Welcome to The Freezer Bunny Club! This reading circle is an open space for the members to share our stories and discuss them with each other. Each week, starting on Mondays, we will focus on reading/catching up on one of the stories. The author can post a list of discussion questions, and/or ask for advice, suggestions, or thoughts on certain aspects of their stories and writing in order to foster meaningful and constructive discussions. Though each of the stories will get the spotlight in a rotating fashion, general questions, happy sharing of screenshots, and cheering along of any of the stories in the circle at any time is also encouraged!
Our fifteenth week of discussion, from September 21st to 27th, is focused on Ridley Residence by @Skeilah!
Make sure to check the post below for detailed information about the stories and archived discussions. (The adorable freezer bunnies in the banner were made by SimLaughLove!)
I posted it in the Writer's Lounge as well, but I think it could be fun to put it here too. This asks about your storytelling method. I'm wondering, you can reply here or there, but do you guys plan your story or interpret your sims' actions? I can imagine the stories with poses are mostly planned and a legacy challenge mostly isn't, but maybe there will be a surprise in there. I already commented on the thread.
@Skeilah oh wow Brent is totally dad material and I'd adopt Ninja in a heartbeat <3 Did you know all his traits before Liz got married to him? She be laike, oh yess big fish. :tongue:
@Duvelina Thanks for sharing. I had fun reading everyone's responses.
@Skeilah Those traits of Brent couldn't have been better in terms of husband material! I predict much future happiness for Liz :smiley:
@Duvelina It's probably no surprise, but I rigidly plan mine, to the point of the game getting in the way sometimes :sweat_smile: I do have a family whose story I adapt on the fly based on in-game events, but there's no record of them. They're game-only. Lots of random accidental deaths in that one :D
@mercuryfoam I only didn't knew the bonus one. They had lots of conversations and got to know each other pretty well :) I would also adopt Ninja in no-time!
@_sims_Yimi Yeah! They are happy together! Luckily Brent is only mean towards me, the game player. :')
I'm looking into blogging platforms which I could host my story on. I can see everyone here has a blog. Which one would you guys recommend? I have a bit of experience with the Blogger platform, but I don't think that's what I would want to use here. I am pretty interested in Wordpress, but I want to make sure I'm making the right decision and not missing anything.
@Duvelina I've only ever used Wordpress, so I can't recommend any other platforms to you, but Wordpress so far has been pretty user-friendly. I believe the first blog you get is free, and you need to pay for the 2nd or 3rd one that you make (but don't quote me on that, because I'm not 100% sure). It takes a little time to figure out how make a pretty layout when you just get started, but making posts is really easy! You can put your posts on a timer if you want to publish them at a certain moment, too.
@_sims_Yimi Thanks for your thoughts! I'll look into Wordpress some more to follow up on the multiple blogs costing money thing. Blogger is completely free, even if you have multiple blogs. I was thinking of making a blog specific to this story and not for me as a user, but if only the first blog is free, it seems like I wouldn't have a choice if I'd go for Wordpress.
Edit: Seems like it's free? It's not exactly clear to me though.
@Skeilah I'm finally all caught up! I wanted to make sure I had nothing else going so I could focus on this. I'm into it! (Also, sorry about all the comments on your website, I binged and commented on eeeeeevery post, haha :flushed:)
1. What were your first impressions on Liz? I like Liz! I was happy to read about how you created her randomly, I think one thing I spend TOO much time on with my stories is taking aaaaages to create just one character in CAS. Your approach of randomizing Liz was simple and I like that, and in this case, I think the randomizer made a beautiful character! I like her personality, from what I've seen from her, she's pretty good at getting ahead in her career and doesn't let her gloomy trait get in her way, which is great. I like her!
2. What do you think about the concept of my Legacy Challenge? It's not a normal Legacy Challenge but one related to the MySims Trophies. Oooh boy, legacy challenges and I have a complicated history, mainly because I just can't seem to complete them... haha. I read all the rules and I like this challenge! The fact that you incorporate an element of collection (not just the MySims trophies, but also collections related to each generation, like the Experimental Food Prints collection and the City Living recipes for Liz's generation) makes this instantly more interesting to me because I love collecting things and there's nothing like completing a collection. I like this challenge a lot because of its twist, and your writing about it makes it so much fun to follow.
3. What do you think about the way I write my chapters? I like the simplicity. The way you've structured the chapters with screenshots really makes your challenge easy and fun to read. I like that you slowly added more dialogue in to mix it up from simple narration. One thing I like about your writing is that you, as the narrator, seem to interact with Liz directly. Like, she knows you're there watching and that's an interesting and clever way of framing the story. This also adds some nice humor, like when Brent also knows you're following and immediately tells you to stop. I chuckled.
4. My Chapters are classified in Sim days. Do you (dis)like that? Personally, I think this is a good choice. It allows you to really focus the action in one specific time frame and the story flows well like that. In my story, for example, I have to write things like "and then they all went to bed and this conversation happens the next day" (not exactly like that, but you get it, haha), to explain why characters change settings and clothes, etc. The way you've structured your legacy to have each chapter coincide with a day in the life of Liz (and later the heirs) is relaxing, it's a nice slice of life kind of structure. I like it.
Chapters 2. Which parts in the available chapters did you (dis)like? Why is that? If I had to choose specific parts, I would have to say that I like the sections of dialogue here and there. I enjoy the way you "communicate" with the characters, and that spices the whole thing up. I think, since you're mainly narrating what's happening and not writing underlying storylines for the whole plot, these sections of dialogue do a good job at cutting up the narration with bits of tongue-in-cheek humor. It's my favorite part of your chapters so far.
3. How do you like Ninja and Brent joining the Ridley family? What are your thoughts on these characters? OK, first of all! Ninja is ADORABLE. I really love that little pupper, and your screenshots of him (her?) are so cute. When he aged up I was almost disappointed because I just wanted him to stay tiny like that forever (story of my life with my own doggy :cry: ), but big and chonky Ninja is also adorable. I like Brent joining the story, as well. I've never played with his Sim but I like him. The way you write your interactions with him show a sassy side to him that makes me giggle, and he's a nice breath of fresh air. Since he's not really the focus, his parts are nice breaks from Liz's development in the challenge. Side note: I always find it so hilarious that Sims meet, begin dating, get married, and have babies in just a matter of days. Can you imagine if this was the case for people in real life? Haha!
4. Does everything in the story make sense for you? I think it does! I read all the rules of the challenge first, so I was pretty clear on them and understood the goals. I occasionally take a peek at the goals or the rules if I feel like I've forgotten. The story itself is pretty straightforward.
5. Is the story easy to follow? Do you need more information or less? I think you have a good, simple way of writing that makes the story easy to follow. Having screenshots of everything including the popups is a great way of really making me feel like I'm somehow also playing the challenge, and they add details to the story that flesh out Liz and Brent. Your lists on the side of the website also help, I like that we know exactly what goals are yet to be completed. In terms of wanting more information, well, I don't think your legacy really lends itself to writing a lot more about the screenshots since it's mainly based on the action happening and the challenge goals rather than being plot-driven. I think the information you give is sufficient for the genre of story you're telling, and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything so far.
6. What are you expecting for next episodes? (they are already played and written but not yet published but I like to see your thoughts about this) I'm expecting to see more trying for babies :wink: since we have to get a male heir! I'm sure that Brent and Liz are going to continue trying until a boy comes along. In the meantime, I'm excited to see what Alison is like as she grows up. I'm sure Liz and Brent are going to be good parents.
7. Any questions for me? I can't think of any at the moment, but if any come up, I'll definitely ask!
About the Brant/Brent thing: I really don't ever take the pre-made Sims' established backstories into account when writing my own story. I can only think of two pre-made Sims that appear in my story (Mitchell Kalani and Bella Goth) and only Bella has 'canon' details, but that's because she's a veeeery minor character with no bearing on the main story. My Mitchell, for example, has nothing in common with the pre-made Mitchell. So, I say, write the characters in any way you want! EA might have created them, but you're fleshing them out and making them your own.
@Duvelina I use WordPress as well, and it's a sleek, simple blog software. I use the free version because, well, I'm poor. I recommend WordPress because it's pretty simple to do everything you need and you can have a nice website with it. :smile: As far as I know, you can have more than one blog for free under your username, though I haven't tried to open a second blog yet.
"Duvelina;c-17545478" wrote: I'm looking into blogging platforms which I could host my story on. I can see everyone here has a blog. Which one would you guys recommend? I have a bit of experience with the Blogger platform, but I don't think that's what I would want to use here. I am pretty interested in Wordpress, but I want to make sure I'm making the right decision and not missing anything.
I use Weebly. The version I use is free (I have like 5 websites, all free) and I like it, but overall people choose Wordpress over Weebly. I've never worked with Wordpress so I don't know which one I like more. I never felt the urge to try something different when I already found something that works for me.
@ajamkeevin I'm going to read your input soon. Can't wait!
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