part also because (in particular with a first-person narrator!) I really need to empathize with my sims, to be in their heads basically, and when really bad stuff happens to them I feel upset too, even for a few days sometimes. Tough Simlit writer life!
And a super thank you for your comment @GreatlyBlessed ! It's always so flattering for me when someone manages to catch up with so many chapters all at once, I'm really impressed! And I'm also very glad you are liking the story too, of course!
You're also naming many of my favourite characters in this legacy too, those generations really were very sci-fi in comparison with the last few ones XD
Anyway, if you want to try to write some SimLit, I think you should definitely try! It doesn't need to be a super-long project like a legacy, there are really all kinds of stories around! I just suggest you to consider the fact that this current forum is supposed to close down in July, and all the posts we are making from now on will be lost (more info here). Thus, it is not currently wise to post a story directly on this forum.
Also, it's totally normal that you can't use the spoiler tag now, new forum members have limited access to many functions. There is a short summary here and in other tutorials around the forum, long story short you need a certain number of posts (probably 30) and some likes to your posts before you're promoted to "member", and at that point you can use spoiler tags, quote others, add pictures to your posts, edit a signature etc...
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.21 posted on the 4th of May 2024*
Ah I'd seen things about being limited because I'm a new member, didn't realize that spoilers were also part of that!
Yeah I also can't post a new thread because of the new member thing too. Ah well. I'm pretty inconsistent in if I even play sims so for now I'll just play my game and stock up screenshots.
Ah I'd seen things about being limited because I'm a new member, didn't realize that spoilers were also part of that!
Yeah I also can't post a new thread because of the new member thing too. Ah well. I'm pretty inconsistent in if I even play sims so for now I'll just play my game and stock up screenshots.
Looking forwards to the next update! Thanks!
@GreatlyBlessed, Hello and welcome to the forums... You will need 25 points, 15 posts and an account older than 24 hours to be able to do the stuff that HermioneSims has listed. But I will tell you that once you do become a full member and start creating new threads and such, you might want to have backup copies of those updates as we will be losing this site come July of this year as we are moving to a new site as this one is quite old now and can become unstable at times. Some of the threads from this site have been saved and migrated over to the new site but anything that has been or will be posted in these threads will be lost to the abyss once we switch over to the new site which is why it's been suggested by the community managers to make backup copies of any stories and updates you have for your game providing that you want them over on the new site...
I get what you mean about it being tough to write about bad stuff happening to the characters! They are real people in our own heads.
Weirdly, for me the biggest difficulty is less that it's hard to let the characters suffer, and more that I worry people will think I'm a bad person for letting them suffer. Which makes no sense, of course, because typically it's the bad stuff that makes a story good. I made that comment about what my comment meant, because when it comes to comments on my own story, I actually have a hard time telling if readers' "negative" emotional responses (like feeling angry at a character, or worried about a character) are meant as "this story is great, I love the drama" or "you terrible person, how could you do this". I've learned I have to show the comments to my husband and be told "this is probably a compliment, not a complaint" before responding. So I just wanted to make it clear, I love your story.
I understand, and I think that's quite common among people writing stories too!
This time with the Millers I'm really struggling with the "suffering with them part", way more than with my previous stories, and I think that this is both because I'm literally following them all along their lives, and because I'm writing the story in first person (so the story includes many paragraphs in which the characters are describing very in details what they are feeling and thinking). In my previous stories instead I usually had in mind a plot well before I really got to know the characters, actually many characteristics of those characters were made to match with the plot I had in mind too, and in that way it was so much easier to just go with the weirdest plots (regardless of all the suffering that would bring to the characters!)
As for the readers' reactions part instead, I think that (at least for me) the best outcome is to see the reaction I was expecting from a certain scene or characters, and that reaction can either be positive or negative of course. For instance, if after my last chapter I read a comment like: "How nice, I'm so happy for them!" (extreme example, I know) I would have been really puzzled! I actually had a few episodes like that in the past (and I was writing in my language, and not in my messy English!), basically I was posting scenes that to me were meant to be impactful, sad or maddening, and the comment I received were like: "Oh, whatever", or "I'm glad for them!", or even: "At least they got a partner, it's a happy day for them!". In those cases I always ended up staring to my screen, wondering: "Did we even read the same text?" 😅
And thanks for the last comment too! I really like your story too, I can't wait to see them all back (and understand what the 🐸 happened to Tre! )
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.21 posted on the 4th of May 2024*
As for the readers' reactions part instead, I think that (at least for me) the best outcome is to see the reaction I was expecting from a certain scene or characters, and that reaction can either be positive or negative of course. For instance, if after my last chapter I read a comment like: "How nice, I'm so happy for them!" (extreme example, I know) I would have been really puzzled! I actually had a few episodes like that in the past (and I was writing in my language, and not in my messy English!), basically I was posting scenes that to me were meant to be impactful, sad or maddening, and the comment I received were like: "Oh, whatever", or "I'm glad for them!", or even: "At least they got a partner, it's a happy day for them!". In those cases I always ended up staring to my screen, wondering: "Did we even read the same text?" 😅
This! I feel the same way. If the emotions are the ones I was expecting, I feel like I wrote the scene/chapter/character well. But there have definitely been some responses (especially to characters and their behaviors) that were different than I was anticipating (and way different than what I was intending), and it's really thrown me. I know, logically, that different people have different perspectives, ways of thinking, values, experiences etc. that will influence how they interpret things. But, emotionally, it makes me question whether I am even a good writer at all.
On the flip side of that, as a reader, when my primary response to a chapter is a strong emotion, I often have a very hard time thinking of any comment to make. Feelings can be extremely hard to express in words. So sometimes I make some pretty irrelevant or weird comments myself, focusing on the one detail that is easy to comment on instead of the main point. And, because of my own life experiences and preferences, I have definitely had reactions to things in stories that were different than what was probably intended. So, logically, I totally get why it happens with my story. But emotions are not logical, so knowing that doesn't really change anything. I still get flustered and anxious anyway. So the occasional straight reassurance of "I like the story" helps a lot. I figure, if it helps me, it probably helps other writers too. Which is why when I do express an emotional reaction (especially a negative emotion) to something in the story, I often add something about why I love it. To separate the me that is wrapped up in the feelings of the characters from the me that is thoroughly enjoying an excellent story.
Your story is really cool because every generation you've both built on stuff from the previous generations in the world at large, but you completely switch to a new personality and point of view. So every generation brings up entirely new problems, sometimes things that one of the past characters would have handled completely differently. It's remarkable how well you do this.
I see how the interpretation of characters can be particularly different among people. I mean, even IRL people tend to judge the same event in very different ways, why should it be different in fiction? Also, in my story that is quite text-heavy I can take the lazy route and write down very explicitly a lot of the main points I'd like the readers to notice, while in your comic-style story a lot more is probably left to the interpretation of the reader (for instance when the point you're trying to make is a detail in a picture, an expression, a specific choice of words in a speech bubble... ). Then, so that stuff is left to the readers interpretation instead of being written explicitly down, I can totally see why the comments you're receiving are probably very varied. To be clear, I like a lot your style and I think I'm following the story well, but for sure I wouldn't be able to use that same format (I need to write a lot! :P )
As for the comments instead, I primarily tend to think that they are not supposed to be stressful! Having feedback is always nice, but I don't want my readers to spend a lot of their precious time just to write down a complete analysis of their reaction! Also because I relate a lot to the difficulty of describing certain stuff on the fly, I often write very shallow comments for that very reason.
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.21 posted on the 4th of May 2024*
The pictures definitely leave a lot more open to interpretation than the text does! So I think you're right about the format I chose inevitably inviting a lot more varied reactions. And sometimes, I think I'm being super obvious about something and it turns out I was being way too subtle. Other times there is a detail I don't think anyone is going to notice, and literally every single person comments on it. It can be quite amusing to see what people notice and what they don't. I think I'm getting used to it all. It's been a lot of fun.
I've learned a lot about how to interact with readers by observing how other writers (like you and others I read) do it. It's always helpful to me to have some role-models for social stuff. And I have enjoyed your comments on SAM this whole first season. Thank you for your encouragement.
Sorry for derailing your thread. Didn't mean to turn this into a whole conversation that probably really belonged over on the Art of Simlit. But it's comforting to hear other writers say they experience some of the same stuff.
Eagerly awaiting the next installment! I need to know what happens with Rowan and Juno.
@GlacierSnow@HermioneSims Oh dear!
To clarify, every time I have ever said "Nooooooooo!!!" in response to any of your chapters
(while I'm at it, this goes for @Ellupelluellu@_sims_Yimi and everyone else I read regularly)
it should be translated as "I am super invested in this story because it's great! Here follows my feelings about what the characters are going through!"
Comments
This may be another point in the story where I felt like I was running out of time. Just a little bit.
I love how these two can go back and forth between silliness (like a snowball fight) and seriousness. They are a lot of fun as a couple.
Sounds like Juno's fund raising efforts were successful. Hopefully that does some good.
And a baby on the way! I wasn't sure about that with these two. But I actually think they'll probably make pretty good parents.
As for the baby on the way, I admit that if this wasn't a legacy I could have made different choices for them. In this format, anyway, that's hard to avoid. That will surely be a big change for them, in any case, we'll see in the next few chapters what will happen more in detail...
This really is a quite typical chapter for a legacy. As much as the Miller's can be typical, anyway.
It's good to see Eva and Caleb again. They seem to be doing all right. Juno and Iris' friendship is a delight.
Wow. That smog has gotten really bad there. I'm glad they were able to go to Sulani for a bit.
And now the little baby is born! Gaia is a really well chosen name. But, oh, her little frown in the last picture is just too adorable. She looks like she's already ready to get out and start doing things.
And Iris is clearly becoming a close friend to Juno too. With her it's either "being good friends" or "not really getting along" without much in between, so it was quite nice to see them actually being good friends!
The last picture instead is as The Sims as it can get, I always have a lot of fun with that animation too XD As for the name choice instead, Gaia has been actually quite popular around my place in the last 20 years or so, in particular among parents with Rowan and Juno's interests, so I couldn't miss it!
In this chapter, I felt tired for them, ouch!
This part is really making me feel stressed too, maybe I'm a bit too harsh sometimes...
This part of Rowan's arc is all about learning about feelings, and if he can learn in time, he'll be a better dad too...
Jumping straight to the plot development at the end of 8.18...
Okay, backing up the earlier stuff. Little Gaia is adorable, but also quite a handful. I definitely feel for her exhausted parents. It's a lot to take care of with a kid and two very intense work-heavy careers. Nice that they got their new house though.
But the end of the last chapter. I'm very worried about both of them now.
Just so you know, when I say "I'm worried about the characters" you should translate that as "This story is so GOOD!!!". I love the drama. And I love how every generation in your story is dealing with something different.
This!! me too
I love that there is so much going on in the wider world, plus the general family shenanigans. It's so fun to see how they blend together.
(It's half made me want to try doing a SimLit story lol.)
So I don't know if I can say I have a favorite Gen, but Cass and Venus and then Sirio were so fun to watch play out. That particular couple gens were a big shakeup to the world at large and it was great.
But also I have to shout out to Luke. He was just such an old man, even as a teen. It was great.
I wanted to gush more but I have realized I don't know how to spoiler on this forum, so I shall hold off. But very enjoyable legacy story!! I have to make sure to keep an eye out for the next chapter.
And a super thank you for your comment @GreatlyBlessed ! It's always so flattering for me when someone manages to catch up with so many chapters all at once, I'm really impressed! And I'm also very glad you are liking the story too, of course!
You're also naming many of my favourite characters in this legacy too, those generations really were very sci-fi in comparison with the last few ones XD
Anyway, if you want to try to write some SimLit, I think you should definitely try! It doesn't need to be a super-long project like a legacy, there are really all kinds of stories around! I just suggest you to consider the fact that this current forum is supposed to close down in July, and all the posts we are making from now on will be lost (more info here). Thus, it is not currently wise to post a story directly on this forum.
Also, it's totally normal that you can't use the spoiler tag now, new forum members have limited access to many functions. There is a short summary here and in other tutorials around the forum, long story short you need a certain number of posts (probably 30) and some likes to your posts before you're promoted to "member", and at that point you can use spoiler tags, quote others, add pictures to your posts, edit a signature etc...
Yeah I also can't post a new thread because of the new member thing too. Ah well. I'm pretty inconsistent in if I even play sims so for now I'll just play my game and stock up screenshots.
Looking forwards to the next update! Thanks!
@GreatlyBlessed, Hello and welcome to the forums...
http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=lisasc360
My stories on this site:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/991317/my-sims-stories/p1?new=1
I get what you mean about it being tough to write about bad stuff happening to the characters! They are real people in our own heads.
Weirdly, for me the biggest difficulty is less that it's hard to let the characters suffer, and more that I worry people will think I'm a bad person for letting them suffer.
This time with the Millers I'm really struggling with the "suffering with them part", way more than with my previous stories, and I think that this is both because I'm literally following them all along their lives, and because I'm writing the story in first person (so the story includes many paragraphs in which the characters are describing very in details what they are feeling and thinking). In my previous stories instead I usually had in mind a plot well before I really got to know the characters, actually many characteristics of those characters were made to match with the plot I had in mind too, and in that way it was so much easier to just go with the weirdest plots (regardless of all the suffering that would bring to the characters!)
As for the readers' reactions part instead, I think that (at least for me) the best outcome is to see the reaction I was expecting from a certain scene or characters, and that reaction can either be positive or negative of course. For instance, if after my last chapter I read a comment like: "How nice, I'm so happy for them!" (extreme example, I know) I would have been really puzzled! I actually had a few episodes like that in the past (and I was writing in my language, and not in my messy English!), basically I was posting scenes that to me were meant to be impactful, sad or maddening, and the comment I received were like: "Oh, whatever", or "I'm glad for them!", or even: "At least they got a partner, it's a happy day for them!". In those cases I always ended up staring to my screen, wondering: "Did we even read the same text?" 😅
And thanks for the last comment too! I really like your story too, I can't wait to see them all back (and understand what the 🐸 happened to Tre! )
This! I feel the same way. If the emotions are the ones I was expecting, I feel like I wrote the scene/chapter/character well. But there have definitely been some responses (especially to characters and their behaviors) that were different than I was anticipating (and way different than what I was intending), and it's really thrown me.
On the flip side of that, as a reader, when my primary response to a chapter is a strong emotion, I often have a very hard time thinking of any comment to make. Feelings can be extremely hard to express in words. So sometimes I make some pretty irrelevant or weird comments myself, focusing on the one detail that is easy to comment on instead of the main point. And, because of my own life experiences and preferences, I have definitely had reactions to things in stories that were different than what was probably intended. So, logically, I totally get why it happens with my story. But emotions are not logical, so knowing that doesn't really change anything. I still get flustered and anxious anyway.
Your story is really cool because every generation you've both built on stuff from the previous generations in the world at large, but you completely switch to a new personality and point of view. So every generation brings up entirely new problems, sometimes things that one of the past characters would have handled completely differently. It's remarkable how well you do this.
As for the comments instead, I primarily tend to think that they are not supposed to be stressful! Having feedback is always nice, but I don't want my readers to spend a lot of their precious time just to write down a complete analysis of their reaction! Also because I relate a lot to the difficulty of describing certain stuff on the fly, I often write very shallow comments for that very reason.
The pictures definitely leave a lot more open to interpretation than the text does! So I think you're right about the format I chose inevitably inviting a lot more varied reactions. And sometimes, I think I'm being super obvious about something and it turns out I was being way too subtle.
I've learned a lot about how to interact with readers by observing how other writers (like you and others I read) do it. It's always helpful to me to have some role-models for social stuff. And I have enjoyed your comments on SAM this whole first season. Thank you for your encouragement.
Sorry for derailing your thread.
Eagerly awaiting the next installment! I need to know what happens with Rowan and Juno.
To clarify, every time I have ever said "Nooooooooo!!!" in response to any of your chapters
(while I'm at it, this goes for @Ellupelluellu @_sims_Yimi and everyone else I read regularly)
it should be translated as "I am super invested in this story because it's great! Here follows my feelings about what the characters are going through!"