The Art of Sims Storytelling
Hi guys! @CathyTea and I were talking, and we thought we'd try making a thread that would be focused solely on writing, especially Sims story writing. The writers' lounge thread is great for being ...
Forum Discussion
Hey Guys,
How are you on this lovely Sunday morning? :) I'm again late to the party, as usual. I love this topic! Just read all the comments so far, and man, it's nice to hang around with like minded people who wouldn't consider me a loony for writing stories about sims :D
So first of all i'm gonna answer these questions...
Do you have any preconceptions about how SimLit is supposed to be? Or did you used to have some, but you've grown past them as you've read and written more Sims stories?
I only discovered that sim stories are a thing around december 2014. Yes, late to that party too :D Anyway, at that point I saw that most of the stories i found were legacies, so my preconceptions were that most sim stories are either a legacy, or based on some other challenge with rules, and not so much story driven. The first i read was called Queen of the Dragons, and it had some cool supernatural elements, and really nice picutres.
If you did have any preconceptions, how did they affect your writing and reading?
Well, not really. Although i knew straight away that i don't want to write a legacy story. I just got back into the game after a very long break, and i had this idea of this girl i wanted to write about. I was a bit wary because it was not a legacy. I read some personal stories on reddit about people who are childfree, and that sometimes they get harrassed/mocked/pestered, and therefore my first sim story (Abbie's Diary) was written as a blog from the perspective of Abbie, who is adamantly childfree.
In terms of reading stories, i don't like reading legacies where there is no plot. I scroll through them sometimes and check out the pictures because they are often nice, but i don't feel inclined to read something where nothing actually happens. And i'm not talking about the stories about mundane everyday things. I actually like those, because they can still have an actual story!
Are there any stories in particular that made you realize that Sims stories could be more than what you thought they could be?
Oh, yes, i found these soon after i started writing Abbie's blog!
One of my first favs was "Tales fromTouperdou". I pretty much binge read it :D
Now that i found this writer forum here i suddenly discovered many more and my reading list pretty much doubled.
How does the game influence your work?
I must say, in my detective stories (Regrets, Mistakes) it doesn't at all! I actually write the story first, and then "illustrate" it.
I had this idea of this story about two detectives, and i wanted to make it happen no matter what :D The limitations of the game are way too restrictive, so i mainly just use it for picture taking purposes. My two characters are actually doing the police career in game, but that's about it! When i need extras for my scene i usually just "recruit" townies :D Side characters who are important, are created by me, specifically for the story...
My first story was more game driven. I would play, and imagine what would i write about, let my sim loose... But that was the sort of story that let this happen. I'm planning to go back to this approach in the future for some of the stories i'm still planning to write.
What kind of relationship (or whatever you want to call it) is there between the text and pictures in your Sims stories? And yes, you can answer this even if there is no text or no pics in your story as well. That's a relationship too.
I use the pictures to enhance the story. I first write my chapters in a word doc, and there are no pictures at all. It would still be ok to read like that as the pictures don't have anything additional that is not mentioned in writing.
In my first story i sometimes added speech bubbles and captions to the pictures, because it was kind of a funny story. My current one is different, so after i wrote my chapter, i go in game and pretty much just pose them in different locations that will illustrate the story. I spend a lot of time on building sets, creating rooms/offices/coffee shops. That's part of the charm for me though. Recently most of my pictures are screenshots of the characters interacting, not really action packed. But there will be those too, once the story gets to those parts.
How are you on this lovely Sunday morning? :) I'm again late to the party, as usual. I love this topic! Just read all the comments so far, and man, it's nice to hang around with like minded people who wouldn't consider me a loony for writing stories about sims :D
So first of all i'm gonna answer these questions...
Do you have any preconceptions about how SimLit is supposed to be? Or did you used to have some, but you've grown past them as you've read and written more Sims stories?
I only discovered that sim stories are a thing around december 2014. Yes, late to that party too :D Anyway, at that point I saw that most of the stories i found were legacies, so my preconceptions were that most sim stories are either a legacy, or based on some other challenge with rules, and not so much story driven. The first i read was called Queen of the Dragons, and it had some cool supernatural elements, and really nice picutres.
If you did have any preconceptions, how did they affect your writing and reading?
Well, not really. Although i knew straight away that i don't want to write a legacy story. I just got back into the game after a very long break, and i had this idea of this girl i wanted to write about. I was a bit wary because it was not a legacy. I read some personal stories on reddit about people who are childfree, and that sometimes they get harrassed/mocked/pestered, and therefore my first sim story (Abbie's Diary) was written as a blog from the perspective of Abbie, who is adamantly childfree.
In terms of reading stories, i don't like reading legacies where there is no plot. I scroll through them sometimes and check out the pictures because they are often nice, but i don't feel inclined to read something where nothing actually happens. And i'm not talking about the stories about mundane everyday things. I actually like those, because they can still have an actual story!
Are there any stories in particular that made you realize that Sims stories could be more than what you thought they could be?
Oh, yes, i found these soon after i started writing Abbie's blog!
One of my first favs was "Tales fromTouperdou". I pretty much binge read it :D
Now that i found this writer forum here i suddenly discovered many more and my reading list pretty much doubled.
How does the game influence your work?
I must say, in my detective stories (Regrets, Mistakes) it doesn't at all! I actually write the story first, and then "illustrate" it.
I had this idea of this story about two detectives, and i wanted to make it happen no matter what :D The limitations of the game are way too restrictive, so i mainly just use it for picture taking purposes. My two characters are actually doing the police career in game, but that's about it! When i need extras for my scene i usually just "recruit" townies :D Side characters who are important, are created by me, specifically for the story...
My first story was more game driven. I would play, and imagine what would i write about, let my sim loose... But that was the sort of story that let this happen. I'm planning to go back to this approach in the future for some of the stories i'm still planning to write.
What kind of relationship (or whatever you want to call it) is there between the text and pictures in your Sims stories? And yes, you can answer this even if there is no text or no pics in your story as well. That's a relationship too.
I use the pictures to enhance the story. I first write my chapters in a word doc, and there are no pictures at all. It would still be ok to read like that as the pictures don't have anything additional that is not mentioned in writing.
In my first story i sometimes added speech bubbles and captions to the pictures, because it was kind of a funny story. My current one is different, so after i wrote my chapter, i go in game and pretty much just pose them in different locations that will illustrate the story. I spend a lot of time on building sets, creating rooms/offices/coffee shops. That's part of the charm for me though. Recently most of my pictures are screenshots of the characters interacting, not really action packed. But there will be those too, once the story gets to those parts.
