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
@InfraGreen I use Twitter for my nonfiction writing mostly as a promotional option and to connect with other readers. I use Tumblr strictly for The Sims and to post updates, shorts, etc. I am guilty of doing the "Few pictures, short text blurbs" option on Tumblr. But I much prefer the longer blog posts (even if they take me longer to read and catch up on a story) and the forums (because it feels more personal and more of a commitment).
I'd say to everyone, even if the community is dwindling, keep up the good work. What you write does matter.
@ra3rei Don't feel bad. I felt like I was behind when I started. It's hard to keep up because everyone writes such great comments and discussion points and I want to respond to them all. I decided to try and read through everyone's comments and make one long post of my own instead of doing everything separately, but I'm still having to do a combination of both. To the community: do you prefer individualized responses on here or long posts like I'm doing now? I just want to make sure I'm not irritating someone by writing a long post to multiple people.
I like the way you said "Try a bit of everything and see what sticks." I agree - the first few years (or in my case months since I haven't hit the one year mark yet) is trial and error. I'm still learning and excited to learn and try new things.
Some of the first few stories I read in the Sims fell into the fluffy department and I loved them. They were fun to read and they weren't badly written. The "authors" cared about their characters and you could tell they had fun with them. I personally like to write and most enjoy reading the in-depth stories with dark, mysterious, or real-world elements, but when I need a break from that, I enjoy taking a break to enjoy the fluff. I can say that I don't like mindless entertainment - entertainment just for the sake of entertaining a.k.a. drawing attention to oneself or stupid humor at the expense of someone else. I'd prefer stories with a little bit of depth and ones that actually make me care about the character (like I want to know what will happen next).
Every time I consider rewriting, I think about this very truth. I just hope that my readers will sift through the sludge, stay with me in the mundane down-time, and get to the good stuff.
About elderly characters: I added two to my story about Kass, her grandparents. I kinda based them off my own grandparents with some major changes. However, I really enjoyed writing them. I want to do more with them later, but then I off and sent them to Moonlight Falls and my main character is in Bay City a.k.a. Legacy Island III. Maybe I'll do a Skype chat or something??? (I also had Davis' grandmother, Granny Jade, but then she didn't make an appearance save once... so maybe I'll need to add her back in).
I'd say to everyone, even if the community is dwindling, keep up the good work. What you write does matter.
@ra3rei Don't feel bad. I felt like I was behind when I started. It's hard to keep up because everyone writes such great comments and discussion points and I want to respond to them all. I decided to try and read through everyone's comments and make one long post of my own instead of doing everything separately, but I'm still having to do a combination of both. To the community: do you prefer individualized responses on here or long posts like I'm doing now? I just want to make sure I'm not irritating someone by writing a long post to multiple people.
I like the way you said "Try a bit of everything and see what sticks." I agree - the first few years (or in my case months since I haven't hit the one year mark yet) is trial and error. I'm still learning and excited to learn and try new things.
"ra3rei;14338853" wrote:
And lastly to return my my defense of the cheap and mindless. Mindless and fluffy isn't the same as badly written or bad world creation. You can write a completely believable fun lighthearted stories with my little ponies and it not be trite or cheap . When the author doesn't care about the characters or bother to create the world around them that makes sense, then it's bad writing - or writing just to get paid.
Some of the first few stories I read in the Sims fell into the fluffy department and I loved them. They were fun to read and they weren't badly written. The "authors" cared about their characters and you could tell they had fun with them. I personally like to write and most enjoy reading the in-depth stories with dark, mysterious, or real-world elements, but when I need a break from that, I enjoy taking a break to enjoy the fluff. I can say that I don't like mindless entertainment - entertainment just for the sake of entertaining a.k.a. drawing attention to oneself or stupid humor at the expense of someone else. I'd prefer stories with a little bit of depth and ones that actually make me care about the character (like I want to know what will happen next).
"CitizenErased14;14339587" wrote:
@mastressalita I like what you said about not re-writing old chapters. It's true -- it think it's good for readers to see the author's growth as a writer!
Every time I consider rewriting, I think about this very truth. I just hope that my readers will sift through the sludge, stay with me in the mundane down-time, and get to the good stuff.
About elderly characters: I added two to my story about Kass, her grandparents. I kinda based them off my own grandparents with some major changes. However, I really enjoyed writing them. I want to do more with them later, but then I off and sent them to Moonlight Falls and my main character is in Bay City a.k.a. Legacy Island III. Maybe I'll do a Skype chat or something??? (I also had Davis' grandmother, Granny Jade, but then she didn't make an appearance save once... so maybe I'll need to add her back in).
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