SimStoCreMo: Week 1
It’s that time of year again: SimStoCreMo is upon us!
Confession time: I have never participated in SimStoCreMo. Do you know why not? There are two reasons. One, I know that SimStoCreMo is modeled after NaNoWriMo, and NaNoWriMo has a crazy high word count that you have to meet, plus it’s text-only. Two, I’ve always thought that SimStoCreMo was for Writers, and I’m just a storyteller who happens to write things down. I’ve seen goals of two or three chapters, hundreds or thousands of words, and large numbers of slides. I’ve seen my online friends stress over how much they have or haven’t done, and how much they have yet to do. But all this time, I’ve been missing the point. SimStoCreMo is about two things. One, setting a challenge for yourself. And two, having fun!
Yes, I said “having fun.” The Sims (whether 2, 3, Stories, Medieval, or Original Flavor) is a game, and the point of a game is to have fun! Here I would like to take a minute to point out that the only person who defines a “challenge” is you. Now, for me, this is wrapping up the absolute busiest time of year at work. I’m generally running on caffeine and stubbornness by the end of the week, and my vacation isn’t until April. Writing three chapters at this time of year is not a “challenge” for me, it’s an “impossibility.” Heck, the way things are going and as long as it takes my Power Point to load these days, one chapter might be an impossibility! So for me, setting my goal as a chapter, or as multiple chapters, would be a bad thing. I wouldn’t have any fun at all.
But you know what I do like? I like working on the sequences that I use as spacers between households in my main story. I love the challenge of trying to give the feel of a story in four to eight slides, to make the basic shape of the plot intelligible to people who haven’t seen the whole episode. I like the challenge of trying to fit in the things I know about both characters in ways that don’t throw off those four-to-eight slides. I like downloading custom content to make the stories work. I like coming up with episode ideas so much that I have a list of forty-eight, only eleven of which have been “filmed.” You know what would be a lot of fun for me? Coming up with more details on the spacers!
Maybe I could write up four or five episodes, figuring on eight slides each. Or I could take some pictures that could work in multiple episodes. Or I could write two episodes to completion. (That’s only 16 slides or so, but it involves writing, picture-taking, and custom-content-hunting.) All of those options sound do-able in one month given how busy I will be. More importantly, all those options sound FUN. Already I’m thinking of where I can get the right skintone for this, and what custom content I would need for that, and what kind of set I would need for the other. I can’t wait to get started!
And that’s the kind of thinking you want for SimStoCreMo - “I can’t wait to do this!” instead of “Gee, this is what I have to do.” Set yourself a goal that you want to do, and that you would enjoy. Sure, make it one that will make you stretch a bit - if your goal is too easy, it’s not fun either. But remember: the whole point (of both The Sims and SimStoCreMo) is to enjoy yourself. Now stop reading this and GO HAVE FUN! We’ll see you in a month.
Confession time: I have never participated in SimStoCreMo. Do you know why not? There are two reasons. One, I know that SimStoCreMo is modeled after NaNoWriMo, and NaNoWriMo has a crazy high word count that you have to meet, plus it’s text-only. Two, I’ve always thought that SimStoCreMo was for Writers, and I’m just a storyteller who happens to write things down. I’ve seen goals of two or three chapters, hundreds or thousands of words, and large numbers of slides. I’ve seen my online friends stress over how much they have or haven’t done, and how much they have yet to do. But all this time, I’ve been missing the point. SimStoCreMo is about two things. One, setting a challenge for yourself. And two, having fun!
Yes, I said “having fun.” The Sims (whether 2, 3, Stories, Medieval, or Original Flavor) is a game, and the point of a game is to have fun! Here I would like to take a minute to point out that the only person who defines a “challenge” is you. Now, for me, this is wrapping up the absolute busiest time of year at work. I’m generally running on caffeine and stubbornness by the end of the week, and my vacation isn’t until April. Writing three chapters at this time of year is not a “challenge” for me, it’s an “impossibility.” Heck, the way things are going and as long as it takes my Power Point to load these days, one chapter might be an impossibility! So for me, setting my goal as a chapter, or as multiple chapters, would be a bad thing. I wouldn’t have any fun at all.
But you know what I do like? I like working on the sequences that I use as spacers between households in my main story. I love the challenge of trying to give the feel of a story in four to eight slides, to make the basic shape of the plot intelligible to people who haven’t seen the whole episode. I like the challenge of trying to fit in the things I know about both characters in ways that don’t throw off those four-to-eight slides. I like downloading custom content to make the stories work. I like coming up with episode ideas so much that I have a list of forty-eight, only eleven of which have been “filmed.” You know what would be a lot of fun for me? Coming up with more details on the spacers!
Maybe I could write up four or five episodes, figuring on eight slides each. Or I could take some pictures that could work in multiple episodes. Or I could write two episodes to completion. (That’s only 16 slides or so, but it involves writing, picture-taking, and custom-content-hunting.) All of those options sound do-able in one month given how busy I will be. More importantly, all those options sound FUN. Already I’m thinking of where I can get the right skintone for this, and what custom content I would need for that, and what kind of set I would need for the other. I can’t wait to get started!
And that’s the kind of thinking you want for SimStoCreMo - “I can’t wait to do this!” instead of “Gee, this is what I have to do.” Set yourself a goal that you want to do, and that you would enjoy. Sure, make it one that will make you stretch a bit - if your goal is too easy, it’s not fun either. But remember: the whole point (of both The Sims and SimStoCreMo) is to enjoy yourself. Now stop reading this and GO HAVE FUN! We’ll see you in a month.