I’m a writer who came to the Sims after developing my techniques for writing fanfiction in another fandom. I write for both Sims 3 and JAG; two entirely different fandoms. But when it comes to writing it requires the same amount of skill to craft a compelling story.
I learned to craft my stories without the benefit of pictures and that has coloured my actions on how i write my stories. They have to stand alone: pictures or no pictures.
A reader needs to be able to open up my story in the Sims 3 stories section of FFnet and be able to picture Sunset Valley in their mind without having ever played the game or have ever having seen the characters before. That’s why I go into so much detail on my stories and why my stories in the Legacy section of the forums appear to be big BLOCKS OF TEXT🤣 that seem to be overly descriptive punctuated by a few screenshots here and there and run anywhere from 60K words to 120K.
I love descriptive stories that are detailed and delve into character quirks and authors who can flesh out a history of why a character does what he does.
I want to be able to feel something for the character not just be a bystander watching what the sim does during the course of her day.
I find that as both a reader and a writer, I have to see compelling characters that draw me into the world the writer has created with their story.
I can write a 3000 word character description that delves into who they are, what their history has been. Why they act the way they do…so on and so on.
My stories tend to be big blocks of text because of how I learned to write: without aid of pictures and that is the audience that I write for too as most of my Sims stories end up going in FFnet
And this is why I can’t get into stories that sound like this:
Jared woke up that morning. It was sunny. He went to the fridge and had a quick meal of yogurt. Then he went to the market and bought (list of groceries). Along the way he ran into Gunter Goth. He hated Gunter so he insulted him and then punched his lights out. Then he went home and had lunch. After that he wanted to improve his fishing skill so he went to Pinochle pond and fished for a while. He got bored eventually and went home. It was getting late so he brushed his teeth and went to bed. That was Jared’s day off.
I generally click out of those story threads.
I don’t say that to be mean. As someone who has spent many years crafting their skills in writing, I need to read something exceptional, that draws me into the story in order to feel something. I cannot read a story that doesn’t compel me, that doesn’t pull me in, that doesn’t make of it’s retinue of characters a compassionate character; someone that we can feel a kinship with.
…otherwise, I’m just reading a laundry-list of what the character did that day. And my response will be “oh, that’s nice…” and that will be it.
When I tackle a new Sims story, I write the story like I’m writing a fan-fiction. The simple fact is that it gets really easy to fall into the crutch of letting the images tell the tale and just describing the images.
I’ve read a lot of stories that didn’t delve deeply into the characters; that just described what their characters did that day (they ate such and such for breakfast, went to the store, painted or went to work came home, watched TV, ate dinner and went to bed).
What readers want in a juicy fan-fiction is to delve into the characters; why they did what they did - to really get into the mind of the characters.
For example; Jared Frio (a character that I hate) is a pretty one-dimensional character if you leave him the way EA has set him up. He’s a mean-spirited bully. His motivations seem pretty simple enough. He works at Hogan’s Diner as a short-order cook -a position that doesn’t require a whole lot of know-how and he goes around picking on people in the town of Sunset Valley.
But what brought him to that point? An abusive absentee father? What provoked him to be that way? Did his mom lavish attention on Connor, his younger brother, who seems to be more well-adjusted than he is? Why isn’t he more well-educated; was it rebellion against the iron dictates of his father or an abusive mother who played favorites.
Delve into the minds of your sims; not just the ones you create but the ones EA have left for your created sims to interact with. What are their motivations. What is the background that brought them to that point in life? Flesh out all your characters. What are their motivations - what drives them to be that way?
Fleshing out your characters brings the world alive -it makes your sims relatable to your readers instead of a detached. “Oh, your sim did that today, how interesting.”
The same start to the above excerpt written by me: would go something like this:
A bright sun peeked over the horizon, creeping its way slowly across the threshold of Jared Frio’s window in his bedroom; the rays finally reaching his covers warming them up slowly, coaxing a reluctant Jared to stir. He was never an early riser. He hated being yanked out of bed in the morning as his father used to slam open the door and roar at him to wake up. Now that Jared was an adult, he’d wake up when he was good and ready to and not a second before. It was another good ten minutes before the room was warm enough to Jared’s liking so that he could even think about removing one limb from under the covers, let alone set two feet on the floor.
I’ve taken the same amount of time on one section of Jared’s day that an event describer has taken to cover the whole day. In the “story-teller’s paragraph, I’ve described the environment, Jared’s general outlook on the world and his behavior. I’ve delved into his background on why he was reluctant to get out of bed and cemented the traits that he is obstinate and rebellious. That is refining and fleshing out a character.
That is what a story-teller does. A writer writing a story does not have the benefit of having pictures to tell a story. We have to craft those worlds we write about in our own minds before we put pen to paper. They say a picture is worth a thousand words but not when you’re telling a story. You have to be able to craft a compelling story that draws readers in with or without the benefit of having pictures.
I came to Sims 3 from fanfiction.net where I used to write fanfiction for the TV Show JAG. And that has pretty much coloured how I write my Sims fanfiction too.
With JAG, I don’t have the benefit of new episodes (since it finished its ten season run and the actors are onto new n’ better things) so any story I come up with had to explore new angles and entirely out of my imagination.
Sims has the benefit of being absolutely limitless in its possibilities.
I use the Sims like my own personal “movie studio” and the individual sims like actors.
And I write my Sims stories the way I would write a book without the benefit of pictures. I can write a 250 or longer word paragraph to describe a single event in a sim’s day.
My JAG fanfiction multi-chapter stories would rival the word-count of a large paperback fiction book. One that I have is almost 120K words. (Keep in mind that a published book can be anywhere from 60K to 85K words in length.
I have written two chapters of a post-apocalyptic Sims 3 legacy that is now rounding about 20K+ words posted on FFnet.
I delve into how my characters are thinking because I want the readers to be able to “relate” to the character and think Hey…I’d feel that way too if that happened to me. That’s what gets your readers emotionally interested in your stories.
Here we get to see River McIrish-Chikamori’s thoughts after living in a nuclear bunker for near ten years watching her husband shoulder the role of leader of the bunker.
5:00AM; Checkpoint Bravo Bunker, 10 Summerhill Court; Two Years and Six Months Post - Apocalypse; June 1990
A lot had changed in two years.. River pondered as she looked towards those who were engaged in tasks that were beneficial to the smooth-running operation of the bunker. My baby has grown into a little toddler and I've changed too as has everyone. This Apocalypse has changed us all and our outlook on life. We're not concerned about the mundane things we used to be obsessed with. If one compared what we used to think was important to survival, the latter is what is most important. She sighed Before the bombs fell, we'd have been worried about boys, whether they liked us, who was going out with whom, what the latest flick was at the movie theatre, all superficial things now when you look at what's gone on. We've all had to grow up far too quickly. I was a mother at nineteen. My boy is one year old now that I'm twenty. Which means that I'll be just thirty-nine when he turns my age now.
Andrew is, outside of Haruo my husband, is the light of my life. I'm his protector, his mama, his world and I would sacrifice my life to protect him. I want him to be strong, capable and a leader, just like his father.
Bebe burned the midnight oil and got her medical knowledge in record time, she's always been a great book learner and those medical texts they left us with were fascinating reading to her, which was essential since we needed medical staff. Let's hope others get that urge because we sorely need others who are medically trained. And Bebe is constantly expanding her knowledge in medicine to better help us. She has changed so much from the person I knew who was a prankster and lived for laughs. Now she's serious and dedicated in her field plus she and Phil have complemented each other as a married pair.
Phil was ever the prankster too and that would have normally brought Bebe and him together but now Phil is much more serious and dedicated to crafting the best meals that he can under the circumstances. He has become a whiz in the kitchen and for that we're thankful. I've had my handful of tasks to deal with so I haven't had time to get my cooking skill up to where I want it and it's great to have a chef who takes pride in his work and strives to give everyone the best possible dining experience even if we're stuck in the bunker and he's the only game in town.
Noel; he's always tending our gardens and working on the computer doing something. Or if neither of those two things, he's tinkering at the plumbot station or the science station doing something I can't wrap my mind around. Holly is now our nursery mother and she is good at it. She's got the family-oriented personality and she loves what she does. . Well, right now, she only has Andrew to deal with when I'm having to support my husband and what he's doing since Sam and Sandi have aged up to child and are independent of the needs of the nursery.
Sam and Sandi; who knew I'd be taking care of two children who lost their parents. Sandi and Sam are at the age now where they are testing their limits and what I'm willing to accept in behavior out of them. The thankful part of it is that they're readily willing to accept me and Haruo as their parents after losing their real parents. Sandi knew me as just River before this whole thing went down and she still remembers Molly, but she calls me Mom now because to her, that's who I am.
Yet whenever that happens I feel this twinge because Molly should be here to be that for her and frankly that's the worst part.
Sam does the same and my mind turns to Leighton and how he and Sam's Grandma Yumi should have been here as well. And it brings me to tears when I see Sam reach up and give Haruo a hug because it should have been Leighton who should have been the one receiving that hug from his son.
Haruo and I are just filling the roles and for Leighton's and Molly's memory we hope to raise Sam and Sandi to be strong and dedicated young adults since they can't be here to do so.
Yes, that is the cruel part of this whole experience we've undergone. So many parents can't be here to see the maturity and steadfastness of their children when placed in an extreme situation and that is the unfair crux of this whole Apocalypse because we've lost so many good people in Sunset Valley. So many families have been torn apart. I can only hope that we are able to set things right and get the earth back to what it was before. We can't let their deaths be in vain.
We live on in memory of them and what they sacrificed so that we could live.
Here you see River’s plaintive mood, the feeling of being overwhelmed by events beyond her control, the sadness that she feels over the loss of so many during the nuclear attacks. But you also feel that faint glimmer of hope when she essentially says we must go on to remember those who gave their lives for us. To strike an emotional chord in your readers.
I opt to flesh out my characters, delve into their motivations and create a history that drives the characters to do what they do and not just for the ones who I create, but for the whole town since that will drive my created sims interactions with them.
Why do this? Why go to all the problem of fleshing out a whole environment in words when I could just plunk down a screen-cap and call it a day? Because I’m writing for text-readers, not just Sims players. I want someone who has never experienced the Sims to come in and read the story and go “hey, I feel the characters…and what you put them through makes me feel for them.
Writing is an art-form. We use words to craft our environment around our characters. And that is what will make any story interesting: if you create characters that your readers can relate to.
…and that is the whole point of writing Sims fic - making your readers emotionally invested in your labour of love for the Sims.
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