Old Book Club Thread - Check out the New One!

"CathyTea;13866902" wrote:

"Jes2G;13858493" wrote:
So, I'm diving into Ironbound right now. Great story! Were we talking about setting before? So, first of all, I love what you've done with this, @Munterbacon :smiley: Your mods, the cc, everything creates such a wonderfully stunning world! When I read this, I feel like I'm reading a comic book or something--not The Sims fan fiction. That's a good thing and I'm sure that's what you wanted. But, as I'm reading, I'm going through this very intense internal battle. I'm trying to get sucked into this, but there is a part of my brain that won't allow me to do it. Like, I'm reading, and I can feel myself getting immersed, but then the princess makes a face and I'm like, "Hey! My Sims make that face!" lol, it's the silliest thing, but it keeps pulling me out of your wonderful world! Has anyone ever experience this (or anything like it) when reading Sims stories?

For some reason, this doesn't happen to me with this story. I think it's in part because the screenshots are so highly edited and also the proportions are shifted--I get to a point where I don't see them as Sims. Also, I read this on my nook which has a small display--so I can't see a lot of the details as largely. It's impressionistic. I did wonder how Munter got the pole dancer to do those moves, though!

Where it does happen for me is with Willow's Way. I think that this is because @DavidMcSessy 's characters are so well-developed for me that I have stopped seeing them as Sims. They are people in my mind. And so when they do something "Simish" I get popped out of my immersion for a second. "Huh? Colleen's a Sim?" Like that. Once Marty shared with me a video of the actors taking a break on the set--and I was so surprised to hear them talking Simlish! They really are Sims!

It sometimes happens to me with Pruetts, Jes.

This is a testimony to the strength of your writing and your characters--you're able to pull us so completely into your world and develop your characters so well that they become fully realized to us.

That's so funny because this has never happened to me with Willow's Way and stories like it. Maybe because Sims are supposed to be people-like, and that makes it relatable to me and easy to forget about them being "Simish." Whereas, with the fantasy genre, they're not people at all, so it's not familiar to me and easier to spot the Simishness (this new term is totally a thing now! lol). Maybe that's what it is for me! This is actually the first fantasy Sims story I've ever read. I think it takes so much more creativity to do stories like these because you not only have to create compelling characters, but entire worlds! I'm not brave enough to try anything like this lol.