The joys and pains of writing (and thread to share them)

It is very frustrating. I recognize it so much. 🙄


I've only sat down at my computer now, so it's probably far too late to advise you about a cup of tea, music and relaxation. ☕
At least I sent you a kind thought when I saw your post.🥰

lizzielilyy You are not alone. I'm having the same problem this morning.

lizzielilyy It can be quite refreshing. I have a test game where I just let the Sims follow their crazy whims. It is also in that game that I am now testing mods and game settings. It sometimes gives me some ideas that I build on.

Hi cyncie I'm happy you found time to post here despite your very busy life right now.

You bring up a point that I think probably many of us occasionally feel some confusion or insecurity about, the question of what "qualifies" as simlit or not. I this kind of thing happens with other broad category words like "art" and "science" as well, especially when some people set very narrow and elite definitions that only happen to include exactly the thing that they themselves do. But as far as I am concerned, the word "simlit" is simply a way of acknowledging that the story you are creating uses one of the sims games in some manner. It doesn't say anything about what way you use the game, whether or not you take artistic screenshots, whether the plot is driven by in game events or you are using the game to follow your plot, or even whether or not there is a plot. It has nothing to do with past experience as a writer, or an artist, or a gamer. It's just a way of saying "hey, I am making this story and I'm using one of the sims games to do it." I have no idea if this was the original intended meaning, but it's the one I'm using here. Feel free to call your stories simlit if you want to. I certainly use that term to refer to them.

I was enjoying your Tales from the Myst back on the old forum. I need to get back to them. And short stories that focus on character, dialogue, and atmosphere sound right up my alley (also long stories that focus on character, dialogue, and atmosphere are right up my alley, and medium stories, and basically anything that focuses on those things sounds good to me) so I'd like to check out more of your writing. My summer has been hectic and exhausting as well, though, and I'm just now finding time to work seriously on my own story (I can fully relate to how easily life can sideline creativity), so I've also gotten egregiously behind on everyone else's stories at the moment. But I plan to get caught back up.

Anyway, welcome to this thread! I hope you'll have time to pop in and participate whenever life lets you.

Hi luciusstorm, welcome to the writing thread!

Oh wow, can I relate to the "sims not following instructions" issue. Especially early on while working on SAM when I was using fewer custom poses.

And the grinning drives me nuts. I find making talking poses boring, so I prefer to get all my conversation screenshots with live play, but aaaaaaa the grinning!! I'm like, "Stop having fun, you silly sims! You're supposed to be upset about all this drama I've created for you!" And I feel like it's gotten worse than it used to be. I swear I remember putting them in a "fine" mood would make the face expressions less smiley, but it's not working for me now. They grin when they are talking when they are fine, or even sad. I've tried various moods, various mods, and I've even resorted to manually turning the corners of their mouths down in the detailed mode in CAS to counteract the smiles and make their talking faces more serious (this actually seems to have helped a little). Got that idea from one of my main characters whose face always looks super-grumpy even when he's perfectly fine. So I might have to start playing with that a bit for certain scenes. I was describing all this to my husband the other day after much exasperation to get a serious conversation scene shot, and he said "I'm just picturing you grabbing your sims by their shirt collars and smacking them, saying STOP. BEING. HAPPY!"

GlacierSnow  LOL I can see your husband for my inner gaze. Your regrets must just seem totally insane from a non Sims player perspective 🤣
I love your grumpy main character. He is so unattractive that he almost seems vulnerably innocent.

luciusstorm Regarding sims standing up and sitting down. It drives me crazy that they keep changing their positions 😖
My main character is a scientist and when she arrives at the secret lab and wants to talk to the guy in the reception, he almost always gets up and makes her take his seat. Hello! You're the receptionist! You should never ever leave your desk!
It also annoys me that two sims don't stay standing and talk to each other, but one often finds an empty seat in the middle of the conversation. It seems rude and arrogant. Turning off free will in the settings doesn't really help.
However, I am not yet at the point where I am using Poses. I take 15-20 pictures of a conversation from different angles and hope there are 3-5 pictures I'm happy with 😅

I know that all too well. Sometimes you get an idea that won't really flow. It can help just to play a course just at test level to see what happens. I have numerous such Saves that I may return to.

A concrete example could be that I prepare everything to hold a wedding in the game, then I save the game just before. I save the game under a new name before playing the wedding and taking pictures. Exit the game without saving. Play the same wedding again and take pictures. Save a single Save for further progress. Maybe start over again.
It can provide some surprises that you can build on, as well as a gigantic picture material to choose from. No one says that writing Simlit is an easy job 😅

I'm a bit curious as to how stuck you are in your introduction to your Strangerville story?
Could you experiment with some completely different introductions? Maybe write some of the introduction as a flashback, if there is more power to the action in the middle of the action?
You can catch up on the material for the opening chapters later if you don't publish chronologically.
The perfect starting point can sometimes seem paralyzing or perhaps uninspiring, boring. Kill your darlings, as they say.

NB: I don't want to sound like an expert in the art of writing. I am absolutely not. I've just thought a lot of thoughts over the years and several times abandoned projects that just won't work.