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Valley
Feb 4, 2010 10:16:05 GMT -5
Post by Stacy on Feb 4, 2010 10:16:05 GMT -5
Valley is open now.
I will try to not delete this one. And I am sorry for deleting the others. I was not at my most rational this weekend.
I am not letting it go.
I am going to continue work on the drafts of the last update and the epilogue tonight. I hope to have them done by Sunday, but no promises on that.
But I can promise you that I will finish Valley.
I am going to pour this week's emotional turmoil into it. I am going to make it howl with rage and loss and pain and love and transcendence. I am going to win.
The beat goes on.
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Valley
Feb 4, 2010 13:22:04 GMT -5
Post by meowzbark on Feb 4, 2010 13:22:04 GMT -5
Yay, I'm happy you're going to finish.
I know you're going to feel a lot better when its finally over. Get that stress off your mind and enjoy your hard work for what it is.
And don't worry if its not perfect. ;D
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Valley
Feb 4, 2010 13:40:54 GMT -5
Post by thelunarfox on Feb 4, 2010 13:40:54 GMT -5
Woot! I can't tell you how happy that makes me. When I saw you took Valley down, my first thought was that you only have one more chapter to go. It must be finished.
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Valley
Feb 4, 2010 15:47:08 GMT -5
Post by dbloveshermac on Feb 4, 2010 15:47:08 GMT -5
Hurray! You sound all EyeoftheTigery! Go go go!
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Valley
Feb 4, 2010 16:25:51 GMT -5
Post by girlyesterday on Feb 4, 2010 16:25:51 GMT -5
I am really glad you decided to reopen Valley and that you decided to finish it. You'll feel good about it after it's done. There were so many times I wanted to give up on IHS too (particularly after that incident) but I'm glad I finished it and it's there, even if it's not that good, it's still there to remind myself that I can finish things if I set my mind to it and ignore all the crap. Let Valley be that testament for you. That despite everything, you'll soldier on and do what needs to be done and at the end of the day, you'll keep writing, no matter what anyone else says or thinks.
Just tune out all the other crap, it's not important. I know it's hard so I'll leave you with two quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt;
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. "
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Valley
Feb 4, 2010 23:39:19 GMT -5
Post by Stacy on Feb 4, 2010 23:39:19 GMT -5
Got some decent work done on the draft of the last update tonight. Figure tomorrow night is more just working with the text and then will start pics Saturday. Which I can already see that I need the pics to really straighten out the text, but I'd like a block of marble first to start cutting stuff away from. And oh, is it ever fun and lovely and wonderful. I love you, Valley.
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Valley
Feb 5, 2010 6:27:35 GMT -5
Post by raquelaroden on Feb 5, 2010 6:27:35 GMT -5
Good! This is very good. I think you'll feel great once you've finished the story and realize what an accomplishment that is.
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Valley
Feb 5, 2010 18:11:35 GMT -5
Post by Stacy on Feb 5, 2010 18:11:35 GMT -5
Whew. I was scared to read the replies but I just did and omg you guys - you are the coolest most awesome greatest people ever! *hugs* meowzbark - Thank you! Oh, I can't not worry about it not being perfect. Most I can do is forgive myself when I come back to it in a few months and see what I could have done better - like with the early Valley chapters. Daydream has been rather heavily edited and I did some small edits on Fog the other day. Err - I haven't actually read any of the SimSecret stuff and I am incredibly neurotic, so I have to ask - how is it not perfect?! Tell me! I can go fix it! Unless it's major plot stuff - which I know there are some plot issues that I can't fix in the Sims version but can definitely improve on in the full text version. And I don't know if I'll feel better when it's finished. I will miss it. So much. But that's what spinoffs and possible full text version are for, right? Lunarfox - Yay I'm glad it made you happy! And yes, I agree. It must be finished. DB - I am certainly motivated, yes. I think that having something to defeat, something to set myself against, is turning out to be quite helpful. Thank you, haters. Carnaxa - Thank you so much. And I know I owe you a PM - I'll get to that tonight. I do often think about that Eleanor Roosevelt quote. Also, whatever, IHS is good. Err - is Valley not? *is neurotic again* raquelaroden - Thank you! But I don't know - I don't think I'll feel great because Valley is finished. If I pull off what I'm trying to do with this update, then I will feel great. Newest Seth song.
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Valley
Feb 5, 2010 18:31:55 GMT -5
Post by girlyesterday on Feb 5, 2010 18:31:55 GMT -5
Oh trust me, I know all about being neurotic. I like Valley, that's why I am still reading it. I think it's good, you've got a great concept there and as I've told you before, yours was the first TS3 story I stumbled onto and after reading it, it inspired me to write my own, and I was pretty stoked there were TS3 storytellers out and about. I hadn't planned on doing anymore storytelling or anything sim related at all (at that time, I had sworn off the sims, the sims community and the internet), and then I found your story and then after that, I found the other stories through your site and well, the rest as they say, is history.
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Valley
Feb 5, 2010 19:31:42 GMT -5
Post by lhasa on Feb 5, 2010 19:31:42 GMT -5
I'm glad you're going to finish it! : ) Valley was the first sims story I read and it inspired me to create my own. I was tired of the caption-based legacy scene and was going to give up on sim writing altogether beforehand.
I think everyone becomes neurotic about their stories once in a while. It's pretty natural.
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Valley
Feb 5, 2010 20:47:11 GMT -5
Post by meowzbark on Feb 5, 2010 20:47:11 GMT -5
I completely agree with you about editing. As soon as I finish my own legacy, I'm going back to generation one and rewriting it entirely. I know that, personally, if I focus too much on making it perfect, I'd never finish. There's very few chapters I'm thrilled with. Most of them are barely satisfactory to my standard. Its very frustrating but I'm happy I got passed those chapters. They told their portion of the story, even if it wasn't exactly how I imagined it.
I can't wait to read more of your non-sims writing. With so few expansions out, the game is very limited with animations and coordination. Imagine writing without those boundaries. Without having the sim characters pester you about using the toilet again, interrupting your focus on the story.
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Valley
Feb 6, 2010 4:14:08 GMT -5
Post by Stacy on Feb 6, 2010 4:14:08 GMT -5
Didn't get any work done tonight - went out to dinner and a movie and got home pretty late. While we were out I bought Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies For Every Writer. It rocks. So hard. And it shows me that I have a long way to go but that I'm on the right track and if I keep writing and learning I'll get there one day. And the feared MM edition of SimSecrets turned out to be two positive secrets. I'd say thanks, but well - no LJ account now. And no plans for a new one or un-deleting either of the old ones. The rage and paranoia got me started but then - like today at work I listened to 99 Problems a couple of times but it wasn't really working like it did Thursday. Seemed to be more of a party/dance music day today. Still grooving to "I'm the lyrical gangster" at the moment. I can let go of the anger and the fear and the pain now. Valley is once again fuelling itself. Carnaxa - Thank you! I was pretty close to swearing off the internet myself earlier this week. But I didn't, and I'm glad. Lhasa - Oh, thank you so much. Heh - I got my start with legacies and totally meant Valley to be a legacy when I started it, but I can understand getting saturated with them. You know the initial idea behind Valley? I wanted my first generation's spouse to be different, to be a Sim that no one else had used as a spouse yet. So I thought "How can I do that?" and the answer was "Push the game ahead a few generations so new Sims have been born." So Seth was going to kill Lilith and then she was going to hang around as a ghost, find and eat some ambrosia and come back and not realize that she'd been dead for a long time, go back to Jason's house, and find that he'd died of old age a long time ago. Oh, and I was going to cannibalize a save file I'd played through four generations already for the actual legacy after shooting the prologue. meowzbark - If it helps I think all of your chapters are great. I can certainly relate to being your own worst critic and being hard on yourself, though. Oh, my peeps only use the bathroom when I have to do stuff like play them through Seth getting his gardening skill up and growing the life fruit plants. Go go chaos mod painting and max all moods! I don't know - at first I was afraid of writing without the game to provide limits. But then I wrote Interlude first before taking the pics and the beginning of Ten doesn't have pics at all. I'm easing into it. But Valley is so organic to the game. The plot and the themes and the images all came from the gameplay or the game scenery or how pretty fire looks in the game. But it's okay - Ten already had some emerging themes and repeating images even without the game to provide them. So I can do it without the game. It'll just be slow going at first. You all rock.
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Valley
Feb 6, 2010 9:15:44 GMT -5
Post by rad on Feb 6, 2010 9:15:44 GMT -5
Glad you're in such a positive mood You'll be so pleased and proud when it's all done, honestly.
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Valley
Feb 6, 2010 12:39:41 GMT -5
Post by simsnewbie23 on Feb 6, 2010 12:39:41 GMT -5
I am VERY VERY happy you are going to finish Valley. =)
Yay for stepping back and taking a deep breath before going back to a project. I"m all about taking much needed breaks if the story stresses me out more then pleases me.
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Valley
Feb 10, 2010 23:41:03 GMT -5
Post by Stacy on Feb 10, 2010 23:41:03 GMT -5
Rad - Thank you. And we'll see how I feel when I'm finished. I feel absolutely in love with it at the moment. simsnewbie23 - Thank you! Although it wasn't Valley that was bothering me. New song - this is both a Valley song, especially for certain possible interpretations of the story, and a sort of way to explain how I feel about writing Valley lately. I'm very much in the Valley Bubble. And it's just me and Valley, no stalkers, no secrets, no obsessing about the stats page in either direction.
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Valley
Feb 11, 2010 0:57:59 GMT -5
Post by Stacy on Feb 11, 2010 0:57:59 GMT -5
Hoo boy do I have some meta and themes and symbols and metaphors things to share.
However, they would all be terribly spoiler-y at the moment. But I will have plenty to talk about after publishing the end.
Progress - didn't do any work tonight 'cause went out, but did find things to think about. Does that count? Took a fair few pictures Tuesday night, including that intricate sequence of pics I've mentioned before. Found a fairly easy not actually that intricate way to do it.
Current wordcount on the draft for the final update - 359. Is not even close to done yet. Plan to do text work and put in a few more of the pics from Tuesday tomorrow night.
Still kind of hoping it'll be done this weekend, but no promises still.
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Valley
Feb 11, 2010 14:26:59 GMT -5
Post by dbloveshermac on Feb 11, 2010 14:26:59 GMT -5
Yayippyahoo! for not so intricate ways of achieving your shots! I look forward to reading about the process after the ending is posted. ~excited for you~ :-)
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Valley
Feb 11, 2010 20:40:36 GMT -5
Post by Stacy on Feb 11, 2010 20:40:36 GMT -5
Yayippyahoo! for not so intricate ways of achieving your shots! I look forward to reading about the process after the ending is posted. ~excited for you~ :-) Thanks! This doesn't appear to be the cleanest site but it hasn't done anything horrible to my computer yet - the playlist I'm mostly listening to at the moment while working on the update. It doesn't have what I have come to see as Valley's true theme song because that'd be pretty freaking spoilery. BTW - Only is not spoilery at all and although that is certainly a possible interpretation of the story it's not the one I'm presenting.
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Valley
Feb 12, 2010 10:49:08 GMT -5
Post by Stacy on Feb 12, 2010 10:49:08 GMT -5
Current word count: 227 Yay progress! Played around with the pics and deleted a lot of crap last night. Heh - some of the significantly lower wordcount is stuff like "pic of Seth doing Seth stuff goes here". Tried to find a pic to share but all of them are pretty darn spoilery. Also went looking through the Bella chapters for an image to reuse and edited them along the way. All they needed was the occasional word deleted. I'd forgotten how decent they were. And they were easy finger vomit done in a night or two. I'm not sure what that means. It's been a while since it's been easy quick finger vomit. Is that good or bad?
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Valley
Feb 12, 2010 11:35:50 GMT -5
Post by laura on Feb 12, 2010 11:35:50 GMT -5
OMG, I just had to LOL @ finger vomit!!! So true though. I don't know what the difference is. I think things get harder when we're going through growth spurts. We're more careful then, and we judge ourselves harder. I know what you mean.
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