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Post by GlacierSnow on Aug 10, 2024 20:21:51 GMT
Oooo, this is interesting HermioneSims, because I tend to forget that a lot of sims writers are playing the game and then writing chapters based on game play. I'm usually planning my chapters in advance, including what screenshots I need and all the narrative and dialogue, so I make a lot of length decisions while I'm doing that before I even start up the game. I can see why it might feel like you want to put everything that happened in the last session into one chapter though. I have tried writing more game play based simlit in the past. And I think it helps, like you say, to pay attention to how many different topics or scenes are in the chapter. I think having a lot of different topics in one chapter can make the chapter feel longer than it is. So that may be a good guideline for deciding if it should be more than one chapter or not. MonaSolstraale Your chapters so far have all been loading quickly for me, and they don't feel overly long. You have a lot of pictures, but not a lot of text, so it doesn't take much time to read them. But I think if you are planning to make chapters that are a lot longer than those, breaking them into more chapters would probably be good. It's also often easier for me to comment on a chapter when only a few things happen than when a whole bunch of things happen. When the chapter is more focused (fewer events or updates on fewer characters) I often have more meaningful thoughts about it. When the chapter has lots of scenes and updates on lots of characters all in one chapter, I still enjoy reading it, but find it harder to think deeply about it and don't have as much to say. I don't know if anyone else feels that way, though. Just something else to consider.
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Post by GlacierSnow on Aug 10, 2024 20:26:39 GMT
What aspects of simlit creation do you most enjoy?Two things spring to mind...getting an interesting idea and running with it. When the creative juices start to flow, it's exhilarating. The other is the CAS makeovers. As my story is set in the 1960s every character and townie has to have the right period look. That's a lot of fun to do. What aspects of simlit creation do you most commonly find yourself frustrated by?Finding time to write and the grind when the creativity isn't flowing. what is something you've previously learned about your writing process that's had a positive impact on your writing moving forwards?Re-reading my story from the beginning I've noticed how I've moved from very simplistic storytelling to writing fast paced dialogue. Some people are good at writing long stretches of prose but my preferred method is to show the characters when they're interacting with other characters. Welcome kelloggjkellogg! Sorry, I think you were posting your comment while I was still composing mine.
I like your answers. A lot of that feels very familiar to me. I also like creating the right looks for all my characters, even if they're just going to be in the background. And I prefer writing dialogue over descriptive prose as well. It's one of the reasons I've found I like using pictures to do a lot of the storytelling.
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Post by MonaSolstraale on Aug 10, 2024 22:45:16 GMT
HermioneSims Thank you for your reply. My process is always that I select images. Then I do the first rough sorting when I upload them to Imgur. The next sorting happens as I read the images into the story. The extra characters in the story mean that the chapters will be longer. I would like to include what takes place in the same time interval in one chapter. I certainly don't imagine I'll make a chapter twice as long, but for a long time my goal was 200 images at most. I have long since exceeded that. Now it's probably closer to 300. I get new ideas all the time, it blows the limits of the chapters I've already planned. I have often selected Header images as a kind of guideline to follow and the worst is when I put the transition on the image in advance. (I have done this several times because it gives me a kind of visual script.). When I have to split a chapter in two, I have to change the number and text of the Header images several times. π
I am relieved to hear that the loading of images is still reasonably on time. The number of words probably won't be a problem for me. GlacierSnow Thank you for your reply. I myself have thought that when there are too many scenes in my chapters, they become harder to comment on. It is something I will take into consideration, although I love the ping pong that occurs when I jump between several characters. When I can use contrast to draw a character more clearly so to speak. Your reply to HermioneSims made me think that my Story is always a mix of pre-planned script and gameplay. I like to seize a random situation in the game and let it inspire me to compose the next action. This is actually how all my couples are formed and it is my bad research that led Rasmus to have a stepson with Izumi. Something I would not have opted out of today. There are actually a lot of situations that I have not planned in advance and which mean that the fifty chapters I had planned were changed to a hundred. A framework I now also have to see myself crossing...because I still have a goal I'm aiming for. π
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Post by GlacierSnow on Aug 11, 2024 10:41:08 GMT
MonaSolstraaleI love this too. I'm definitely not suggesting that you limit chapters to just one POV. I love your story just the way it is. But if you are considering splitting a chapter because it seems long to you, general themes might be one way to think of how/where to make the split.
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Post by EvilBnuuy on Aug 11, 2024 20:43:43 GMT
HermioneSims - Agree with practically all of your points, ESPECIALLY considering motivation, not finding the right CC, and finding the time. With work, home, and mental health I have been too tired to write for a while, and I think also at this point I've been writing SimLit and playing this game religiously for so long now, since 2019, that I just want it to be over with...but I refuse to do it before I finish my darn story. lizzielilyy As for save file errors, I worry about this. I very rarely update this mess of a game unless I have to or unless a feature I like is introduced into the base game (I haven't bought any packs since Werewolves, so I don't need to update for packs). I have about six backups of my saves and CC, all of which are on a hard drive. The rest is hopes and prayers to the Watcher MonaSolstraale - I would say continue as you're doing. I find it quite difficult on how to split up chapters and events. I try to sometimes have a unifying event between each character's POV and situation, but sometimes this isn't the case and I just go for it. Okay, my turn to finally answer questions (ANSWERS BELOW) What aspects of simlit creation do you most enjoy?- The positive attention. There, I said it Who doesn't like people enjoying their stuff and dropping a comment or a Like? That's the other benefit to this forum, actually. If you don't have something to say you know who's Liking chapters as opposed to the faceless ones on the forum, so less pressure for readers who don't always know what to say or have time but still want to show themselves as 'Hey, I like the thing you're making'. - Characters. I tend to focus more on characters than the actual plot since they're the stars of the show, and it's rare for me to not like one of my own characters in terms of the way they're written, though I do have some issues with some of the topics I've dealt with surrounding some of the characters. - The wish-fulfillment. My fantasy fixation has lasted a strangely long time, and my story is a fun way of taking far too much inspiration from all the things I'm into, and dropping a bunch of references into them is always fun. A lot of people don't like having their work compared to other existing things, but when people figure out what I'm referencing, I love it. Quite a lot of things that happen in my story is mainly there for the Cool Factor. What aspects of simlit creation do you most commonly find yourself frustrated by?- PLOTS! I hate them! So much! This is the most in-depth plot-wise thing I have ever worked on and it's a nightmare. - I spend a lot of time umm-ing and ahh-ing about whether or not characters' actions and motivations make sense in the moment as well. - Not finding the right CC, or trying to shoot pictures so that nothing too modern appears in the screenshots. I've had to occasionally digi-paint out a streetlight. - Order of events is another one. I have so many characters at this point that they are hard to juggle. what is something you've previously learned about your writing process that's had a positive impact on your writing moving forwards?I've learned a little bit about how to plot stuff (not much I admit) and it's been a learning curve writing much more morally-grey characters than I used to in a way that works. A lot of the antagonists in my older works were straight up villainous, but the line between hero and villain is faint as best in this story Almost everyone in this story is a complete moral mess, but it's good fun. I think I've done a better job with the cast diversity this time around, since I admit in my older stories a lot of the marginalised characters were unintentionally sidelined, something I've aimed to avoid in this one.
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Post by kelloggjkellogg on Aug 11, 2024 20:48:25 GMT
Hey, hey...the Bnuuy is in the house! Hello EvilBnuuy
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Post by lizzielilyy on Aug 11, 2024 21:53:24 GMT
Hi everyone! Hope youβve had a lovely weekend. I disappeared off into my game and have come out with a fully shot and prepped Generation VIII. I still need to write chapters 5 onwards but Iβm just so glad I was able to finally sit down after six months of procrastinating. It took me the whole weekend just to capture the final chapters because of save file errors and crashing. I knew I was asking too much of the game but I knew what I wanted to capture and refused to give in π I spent 12 hours today just doing the final chapter.
Now I have a headache and am overheated but I did it π not sure if itβs joy or pain Iβm feeling right now or both π
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Post by MonaSolstraale on Aug 12, 2024 22:14:30 GMT
I have finally had time to think carefully about the questions asked by GlacierSnow and HermioneSims What aspects of simlit creation do you enjoy the most?There are several things I enjoy. I love to delve into the characters and imagine their inner and outer lives. I love when I rarely manage to create a plot that works. I enjoy burying little Easter eggs, even though they often go unnoticed. Just the thought of them existing feels satisfying. My stories are partially game-driven mixed with a pre-conceived script. I am often far ahead with the story in my game, in relation to the written story. It creates new unforeseen developments in the story. I take a lot of pictures while playing. Later, when the current chapter is written, I open the saved chapter in the game to be able to take supplementary pictures. I value that the body language of the characters is so close to the action I am describing. That their faces appear alive. It's a slow process, but I'm enjoying it. Even when it sometimes means I have to replay an entire chapter. As EvilBnuuy mentions, I really like getting comments on my chapters too. They can be very inspiring and add new oxygen to my creative process. The last thing I love is letting the sims take in-game photos to decorate their homes. I love making cc paintings etc. with Sims4Studio. This means that several of the paintings I have given away in my real life are still in my game. What aspects of simlit creation are you most frustrated with?What frustrates me the most is when expansions and new updates in the game take over. Like when Storyprogression made every older Sim in the game run around screaming in panic that they're about to die. (I'm older and hate seeing myself described as such a brain dead sterotype.) Another example is the neighborhood action plan that made all the Sims steal or do other compulsive actions. I deselect all types of action-controlling presets. They destroy my imagination. After I started using MCCC, I also paid some expensive tuition until I got a handle on my preferred settings. The other thing that frustrates me is when outside things disturb my concentration and prevent me from getting into flow. It's not a secret that I have found the recent Forum restructuring to be terribly disturbing. What is something you've learned in the past about your writing process that has had a positive impact on how you write going forward?I have an idea that I've gotten better at writing by writing. When I started Tusnelda and Trix it was very new for me to express myself in English. I can see that the first chapters are more fumbling in some places. I have also written episodes that I look back on later and think, why did I do it that way? All in all, however, I think that I should embrace my development as a gift and not with regret.
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Post by galacticgal on Aug 12, 2024 23:30:28 GMT
I'm actually a novelist who writes by flying by the seat of my pants! My first venture into actually writing about my Sims was when I decided to blog my Legacy Challenge, for Sims4. Then not wanting to let my writing skills go lax, I discovered the What Happened In Your Game Today? thread and off I went. I've had to restart my Erik Cantrell stories more times than I can count. For various reasons, from a plethora of problems, snags I ran into. Patches are not my friend. If it weren't for the fact I had backed up my entire Sims4 folder before one of them just a few years back, Erik would have been dead. The game was targeting him, sadly It was creepy to say the least. I rolled back a few times to understand just what caused him to go hysterical, and of course, it killed him. Someone kindly reminded me by asking if I had made a back up. I swapped save folders and Erik was allowed to continue on. This time around, I am structuring the story a bit more, so we'll see how I do. At any rate, thank you for this thread. Talking about writing is useful.
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Post by galacticgal on Aug 12, 2024 23:38:42 GMT
GlacierSnow My previous NEW Erik Cantrell story went off the rails. I zigged when I should have zagged so to speak. Then I got to thinking of things, in general. Things I should have done better. Then I realized it was time to go back to the beginning and try again from there. Now, I'm still playing the game and allowing that to mostly drive my story, but the parts about Brianna is derived from my published Star Trek Fanfiction. I have learned in my writing, to write dialogue down when it pops into my head, lest it gets lost to the ether! Came out of my bedroom this morning reciting it over and over in my head until I could use the small tablet on the bar to write it down. Of course I tore the page out of the book, and it confused my hubby. We use the tablet to write down things we need at the store. I just smiled and said, just jotting down some dialogue.
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Post by galacticgal on Aug 12, 2024 23:49:13 GMT
As for writing about what happened in my game, I do find myself studying the pictures I randomly took of moments I thought might be important. Then after it percolates in my head for a bit, I'll start writing it down. Somehow the idea or theme of the chapter jumps out at me, and I try to keep it in focus as I write. Sometimes better, sometimes not so successfully.
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Post by GlacierSnow on Aug 13, 2024 11:49:35 GMT
MonaSolstraale
This is something I really enjoy about writing simlit as well. I love putting things (details, sims, foreshadowing, entire irrelevant side scenes) into the background in my screenshots. I wouldn't bother doing this (or even really know how to) when writing a purely "words only" story, but with pictures, there is so much fun that can be had with planting these little Easter eggs. And not all of them are meant for my readers. Some are just there as jokes to amuse myself as I'm setting up the scene. For example in the party scene in the penthouse of a certain shady character in SAM, some of the party guests are gods and goddesses from my Greek Mythology save (I think it was Dionysus, Hermes, Aphrodite, and Zeus). Nothing to do with the story at all, and no one else would ever recognize those sims because I haven't shared them anywhere else. It just amused me to have them at the party.
That's such a great idea! I love it. It's never occurred to me to use my real life drawings as cc art in the game.
I feel the same way. Whenever a new feature is added, my first question always is "can I turn it off?" A lot of times I feel like the new systems would be fun to play with in a new save. But in my old saves, and in my story saves, I don't want my sims' behaviors suddenly changing in ways that don't fit who they are in my own mind. I want to use the game as an extension of my own imagination. I don't want it deciding things instead of me.
We all get better at writing by writing, whether it's our native language or not. I have the same feelings about my own writing. I look back at old stories, or even just earlier chapters of SAM and I think the same thing. Why did I do that? Like you, I also am trying to embrace my progress rather than regret my past skill level or choices. Your story is so much fun. It has turned out differently than I expected at the beginning, and I love it so much. As you've added characters and plot lines it just get deeper and richer. I think it works well how simple it began. We got to know Tusnelda well before we started meeting other characters whose lives would take on their own plots and themes. And in terms of English, even back at the beginning, your meaning was always clear. The language you used was simple, but very effective. I have always been impressed.
galacticgal
I remember seeing many times on the old forum you mentioning problems like this. You do seem to have run into an awful lot of bad luck with Erik's story. I'm excited to see it started over though from the beginning this time since I only ever caught random parts of it previously. Hopefully this time it will go smoothly for you. Keeping backups, and even multiple saves is a really good idea with long running simlit stories. I currently have, not only back-ups, but actually 17 different save files dedicated to SAM. All my characters are saved in my library too. I'm a little bad about remembering to save my lots there as well. I need to get in the habit of that too. It would be devastating to have to try and re-build some of them.
Yes! Dialogue is the thing that most readily runs through my head at inconvenient random moments. I have also learned to write it down as quickly as I can, just so I don't lose it. I don't always end up using it. But if I do want it, I've got it preserved. I write it on all kinds of random scraps, even while in the middle of a real world conversation sometimes. My husband has gotten used to this.
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Post by MonaSolstraale on Aug 13, 2024 13:45:35 GMT
galacticgal It's terrible every time bugs in the game ruin what you're doing. Now I have read your first chapter and I really think you write a gripping story, even without pictures. One can read that you can see the surroundings for your inner gaze and you can convey it to your readers. I recognize it when dialogues suddenly appear in your head and I also note them down as ideas. It happens several times, the sims characters almost come alive for me and I spend a lot of time thinking about their well-being. When GlacierSnow writes she has 17 saves, I have to say that I beat that record.π Since October 1, 2023, I have 89 saves and I have deleted all the Ver.files, so they are not included in the accounts. I know I'm a geek so please don't take this as sage advice. Every time I write a new chapter I save the game under a new name. It's a habit I've made to take a lot of backups since my sims3 game crashed countless times. I've experienced sims4 saves getting corrupted after an update, but the damage is never that big because I have my backups on another drive.
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Post by MonaSolstraale on Aug 13, 2024 14:16:44 GMT
GlacierSnow I haven't yet figured out how to do spoilers so nothing is hidden here. π I can recognize that kind of amusement. You're actually a master at showing your characters in the background when the scene is about something completely different and it's so much fun looking for them.π§ You really should. It's really fun to see your own drawings and paintings in the game. I would love to see some of your work in the game It made me laugh, because my first questions about the Lovestruck package were: Can the changes be opted out? π I haven't bought Lovestruck yet though. I don't dare because I'm afraid it will radically change my Sims' relationships. Thank you for your encouraging feedback regarding Tusnelda's Story. I appreciate your comments about my language. I try to keep it simple. When you write the story becomes deeper over time, it is precisely when you as a writer start to put yourself more at stake. It feels vulnerable and therefore you have to learn to embrace your mistakes along the way. Think about how you felt the first time you sent a chapter out into the air. Probably shakily nervous and proud to show it off. It takes courage and you have to embrace that. π₯°
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Post by GlacierSnow on Aug 13, 2024 22:17:39 GMT
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