How do you Create a Story?

I think, and this is just my take on it, how good Sims 4 is for storytelling depends on how much "heavy lifting" you want to do yourself vs. how much you want the game to do.

I, personally, find that I enjoy saves the most when I start with a rough story plan. For example, the founder of my Seven Stories legacy:

"This is Ashley. Her family home burned down while she was taking her little brother to the park, so she's had to give up her plans for going to Uni to make enough money to rebuild the house again and provide for her brother to have the chance she didn't."

Yes, it's just a basic Rags to Riches game, but there's a story behind it, and an end goal (rebuild the house, send the brother to Uni). Do I wish that Sims 4 would throw a few more curve balls than it does? Sometimes. But those aren't needed for me to tell a story and enjoy the story I'm telling myself.

Right now I'm raising Ashley's Great Granddaughter and preparing to kill her father off in the temples of Selvadorada over winter break in preparation to run a Quest based story with her when she gets to Young Adult. Angsty backstory incoming!

For me, the best way to start a “story” is to fill your game with interesting characters whose backstories are in place before you start playing.

I spend the most time on this aspect. Then I find that it’s easy to figure out how the characters might relate to one another and where each story might go.

I usually have a rough idea of how I want my story to be told. But I don't plan too much as I like things to be game-driven. So I might create a simple backstory and then let the game lead.

It honestly really depends. If I'm going for some story that's super outrageous & crazy, sometimes it requires some super heavy lifting on my part to setup. For example, I'm a huge occult Simmer. I have one Save dedicated to my occults and the founders of my vampire legacy are the same Sims I've been playing since Vampire GP came out. But now with mermaids, spellcasters, etc. my occult Save has grown and has become a rotational style of play. & I usually am running multiple stories that are interconnected with several Sims/households. I'm currently playing an extension to a storyline that I had originally ended. Part of original story: Jealous half-sister wants her sisters life and plots and schemes to get it and bring drama on her sister, by framing her for murder (long story). Sister finds out, is able to stop her in time, makes potion to turn her human...sister gets arrested, goes to jail. Current: I decided to bring the sister back - so fast forward like 20 years later, and the sister is out of jail, she's had plastic surgery and has reinvented herself...changed her name, her looks etc. & she has befriended her sister....except of course her sister doesn't know she's her sister. & she's planning the ultimate revenge. So this Save, has a little bit of everything in it....quests for power, revenge, love, family play, etc.

So long answer to your question (sorry)....it's a mixture of both for me....of having an idea of where I want to go in a story and doing some setup to tell the story the way i want....& also letting the game drive as well with unexpected events/challenges that maybe I didn't plan for.

I set goals to each of my played sims in order to create simple backstories at start and then i just embrace any unexpected event. Sometimes a simple call can make me think of a whole new track for that sim. And that can effect the whole cast...

I play in rotation and my household's stories get connected. This leads to really deep storylines.

I enjoyed reading through this thread. I agree with @DaWaterRat 's statement about how much heavy lifting you're willing to do. I approach TS4 more as a dollhouse to play out my stories in than I do with previous games where I let the wants and wishes lead me. I'm only playing one story at the moment but I get new ideas all the time. @telmarina said it well. One call or visit can give me inspiration for where to take the story.

I often have my stories planned from when my sim is as young as a child or toddler. but sometimes its best to just see how it goes and what happens (leave it up to chance!) i hoped this helped.
p.s. don't put pressure on yourself to create a good story, it will just come naturally
.

I think we tell them in our own ways. I'm watching Spark'd too and yes I kind of do what some of them do but in no way can I or would I want to build a complete story that quickly.
I build a backstory first sometimes even before I open the game in my head. It can be my own or inspired by a movie/tv show/other games. Then I make my sims, give them the traits that fit the best. Outfit them character wise. If it's rags to riches I just put them in one of the houses they can afford or create a lot in the game budget. If they have a story of coming from money or at least not starting from scratch then I'll use real estate cheats.
Then it just goes. I don't usually cheat skills so the first few sims days to a sim week or so are usually spent getting their basic skills in for their character. After than I usually go more into a story mode. I'll live out their lives with a certain mindset, sometimes day to day. They could be normal sims just going to work/job.... or I might have some deeper or more often more deviant story to tell with them.
For instance I've been playing Don Lothario lately .. the Sims 2 version. In that game he was in the health care field so much of my gameplay has been spent giving him some charm and skills to do okay in his job and getting him stable. Now I've introduced the maid (changed the one that showed up in CAS to the Sims 2 one). He's busy romancing basically any woman that is attractive that he can. I'm pretty sure we are going to have some broken hearts and marriages by the time his story ends (if it ever does). A lot of my stories though do use a lot of actual game play, so I can see him making use of romantic getaway vacations ect to pursue what he wants while not getting caught if he can help it.
I have many other sims in that save from Sims 1 and 2 and their lives are becoming interconnected. Some .. especially my Strangerville sims are up to some bad stuff... test subjects, cloning just lots of stuff. Then other families are just living, working and being their character.
I have taken a break though to introduce knitting to Ginia Kat and that story is just ..sweet. She just moved in her butler. They have 6 cats and the relationship is romantic now. Mostly they do the home skills and it's enjoyable if not dramatic to watch and play out.

thank you to everyone who posted...i really did enjoy reading the responses...

Hermitgirl...i am pretty sure that i could not bring a lot of creative genius to "the sims spark'ed " in the short amount of time in which each team is given..but it is fun to watch them do it..lol! I liked your idea using Strangerville for something with a little more depth and intrigue ...i have never used the town, i just loved the cas and build/buy...i mean i always think i will do it sooner or later but as yet never have...I do like having a play where it is basic romantic family ..it is relaxing.

DaWaterRat...i get what you mean by heavy lifting...i just started trying that ..it is ok to do for something different...i think i have to try using Newport and go all out ...encourages some creative building and i do save some in my library for future use. your story-line involving Asley's grand daughter sounds involved and interesting...my sims have always only vacationed in Selvadorada but the temples would be fun...and it sounds like a good way to kill off a sim for sure.

Telmarina..i haven't tried rotational play ..it is a great idea and now that you introduced the idea it is one that i definitely want to try out.

So-Money...i do like to create back stories for characters...it is really fun to do and often times it is running through my head in create a sim...definitely influences the way you might choose to dress that particular sim and then in turn the way you create the home and decide on family funds ...rags to riches is fine but lol sometimes it is fun to do a reverse and have a sim who was born with a silver spoon and then suddenly finds themselves broke and desperate.

several folks mentioned playing off a particular event that happens at random while playing and that definitely influences the direction my stories go in as well...sometimes the romance festival comes up and off you go ...or a random phone call from a particular character...i don't always love it when Vlad shows up ..haha but now that we can just send him home it definitely takes the unwanted event away but sometimes it was ok...we can still allow it but it isn't the same.

sometimes i create my own career ..has anyone else done that? I might use something in game to help with income or pay myself with motherlode...currently my sim is a botanist but is becoming interested in genetics ..not sure where that will go right now.

I play a huge rotation and many sims I have known since they were babies and their characters have developed slowly (we're talking months here, possibly a year). I spend their childhood and teenage years trying to figure out what they might want to do in life so I usually have an idea when they become young adults, but it's just a rough sketch. I like to take hints from the game and see what happens. For new sims created I normally have some sort of background story in mind, but might not really have an idea what they're going to do and they may fall to be just background characters for my main stories.

In general I don't want to plan too much ahead. It's nice to have an idea of what's going to happen, but I don't like playing though a story with prewritten twists and turns. I wish TS4 offered more random/unexpected stuff so I would have more things happening without me planning them, things that could change the lives of my sims. The recent packs have shown some improvement to this direction, for example the phone call where you're asked to get married in a week. This is exactly what I'm looking for in a sims game. There have been similar additions at least since Get Famous which offered the job pop ups with much harsher end results (actually getting your sim fired). Both of these examples are optional and I would still like there to be something more dramatic, but they'll do.

musteni...you like rotation play also..i cannot believe that is something that i have never tried but it sounds like fun and it would add some depth to both the story and some variety...it would certainly bump up the fun aspect and the story line too!