SimStoCreMo 2012: Week 3
Okay. So Eden's issues mainly stem from her mother and the lack of a father figure in her life. While she was in college, she drifted from relationship to relationship until she met Rhys. Rhys is not a terribly inhibited person and, particularly in the bedroom, he doesn't allow her to be inhibited. She's been repressed so much by her mother that Rhys' attitude is a welcome one and--
And Eden just passed gas over her meal and laughed about it. Outstanding. That's so not going in the story. Thanks a lot, Ede.
Hello everyone, I'm peasant007 (better known as Ang), and I write the Devereaux Legacy. I am here this to give your your third week Pep Talk for SimStoCremo. How did I get here? I'm not entirely sure. I'm pretty sure there was flattery involved though. I am highly susceptible to flattery.
How is all of this event going for you? I know I am NOWHERE NEAR my goal for the month, but that's a story for another day.
Anyway, I come bearing you a different sort of pep talk. At the beginning of the event, we were all encouraged to find our motivation and grab a hold of it. Last week we were encouraged to take a break when things became too overwhelming. All of it was awesome advice and it was said by more qualified people than me. And really, what more can be said? Either you've already made your goal, you're really close to your goal, or you're like me: desperately praying that by some miracle there will be more hours in the day for the next week, and in a guilt ridden, panic induced hysteria you'll slap something together, pray to the great Plumbbob in the sky that it makes sense, and meet your stated goals.
I am not here to help you with that because I am reserving my hysteria for this weekend.
However, I may have some advice that will help you get through this. It's two easy words, and those words often help me when I'm in the middle of nitty gritty details of characterization and continuity:
Be irreverent.
You heard me. Be irreverent. It's totally okay. Your Sims won't mind. The Sims, and the game itself, isn't meant to be taken so seriously.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, we, as Sim Story Tellers, have had the unique opportunity that other authors really haven't: we've actually MET our characters. We know exactly what they look like because we see them on our screen all of the time.
But there is a problem: we're all gigantic liars. I lie so much, my pants are nearly on fire. This is why:
And...
(Obviously this complaint doesn't apply to those story tellers out there who aren't writing generational stories like legacies. You lucky bastards.)
For so many of us, it's gotten to the point where we spend 5% of our time playing our game and 95% of our time staging, plotting, and planning. I don't know about you, but the last time I actually got to PLAY my legacy family was July 8th, 2011. The last eight months have been spent in backup 'hoods and photoshoot 'hoods weaving my tale and essentially rewriting my Sims' history, totally disregarding what may or may NOT have happened to my family during gameplay.
And so, because I'm rewriting what ACTUALLY happened (because honestly, nothing much really does happen. Sims are born. They learn skills. They go to work. They die), their day to day actions end up on the cutting room floor, where the only hope of public exposure is in some Pic Spam, if I'm not too lazy to put one together.
Unfortunately, because many of us heavily favor characters over actual Sim actions, we tend to forget that they are Sims. I myself end getting hung up on the smallest details and I end up in a downward spiral of panic because the small detail that I came up with might not be consistent with an even smaller detail, NEITHER OF WHICH have been mentioned in my story.
However, when I find myself in that situation, I have to take a deep breath and realize that while, yes, they are characters, they are also SIMS.
It does wonders, it really does. Go ahead and try it. Look at your layouts, your story boards, your outlines. You might feel a bit of panic. Perhaps something like, "Oh my God! I don't have the right piece of CC for this scene!" Now take a deep breath. Maybe close your eyes. Now say to yourself, "They are Sims. Yes, they are characters, but they are also Sims. And Sims are hilarious. And stupid. And stupidly hilarious."
I have some visual examples to help you out.
(Sorry, I got a bit off track there.)
I am NOT saying that everyone should abandon their story lines and only write observational stories, absolutely not! I not saying that you should change ANYTHING about your stories.
All I'm encouraging you to do is when you're in a panic because something is going wrong during the writing and planning process, to just close your eyes and remember your characters' roots. Remember that they are Sims. Remember that they have bladders the size of peas. Remember that they LITERALLY pull EVERYTHING from their rear ends! Remember that they make barking sounds when they're woohooing. Heck, they "WooHoo" and have purple hearts with googly eyes in their memory panels! That ALONE should make you giggle a little bit. When all is said and done, you'll end up getting a good laugh and feeling a whole lot better. Because, really, you're doing them a service by making them have more than just one dimensional pixels. Don't you deserve a little mental break?
Love the characters. Don't ever be afraid to treat your characters as characters. But remember that those characters are also Sims that you've had to send to the bathroom twenty times in one Sim day. When details become too overwhelming, close your eyes and giggle over all the stupid things they have done that you would never dream of putting in an update. Take them seriously...up to a point. And then don't. Because otherwise...
There's really nothing more that I can say. I really hope this makes sense to you guys and that you find it somewhat helpful. It's a terribly simplistic piece of advice that sounds incredibly stupid but (to me at least) makes sense at the same time
Love your story. Love your characters. But above all else, love and remember The Sims game itself and all the wonderful, wacky, tongue in cheek, campy humor that comes with it. It will save your sanity.
And your brains.
This public service announcement has been brought to you by peasant007.