Can I just say I love how many people are getting involved in this I can't wait to drop everything and just focus on sims in October, then do the same for writing in November! (Any excuse to drop off the face of the world is a-okay with me) so excited to read everyone's updates :3

cynicalbadger wrote:Can I just say I love how many people are getting involved in this I can't wait to drop everything and just focus on sims in October, then do the same for writing in November! (Any excuse to drop off the face of the world is a-okay with me) so excited to read everyone's updates :3

You and me both, makes me so happy to see everyone getting involved. I was scared some people may be a bit put off by it, but looks like we're all in this together! #highschoolmusicaltheme

I think this event will be good practice for me in learning how to limit myself while writing. My latest TPC update has so much content in it that I split it up into three parts, and still didn't include all the pics I originally wanted to comment on!

I may just have to scrap the crossover idea and just start fresh. The sims I wanted to use are a child and toddler in game. And I wouldn't use them as YAs until they aged to at least teen. And even with my attempting to chug through updates, I have been going through cycles of low self esteem towards both of my challenges. Sorry for airing my brain laundry here, mostly meant to put down that I might need to retool a bit.

ZaleISBI - instead of making smaller chapters, perhaps post by scene? Or by groups of scenes. Or just have Chapter # parts A, B, C, and D? If you write the whole chapter at once, and are satisfied with it, and THEN break it into parts, but post them ALL AT ONCE, you can avoid feeling like it's too choppy or breaking the flow of the story. I know how it goes, to end a chapter at an appropriate place in the story, without being overly concerned about length. My chapters tend to be around 100 slides, but sometimes they're as few as 50, and sometimes they get rather long, indeed.

cynicalbadger - I adore dropping off the face of the earth. Most people don't believe me, but I'm actually quite the introvert. It takes so much energy for me to interact with people, even online, that when I put forth the effort to "extrovert" (yes, it is a verb!), I just get so tired, so fast, and after my accident, and the constant pain (and the pain pills), I much, Much, MUCH prefer to introvert full-time. If I reach out to someone, in particular, it's a big compliment. Maybe it's because I spent most of my life forcing myself to be outgoing (as a full-time job, seriously, I was the most out-going secretary EVAR), and now, it's like, meh. Just want to keep all my spoons for myself nowadays. I'm so selfish. Having an actual, people will accept it, EXCUSE? Priceless!

Abby - I LOVE High School Musical! #2 is my favorite. I have the soundtrack for my custom music in my game.

Radio chocolate: One word: Outtakes! OK, more than one word: Have an outtakes chapter! Or maybe an outtakes section, so you can add outtakes chapters at your leisure.

Jessib429 - If you've been suffering from low self-esteem from your current projects, and you have to work this hard to set up the cross-over, then I think taking a month-long break from the current projects, entirely, and starting something brand new will probably be for the best. After all, you can totally blue-sky it, going in directions you never would have dreamed (because those directions would totally screw up your current story-line). Maybe pick a challenge you have read but never tried? Maybe just go for an "observational" legacy, where it's all about the points, and not the story? Maybe take a page from cowforbrains' book and explore all the different ways there are to kill off your sims. Really, the sky's the limit! New is good! And if you do that, when you're ready to go back to your serious projects, your brain will be so freshly scrubbed, you'll be able to dive in with much more enthusiasm. I find that nostalgia of getting back to an old favorite after a long break is a big motivator. It helps me discover the characters afresh, and sometimes, I am reminded of things I had forgotten about them, and bring that to the fore, so sometimes making it fresh again actually changes my plans for the future plot. In a good way.

In short, yes, by all means, go for something new and unrelated. Hey! Have you ever tried an apocalypse?

MichelleCYoung wrote:Radio chocolate: One word: Outtakes! OK, more than one word: Have an outtakes chapter! Or maybe an outtakes section, so you can add outtakes chapters at your leisure.

To me, every slide has an "outtake" feel to it when it comes to my TPC I just feel the need to comment every piece of interest that comes along, and with as many sims as I have in that trailer there's a lot of stuff going on at the same time. I'm so eager to play and write my new challenge (so I can get at least 10 updates posted in October) that I don't really know when parts 2 and 3 of my latest chapter will be coming out.

I tried uploading my PowerPoints to Google Slides so I could edit on my phone: mistake. The slides took up a bunch of memory even though I hadn't saved them for offline use, the text option did not work as I had intended it to and after captioning some of the slides (using the "comment"-option) I downloaded it back to my computer, only to notice that it had broken the default font option. So now I have to manually change Arial 14 to Calibri 18 FOR EVERY SINGLE TEXT BOX. Bleh.

MichelleCYoung wrote: Jessib429 - If you've been suffering from low self-esteem from your current projects, and you have to work this hard to set up the cross-over, then I think taking a month-long break from the current projects, entirely, and starting something brand new will probably be for the best. After all, you can totally blue-sky it, going in directions you never would have dreamed (because those directions would totally screw up your current story-line). Maybe pick a challenge you have read but never tried? Maybe just go for an "observational" legacy, where it's all about the points, and not the story? Maybe take a page from cowforbrains' book and explore all the different ways there are to kill off your sims. Really, the sky's the limit! New is good! And if you do that, when you're ready to go back to your serious projects, your brain will be so freshly scrubbed, you'll be able to dive in with much more enthusiasm. I find that nostalgia of getting back to an old favorite after a long break is a big motivator. It helps me discover the characters afresh, and sometimes, I am reminded of things I had forgotten about them, and bring that to the fore, so sometimes making it fresh again actually changes my plans for the future plot. In a good way.

In short, yes, by all means, go for something new and unrelated. Hey! Have you ever tried an apocalypse?

Have I given you a hug before? If not here it comes!

I had thought of something along the lines of what you mentioned. Just removing the pressure I put on myself with the others for a bit. There is a challenge that I thought would be perfect for SImNaWriMo if I can schedule it correctly.I'm a bit challenge crazy and yes I have considered an apocalypse. I would want to do it with TS2 and I need to play a bit more to get back into the "don't have the social worker come" swing of things. An EPIC was briefly toyed with, but I would want to do it 100% as a narrative and less of my usual commentary.

I thought a OWBC would be a perfect fit, If I can schedule heir polls accordingly, which wouldn't be too hard. Short and I would totally go gung ho for points. With the your suggestion, I am thinking it the right way to go.

Awww! Have a hug right back atcha!

I'm going to start prepping this week, as in playing ahead so hopefully all I'll have to do is edit and upload my parts easily come October.

Does anyone else have any strategies planned?

cynicalbadger wrote:

Does anyone else have any strategies planned?

Oh goodness yes!

I've been updating like mad to get the founding gen of mine owbc done so I can get the heir poll up and finished right at the beginning of the whole thing. I have a loose schedule of how to get two gens and ten plus updates out. I haven't made any contingencies for if something happens, but seeing as I have been playing them almost exclusively, I have some wiggle room.

Jesslb429 wrote:Oh goodness yes!

I've been updating like mad to get the founding gen of mine owbc done so I can get the heir poll up and finished right at the beginning of the whole thing. I have a loose schedule of how to get two gens and ten plus updates out. I haven't made any contingencies for if something happens, but seeing as I have been playing them almost exclusively, I have some wiggle room.

Yes! Got to love the wiggle room. I'm the same that this is my only challenge. Although I really want to start more I'm trying to hold off until after SimNaWriMo because right now with one challenge I'm able to update twice a week which I can easily work at the make up to 10 in the month (hopefully)

Wow, it's almost October! Just one week to go till we begin. How exciting. This month has gone extremely quickly for me haha.

I can't believe it's almost October. I haven't even decided if I'm going to go with my originally planned side story route, or actually attempt to post mini updates for the main story...

I didn't think much of these comments until I looked at my calendar and realised October is NEXT WEEK! I think I've done okay for preparation, I should have a few updates but I'm no where near 10!

I can't wait to start! I have one chapter's worth of gameplay set aside, to be written up on Saturday. I think with the 100 baby challenge, the chapters are just gonna roll out pretty fast...at least they have been for the last month. I just have to remember to TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES!

I am hoping to play some more today - so far I have probably about 2 chapters to write. If I keep the pace, I will get 3-4 chapters per generation - which only means I need to play 2-3 generations in the next few weeks...

I have plenty of pics backlogged for my Rainbowcy and I haven't opened that game since I had to restart with my generation Violet heiress. I can easily do ten if they're only going to be 20 slides each, I have well over 100 pics waiting. Benefits of playing more than posting.

I started doing a "trial run" for the Sims 3 Apocalypse tournament that starts October 1st. Then I decided not to participate officially in the tournament, and just do a play-along. Then I decided that I liked my trial run enough to just go with it and make it the real thing.

I have been taking oodles of pictures and taking notes, and even posting updates on the Apocalypse Facebook group, so I should be well prepared for the writing and posting of chapters, especially if they're allowed to be shorter than my typical 100 slides per chapter.

It's weird playing so intensely, and just taking pictures galore to caption later. But it is a LOT of fun.

You know how I love Sims 2 apocalypses? Well, the rules are very different for Sims 3, so I'm in that early stage of the learning curve, and it's just fascinating me sooooooo much! Still, by the time I'm finished, I'll probably be good and ready to get back to my Sims 2 stories.

I can't wait for October now! I'm so excited about this. I'm taking five days of vacation at the beginning of the month. Hopefully I can get all the pictures I need done and then be able to crank out the updates the rest of the month. I think I'm gonna stick with my normal writing since I'm working with BACC rotations. I think it might look weird if I break the household updates into two parts. But I'm so excited

Same Pony! I'm just keeping everything the same and pushing myself to do more and really commit! I have the first 3 days of October off so I'm excited to get a bunch of gameplay recorded so I can sit and edit them throughout

ALSO! There are so many people taking part now! This is going to be a hoot :disco: