I find a bit of a backstory helps. One game was a young war widow and a son, a child. Her husband and and her married young then he was killed in action, he had joined the military. She put herself through college as a political activist and when her son was school age, she moved to Oasis Springs.
Or, have guidelines, in my current game I started with a random townie from my last game I liked the look of. I decided to have her marry and/or befriend premades. She is currently friends with the BFF household and is deciding whether to persue a romance with either: Salim Benali, Akira Kibo, or Marcus Rowan, another random townie. Who will it be? I'm waiting till one of them shows up in a romantic mood, that's how I will decide.
In essence, I really think it is a lot easier if I have something to hang my game on, a hook, if you will, that gives me a direction to start my sim story off.
