Sim Writing Process

[sjoisan]

Hi all I hope this is in the right place.

I've never written for sims before or with any idea of having illustrations in mind. For the past few weeks I've been really studying what other sim writers do to get ideas and get me thinking.What I've been thinking about a lot recently is process.

I've decided to write out my story or at least a good number of chapters then play and shoot it out. Since I am going to be using pictures though I am feeling tempted to simply write scenes and not worry too much about putting down the bits in between the scenes. Doing it that way feels kind of cheap or lazy,but it also seems like it should be the most efficent way to do the writing. Since I am going to have to do rather a lot of work to create the scenes I feel like I should be very thoughtful about the amount of time I spend on any one aspect of the entire process.

Thoughts please,do you guys do scenes or stories?

[dinuriel]

A lot of my Sims writing seems to be more along this "scene" writing of which you speak

Part of this might just be because of the type of stories I'm writing--large cast, fairly open-ended, multiple story arcs--but I will admit that I do feel cheap and lazy sometimes

That being said... maybe being cheap and lazy isn't a bad thing? I have my Sim stories and I have my manuscripts, and if I have any cheap and lazy in my system, might as well get it out with the Sims stories

That's just my two cents, though. Really, write whatever feels right for you and for the story

[jennifer]

I wouldn't call it cheap and lazy. If that's how you think it will work for you then go for it.

I found it easier to start out small. Focusing on two characters only and developing their story. This allowed me to easily set up scenes in game with out too much hassle. While in game I'd refer to my notes but sometimes found that certain scenes just didn't work and I'd have to change what was initially going to happen to that character, which meant changing part of the storyline. I guess it depends on how heavily dependent your going to be on your shots and whether your willing to change any part of the storyline if you can't get the shots you wanted.

But that's just me and everyone is different. I do find though once you get going with your story you do tend to get into a groove.

[muzegoddess]

I'll agree with Dinuriel and Jennifer, if "cheap and lazy" works for you go for it. I think the best way to create any story, sims or otherwise, is to just get it out of you head and onto the paper or take the shots or whatever. Everything else will come together around what you do, all the holes will become visible and easier to fill in. Whatever is on your mind or whatever shots you're thinking of, just do it, clear your creative queue and the next part will come pretty quickly.

Personally I write the scenes I know I want and string them together after the fact filling in with new scenes as necessary
Most of the time I write before shooting anything

If you are anything like me, playing the game is very distracting when you do go in to take shots. From the time it takes to load the game, figure out the setting, the wardrobe, etc. I would forget half of what I wanted to do if I didn't have a "shooting script" handy. I take what I 've written, put in notes for what I want the shots to look like, and if I'm using poseboxes (which I always do) I make notes of the boxes/poses I want each sim to use for a particular shot. Makes a huge difference for me in terms of the time it takes to get things done. If I'm feeling really anal, I'll even make "production notes" about what props, etc. I need so that I don't load the game up and realize I didn't download that "thing" I needed that was pivotal to the scene.

In short when you're writing, let it flow and have fun. When you're shooting, still have fun, but have a plan or you'll be in there all day. And I'm sure you know this, but I think it always bears repeating.....whatever you do in game, TURN OFF FREE WILL.

[rad]

I do a bit of everything with my play-based stories like Operation: Population - manipulate gameplay to tell my story or manipulate my story to match the game play; shoot stuff as it happens and set up shots purely for plot.

In Dayes of Our Lives, it's a pure play blog, so no staging - in Taken it's a pure story blog so no playing. Even then, sometimes I write, then shoot it, sometimes I shoot it for an idea I have vaguely written in my head and write it properly later.

So I mix it up, is what I'm saying!

[sb]

Everybody does things a little differently. I'm like Muzegoddess: every single paragraph is mapped out before I even load the game, and every single prop is either in place or I know where to find it. Every character in every shot including background characters are placed and posed, and the poses themselves are usually overlaid several times: no one is ever standing or sitting in a default position. Sometimes what I plan doesn't look the way I expected and I'll have to try something else, but I never just go in and see what happens and write about it, and, again, like Muzegoddess, Free Will is always turned off. I'd be in there forever and I'd end up going back over and over again to get what I need if I didn't do it like that. It's hard upfront work but it sure saves time once I'm getting the shots. This method does NOT work for everybody! If it aggravates you or stunts your creativity, don't do it.

[heredoncove]

I'm different in my Sim writing process. I don't start with a lot pre-written which is why it takes me so long sometimes but I do start with a vague idea of what I want to happen. I then go in game to take pictures and use a mix of what happens and scenes that I set up. I like to use what actually happens in game to flavor the story so that they live what actually happens.

I have a lot of characters and often worry that I lose momentum but that's because I'm really slow at times.

[somuchsong]

Very rarely, I will write a whole update before I've Simmed it out. Very rarely! I think I've done it twice in the entire time I've been blogging. I use my Sims' wants and autonomous actions to guide the story, so I can't really finish an update without the game.

While I'm loading the game, I sometimes jot down some notes about what I want to do with that family. Sometimes I've already written some notes beforehand. Once I'm in game, I can decide what events or scenes I had planned are going to work and which ones won't. Then I put them in order. I try to make sure I have a beginning and end point quite early on, because those are the parts I have the most trouble with.

I write the update in LSB as I go. I used to do it after I played but I found myself staying up much, much too late and if I do it while I'm playing, it's easier for me to stay in that frame of mind. And it's faster. The next day, I dump it all into Blogger. I do edit a little but what ends up on the blog is usually not much different from what I put into LSB.

That's just me. I never drafted any of my essays at high school or uni either. I just used to write and fix it up as I went along.

[infinitygoddess]

I take the pictures first, sort them and then I write the chapter to go with it. I usually have the story in my head before pictures are taken. I do this so I know which shot would fit where.

[lepifera]

I play the sims 2 game in prosperity style, and use the combination of straight Sim2 gameplay and ROS as a writing prompt. If I haven't got a clue about a theme yet, I will just shoot whatever catches my attention in the gameplay round.

After feeling around the pictures for a theme, I would just write a self-contained short story (<1,000 words) that can stand alone on its own without any pictures, and let a theme and scenes emerge naturally. Usually, the writing contains a lot more materials taken from real life experiences than just gameplay.

When I go and play the household the 2nd round, I would pose them to get pictures for previous round's story, then cut them loose again to free gameplay.

[sjoisan]

Dinuriel-I probably shouldn't have said cheap and lazy because I'm sure its perfectfor some people and I certainly don't want to criticize someone else's process. When I skip from scene to scene without writing the in between things it all feels very bare and incomplete; I can't truly see anything and I don't enjoy it as much. As much as it might be quicker and more effecient to do it another way, given the fact that the pitures will say a thousand words, for me I think I'll end up doing it the long way around.


Jennifer- I've decided over the past couple of days to minimze the number of characters and POVs.I also suspect I'll end up not doing some scenes at all even though I've written them as I haven't got a clue as to how I could actually make them happen.

Muzegoddess- I like your method though I doubt I'll be quite as thorough as you. I'm already planning to shoot with free will off and I've been making little notes for myself as I've been writing. There is a poker table scene that I plan to let the sims play through and then write it after observing them and then shooting and posing it.


Rad- I try to have that attitude toward my game play. Since I only have the one story right now I want to at least start with a plan and more control and then try some different things down the line.

sb- I'm glad you mentioned the use of overlays. There are some stories that I really like, but I wish the authors would vary their poses a bit more. If you end up reading through their archives the images get a bit repeative. I was worrying about this in my own story.

heredoncove- I have actually played through some of what I plan now I plan to go back and shoot it. These sims were created more or less for this story.

SMS- These sims were created to tell this story and while I am playing it out they are doing a lot of what I planned for them, though I've already had some surprises.

infinitygoddess- I can't really imagine doing it that way maybe after I've gotten really good at posing and such, but right now that seems super confusing.

Lepifera- that sounds fun, but also very hard. In the long run I doubt I have the time to play it that way.

Thanks so much for the replies everyone. Some of these sounded like something I would never do, while others sounded just right and have helped me clarify my process. In spite of that I am still 100% newbie so all ideas,thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

[jennifer]

Mar 11, 2011 9:37:17 GMT -5 @muzegoddess said:

If you are anything like me, playing the game is very distracting when you do go in to take shots. From the time it takes to load the game, figure out the setting, the wardrobe, etc. I would forget half of what I wanted to do if I didn't have a "shooting script" handy.

I've lost count of how many times this has happened to me. ;D


Good luck Sjoisan!

[sb]

Mar 11, 2011 23:12:17 GMT -5 sjoisan said:

I'm glad you mentioned the use of overlays. There are some stories that I really like, but I wish the authors would vary their poses a bit more. If you end up reading through their archives the images get a bit repeative. I was worrying about this in my own story.

If you're reading work that's been around for a while, the lack of variety in poses might reflect the lack of pose boxes as well as the author's learning curve. Gayl and I have been writing Sessions for 5 years now, and the early work is very rough and stiff. There wasn't much available that long ago even if we knew what we were doing when we started!

You can play around with the camera to avoid overusing some of the poses. If you're aware of what bothers you, you probably wont' do it.

[lepifera]

There is also a way to pose the sims without using pose boxes. You can find animation boxes, use freezer clock to get the sim to pause in the middle of the motion, and use moveobjects on to move the sim. You can get more fluid result that way.

afterthecalling.wordpress.com/posing-part-ii-sitting/

[Velvet]

Do what feels good to you. Everyone has a different approach to writing that suites them and it works. As for me, I take shots first and play and don't write a thing down until the story thread is finished in my head. Then I put the shots into the order the belong and begin to write. Normally, this works perfectly for me. Now, while in the midst of writing if I need additional pics to enhance what I've written then it's quite easy to go back in and snap a few more pics.

Just recently, I have discovered that when I'm writing more than one long story at a time, it helps for me to jot a quick outline (nothing too detailed) just to keep my story threads straight but other than that (as far as the sims are concerned) I'm a pic first girl.

[infinitygoddess]

Mar 11, 2011 23:12:17 GMT -5 sjoisan said:

infinitygoddess- I can't really imagine doing it that way maybe after I've gotten really good at posing and such, but right now that seems super confusing.

Posing actually isn't all that hard. A lot of us who use Sims 2 to tell our stories use pose boxes and OMSPs, plus the moveobjects and the boolProp SnapObjectstoGrid cheats in order to get the poses. Sometimes just the regular Sim animations are good enough.

A good list of such pose boxes can be found here, plus some tutorials which are really handy for Sims 2 storytellers: www.digitalperversion.net/gardenofshadows/index.php?topic=1082.0

[heredoncove]

Like infinitygoddess said it's really easy to use poseboxes and you just get used to it. I started slow maybe using one every update and have over time built up to more. I don't always use them either just when I think a certain pose will help the scene come across better.

[sb]

You know, I've been using pose boxes (and the OMSP's and the cheats and the hacks and the animations) for years and I find it excruciatingly hard. The poses are frequently stiff and unnatural and come with strange body warping and it takes me a long, long time and a lot of trial and error to overlay them. I probably have hundreds of the things, some left over from when I was contributing shots to Lachesis' catalog but a lot of them for just one pose. I hear people say it's easy and I wonder what am I doing wrong?

[laura]

Beth, it takes me a long time too. Especially if I have a very particular arrangement in mind. (Which my next two stories have several very specific poses I have in mind, lol! Ugh!) I can spend a half an hour just getting two Sims into the right poses, overlaying dozens of different poses and then fine-tuning them with that PoserBox.

So I try to only go all out for one or two shots in the story, and just use simple lazy poses or animations for the others. And ditto your tip to use different angles and crops so that the same old pose doesn't look so similar! Great tip! I do that too!

[dinuriel]

When in doubt, just make the Sims "chat"