It pleases me greatly to announce that Echoes of Eternity has been nominated by
Stormy, author of
The Life and Times of the Willows,
Julie, author of
Through Colour Blind Eyes,
Andante Zen, author of
The Last Canvas/Laurent Under the Sun,
sandybeachgirl, author of
Listening to My Heart,
lovesstorms, author of
Lovesstorms' Stories,
TheJanesLegacy, author of
The Janes Legacy, and
Lckygrl1975, author of
Painswater Point, for the Liebster Award. This is my fourteenth nomination, and the seventh one for Echoes. My first was Jinx, who nominated my Wordpress blog, where I keep a compilation of links to my actual stories. Second was MrsOogieBoogie, who nominated The Compound, my completed story about a cult. Third was MsMidnightBlonde, who nominated Blink of an Eye, my apocalyptic story. Fourth was Stormy, who nominated Echoes of Eternity, my legacy. Fifth was Daijah V, who nominated Painting the Townies Gorgeous, my challenge story. Sixth was from Julie, who also nominated Echoes of Eternity. Seventh was from hellohannah2, who nominated L'amour Vrai, my Disney story. Eighth was from AndanteZen, who nominated Echoes of Eternity. Ninth was from sandybeachgirl, who nominated Echoes of Eternity. Tenth was from lovesstorms, who nominated Echoes of Eternity, Blink of an Eye, and The Compound. Eleventh was EliRoc, who nominated L'amour Vrai. Twelfth was TheJanesLegacy, who nominated L'amour Vrai. Thirteenth was also TheJanesLegacy, who nominated Echoes. Thank you all for thinking of me.
♥
The Liebster Award is an award passed between bloggers to show appreciation for others' blogs. There are some rules for accepting the Liebster Award, which are as follows:
- Post the award on your blog.
- Thank the blogger who presented the award and link back to their blog.
- Nominate 5-11 bloggers whom you feel deserve this award and have fewer than or equal to 3,000 followers.
- Answer 11 questions posted by the nominator, and ask your nominees 11 questions.
My Nominees
I have already nominated five bloggers for the award, so I won't be nominating them again, but these were the ones I picked initially, just for information's sake, and also if you are looking for something to read, these are five amazing stories worth checking out.
- The Insane Dubois Legacy by Simcomix aka MrsOogieBoogie
- Another Life to Live by MsMidnightBlonde aka RaeNic
- Different Winters by LilyShadowWriter
- Perfection by littlesims2chick aka alexandrea
- Summerdream by caterpillarsims
Questions from Stormy
1. How long have you been playing the Sims? What made you start playing?
I started playing the Sims in 2013. I used to play Facebook games before then, but I grew tired of them because they got repetitive. It was annoying to not be able to play the game when I wanted to because I was waiting on some item from my friends. I played The Sims Social, which was the Facebook version of the Sims, Since I got sick of the waiting, I went to the store one day and just bought the Sims 3 because I wanted a real computer game. LOL.
2. Which version of the game is your most favorite?
I've only ever been introduced to Sims 3 and Sims 4, and I like Sims 3 the best. I have seen my sister play Sims 2, but I didn't like the way the Sims look in it.
3. What is your writing style, and why did you choose that style to write your story?
My writing style is primarily first person. When I am writing about a main character, and also supporting characters that are important to the story, first person allows me to immerse myself into their heads, and write passionately about them. I like to be very detailed about their thoughts, emotions, and feelings, and I like first person the best for that. For important characters in the story, I will sometimes switch perspectives from different characters, but I will usually do no more than three view changes in a single chapter. If I ever write in third person for Echoes, it will be because none of the main characters or the supporting characters were around when the event happened, so they will have no input on the situation. Another reason I would do third person is because I wanted to keep something from the characters' knowledge, but I wanted to tell the readers about the event.
4. What inspired you to write your story?
One day, I was thinking of some of my favorite movie quotes and why I like particular ones. It was because they had meaning for me in my life, and then I started thinking about how they inspired me. At the time, I had only started writing, and I was starting to have writers block with my only story. My founder Maximus, had just grown up into a YA, and I was thinking about starting a story with him, which caused me to look for something I could write about. The movie quotes inspiring me in my real life made me think that I could use the movie quotes as a spark for a potential character's life, and that's how Echoes got started.
5. Which character out of your story is your most favorite? Why or why not?
I think Maximus is my favorite. He is my founder, and I just really love him. His personality was a combination of many things that wouldn't normally go together, and he is a bad boy with a heart of gold. I gave him two personality traits that I sometimes give myself, so I relate to him a lot. Maximus is misunderstood for some parts of his life, and I feel that way in my life too.
6. What is it about writing that you like the most?
I like that there is no limit to what I can do because it's my story, so I am free to do whatever I want. I love the freedom that writing my own story gives me.
7. If you could be a Sim for a day, which of the in-game Sims would you be, and why?
If you mean a townie, then I really need to go look at some lists of names on Wikipedia or something. LOL. Rarely do I ever play the townies, and I have never really looked into the in-game Sims enough to want to be one of those Sims.
8. If you were a Sim, what would be your Lifetime Wish and which of the jobs/careers would you have?
Heehee, my Lifetime Wish would be Superstar Actor, and I would have the film branch of the actor job.
9. If you could change anything about the Sims to make your writing experience much easier, what would it be, and why?
Hmm... sometimes when I'm placing things, even when I have the moveobjects on cheat activated, there are some decorations that won't go where I want them to, and it irritates me when my sets aren't just the way I want them. LOLL. I usually make do since there's nothing I can really do about it, but it does drive me nuts sometimes. I also have some wierd rendering thing that happens sometimes in small rooms. If I go into Tab mode to try to take pictures, sometimes everything will unrender and disappear, leaving the outside environment, and then the house won't render again till I hit Tab again. I hate that. I thought the nofade and the nodrift mods would fix this particular problem but it hasn't. Again, I can deal with it, I won't let anything stop me from writing, but these are some things I really wish would stop happening, LOL, it would save me lots of time.
10. Do you create your own poses for your story or prefer to download them from other creators? Why or why not?
I only recently learned how to make my own poses, and I greatly prefer making them over downloading them from other people. Back when I used to have to find poses I needed, it would always seem that I needed something that didn't exist, even though there are 34579857 poses out there, LOL. Learning to make my own really relieved the irritation I had from searching and searching for something that potentially could never be found. I definitely think that the time I spend making poses is well worth it, and it takes less time than trying to find stuff.
11. Do you prefer to write out your chapters first before taking your pictures or do you prefer to take your pictures first and then write out your chapters? Why?
Um... neither. LOLL. The way I put a chapter together is I will open my blog editor, and my game. I will write whatever ideas I have, usually it's like a sentence that I wanted to start the chapter off with, which then turns into a paragraph. Then, I'll go to my game and take a picture or two that goes with the paragraph I just wrote. If I know what else I want to do for the next paragraph, I will hit the "Windows button" to minimize my game and write the paragraph, then go back in and take a picture or two. However, if I don't really know what I want to write, or where I want to go for the next thing, I will go in game and play my Sims on Free Will for a while, and sometimes they will give me an idea.
Questions from Julie
1. If you were stranded on a desert island with one of the sim characters from your story - which one would you like it to be?
I would be stranded with Camo Balestrom from The Compound. He's really fun and romantic, I think I would have a lot of fun spending time with him, even if we were stranded. LOL.
2. How long have you been playing the sims for and what got you started?
I have been playing the Sims for two years. I used to play Facebook games, and I found The Sims Social on it, which is the Facebook version of the Sims, but I was finding it really annoying because I couldn't do something simple like buy a bed for my Sim. I could, but then I would have to request parts from my friends to build the bed, and the game became tedious. I got so fed up one day I went to the store and made up my mind to buy a real computer game, one that I could actually play, and so I found the Sims3. As a side note too, my sister in law showed me Sims3 a few years before 2013, but I never played it for myself until then, so she has some part in getting me to start as well. If she hadn't shown me the Sims, I might not have known how fun it was. LOL.
3. What other hobbies do you have outside of simming, blogging and writing.
Outside of my stories, I like to exercise, cook, scrapbook, cross-stitch, shop, drive, watch movies and TV.
4. What is your favourite sim trait and why?
My favorite trait is Evil. LOL. I love the evil laugh the Sims do, and when they go up behind someone and scare them. The first time I saw my Simself do that, because yes, I gave my Simself the Evil trait, I laughed so hard because I have done that to my hubs before. He'll be in a different room with the door shut. When I hear that he might be coming out, I stand in front of the door really quietly, and when he opens it, he isn't expecting me there and gets scared and then I laugh. I also gave my Simself the "Emperor of Evil LTW" and so I got her there to Level 10 of her career, and she glowed red when she went outside, and some Sims, the "Good" trait Sims, I'm guessing, would run away from her. LMAO. The Evil trait just makes me laugh so much.
5. Do you think there is an age limit to when you should be playing sims, or an age when it is not acceptable anymore?
Definitely not. In general, I feel there really isn't an age limit to the majority of things a person can do, as far as hobbies go. I know 19 year olds who knit, and that's considered an "old lady" hobby, but they like it, so who am I to judge them for liking what they like? The same thing can be applied for Sims, and other computer games. If I like it, then I'm going to keep doing it. I think people grow out of some hobbies just naturally, like maybe one day Sims just doesn't appeal to you anymore because you find you don't like it as much as you used to, but it's never about an age group or a limit, and always about preference. I love video games, and I suspect I will still love them even when I'm 90. LOL.
6. Where do you get the inspiration from for your writing?
My main inspiration for writing comes from movies and TV shows, which is why Echoes is a legacy that's movie themed. These two forms of media really engage me, I learn a lot from them, and they also speak to me really effectively. My second form of inspiration is music. Sometimes I will hear a song on the radio and one of my characters will pop into my head because the lyrics were about the exact situation that I happened to be writing about, or wanting to write about. The song Ghost by Ella Henderson really did that one day, and it helped me start one of Armand's chapters because it reminded me of his situation so much.
7. What do you love most about the Sims game. What keeps you playing it?
I love how creative I can be with the game. I feel like the possibilities are endless, whether it be creating a Sim, dressing them up, or building their house. I feel like I can really customize the game a lot with the Create a Style tool, that is probably the thing I love the most.
I keep playing it for a few reasons, the main one is my stories, and it sort of goes along with the first part, where it opened up my creativity a lot. I had never written before my Sims stories. except for school reports, I didn't write full blown stories like I do with the Sims, and it's because of the Sims that I found out I even had an interest in writing. The second reason I keep playing it is because it's so endless and I love that. I've had Sims for two years now, and there are still so many expansions I have, and installed, that I haven't explored at all. There are plenty of towns I haven't really had Sims live in yet, but came with the expansions. I always find a new thing the game could do that I had no idea existed, and I love that. It's like opening a Christmas gift every time I find a new feature in my game. Many lifetime wishes I've never played, tombs I've never explored, lifetime rewards I've never purchased, and traits I've never used.
8. How seriously do you take your writing? Is it just for fun or would you like to make a living out of it one day?
I take my writing seriously, as in, I never publish an update I feel is not up to my standards. If it doesn't fit one hundred percent with the chapters before it, it gets tweaked until it fits perfectly. I really like to make sure I spell everything correctly, ideas make sense, and all the pictures are how I want them before I publish. I want to give the readers the ultimate experience when they read, and the only way I know how to do it is to take it seriously.
Now, for your second question, I treated it as a different thing from the first question. My writing is purely for fun, but I take it seriously. XD I don't have an interest in becoming an author who writes for a living. My interests for how I want to make a living lie in the field of acting. I feel like writing has helped me in my acting though, because when I write I have to come up with a personality for my character, and give them depth and dimension. This is the same with acting, when I portray a character, I have to come up with depth and dimension, and so because I already know how to do that from writing, it makes it easier for me to do that.
9. Which are your favourite world, expansion pack and premade sim?
My favorite world is Starlight Shores because I love the Hollywood sign, beaches, and palm trees. My favorite expansion pack is World Adventures because I love the tombs and I love to make my Sims find treasures they can bring home. I can't say I have a favorite premade Sim, I don't play with the townies at all really. I am doing that
Townie challenge that I made up LOL, to give myself a chance to play a townie, but as of now, I don't have a favorite.
10. Five sim traits that describe you.
Heavy Sleeper, Natural Cook, Rebellious, Vehicle Enthusiast, Natural Born Performer - Sometimes I pick different ones because I usually think there are way more than five Sim traits I could use to describe me, but these are the first five that came to mind just now.
11. Tell me a random fact about yourself.
My favorite superhero is Batman.
Questions from Andante Zen
01- Why do you write?
I write because it's a way for me to be creative and because it's therapeutic for me. I had a bad experience mentally a few years ago. One of my Sims stories,
The Compound, is an entire story I wrote based on the experience, and as I kept writing it, I felt like I was slowly able to heal myself. Creatively, I like to explore new topics and mix things into ordinary topics to create new things, basically I just like to see how I can improve and surprise both myself and my readers.
02 - What motivates you to write?
Motivation for me sometimes comes from looking at the date of my last update. When I see that it's been a month or two since I've updated, it gives me a little push to try to work on the update in progress. I almost always have a chapter partially written in drafts, but sometimes it sits in the drafts for much longer than it should. Alcohol also motivates me, LOL, a lot of times I'll be stuck on something, and more often than not, drinking some alcohol gets the wheels turning again. The Sims motivates me to write. I feel like it opened my creativity so much.
03 - When did you start writing? And blogging?
I started writing in 2013, and that was also the same time I started blogging. My first story wasn't successful because I didn't feel like I wanted to continue it, at the time, I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing, so I scrapped the whole project. I've always written with the Sims as pictures, and it started a few months after I bought Sims3. Prior to the Sims, I had never written anything except for school papers.
04 - Does publishing online interferes with your writing process, and how?
No, not at all. Since I have always only written stories for the purpose of publishing it on a blog, it seems natural for me. I always write in my blog editor on Blogger, or Wordpress, so that I can preview it easily on the blog. It's really important for me that my story not only sounds good, but that it looks good too. Any time I add a picture, I'll preview it so I can catch any mistakes or wierd things that might have happened in the blog code. Any time I make an edit, it also gets previewed so that I can see how things flow. If something doesn't flow well, it gets changed.
05 - What is your writing process -- do you have a preferred place, hour, a ritual to write?
I usually write in my living room, on my futon, but sometimes I will write in the den as well. I can write at all hours of the day, it just depends on what ideas I have at the time, as well as how motivated I am. Since I have multiple stories, usually one or two of them will be at the forefront of my mind, and I'll decide which one I want to work on. After that's narrowed down, I'll go to my drafts and either start one, or go to a draft I've already started, and read over it to see if I even still like it. If I do, then I will either write some more, or if I don't know what to write, then I'll open my game and get pictures for what I've already written. Sometimes I will play my game a little bit because it helps me get ideas if I'm really stuck. I recently started making poses, so I do that in the middle too, like if I'm writing and I think of a pose idea, then I'll go and make it.
06 - Do your online readers influence you, and how?
Yes. When the readers leave comments for me, they usually have questions or curiosities. I like to write in the way that I don't reveal everything all at once. When readers ask questions and share curiosities, it helps me think about the next chapter. I always write for myself, and I never change a main plot line of a story from a reader's comment, but I do use readers to help me know if I'm missing anything in the story, with the way that it's already progressing.
07 - Have social medias changed your writing, and how?
No, it doesn't change my writing. The only social media I have that I put my Sims items on are Tumblr. I just share random pictures on there, and it's not very often. I also write some short stories on Tumblr because I don't want to write a long one, the organization of Tumblr is horrendous, in my opinion, and it's such a pain to follow stories on there. That's why I feel like I just wanted to write a short one and post it from beginning to end, so readers can read it all in one sitting and not have to try to figure out where they were when I last updated. I use Tumblr to find CC for my game and make it pretty. LOL. I do have a personal Facebook account, but I don't want to mix my Sims stuff in with that. Most of my Sims friends are separate from my friends in life, and they're definitely two different communities.
08 - What do you do to overcome writer's block?
I do a few different things. One of them is I will open my game and play a random game save I have that is not a story save, just to relax, and enjoy myself, without thinking about what I was stuck on. Secondly, I will watch a movie or a tv show, and many times inspiration comes from them. Thirdly, I will look through the list of Sims3 challenges. It doesn't mean that I will necessarily take on any of those challenges, but sometimes just seeing what is out there that other people are doing helps me think differently. Fourthly, I'll listen to some music, and sometimes certain songs will spark something. Fifthly, I'll exercise. I have a treadmill in my house, so I don't have to go far to find gym equipment. I'll run on it, and usually put in a movie at the same time. It gets my heart pumping and my energy going, and often times the physical activity will spread to my mental activity as well. Sixth, is I will work on a different story. Just because I have writer's block on one story, it doesn't mean I have it on all my stories.
09 - What are you favorite authors -- in Literature, cinema?
I don't read a whole lot, but two authors I remember enjoying are Michael Crichton, and Bret Easton Ellis. Cinema is what I love. I'm going to go with directors to mean authors in cinema, as I often don't know the actual writers of the shows and movies I like. My favorite directors are Christopher Nolan, and Ridley Scott because they always have movies that inspire me. Christopher Nolan's movies usually make me think a lot, which I love. Ridley Scott's movies are usually historical in nature, and I love history.
10 - Does writing help you in your personal life, and how?
Definitely yes. It helped me to get over that one bad personal experience I mentioned in question one. Nowadays, I will write stuff that matches my emotions, like when I am really upset, writing an argument scene helps, when I'm sad, writing the character as lonely and introspective helps. I think I am a very emotional person in my life, as in my emotions are at the forefront of my thoughts most of the time, so it comes through in my writing.
11- You're free to deliver whatever message you want for whomever reads this.
Always write whatever you want, whenever you want, believing in yourself as you do. Don't let anyone tell you that you're not good enough, including yourself. Confidence and passion will get you very far in your life. Now I sound like a fortune cookie. LOL.
Questions from sandybeachgirl
1. Do any writers inspire you? Blog writers or novel writers?
Yes, one particular writer comes to mind. I don't read many novels, so novel writers don't inspire me. The blog writer that inspired me was MrsOogieBoogie. When I first started writing, I felt like I wanted to write darker material, but because the Sims is generally a lighthearted game, I wasn't sure if Simmers read stuff like that. I kept my stuff sort of in the neutral area, like I still covered darker stuff, but I didn't go into as much detail as I really wanted to. Then I read The Insane Dubois Legacy, and it made me realize that it doesn't matter what your subject material is. If you write well, people will read your story and enjoy it. She gave me the little push I needed to finally just write how I wanted to. The other way MrsOogieBoogie inspired me is regarding comments. When I first started reading others' stories, I didn't comment. I'm not sure why that was, other than possibly being shy on the internet or something. One day I read The Black Occultist, MrsOogieBoogie's supernatural story, and I really liked what she wrote. For the first time, I felt like I wanted to tell the author that I liked their stuff, so I took a chance and I left her a comment. When she replied she said a bunch of stuff like she appreciated hearing my thoughts and having me as a reader, and I just felt so welcomed by her words. From that day on, I vowed that when I got comments on my stories, I would always reply, and make people feel as welcome as she made me feel that day.
2. When you have writers block, do you plow through it and keep writing or do you take a step back and take a break?
Hmm... I think I do both, depending on my mood, and how stuck I am. However, I will rarely force things in a particular story I'm stuck on, so I guess I don't necessarily plow through it, per se. If I have writers block on one story, I switch stories. If no story appeals to me at the time, sometimes I will go on Google and search for "writing prompts." I've found
this forum that's for writers, and I am not actually a member of it, but I can view the threads. One of the threads has the writing prompts, and it's usually stuff like, "You're in a car trunk. Write something that's 700 words or less about how you got in there." I just open my Wordpress, and make a new post that I keep private, and write. Often times, the prompts get turned into a short story later on, that I post on my Tumblr, like my
Stop That Wedding story. These prompts allow me to keep writing, but think about entirely different subject material. The times I step back, I will play a random game save to relax so I don't have to think about what I'm stuck on, and watching movies and TV sometimes sparks ideas.
3. Are there other types of stories you're interested in writing? Some other genre that you'd like to try writing for?
Yes... I'm interested in new types of stories. I think trying new things lets me challenge myself in my writing, and I am always looking for ways to improve. I would love to write a historical genre story, one where the clothing and sets are specific to the time era. I had written a little draft that was set in Colonial America, not for publication yet, since I'm not quite sure where I am going with the story line. Science fiction also sounds like a really cool genre to explore because there are so many possibilities and places to go with it, from aliens, to robots, to time travel, and even really subtle things as well. I think my creativity could explode with that one. LOL.
4. Do you do any character development before you start writing for a character or do you figure the character out as you write for them?
I figure the character out as I write. I like the character to be flexible, and react to things in their life as events happen for them because I feel like that makes them more of a realistic person. Sure, we all have one or two dominant traits that we don't usually waver from, but for a lot of things, we don't know what we would do in a particular situation. We always have ideas of what we think we would do, but the hypothetical is easy to speculate upon. Doing it when something actually happens is a completely different story. The only clue to their personality I have before I start writing them is their Sim traits, which I always use as a jumping off point, and never as a limitation. When I pick traits for my Simself, I feel like way more than five could describe me, so I like to add more traits on to my characters in my stories as well. Even if they only have the normal five listed in game, it doesn't mean I won't add other facets to their personality when I write.
5. How much editing do you do for your story? Is it an ongoing process? Do you have many drafts for your chapters?
A shit ton. LOL. Just because I'm not publishing my stories as novels to sell in a bookstore, it doesn't mean I'm going to half ass it and release shitty work. Editing is very much an ongoing process for me. I will write a few paragraphs, get all my ideas I have at the time down, and then preview the page to see what it will look like live. I always write in my Blogger editor so I can do this. I'll proof what I have, make any changes I need, and preview again. Any time I add a picture, I'll preview the page to make sure there are no spacing errors because that drives me nuts. Once I add more on to the chapter, I'll preview, and then read from the beginning of the chapter to make sure everything flows correctly. No, I don't have many drafts. I don't often write a new chapter until I'm done with the current one, so I only have one draft per chapter. If I need to change something, or don't like what I've written in the days prior, I will just open the same draft, and hit enter a bunch of times, then start the new material at the top. I'll scroll down to the older stuff to see if any of it can be mixed in with the new part, and if it does, then I add it. If it doesn't, then I just delete the old stuff and go with the new one.
6. Where is the weirdest place you've ever gotten inspiration for a scene for your story?
In the shower, LOL. I tend to think a lot in the shower, about random things, and there have been many times where thoughts about my stories will surface. Something about the warm water and the steam just get me to relax and ideas flow really well.
7. If you could live with any one of your characters who would you choose, where would you live, and why?
If we're talking just Echoes, I'd pick Maximus. We would live in Los Angeles. We're both actors, so we'd have a lot to talk about. Max is an honest person, and he's a genuinely good guy. However, if this question spans all my stories, I'd pick Camo from The Compound. He's very blunt like me, yet nice at the same time. He thinks for himself and doesn't really care what others think about him, which I adore. Camo also has this cute innocence about him, and he says a lot of romantic things without even knowing it, simply because of his bluntness. If I was with Camo, we'd still live in Los Angeles. Camo works as a camera man and movie editor. Not to mention both these guys are drop dead fucking gorgeous. LOL.
8. What was the thing that sparked your interest and pushed you to start writing your story?
Movie quotes. They often inspire me in my real life, so one day I thought, if they inspire me so much, they could do the same for a fictional character too. I had scrapped my first legacy project because I didn't really know what I was doing and I didn't feel like it had the quality I wanted, so I had also been thinking of trying another legacy. Therefore I combined those two together, the movie quotes and the legacy, and Echoes of Eternity came to life.
9. If you write a legacy, which is your favorite generation and why? If you write a story that isn't a legacy, what is your favorite chapter and why?
I love Generation Two of Echoes. I feel like it's really well done for what I wanted to accomplish in my mind, which was pull off a Prestige-esque atmosphere. I watched The Prestige one day after the finale of generation two, and I was like, 'Damn, I did good.' LOL.
My favorite Blink of an Eye chapter, without giving away spoilers, is Chapter 7. When I wrote it, I evoked emotions in myself and I really enjoy when I do that because I want to be moved by my own work as well as moving other people.
My favorite Compound chapter is Chapter 21. I just really loved all the raw emotions I was able to put in the story line at that time, and I feel like I captured a romantic atmosphere exactly the way I wanted to. Romance I feel is not my strong point in writing, so whenever I get a chance to try it out, I do the best I can. This one I feel I did really well with cause I actually managed to make myself cry as I wrote it.
10. What is your favorite line in your story? Why?
Oh man, I've written so many lines, I don't even know. LOL. Okay, I thought of one. It's in Patrick 22, when Patrick says, "I understand that she doesn't want to lose me, but I think that can be interpreted two ways. She doesn't want me to fall victim to the person who put me in a coma all those years ago, but she's losing me every day the more she chooses to misunderstand me."
I like it because I feel like this is such a common problem that gets touched on and misunderstood constantly in stories. The woman insists that the man should get a different job, a safer job, and the man feels like he's being suffocated because his job is what he loves to do. The more the woman continues to push for safety, the more she pushes the man away, which is the exact fucking opposite thing she wanted. She wanted him to be alive, but is he really alive when he feels dead inside? The sheer irony of this situation fascinates me because just like Patrick said, being safe doesn't mean being happy. It's also a topic that I often think because it happens to me a lot, where I think "Oh, I should stop doing something, just because it makes YOU uncomfortable? Yeah, I'll get right on that." *rolls eyes*
11. What is one thing that has surprised you about your story? Has it taken a different direction than you thought? Have readers reacted different than you imagined?
How the heirs turn out always surprise me. I never look at what they'll look like before they're born, and every time I age them up, it's as much a surprise to me as it is to the readers. I don't ever look at them as a YA until they get aged up in the story. I have been lucky that they have all looked really handsome when they grow up. I'd probably say no to it taking a different direction because I don't come up with new chapters until I finish current ones, so it's never got a pre-determined direction that it can deviate from. For the most part, readers will react the way I thought they would because I write pretty detailed emotions, and I also always explain things as much as I can through wrapping things up in the story lines. Since I write so much in detail and explain things a lot, readers usually understand pretty well the exact thing I was trying to convey.
Questions from lovesstorms
1. When you write, do you choose the computer or paper/pen?
I always use my computer. I write directly in my Blogger editor because it makes for easy editing, and organization. I don't have to worry about 'now where did I put that page for that chapter?' LOL, knowing me, and how much I leave shit everywhere in my house, no doubt I would lose pages from my drafts if I didn't have it all in my computer.
2. Do you write your story ahead of time, then take photos (if you have any)? Or do you take photos, then write?
Neither. LOL. What I do is open Blogger, and then open my game. I'll write a paragraph or two, and then go in game to get the pictures for those paragraphs. Then I hit the "Windows button" and go back to Blogger, write some more, and then get pictures. I'm way too scatterbrained to take pictures before hand because I would probably not even know what I got the pictures for anymore if I didn't work on it right away. I'm a very visual person, so if I just write and write with no pictures, it's easier for me to get distracted, or get stuck.
3. What made you want to start writing? A book? Life? A person? Other?
The Sims. I never wrote anything until I bought the Sims3 other than school reports, but I never wrote for fun. I feel like Sims really opened my creativity as far as writing goes. Honestly, I didn't even know I liked writing that much until I discovered Sims. LOL.
4. What’s a country you’ve always wanted to visit?
Oh man, this is hard, I want to visit a lot of places, but they're mostly in Europe, which is not a country. LOL. I like Italy, I want to see the Coliseum, France for the Eiffel Tower, England and Scotland for the castles, and Germany for the World War II stuff. I'm a huge history nerd, so seeing anything that's "old world" is fascinating to me.
5. Outside of the Sims, what’s another favorite game you play?
Tomb Raider. Sims is the only game I play on the computer. I play Tomb Raider on my PS2, and I love everything about it, the shooting things, jumping around, finding treasures, riding motorcycles, disarming traps, it's just really fun. XD
6. When you become disinterested in your story/characters, what do you do?
I will change something in my story or characters to spice it up again. Usually if this situation happens, it means I need to start thinking in a different way for the story because what I am doing is clearly
not working. LOL. Sometimes I'll question whether I need to add another character, which a lot of times really solves the problem because the new character adds a level to the story that makes it fresh, usually sparking that interest I was missing. Downloading CC helps too, it's probably not the best way to deal with it since I have too much CC as it is LOL, but it does make things more interesting. It's amazing what a new outfit, hairstyle, piece of decor, or car can do for my creativity. It's such a simple thing, but it is incredibly effective. Building a new lot or house helps too because it can give me ideas.
7. When you write, do you prefer quiet or noise in the background?
Noise, noise, noise always. Hahaha. I grew up in Chicago, and although this isn't true of everyone who grows up in cities, I myself can't stand the quiet. The television is usually the noise of choice when I'm writing. I usually watch shows on prime time, so like 7pm, but then I'll write during the commercials. Once the shows I'm interested in are over for the night, the tv still stays on for a few hours after that. I can't use music as my noise though, because I end up singing along to it, and then I can't type or think about the chapter properly. I usually end up typing the lyrics to the song, and then being like, what the fuck did I just type. LOL. It's only me and my hubs in the house, I have no kids, so as far as noise like that, like if my hubs is talking to me, sometimes I can't concentrate.
8. If everyone stopped coming to your blog, would you continue to write and share?
LOL. Yes. I'd definitely keep writing and publishing. I'm proud of what I write, and I always write for myself. Readers are a very welcome perk to my writing, but I don't write
for my readers, so if they just disappeared one day, I'd miss interacting with them, but it wouldn't make me stop writing.
9. Do you have a routine for reading other blogs, like reading until your caught up on one, then moving to the next one? Or do you enjoy reading little bits of many stories?
It depends on the story, to be honest. The more I like the story, the more likely it is that I will read until I'm caught up. If I don't like the story as much, but it is still somewhat interesting to me, then I will read a few chapters, and then go on to a different story.
10. Do you keep a notepad & pen/phone/tablet by your bed for those late night ideas? If so, do you actually get up and write them down?
No I don't jot down ideas by my bed. Incidentally, I am usually up at the late night hours, since I'm one of those night owl Simmers who's still up at 2-3am, so I'm already at my computer typing them out. XD
11. When you write, do you just do a quick glance and post? Or do you take a day or two or more and proofread, move things around, delete, re-write, etc, etc?
Oh, god no. LOL Quick glances for me are non-existent. A single chapter will take me at least three days to perfect and publish, depending how motivated I am. I always maintain that even though I am writing for fun, it doesn't mean I should half ass it and put no effort into it. Three days is the quickest I think I've ever completed a chapter, from initial writing to the final completion with pictures. The longest I've ever taken is a few months to perfect one chapter. I proofread as I go because I like to make sure things flow constantly, text, and picture wise. If I change a sentence or a paragraph, I'll proofread from the beginning. I'll only rewrite if I've had a draft in Blogger that I wrote a while ago, which I haven't looked at and sometimes forgot what I wrote. If I reread it and I decide I hate it, then it gets deleted. More often than not, I won't hate the entire draft, so I will write some new stuff, and then move some old stuff into the new stuff, if it fits. If it doesn't fit with the new stuff, then it gets deleted.
Questions from The Janes Legacy
1. What inspired you to start a blog for your Sims story?
Movie quotes often inspire me in real life, so I thought that it might be a cool idea to use some of my favorite ones to jump start each generation of my legacy. I wanted to put my story on a blog because I didn't want to have files stored on my computer taking up space.
2. Looking back, is there anything you regret writing or any plot points you had wished you'd tackled differently?
Like the chicken says, I regret nothing. When I write, I always try to come up with things that I like, and I don't ever publish anything I feel I didn't write well. This isn't to say that I haven't seen improvement in my writing and picture taking skills over the years, because I have. It just means that everything I write at the time I wrote it, was exactly what it should have been. I think that sitting around and wishing things could be different is really not a healthy way for me to look at my writing anyway because then instead of getting better by working on new stuff, I'd be stuck beating myself up over stuff that isn't even worth getting mad about.
3. Is there a Sims world that you prefer using for your story?
I'd say I'm pretty obsessed with Starlight Shores, LOL. I used it for The Compound, and two generations of Echoes of Eternity. If I hadn't moved Armand to Twinbrook, I'd probably still be in Starlight Shores.
4. Are you a dessert person? Do you find people who are not dessert people odd? Do you watch the television show New Girl? (If you answered "Yes" to the last question, than the first two might seem less odd.)
No, I'm not a dessert person, and no I don't find myself odd. I really like cheesecake, but I don't find myself drooling over a table full of random desserts. If it was a table of cheesecakes, then yeah, I'm all for that. I've seen a few episodes here and there of New Girl, but I would say no to do I watch it because I don't follow the show and need to watch whenever it's on.
5. How do you think of names for your characters?
I really don't like using common names because my characters won't stand out as much. I tend to go for Latin or French names because they're unique. Many times a tv show or movie will have a name that I think is cool, and depending on the name, I might tweak a few letters in the spelling of it, or change a syllable or two to something else that makes it different. However, I try not to spell it so awkwardly that it makes it hard to read. I like my names to flow so I always say the name out loud and if it's hard to say or it's just a tongue twister, then I'll change something until it flows. If I do use a common name, like Patrick, it's because it's from a character that I liked from a movie.
6. If you could create a spin-off stories for one of your characters, which character would you create it for and what would it be about?
It would probably be Patrick from Generation Two who had a gay best friend, Emmanuel. In the spin-off, Patrick would also be gay (he's straight in the main story) and it would be about Patrick and Emmanuel's lives together as a couple, maybe how they got together, possibly how they both felt about finding out they were gay, and any hardships they had to overcome because of it.
7. If you had a machine that produced $100 dollars for life what would you be willing to pay for it today?
It only gave me $100... so I'd pay $50 for it. LOL. If it gave more money every day, it'd be worth more to me, especially since over time, the value of money lessens. So $100 in the future wouldn't really be that much money, sadly.
8. Do you have a favorite book or author?
No. I don't read books in the traditional sense. I got burned out on books because of school. Having to read for so many years, being
forced to read a certain requirement of stuff, just made me hate it. Plus my attention span isn't very high when I don't have pictures, so reading just one page of a book can get really boring. I always find myself getting distracted because I think of something else while I am reading, or I'll look over at something and start thinking about it instead, or I'll start thinking about my own stories. It's just pointless. LOL.
9. What inspired you to begin writing?
The Sims3. After I bought the game, I played it by itself for a while, and then one day I stumbled across stories people had written with the game. I think it was shortly after I signed up in the official forums. I'd never written anything before other than school reports, so I really had no idea that I could even do it effectively. LOL. After I'd acquired some more expansions and stuff packs, I began to see where I could come up with stories about the Sims, and especially after I started creating Sims that I really liked the looks of. So essentially, the Sims3, made me start writing.
10. Do you like building the lots you need for your story's pictures (if you have pictures) or do you prefer using/downloading pre-made ones?
I build my lots myself and remodel pre-made ones. I don't download other people's lots. I love the things others come up with, since most of their lots are like 24857487 better than my own, LOL, but the reason I build my own or remodel in game ones only is because I want to feel like my story is my own, that I put effort into every part of it. Plus, it helps me practice building because lord knows I need all the help I can get. LOL. I have been getting steadily better over time, at least I've made progress from the boring rectangular houses I used to build. Haha. More often than not, I will build the heir's house from scratch using a floor plan off Google, and if I need a community lot, I will gut the inside, decorate, and remodel it myself.
11. Do you procrastinate?
No, I do the opposite actually. LOL. I get sucked into my writing and my game, and forget to do other things. Hahaha. So I suppose you could say I procrastinate other stuff, but not my Sims.
Questions from Lckygrl1975
1. When you write is it structured or not?
Yes. I don't necessarily write an outline in a notebook or anything like that, but I always have a general idea of what I want to happen in the story. It doesn't always happen that I know exactly what will happen per chapter, but it's more like I have a goal, that I want to reach, either by the end of the generation, or sometimes in the middle of the generation. I pick specific turning points in the generations too, where I want things to change or new people to be introduced, or when a person's time in the generation is over. Then I write the chapters to lead up to the goals I set.
2. Which is your favourite character to write for and why?
Hmm... considering my characters change per generation, and they don't stay for the whole story, I'm going to say that I like to write for the heirs of each generation. I like the heirs because they're the main characters, the people who carry the story with their lives. I think it's really fun to spend time developing their personalities, and then make them go through events that help them learn and grow as people. Overall, I spend more time with the heirs than I do with other people in the story because I see them from when they were born till they become old, so it's like I feel like I know them inside and out, and that makes them fun to write for.
3. Do you have a genre of books you prefer to read?
No. I'm sort of a contradiction because I love to write, but I don't like reading books. I would rather watch a movie or TV show because I am a visual person, and I learn a lot more from watching things than I ever do reading things. School also turned me off from reading because I'd been forced to read boring textbooks for too many years. I tried reading fiction books again after I stopped school, but I just never enjoyed it. My mind always wanders when I read books and it takes me a long time to read one page. If I read a story with pictures though, like a Sims story, then I read really fast because the pictures hold my interest. The only book I remember enjoying was American Psycho, because I have seen the movie multiple times, so when I was reading the book, I pictured the actors from the movie in the scenes, and it made it more interesting.
4. If you could choose any destination for a holiday, where would it be?
I think I would go to Rome, Italy. I want to visit the Coliseum and see where the gladiators used to fight. I also like the rich history that European countries have buried in them, so I'm sure I would find many other things about Italy that I didn't know by exploring and going to see other landmarks and museums that were there.
5. What is your favourite time of year an why?
I like summer because I like warm weather, sunshine, driving fast, and wearing cute clothes/sandals. I love the feeling of being able to just slip on a pair of shoes and then I'm ready to go outside. I love cars and driving, and it's fun to be able to drive fast without worrying about the weather causing obstacles when I drive. Sunshine always makes me smile too, I really love when I have sun shining through my windows. Summer just energizes me.
6. Do you have a favourite programme or film?
Yeah, I have so many. LOL. I'll try to just pick one of each, though. For programme (Tv) I'll pick CSI. Sometimes it's cheesy, but I like the crime solving aspect of it, and a lot of times, the crimes are very elaborate and I love the creativeness of the writers of that show. Not to mention, the very first episode of the show premiered on my birthday.
♥ My favorite film is Equilibrium.
7. Who is your favourite actor and why?
Christian Bale. I love him for all the reasons like I can see how passionate he is about his acting, he's handsome, and I love how he is so good about becoming the character he's portraying. The big reason he's my favorite is however, something much deeper. I was going through some bad times in my life, depression, that caused suicidal thoughts, and I felt a lot like an empty shell of who I used to be. One day I decided to go to the movie rental store, and I rented Equilibrium, which is one of Christian's movies. As I watched the movie, I started to feel things again that I had forgotten I could feel. The environment of that movie was eerily similar to what I felt like my environment had become. The reason that movie was so effective to me is because of how Christian portrayed his character. I felt like the look in his eyes in the beginning of the movie is how I looked every day when I saw myself in the mirror, my eyes looked empty... it scared me, and it woke me up. I had no idea I looked so dead inside. From that day on, I began to remember slowly, how to live again, and not just be alive by breathing, but to really live, like enjoy things around me again. He saved my life through his movie, and that is why he's my favorite actor.
♥
8. What is your preferred genre of Music?
It depends on my mood, I will listen to pop, rock, heavy metal, classical (as in movie soundtracks that are instrumental), and country. Pop and rock are when I want something upbeat and fun to dance to, heavy metal is for when I'm angry, classical inspires me, and country is for when I'm sad, or feeling patriotic.
9. What is your favourite animal and why?
Tigers. I think they are beautiful animals, as well as being strong and ferocious. I like the idea of something looking pretty, but also being able to fight and stand up for itself too. Being pretty doesn't have to mean you can't also be strong.
10. Do you get new ideas for stories, if so does that change your story or does it spark a new one?
Yes, I get new ideas all the time. It depends on what the idea is. If it can fit into my current story, then I add it into the story, but if it's a completely different idea that would make no sense in my current story, then it goes into a new one if I can't get it out of my head. I have lots of ideas that flit back and forth in my head, and the ones that are not important enough to stick don't get included, while the ones that I feel have potential get looked over and analyzed until I feel like I find a place for them.
11. Have you ever started a story and not published it?
Yes, just recently. I got one of those new ideas that sparked a whole different story idea, so I had to write it down just so it would stop staying in my head clogging up my other thoughts. If I think of a new idea, sometimes it won't leave me alone until I write it down, but it's not necessarily going to turn into a story for publishing. I like to get those types of ideas out of my head so I can focus on my current projects because I think they deserve my attention more than things that aren't even stories yet.
My Eleven Questions
Since this is not my first nomination, and I didn't pick new nominees, I'm just going to list my questions here so others can see what I asked. There's no need to answer these again.
1. What got you interested in writing? Have you always been a natural writer, or did some life event spark you to start the hobby?
2. How serious are you about writing? Do you want to be a world famous author someday, or do you just write Sims stories for fun?
3. Is there a time of day that’s the best time for you to write?
4. What do you do to get over writers block?
5. What made you start playing Sims?
6. Do you prefer creating and writing about male or female Sims? Why do you prefer the one you do?
7. Other than Sims and writing, what are some of your other hobbies?
8. What are your favorite and least favorite expansion or stuff packs?
9. What is one of your greatest fears regarding your writing?
10. If you could pick five personality traits for your Simself, what would they be? I know when I do it, there’s always more than five I want to use, but just think of the first five that come to mind.
11. What is your favorite type of CC to download and why?
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