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
How often do you post? How much is too much? What is your personal preference for reading new SimLit posts?
I think that there's no real 'right' or 'wrong' way to do your update schedule :) When I first started writing Dust to Dust, I posted every day. The only reason I was able to handle that scheduled is because I'm a teacher, so I wasn't working full time in the summer, just about 12-15 hours a week at my summer job.
Once school started up again (I also work my summer job during the school year, by the way. So I work like 50-ish hours a week, on average!) I had to cut back, and I did 4 updates a week (which was still a lot to handle! But I did not want the story to drag out for too long :lol:). I find it interesting that some people have mentioned that they think updating too often scares readers away. I kind of had the opposite experience -- I think I got MORE readers because I had a frequent and consistent update schedule. But that's just me!
As a reader, here is my thought on things: I prefer more frequent updates. Even if it's only once a week. This will sound bad (but it's just my take!) the longer the gap between updates, the more likely I am to forget to check for new chapters and eventually stop reading your story -- not because I stopped liking it, but because I thought you weren't writing it anymore. I think this is part of why I kept updating D2D so frequently -- I didn't want my readers to feel that way!
Of course, as we've seen with some of the other responses, not everyone feels the same way I do, and not all of your readers will feel the same either! :)
Okay, now I am switching up the subject and throwing out my own question for @everyone -- Do you ever struggle with how to feel about POSITIVE feedback/praise?
Here's my personal take on it: My only experience with writing SimLit and receiving feedback has been on this forum and on Wordpress (with most of my readers coming from this forum). Everyone around here is SUPER supportive and positive and wonderful to their fellow authors, which I LOVE and think is amazing :heart:
But I will say this (Confession time!) -- It's had a huge impact on how I take positive comments and praise from my readers. Everyone showers EVERYONE with praise around here, I've noticed (again, not a bad thing!) BUT it makes me kind of take praise from my readers with a grain of salt. People will say "Wow, your story is amazing!" and I feel like they say that to EVERYONE and feel like they HAVE to say it to me.
I'm not saying I want people to insult my story :lol: (I actually take negative/constructive feedback VERY personally :lol: So I guess heaps of praise is actually better than criticism, for me) but I feel like I never know when a compliment is sincere and when it's just the lovely people in this community being, well... lovely as usual :lol: Obviously they took the time to read my story so they clearly enjoyed it, but I just never know how to take some of the comments haha.
I think that there's no real 'right' or 'wrong' way to do your update schedule :) When I first started writing Dust to Dust, I posted every day. The only reason I was able to handle that scheduled is because I'm a teacher, so I wasn't working full time in the summer, just about 12-15 hours a week at my summer job.
Once school started up again (I also work my summer job during the school year, by the way. So I work like 50-ish hours a week, on average!) I had to cut back, and I did 4 updates a week (which was still a lot to handle! But I did not want the story to drag out for too long :lol:). I find it interesting that some people have mentioned that they think updating too often scares readers away. I kind of had the opposite experience -- I think I got MORE readers because I had a frequent and consistent update schedule. But that's just me!
As a reader, here is my thought on things: I prefer more frequent updates. Even if it's only once a week. This will sound bad (but it's just my take!) the longer the gap between updates, the more likely I am to forget to check for new chapters and eventually stop reading your story -- not because I stopped liking it, but because I thought you weren't writing it anymore. I think this is part of why I kept updating D2D so frequently -- I didn't want my readers to feel that way!
Of course, as we've seen with some of the other responses, not everyone feels the same way I do, and not all of your readers will feel the same either! :)
Okay, now I am switching up the subject and throwing out my own question for @everyone -- Do you ever struggle with how to feel about POSITIVE feedback/praise?
Here's my personal take on it: My only experience with writing SimLit and receiving feedback has been on this forum and on Wordpress (with most of my readers coming from this forum). Everyone around here is SUPER supportive and positive and wonderful to their fellow authors, which I LOVE and think is amazing :heart:
But I will say this (Confession time!) -- It's had a huge impact on how I take positive comments and praise from my readers. Everyone showers EVERYONE with praise around here, I've noticed (again, not a bad thing!) BUT it makes me kind of take praise from my readers with a grain of salt. People will say "Wow, your story is amazing!" and I feel like they say that to EVERYONE and feel like they HAVE to say it to me.
I'm not saying I want people to insult my story :lol: (I actually take negative/constructive feedback VERY personally :lol: So I guess heaps of praise is actually better than criticism, for me) but I feel like I never know when a compliment is sincere and when it's just the lovely people in this community being, well... lovely as usual :lol: Obviously they took the time to read my story so they clearly enjoyed it, but I just never know how to take some of the comments haha.
Featured Places
