The Art Commune Reading Circle

Does not having screenshots count as unusual?

And I am pretty sure I've not read all the stories from the people listed above. (I've read some, but not all)

My story: Surreal Darkness

My thread for it here on the forum: Story Thread

What I want from feedback: Really I just want to know people's thoughts and feelings about it and if it meant something to them. I'd like to know if you saw any themes or metaphors in it that you relate to.

OK! Yay! I. Am. Excited.

I spent all afternoon working on my Spirit Animal post. Because I feel honored/humbled/excited/fangirly about who's nominated me, I decided that I'd write a short paragraph for each person that nominated me. It's been so rewarding, and it helps me appreciate and value and acknowledge the gifts we share with each other through our writing, and how diverse our writing is.

So, I'm coming here now still feeling that high, and then to turn to this group and feel such honor, respect, and appreciation for each of you and each of your writing... well. It is Inspiration Blue! (For you TS3ers, this is a reference to the TS4 moodlet color for inspiration--beautiful robin's egg blue! And shiny!)

My story for this group is Thirty Sims for Three Rivers. I've written 12 chapters so far. Because many of them interconnect--and they're all in the same save, so if they don't connect yet, they may in the future--it's probably best to begin from the beginning. That way, you'll know who knows whom and you might start to recognize Townies and so on.

I don't have specific feedback I'm seeking. I just want to have a group that I know is reading this so I can share enthusiasms, questions, and observations. I like to talk about Sims and stories, and I like to have people to talk with! So, I'm hoping I can talk with you!

Umm.... please feel free to take your time with reading this. I'm (at present) not writing at a rapid pace, and so maybe I'm putting out one chapter for this series a week or one every other week. My writing schedule follows the channels of my creative energy, so that could shift at any time, but for right now, it's pretty leisurely with this story.

Oh! I know what I wanted to mention! This story is actually quite traditional, I feel! There's really nothing very outre about it... so, I guess I'm the one who is a bit out of the mainstream. My writing right now is feeling pretty well mainstream to me.

Story: The Racket-Rotter Chronicles

Thread: N/A

What I want from feedback: I'd like to know exactly what readers feel from the chapters they read. I'd also like to know if there's any point that the quality dropped in the story (for some reason, it feels to me like it dropped at some point, but I don't know exactly when).

@CathyTea

Thank you! :smile: I'm excited to be a part of this!

Story: Kassiopeia Fullbright and The Lost Legacy (KFLL)

Thread: I update on my main forums page.

Feedback: Anything you want to give me. I'm not picky. This is a long term story series I've started. You can safely start at Part 2 (KFLL) as 2.0 gives a nice overview of what you might have missed, but part 1 (KCLKF) is also on this blog (if you want to go back and read her story from the beginning). I feel like the quality changes between earlier chapters and later chapters in KCLKF and between KCKLF and KFLL for the better.

I link to updates on my other blog (Livin'a'Simmin'Life) so you can choose to read over there or not - no pressure! :) It's not part of this group's reading, unless you want to read it.

Kass's story is a long haul and I've spent the first half giving back story and answering some unanswered questions from Part 1. I'm hoping I haven't lost my readers in this way since I'm not speeding through the mystery part and I'm slowly allowing it to take shape. You can give me thoughts on that if you like.

Like @CathyTea I'm just excited to have readers and looking forward to sharing in your observations and enthusiasms. I hope you grow to love Kass like I have, or at least appreciate her.

FYI, I am making minor edits overall just to correct for continuity issues and minor grammatical things of the sort. I include Author Change notes at the bottom of the posts I've edited.

I try to update every week on Saturdays (but occasionally I skip a week or two). I'm on a short hiatus while I come up with fresh (hopefully quality) content, but I am working on other stories too. Kass's story is still my priority though. Feel free to take your time since I have a lot of chapters.

Thanks everyone in advance for reading. I'm looking forward to reading your works.

"JLBDreamer;14857459" wrote:
I think I'm definitely interested in this thread but I'm not sure what story to submit.

I suppose my Baby Challenge Black Comedy might work or I could post one of my two new stories that aren't quite ready to be posted?

Could I put it to a vote? lol. I'm just not sure. I'd post the opening pages with the Blurbs and put it to a majority on which the group would want to read.

If you want to, sure. :)

I had an idea!

We could post like little intros to our stories, so people know what they're getting into. :)

I'll do mine later. Not feeling up to much right now.

"MedleyMisty;14858799" wrote:

We could post like little intros to our stories, so people know what they're getting into. :)

An intro to Thirty Sims at Three Rivers can be found on the TOC page. I'll quote it here and revise it as needed to reflect where I'm at now with it:

Thirty Sims at Three Rivers

This project comes from a confluence of ideas and inspirations:

My Simming/Blogging friend Medley Misty shared with me a Tumblr project called 30 Days of Sims. The idea: create a prompt list of 30 seed ideas, and then develop a Sim for each idea. Medley created her own list of inspiration, which inspired me to create my own list.
My Simming/Blogging friend Moon in Capricorn (known in the EA Forums as NoWayJose527) has been writing about the essential scene elements (see Making a Scene, pt. 1 and subsequent parts), which can be distilled as conflict and change. She writes that “Conflict means wanting something we don’t have, or having something we don’t want.” In writing an effective scene, we consider “What does my character want here? What changes occur to thwart the character? How will the character deal with it?”
Tara Mohr writes about "writing for you" in Unhooking from Praise and Criticism. When I write with my most engaged sense of inspiration, it’s because I’m writing to explore something that I want to explore. In my other SimLit stories, I largely follow what is being presented to me through the game: I generally feel that my writing is in service to my Sims. With this project, I’m hoping to write for me: to discover and explore those ideas and feelings that I want to explore. And I hope to learn about writing and character while I do so.

So, out of the confluence of these three ideas, we get the Columbia River of Sims. Each will have one or more chapters, enough to explore the questions of “What does my character want here (or have that she doesn’t want)? What changes occur to thwart the character? How will the character deal with it?” Maybe my characters and I will find resolution. Maybe not. But along the way, I’ll have fun exploring dissonance and harmony.



That's a pretty good overview: I wrote a list of 30 prompts, and I'm working my way through the list creating or finding Sims to express the idea of that prompt. They're all in the same save, so it's fun for me to see how the stories are interweaving.

As much as possible, I'm using Townies for the prompt-Sims.

I'm having loads of fun with it, and I'm currently in a bit of a block, which I'll either blast through this weekend (I'm off until Wednesday) or share with you so we can talk about it! Sometimes, that helps!

"MedleyMisty;14858799" wrote:

We could post like little intros to our stories, so people know what they're getting into. :)

I tried to be creative with the current intro I have on the About page. (It's edited a bit because the original on the page contains a rather explicit word) :