How did u get noticed on simblr? I'm trying and I get barely any notes so it's not fun after all the hard work.
Hi Nonny, I’ve mostly said my piece on this here. But two things I just want to impress upon further. Firstly, like, I know you probably just mean you want to draw more traffic to your blog, which is 100% understandable, but the focus on “notes” is not what you should be gunning for. You really should be putting the work into your blog for you, doing what you like, and showcasing what you’re proud of. If you don’t like what you post, then what would be the point?
Secondly, I don’t really think my blog is super popular, but I have dedicated friends/readers who keep up with my stuff that I’m really grateful for. The honest truth in that is what I have said before: Simblr is a community that is about getting back what you put in. You have to put time and effort into cultivating good relationships here (just like in any other community) and being present. I never expected anyone to go out of their way to find or engage with me, so I went out looking for connections and I found them. I’ve been an active part of the community for a little over a year now. I think most people who know me can vouch for that? I read a lot of stories, and I always try to leave comments when I stop in. I like to talk to other sim storytellers and have made a lot of friends that way. But I also just... do things for other people. I think that’s the best way to present yourself if you’re not socially adept or great at making friends. In my case, I create poses, I used to do interior requests, I try to showcase other simblrs, I have had like 50 different community/collaborative projects, etc. The best thing you can do, the best advice anyone can give you Nonny, is just to engage people. This is a social website, so being social is the best way to get noticed.
But really, if it isn’t fun for you, then there’s no need to force yourself out of your comfort zone or something. You do you, and as soon as that stops being rewarding, then, ya know, greener pastures or whatever they say.
Dear Jade, I am writing this to ask a few questions I've had regarding writing in the sims form. How would someone start one of these sims stories? And how would someone keep it from becoming flat, and continue writing it past writers block? Some tips on developing a character inside the story would also be fantastic. Coming from someone who has only written novels and poetry, any advice on writing short pieces to go with photos is greatly appreciated! Sincerely, Mel. PS: This is 100% Real
Wow Mel, hit me with the heavy questions why don’t you Q_Q But you know, as someone who also made the switch from novel writing to sim story format, I kind of know where you’re coming from. Hence we begin…
Jade’s Mega-Fantastic Tips For Adapting to Sim Story Format
#DearJade to block, as this is an extremely LONG post.
Disclaimer: These tips don’t apply to everyone. The general rule of simblr is to have fun and DO WHAT YOU WANT. This advice is only really aimed at people who are serious about the craft and want to improve on their writing and how to present it in this medium. Not everyone takes it this seriously, and not everyone needs to. But for those of you who are looking for more direction with your writing, this is my personal, and humble advice. The fact that I titled this “mega-fantastic” was 100% sardonic. I’m just a chick on tumblr. I have a B.A. in English with a focus on creative writing, and nearly 6 months of simblr experience. These are my only qualifications. So, with that being said, don’t listen to anything I say from this point onward.
How to Begin:Everyone’s writing processes are different. Some people like to map things out, while others tend to go with the flow. If your goal is to write some sort of cohesive linear storyline, and not just sporadic bouts of gameplay, then it’s good to have at least an idea of where you want to end up. Some point to make within your story, or some goal for your main character to accomplish. That way, all the things you do between point A and point B will have a similar thread, and you’re less likely to get lost on random tangents.
General writing tips: Start with something interesting! Introduce your new characters in an exciting way. If you’ve never heard the phrase “in media res”, now’s a good time to learn it. Start in the middle, at the beginning. It’s nice to already have something going on at the beginning of your story, and don’t put too much time into explaining who all your characters are, what they do, what they like… right up front. It will engage people with your story more if you start off with action instead of description.
Presentation: Since you’re writing a sims story, you have to think double time. Here, writing is only half of the work. Which is why simblr writers really don’t get enough credit! Think about how you want your scene to reflect in photos. The first sims story I did, I made the mistake of writing it in it’s entirety as a novel, and then having to take “necessary photographs” to go with each scene. I ended up with a great deal of pictures of people walking around aimlessly, or standing in the same room talking, or sitting on a chair talking, or on a couch talking… You get the point. You can still write as a novel and adapt it (which is still what I do), but I would recommend writing your scenes with your blog in mind. Think “This scene could happen in their kitchen, but what if I moved it to a park instead?”, better scenery, probably more angles/more things to look at. Try to be creative with your screenies. Experiment with different angles. Think about your favorite movies, and the ways they are filmed. Try to incorporate those elements into your pictures. Sims stories have a certain cinematic quality to them, so write with that in mind, because how interesting your photos are will draw more people in to read your writing. Trust me.
Character Development:Understand that the vast majority of sim stories and legacies unfold over enormous amounts of real life time. If you’re afraid of longterm writing commitments, you should probably run away screaming! No, I’m kidding (kind of), but they are huge commitments. I know people who have been writing their legacies for years. My first sims story took four months to complete and was around 75,000 words in its extracted tumblr form. My point is, it’s going to take a lot of time. Which is great! Because character development takes time. My advice for adapting character development to sims stories is to make sure every scene has a point. If you want to make a post just for fun, that’s great too! But when it comes to scenes that move your plot forward, answer the question “What does this accomplish?”, “Why is this particular scene necessary?”, “Would the story be the same if this didn’t happen?”.
Simblr writers can spend hours putting together a post. I would think that is a pretty accurate statistic. From the writing, to building the set, clothing your sims, downloading CC, posing them, taking photos, and then editing the photos, each 3-4 pictures you take for a particular scene probably consumed precious long minutes of your life. So make sure that it’s an important scene that you’re spending all this time on. And, of course, just like most anime fans will tell you, FILLER EPISODES SUCK Q_Q (Not always. But sometimes). Anyways, sim story format sometimes forces you to consider what is vital to a story and a character, as we usually make posts to highlight specific moments in our sim-babies lives. I think development is really inherent to this medium, so I wouldn’t worry too much about if your character is developing or not.
General writing tips:
Dialogue is important!
How your character reacts to things is important!
Formatting:There are many different ways to format your sim story, and none of them are wrong. Do what you are comfortable with. If you’re coming from writing novels or short stories, then paragraph format is a great way to go. You can do caption writing, which is writing your text (typically dialogue and similar to playwriting in effect) directly onto your screenshots. You can do textual playwriting, which would be to have short exposition to setup a scene followed by tagged dialogue:
Maria: I went to the store yesterday.Bob: Really? What did you need to get there?Mari: Oh, I just had to pick up a few things for the party Saturday.
These are the three most highly used formats I have seen used on simblr. I think they all work great, and you can even mix them. Just do what you are comfortable with and what you prefer. Don’t try to stretch yourself to change the style of your writing just to match what other people are doing.
General writing tips:
One thing I will say is to be wary of your Point of View (or PoV). If you are using multiple PoV’s (as in you swap them between posts) then you should label whose PoV it is for your readers (I do so in my tags), if you use captions, usually changing font color to depict two or more players is the way to go. If you would like to switch PoV within the same post, I recommend using third person point of view e.g. “Bob walked here. Maria said this.”
And how would someone keep it from becoming flat… As I mentioned above, the best thing you can do here is just to make sure your scenes are vital to the plotline, or character development in some way. Don’t bog down your stuff with useless scenes, if your goal is to write a cohesive story. There is a #ts4 gameplay tag for a reason. It is not the same tag as #ts4 story, and people who follow one tag, may not necessarily want to follow the other. As a reader, I’m interested in the storyline. Is your character involved in some shady business? Are they going to find out that their loser husband is cheating on them? I don’t really want to see three different posts devoted to your sim cooking eggs for breakfast. SORRY. #justiceforeggs
General simblr tips:
@medleymisty has recently incorporated the usage of #simnovel for longer text posts. I think this is an excellent step forward for hobby sim story writing. So you can use this tag if you thing it applies to your work!
….and continue writing it past writers block? I can’t answer this! I am not a magician, unfortunately. Sometimes inspiration comes and sometimes inspiration goes. Writers block is a legit thing, and if I had a super-fix for it, I would hand it out lovingly to the world’s writers. But since I don’t, I will say that you shouldn’t pressure yourself ahead of time. Don’t think you need to post regularly. Go at your own pace. If you need a break? Take one. Just bounce right on out the door. I hear there’s a new Mass Effect game out. Go play it! Tumblr will still be here where you come back.
Remember, this isn’t your job, it’s a hobby. As for how to get inspired or stay inspired, I really feel motivated to work on my sim stories when I am having fun, either playing the game, or putting together some scenes. So just have fun with it. Make Pinterest boards. Dudes, Pinterest is so great for writers, utilize it as a tool! Make character boards and pin things that you remind you of your babies and go look at the beautiful pictures when you’re feeling stuck. Share your boards, too! Lots of simblr’s have pinterests and you can follow them, they’ll follow you back, it’s great. Fantastic. But yeah, just have funnnn and do your thing and when you’re not feeling it, don’t try to force it, because you’ll just regret it and start to resent your stuff, and it’s just a bad time.
This concludes my massive wall of pretentious text.
Do you have any tips for getting your legacy blog of the ground? Like, you've already started it but it's not doing so well note wise...?
Hi Nonny! Well for this one, if you’re going for visibility, I would say the best advice anyone can give you is to have patience. There are some things you can consider, but really you shouldn’t worry about notes or attention and just focus on having fun and posting things you enjoy, even if they’re not trendy. As a beautiful and wise Canadian woman once told me “Fuck everyone else and do it because you like it.” But, you know, if that’s not working for you, I will suggest:
1. Networking. I think this is honestly the best thing you can do? And the most fun while you’re at it, lol. The best way to get noticed by other people is just to interact with them. Leave comments, read other people’s stories/legacies, and try to engage with them on common ground, like their characters or their editing styles. I mean I met most of my friends on tumblr by showing up on their profile like “Hey you write a story? Me too, let’s be friends.” #truestory
2. This might be the vain response but there’s some truth to those who put more work and effort into their posts getting more attention. Your aesthetic is important to how people see you and gauge your blog. Maybe you just need to find a style you really enjoy and start experimenting with how to make it your own. Not everyone on simblr is some Photoshop pro, or has amazing editing skills, but I think, as with most things, if it’s eye-catching, it’s going to draw more response.
3. Tagging and crediting. I guess this is the most obvious way to bring people in? Well, tagging correctly is important in general. But if you’re just starting out, sometimes it’s a good idea to tag cc creators or pose makers when you use their stuff, and sometimes they will reblog you, and you’ll be able to reach wider audiences that way.
But I mean, I’m just going to come back to the first two things I said. If you spread yourself thin and do things to draw people in, instead of because you enjoy them, you will get burnt out soooo fast. Simblr should be fun. That’s cheesy as hell, but at the end of the day we’re all just here working on a shared hobby and favorite pastime. Simblr isn’t a job. I am only still a part of the community because I’ve met some really great people, and they motivate me to keep writing for them. I love to get new people reading my stuff, and I love to make new tumblr friends, but I’m also passionate about what I put out, and I have enjoyed learning new skills and applying them to my writing and pictures. So, it’s really a personal journey. And everything takes time, so be patient and keep doing you. And again, just engage with people, send them asks if you like their stuff, leave nice comments…
Hello ! I just wanted to say that I love your blog and ask a small question. How long should each chapter/ episode be?
Uhhh, uhhh, this is totally subjective lol. I used to do longer episodes myself, but realized how draining that is over long periods of time. This is 100% my personal opinion, but I think simblr, as a platform, is better adjusted for shorter posts. When I did text, I was shooting for between 300-500 words per episode, and would post usually at maximum 3 times a day. My chapters are as long as is required to complete the story arc within them. But that’s just my experience.
There are lots of readers that prefer longer text posts, and there are just as many who prefer as little text as possible to full-on caption storytelling. Just do what you want and what you are comfortable with. And at a pace that you feel like you can keep up at. The burnout is so real if you put pressure on yourself to post regularly, and you lose motivation or hit a block. I think a good rule of thumb, is to post what you would have the time/patience to read from others.
But thank you so much! I hope my utter babbling was somewhat helpful? LOL
Which is more important to you? Character development or plot development?Do you believe in creating authentic characters, no matter the plot? Or creating an interesting plot with characters that may not be fully realized?
My answer is probably gonna be convoluted lol. I think they’re both important, character development being slightly more so, because I’m a fan of slice of life work and streams of consciousness that don’t really have “a point”. But in general, it’s good to have a plot, or at least an idea of where you’re going. I don’t think that characters should just be devices to make the plot move forward, but even the most interesting characters aren’t enough to keep me reading if the overall story isn’t going anywhere or just doesn’t make sense. I just think the plot can have a whole lot to do with how the character will change and unveil their motives :D does that make sense? And as for character development, personally, I’m a big fan of character regression. I don’t think “development” always needs to imply forward-moving progression. Sometimes development means a strong character gets broken down, proved wrong, or loses faith. I like stories that end at a lower point than they started off, but it’s still important to know how you’re going to get from point A to point B and show that movement in an organic way.
The Creative Writing Student Editorial Team would like to introduce to you our new advice column! We, the Editorial Team, have planted a mailbox inside of Mr. Campbell’s homeroom, where we have received and collected numerous questions and letters that are in need of advice. We have answered, so you shall receive… an answer! Without further ado, please feast eyes on the new and improved “Dear Jade…” advice column. Enjoy!
Frantic in Fraser: Will I ever find love?
Miss Jade: Yes, you will. Just give it some time. Love is something worth waiting for. Love can come in many different forms. It’s not something you search for but, it’s something that finds you. Love is an inevitable thing that can be a long, hard, and prosperous journey.
Weepy in Warren: How do you deal with someone who overthinks everything?No matter how many times I tell them I care, they don’t get it. If I like them and they like me, how is everything so complicated? Is it because they don’t want to hurt my feelings?
If someone is draining you emotionally, it is never good to keep them in your life.
Miss Jade: If someone is draining you emotionally, it is never good to keep them in your life. You don’t want to carry or add extra baggage to your life. You have to go with the flow sometimes. You have to tune into their frequency. If it seems as if he doesn’t want a relationship, then you can question whether or not he is using you.
Forlorn in Fraser: There is a guy who likes me. We are going to hang out, but I don’t know how I feel about him. I don’t dislike him, that’s for sure, but I’m just not sure what I should do. Should I give him chance or just play it safe and be semi-comfortable on my own?
Miss Jade: If you are only semi-comfortable with being alone, why not give him a chance? You might like what you find instead of being alone. It never hurts to just give something a try. At the end of the day you will always have other options. I just all depends on how it goes when you hang out with him.
You come to school to learn and friends come along the way. Keep your grades up and just be yourself.
Dazed in Detroit: What do I do? A guy I really like is asking me for advice on how to ask his crush out. How do I get him to like me?
Miss Jade: Tell him the truth, the worst he can say is that he doesn’t want to be with you. If he’s truly your friend it won’t change anything. You can’t make someone like you. If they like you, they like you. If they don’t, they don’t. You can’t force them to like you. You can only hope for the best. Being there for him is the best thing you can do. What if the girl rejects him? He’ll know that you were there for him from the beginning. If he doesn’t share feelings for you, explore other options.
I’m a freshman and having a difficult time...
Flustered Freshman: I have a lot of questions. I’m a freshman and having a difficult time. How do I survive high school? How do I stop being invisible? No one sees me at school and no one cares. How do I get over writer’s block? Lastly, how do I deal with anxiety?
Miss Jade: Just keep going. You’ll have those days where it’s hard but, it’s worth it in the end. There’s always someone there that sees and knows you. Keep yourself around people that you’re comfortable with. The truth is you don’t come to school to make friends. You come to school to learn and friends come along the way. Keep your grades up and just be yourself. Be sure to talk to a teacher, social worker or counselor if you are feeling down.
As for the writer’s block, I’m one of those people that suffer from this as well, I like to venture off into other things. Try a different genre of writing. Keep writing and don’t let your inner critic ruin the piece rather it makes sense or not. The inner critic will delay your creative process if you let it take over. Writing helps with anxiety as well. When you’re feeling anxiety, stop, breath, and talk to someone you feel comfortable with. This person has to be someone you trust. Make sure it isn’t a bias opinion or piece of advice and it’s only helpful.
How do I balance everything?
Manic in Macomb: I work 40 hours a week and come to school full time… How do I balance everything? What should I do?
Miss Jade: Money isn’t everything. Just remember that your grades are always more important. It’s a luxury to have your own money but, it isn’t a necessity to have your money. You can use this as practice for college. You’ll be working and taking classes as a full-time student most likely anyway. Remember to stay strong and know your limits. This is all preparation for being an adult who is also a college student.
Broke and in Love: What are some cool inexpensive dates that my boyfriend and I can go on? Be reasonable.
Miss Jade: If you don’t have transportation, your best bet is a movie night. Movie nights are romantic. You can cook him food. If you can’t cook, take out is cool too. You could also do a game night. Chill at home and have a friendly competition playing your favorite games. If you have means of transportation. When It gets warmer you can always visit a park and have a romantic picnic. Use your resources. Visit the Detroit Historical Museum or the Detroit Institute of Arts. Admission is free for Oakland, Wayne and Macomb County residents.
If you’d like your own questions answered and published as well, please contact us at [email protected]. We will be more than happy to reply!
Dear Jade, So I I've been feeling really weird the past couple of days, like living in a state of meh. Did you ever get that? Like I feel really strange not like I feel when I have one of my episodes, really different. Like I have a great group of friends now (you'd love them they're all delightfully fucked, just like use, they'd love you) but I'm really struggling with trust. Like the other night a few of use decide to go for a quiet drink at a bar (you know what quiet means for me 😂) so we end up at one of their houses and continue drinking at more heavily at than at the bar. Playing silly games as you do, and then I went out for a cigarette and I just broke down and there was no warning. One of them comes out and comforts me and I just didn't know what to do in that situation and I freaked out and just ran home and blacked out. But what am I meant to do if I cannot tell my oldest and best friend what's wrong with me then who can I tell? I still miss you, I love you, Lucas.
Today i went through an album filled with pictures of the new years eve we spent getting fucked up at seany o's. Truth be told, we got fucked up a lot. Sometimes i feel guilty that I never said no when you offered me a line but my trust in you was unwavering. You never let anything bad happen, never giving me more than my body could handle. And fuck, it was fun. It was easier to be stranded in the valley if we were out of our minds on adderall or percocets or a lot of times, xanax. We werent hurting anyone, just letting loose. If only i realised then that your recreational use was more a hidden addiction even though you never really hid the withdrawl from me. If only i could have known that in the last days of my twenty second year, addiction would lay you to eternal sleep. Im sorry i didn't notice when you started using heroin. That I wasnt around like i had been before. You always used to tell me I was your rock. I got you through when you were most alone but im starting to realise i didnt. You used the pills and the dope and they just sucked you further into the hole. I love you. I miss you. Love, Betzer.
