The Art of Sims Storytelling «1…979899100101102103…112...Next Go

SnowBnuuy

@RandomMicrowaveTM Welcome!

For those with a more story-driven approach, do you try to work everything out thoroughly before writing, do you prefer to wing it and see where it goes, or are you somewhere in between?

I try to work out where everything is going most of the time nowadays. I have a word document with a table and boxes with plans for story arcs, rough ideas, and then full chapter plans. It's not the neatest thing in the world but it works!

GlacierSnow

@RandomMicrowaveTM and @HeyJewel Welcome to the storytellers' thread! This was the group that helped me feel confident enough to start sharing my story, so I think this is a great group of people here.

for those with a more story-driven approach, do you try to draft out everything extensively before writing, do you prefer to wing it and see where it goes, or are you somewhere in-between?

Excellent question! My writing method is as follows:

-Come up with a vague idea for a couple characters I like
-Wing-it for a while
-Have a cool idea and start planning
-Ditch plan and wing-it
-Come up with a new plan
-Come up with several plans
-Try to incorporate ALL the plans
-Realize this is not possible
-Have a writers' crisis
-Choose a few plans and rewrite everything to fit them
-Do a lot of planning
-And rewriting
-Cover living room wall with post-notes about plan
-Create spreadsheets and fill up notebooks with plan
-Do lengthy, late night, brainstorming sessions with spouse and come up with a dozen NEW plans
-Ditch some of the plans, come up with more new plans, rewrite existing chapters to fit plans (again)
-Maybe wing-it anyway
-Or not
-Repeat steps of process in any random order that seems to be working at the moment

_sims_Yimi

@RandomMicrowaveTM and @HeyJewel welcome to the thread! I don't have much to add as most has been said already, but it's always fun to greet new faces. There's a bunch of great writers on here, so don't be shy to ask whatever questions come to mind! We love a good discussion 😊

Kellogg_J_Kellogg

RandomMicrowaveTM wrote: »

for those with a more story-driven approach, do you try to draft out everything extensively before writing, do you prefer to wing it and see where it goes, or are you somewhere in-between?

My story is more of a soap opera rather than a short story or novel or something that has a planned ending. I have multiple main characters and the story chapters switch between them. As a result I have developed a writing style to suit this format. I choose a character to follow, establish where they are at the start of the chapter, what plot hooks are there already and then work out where I want them to be at the end of the chapter to progress their plotline. Then I play it out in the game but noticing what else is going on because no advanced plot idea of mine survives intact after contact with the game engine. Someone random often pops up and that can affect the story so I think on my feet and as the chapter progresses I think of story and dialogue ideas.

SirianaSims

RandomMicrowaveTM wrote: »

for those with a more story-driven approach, do you try to draft out everything extensively before writing, do you prefer to wing it and see where it goes, or are you somewhere in-between?

Interesting question! For the first generation of The Duchelli Legacy I was just winging it, since I was playing a legacy challenge and just commenting on what happened, following whatever interesting storylines popped up. But then actual plot started sneaking in, and I ended up dropping the legacy rules and writing it as a simlit.

Currently, each chapter of the Duchelli Legacy gets like 90 % drafted out before I even take the pictures. I have detailed plans for the themes and storylines for every generation and I also have an overarching plot for all 12 generations so I generally know what will happen and I often write future scenes down and keep them in my notes for when I get there.

I usually finish writing 1-2 chapters before I go into the game to pose and take pictures, but sometimes I let a bit of time pass or take random screenshots of things that look interesting, and I may add that to the story if it fits. I might also have to shoot a scene differently from how I originally wrote it due to game or pose limitations and then I'll rewrite to fit the pictures I got.

DaniRose2143

@HeyJewel welcome to the forums, and welcome to the storytellers thread to you and @RandomMicrowaveTM who I met in the other storytelling thread.

for those with a more story-driven approach, do you try to draft out everything extensively before writing, do you prefer to wing it and see where it goes, or are you somewhere in-between?

I would say both of my stories are in the 'somewhere in-between' category but leaning towards being drafted out. I have a solid idea of the major storylines and themes when I start the story, but I'm open to twists and turns that the gameplay provides. I usually know as I'm finishing up one chapter what the next two or even three or four chapters will be about but I don't start writing them ahead of time. I write each chapter in the moment while think ahead to where I feel like the current storyline is headed. I keep a huge notebook next to me that I will jot down ideas as they come to me or little details that I need for reference and maintaining continuity. For example the main character in Under The Tartosan Sun is a novelist, so when I have her write a new book I make a note of the title so I can use it later. The same thing goes for her wife who is an actress, I make notes about the titles of the acting gigs I dream up for her.

My style, writing then taking pictures to support the dialogue or vice versa, is fluid. I let my muse tell me which to way to put that chapter together. With Under The Tartosan Sun I started out taking pictures and then writing text to fit, but so much of what my characters do for careers is acted out because those careers in game are rabbit holes. I don't want to just talk about what happened, I want to show my readers what happened. Then the game started having couples propose autonomously which I love, but, since that story is a RomCom I can't have proposals and not show them so I started going back and acting out how I felt the proposal happened and the events leading up to it. Those two things led to me scripting and acting out everything now. I'm nearing a point in that story where I want to let the gameplay start driving more of the storylines. All three of the couples that comprise the main cast are now married or soon will be, so families aren't far behind and the little ones are great for spontaneity.

RandomMicrowaveTM

haha wow, i didn't expect my silly little question to get so many good answers! some of these are also really insightful, it's so intriguing seeing how other authors go about drafting their stories, especially in tandem with an active game world!

i especially resonate with those of you that said you sometimes add the things your sims do autonomously to your stories. although i like having a detailed script for my story to follow, i agree that sometimes letting the sims themselves contribute can do some interesting things for the story that you might not have even thought of! sometimes it's that little added bit of improvisation that helps make the story feel complete...

SnowBnuuy

When the story recap is probably going to be the same text length as the actual story...Why am I like this ;-; Brevity does not exist for me, there's no such thing ;-;

DaniRose2143

@SnowBnuuy I've made peace with the fact that brevity and I will never be anything more than a one-night stand. Possibly FWB's but I'm not holding my breath.🙂

Lucy_Henley

So now I’ve got two story ideas in my head, the “re-do” of my old Parker Saga story, and another one which would feature a royal family. I feel like I’d probably start on the royal family story first, as it’d be good to start totally afresh rather than jump right into a story with characters I’d already played with before. I’ve been drafting out some of the early chapters and everything.

_sims_Yimi

@Lucy_Henley Oooh, a royal family? Are you basing it on a challenge, or a story that stands on its own? Either way it sounds exciting!

Lucy_Henley

@_sims_Yimi It’d be its own thing. It would definitely be fun… all the ups and downs of family life, with the added outside pressure of being royal, and all that entails. Most royal family stories I’ve seen are Simblrs and very picture-based, with posts being mainly about “look at what the royals have been doing/here is Princess Mary on her first day of school/look Prince Henry is engaged to longtime girlfriend Louise Brooke” sort of thing, like the kinds of things glossy magazines write about. Some have more of a story to them, although blogs are very different to Simblrs.

Lucy_Henley

Sometimes I find myself wanting to reference a real-world song/book/TV show etc when writing my stories. Would that be weird? I know people sometimes set their stories in a real-world location, but my stories are always set within the Sims universe, e.g. my royal family are going to be based in Windenburg rather than a real-world place like London. So would it be strange to reference 'real-world' pop culture, or should I stick to Sims-world books/films/etc? Or maybe a mix of both?

DaniRose2143

I do a mix with both of my stories, but I lean more towards fictional names. The majority of my references to the real world are songs and food. Occasionally I use tv shows, celebrities, or places.

GlacierSnow

I mostly stick to made up stuff and Sim-spoof names, but will sometimes reference real world culture names, like "Dracula" etc.

RandomMicrowaveTM

@Lucy_Henley well first and foremost it's up to you and how much you want your story to stay in the sims universe. otherwise, i guess it depends on the reference.

if it's an allusion that's meant to enhance the narrative, absolutely go for it! if it's not, like i said, it's up to you whether you want real-world references or not. either way, i don't think most readers will mind /too/ much. ^^

Lucy_Henley

It probably won’t happen many times. It’s a reference to a real-world song. Songs are interesting because there are plenty of Simlish covers of real-life songs, but the song I have in mind doesn’t have a Simlish version.

RandomMicrowaveTM

you know, the more i work on my story, the more i wonder about this one question i have had yet to ask. has anybody here found or even written any simlit that also happened to be fanfic? not asking for any particular reason, it's not like that's precisely what i'm writing or anything 👀

HermioneSims

RandomMicrowaveTM wrote: »

you know, the more i work on my story, the more i wonder about this one question i have had yet to ask. has anybody here found or even written any simlit that also happened to be fanfic? not asking for any particular reason, it's not like that's precisely what i'm writing or anything 👀

Actually... I feel quite involved in this question. My first long story, still made with TS2, was all set in the Harry Potter universe, and also now I'm seriously thinking to revamp it in TS4 as my next story. All the characters were invented by me, but the setting was very much like fanfic to be honest.
I don't see fanfictions with the sims as intrinsically bad anyway, they can be good or bad just like any other kind of story...

Kellogg_J_Kellogg

Mine isn't fanfic, but I do put a few homages to films and TV programmes into it.

DeidreMahariel

Hi everyone! I introduced myself in the main introduction thread, but I'd thought I'd stop in here and say hi as well, seeing as my main motivation for joining the forum is to get back into reading and writing SimLit!

As someone who was very serious about writing in my teens and early 20's, but stepped away from it as depression and adulthood got in the way, I feel like I've struggled to regain my "voice" anytime I do sit down and attempt to write a thing. Recently I started playing the Sims 4 again, and even though it isn't my favorite iteration of the game (TS2 will forever be my true love,) it's reeeeally triggered that itch to create a story to go along with the Sims I'm creating. It's honestly been refreshing to use the game as a low-pressure medium to play around with some world building, write some character bios, take a few screenshots and come up with scenes to go along with them, and just let go of needing every syntax decision to be perfect or to plan too far ahead.

I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of SimLit to read here, but I'm looking forward to snooping around and gradually showing my appreciation to all you lovely writers who have kept this community going!

SnowBnuuy

I never thought about combining Sims with fanfic. I guess in a sense SimLit could be considered fanfic in itself, but on a slightly related note I do use a lot of objects from other games for build/buy and clothes, and there’s plenty of homages to my favourite games and a few little references to films and such.

@DeidreMahariel Welcome! For me SimLit is more or less the only thing keeping me semi-sane XD Hope you find something you like, there’s plenty of fun stories and challenges and plenty of different writers and styles so I’m sure you’ll find something you like! We all made some recommendations in the Writers’ Lounge recently to another newcomer so might be worth checking those out.

DeidreMahariel

@SnowBnuuy Thank you so much! The Writer's Lounge was a bit further down in the page, so I didn't notice it at first -- I'll definitely take a look! I've got my eye on a handful of titles already (including yours ^^), so now it's just a matter of finding time to read.

DaniRose2143

@DeidreMahariel Welcome! I know what it’s like to deal with depression. Getting into SimLit really helped me. Both the creative process and the bond I’ve made with some of my characters is what made the most difference in healing. I hope you find the same catharsis in it this time around. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

_sims_Yimi

Welcome @DeidreMahariel ! Happy to have you 😄 I can relate to feeling inspiration from playing the sims after a long writing break. I used to write simlit for TS3, then had a very long period of nothing. It can be daunting to find your writing voice again after not using it for so long. I have no doubt that you’ll find it again in due time, though 😊 in the meantime, enjoy the journey! And do let us know when you start posting things 😁