#but I've read too many like.....fix its of the main storylines

[romanoffmorelikebromanoff]

okay, so I think maybe reading too much fic has affected how I approach actual books, but only specifically when they're star wars books that deal with the star wars main characters, bc I'm reading bloodlines rn (by Claudia Gray) which is about Leia and I am enjoying it! but for some reason reading Official, Totally Canon Leia feels weird even though it's objectively not

[fictionkinfessions]

We've seen a few people talking about Obey Me: Nightbringer, so I figured this might as well be a good place to give a few little confessions of our own. It get's a bit ranty at some points, so be aware of that.

For reference, I'm a Satan fictroject, and on top of that we also have Beel and Lucifer as well. So, it's definitely been a bit of a ride for us. While Alaric(Lucifer) doesn't have many feelings on the subject, Bee and I on the other hand definitely have a few opinions. Our system overall, despite being extremely hyperfixated on Obey Me at this point, don't think of/see Obey Me as an amazing game with wonderful plot on its own and depend a lot on our own/the fandoms headcanons and our maladaptive daydreaming to make it better and more interesting for us. This however, is mostly mine and Bee's opinions on the newer subjects and storylines being brought into Obey Me. Spoilers ahead for anyone who cares about those.

Personally, I have a mix of emotions when it comes to everything going on. It's interesting to see, sure, but it's still frustrating to once again see the devs ignore the stated idea that Satan and Lucifer really are seperate people and are distinct. They haven't gone too terribly into it as they still haven't truly gotten to Satan's arc yet, but just seeing them giving the same poses to them both during the Ruri-tunes and drawing other simularities between them is. Upsetting, I guess you could say? It's understandable at this point in the storyline as it's right after the fall, but it was also just a continuous problem in the original game where that was practically the only kind of major story arc and plot they ever gave to Satan. I don't know, it's just sort of frustrating to have to see even MORE of this, even though it makes sense based on the timing of the story.

Also, the fact that the brothers literally chain him up and even shoved him into a locker at some point??? What the fuck????? No wonder he's pissed at them, like. Sure, wrath, it's not good, he's destructive and angry and very hard to stop. Chaining him up is understandable, I guess. However. The locker feels a little excessive. And the force feeding scene with Lucifer???????? What the Hell??????????????

I guess I do like the fact that the Main Character is the one who introduced Satan to cats though. It's just kind of a sweet moment in midst of everything else.

Overall, its fine I guess, a lot of the other stuff is interesting to see, like some previous plot holes being talked about and fixed, and some really interesting points with the development of the characters and how the MC being there effected their development, but just. Yeah. That's my two cents on the subject. - 📚 Sawyer(Satan)

Hey, I'm Bee or Lexia, I go by either one. I'm our Beelzebub fictroject, and like Sawyer said, I wanted to talk a bit about Nightbringer as well.

I've actually liked it for the most part. Obviously it hurts a little bit, with mentions of Lilith and seeing all of my siblings hurting so much after the fall, but it's also nice to see all of them and the small happy parts between them. I really like seeing how MC helps everyone and makes things better.

It's also really nice to see more of Belphie, I really do miss them. I miss everyone, a lot, especially with them all hurting, but Belphie is especially bad. Obviously, I understand none of it was/is real, but the emotions and the memories are still there.

I will say, the one thing that gets me is that it does feel a little awkward when reading some things about myself. It's not any actual fault of the game or fans itself, it's just because I'm actually trans femme in our system and have psuedomemories of such. So it just feels a little weird whenever I'm referred to with masculine terms. Otherwise, I have enjoyed it so far! - 🪰 Lexia(Beelzebub)

That's our opinions and our rant on the subject. We apologize for how lengthy it was, we just wanted to get some thoughts off our chest. To any fellow Obey Me fictrojects and others, we hope you're all safe and doing well during these times. Take care of yourselves! - Sawyer, Bee, Alaric, and the rest of the 🧃 system

[tribow]

So I read Soul Eater

I haven't read manga for a long time since I prefer holding a book in my hands when I read, I just get too dang distracted on my phone. This time though, I was sick and in bed all day so in a single extremely long sitting, I read through the whole manga on my phone. (I do not recommend doing this).

I've read the manga before a long time ago and had good memories of it, but ever since the new edition of the Soul Eater manga started selling people were talking about it again. I really wanted to see how well it held up without my rose-tinted glasses. I wanted to read it with a critical eye.

Compared to the anime, there's a bunch of things the manga does right. Character development is miles better, the ending is actually amazing, the story flows way better, but I want to focus on what it does wrong for most of this post (for a good reason I swear).

First thing out the way, the art kinda sucks at the start, but that gets fixed as it goes along. The real first issue is how Soul Eater handles fanservice. There's somehow more focus on horny scenes and perverted humor than establishing world building at the start of the story and this issue doesn't go away. It's like he had to fill some kind of horny quota for each volume. It's almost never implemented in a way that supports the story, it's just a distraction and that's a terrible way to handle it. The worst part is, a good amount of these sexual scenes are of minors. Now I get this was WAY before Japan changed the age of consent, but it's still uncomfortable. Thankfully, the fanservice scenes are always just a distraction at best, they don't ruin the characters and only harm the pacing.

Speaking of which, the pace of the story is a little fast. This might be due to me steamrolling through the story, but I felt many key moments just whiz by without much of a climbing or falling action. The progression each character has is huge, but gets achieved in a couple days at most. It made it hard to believe a technique was mastered at the level they're using it so quickly. Some conflicts get resolved at record speed as well. On one hand, I do like that it doesn't feel like my time was wasted, but I wanted to know more.

I especially feel this with the filler arcs. If you're thinking manga can't have filler well Soul Eater is here to prove you wrong. There are several chapters in that manga that you could completely cut out and it would change nothing about how the whole story plays out. The thing is though, those filler arcs could affect the story down the line.....they just don't. A really good example is the character named Hero. He becomes the one guy who can do what no one could to spite his bullies, but after that he's just completely irrelevant. Gone.

The final issue Soul Eater has is its last few villains. The first ones are incredible, but the rest feel a little generic. The final villain even gets a little shafted. He should have had a looming presence throughout the story, but all he gets is a shouting contest about his maniacal philosophy VS. The hero's moral philosophy. He really should have been way more intimidating, but since he just hides away until the story reaches him he has no staying power. Funnily enough, this is one of the main things the anime had over the manga. The same villain gets that dreadful presence and becomes a thorn on everyone's side until the bitter end. In the manga he's just a vague time limit.

Most of these problems can be boiled down to one source: time. If more time was spent on these issues they wouldn't even be a problem...well besides the fanservice one. Fun fact, the anime actually mostly gets rid of this fanservice issue and it allows the real meat of Soul Eater to be on display.

So obviously I'd love to see a remastered Soul Eater anime that follows the manga storyline, but it can become even more than that. Those filler arcs could have some meaning with some extra anime original context. Every seen that flew by too fast could have some extra nuance. The villains could have more presence. The fanservice could not suck. It can all be in this theoretical anime.

It may never happen, but at least Soul Eater's legend of a manga won't be forgotten/overshadowed by the anime adaptions.

[rwby-analysis]

You may have talked about this before on here, but do you have a guess into why such a large portion of this fanbase is so harshly critical of the show? Like obviously it has flaws as everything does, but I've never seen a fanbase with so many people shitting on the show they're watching for how terrible it is. Why do you think rwby in particular gets this treatment from fans? If you had to guess

This got way longer than I thought it would, but I just want to say that if you’re a rwde person who now feels like jumping into my inbox, insulting me and saying “uwu I never do that”, then maybe think about why this post upsets you. If you feel like you’re not just shitting on the show, then I’m probably not talking about you, and if you still think I am, then maybe you really are only shitting about the show. 

I can only speculate here, but I think it comes down to a few factors. 

I think CRWBY are more accessible than the creators of other shows, at least it feels like that to me. To me Yang can’t exist without Barbara Dunkelman, other than with other animated shows, that often also get dubbed in multiple languages. I think most people who watched the show know that Monty created it, and often also that Miles and Kerry write for it. You can follow a lot of the production process on social media, there are behind the scenes videos, we have CRWBY members on RWBY Rewind and they’re all very active on conventions, but on top of that we also see them appear in other Rooster Teeth content all the time. Also they’ve said that they read our comments, they’ve left comments here and there on Reddit before, and they’re on Tumblr too. 

On one hand that’s great because it makes us feel a lot more connected to CRWBY and the show, but it also has a downside of them being easier to attack. We know that they for example don’t finish all the scripts before the show airs, so people can jump on that and criticise CRWBY for it. Some people on here criticise the production process of RWBY and point out what they should have done differently, not only the show but specifically for the production of it, and that’s only possible because we know a few things about it. We still don’t have the whole picture, we don’t know how the whole process truly works and more importantly we don’t know why, but with the people behind RWBY being more accessible to us, it’s easier to attack them. Maybe it’s also more fun when you know that the people behind the show might actually see what you have to say. 

Also it’s no secret that the earlier Volumes had a few very obvious flaws. Volume 1 was created with a very limited budget and if you can’t see how the animation has improved since then you’re probably blind. They were still figuring things out back then, the main plot of the show doesn’t become obvious until Volume 3, and with a lot to criticise about Volume 1, people might have developed an attitude of RWBY being a show to be picked apart and not enjoyed. To me Volume 1 rather shows how far they’ve come, and hey, I still enjoyed it, and I wouldn’t have been as invested after Volume 3 if Volume 1 and 2 hadn’t happened. They did a few very important things right with Volume 1. 

Volume 1 is easy to criticise. You don’t need to know that much about writing to point out some of its flaws. Maybe some people noticed that and went like “Hey, I can be a critic”, and never really stopped, even as the show improved. But the thing is, criticising Volume 5 and 6 is a lot harder. The show did not only drastically increase in quality but also in complexity. There are way more things going on right now, more storylines, more characters, more locations, and the runtime has increased immensely. So people often have to dig very deep and reach very far to still criticise it. I’ve seen some very wild takes when it comes to the criticism of the later Volumes, and a lot of the “How I would have fixed Volume 5″ ideas wouldn’t have worked at all. 

Often it kinda feels like people think they’re smarter than the thing they’re criticising if they’re criticising it. It makes them feel like they know a lot about writing and media, I mean critics always had that atmosphere of being educated and intelligent around them. But the thing is that while they assume that constructive feedback means pointing out flaws in many words (it doesn’t) and that pointing out the positives is a sign of weakness, or something you do to make the author feel better or just if you don’t want to come off as a complete asshole. People don’t realise that you can actually learn just as much from pointing out why media did work as you can from talking about why it didn’t, and that it’s actually way harder to explain where a show went right and why than to explain what went wrong, just as it’s easier to do something wrong than to do it right. 

There’s also this very interesting video about how media criticism got really negative and decreased in quality through YouTube: 

[somanypetals]

ok ok ok. are you a spuffy fan? i feel like i've seen spuffy on yr blog and if that's not true then please ignore but i've been thinkin recently and i'm very interested in what you think/how you reconcile spike's attempted rape?? bc as a spuffy fan i love them together but i also can't ignore this part of their history in good conscience. was it ooc? was their relationship building to a horrible climax? i'm just very interested in what people think abt that writing decision

omg I’m sorry for taking so long to answer this, I wrote like half an essayand then firefox crashed and I got grumpy about it for a few days lol ;___;

anyway in short: do I ship it? yes. is my relationship with the shipcomplicated? fuck yes. can I reconcile the attempted rape? on a base level, no.on a character level, I am able to move past it but not look past it. on awriting level, I don’t reconcile it at all. was it ooc? yes and no,which is the interesting part

this got really long and I’m hoping that I can remember everything I wassaying before I had to start all over again (rip) but I’m sorry it got so longunder the cut

so I do still ship spuffy, but I have a really complicatedrelationship with it. I’ve shipped it since I was a tween, before I reallyunderstood the unhealthy parts of it (rape scene aside, which I was very clearon), and I’ve come to see those in a new light the past five or so years, butI’m still also someone who is very adamant about people being allowed to shipwhatever the fuck they want in fiction whether it’s unhealthy or not becauseit’s fiction, and at the end of the day I’m shipping something because I findit entertaining or interesting, not because it’s the paradigm of relationshipexamples. in fact most of the time it’s not, because I find most of thoserelationships boring on screen. so like, I do still ship it, but not the way Iused to?

 anyway, was it ooc? in terms of mythology canon I don’tthink it was ooc at all. spike had no soul, he was at a base level evil. I don’t think this excuses theattempted rape at all, nothing excuses it or forgives it, but it does explain abit how the spike who dressed buffy’s hand wounds at the start of the seasonwas the same spike who flipped a switch and attempted to rape her near the endof the season. spike never became “good” when he had no soul, he was like aferal animal on a leash. he learnt to play relatively nice with others andbecame fond of some of his owners, but he still wasn’t cured and if you tookthe leash off at the end of the day he would have bitten them. yes, spike lovedbuffy in his own soulless way, but he still had a literal, animalistic demoninside him (we even see in angel in over the rainbow etc. what the actual demoninside vampires is like at its base level) and no soul to control it—only theintellectual knowledge that some actions would get him in buffy’s good booksand some would get him in buffy’s bad books and so he kept it under controlbecause he wanted her and he also wanted to not be killed by the scooby gang.again: this does not excuse the attempted rape at all. nothing forgives it. butlike, it does explain why buffy and many viewers are able to move past it. Idon’t think that on a mythology canon level it was ooc at all, I think thatpeople just forget that spike was stillevil when he was being nice to buffy or dawn or joyce. I think that’s partof the reason it’s so hard to piece together whether spuffy really could workor be good as a ship, because the show never separates spike with a soul fromspike without a soul the way they did with angel. with angel it’s so clearlytwo different people, but with spike it’s a muddy mess of the same thing and ifyou don’t write spike with a soul differently to how you wrote him withoutone—how are viewers supposed to forgive him for what he did?

 was it ooc on a character level though? that’s a wholedifferent thing because that opens the can of worms of spike being ooc ingeneral. the spike we see in season four onwards is drastically different fromthe spike we see in season two, and I do think part of that is just plain oldcharacter development but I also think that part of that is due to them wantinga slightly different character when he became a regular? spike was almost woobified by his own writing team? I don’t thinkit’s anything like the character assassination of britta for example, and Iwouldn’t even call it character assassination, but I do think that at somepoint late during season three or early season four they decided they wanted aspike who was funnier, a bit more sympathetic, and a bit more worthy of being afan fave. it's less like character assassination and more like characteradaptation? I feel like they saw that james had this excellent comedicpotential and wanted to use that, and I’ve seen that with other characters onshows too. I think they had to bend spike a bit along the way to get the spikethey wanted and who they could have fun with. he went from spike the genuinelychilling villain, to spike the comedic relief, to spike the stalker, to spikethe coping mechanism, to spike the love interest…and it definitely wasn’t astraight line of development. they definitelyhad to bend the character along the way and lose some of what was thereoriginally and add some of what wasn’t there. and like, it’s not necessarily abad thing, like I fuckin love comic relief spike and I can totally understandwhy they might’ve been like “fuck this james guy is good we want more of that”,but I do think that on a character level they ended up with something that wasquite frequently messy. if you’ve taken this villain and woobified himyourself, then even if he is still evilit’s not surprising that people are surprised or find it ooc for him to attemptto rape buffy because they made him a puppy with a temper instead of a wolfwith a playful streak, and then suddenly his fangs come out again. andobviously to a degree that was the point of it, to remind viewers that he wasevil and he wasn’t good and buffy forgot that, the scoobies forgot that, everyoneforgot that, but at the same time if you woobify a character that much doesthat point land? or does it just become ooc? I think a spike in love with buffyand protecting dawn and getting flowers after joyce died could be consideredjust as ooc as a spike who attempted to rape buffy. he became a bit of a messycharacter if you really think about it for too long, and they never separatedhis soulless state from his soul-having state enough to keep track of it

 so anyway, on a character level I’m able to move past itbecause I think at the end of the day…spike didn’t have a soul when it happenedand he was written kind of weirdly over the course of the show but I still likehim. I move past it as a viewer because I wantto move past it, and because I find the spuffy relationship interesting (yet Istill want more/better for buffy always? man, I said it was complicated hahah)

 NOW, FROM A WRITING STANDPOINT

 bullshit bullshit utter fucking bullshit.

 why though? well apart from the reasons I’ve already mentionedabout kind of messy character writing and it being impossible to tell whichparts of spike are ooc or not…………the attempted rape scene was not about buffy,before during or after it happened

 they wrote it as a gateway to spike’s redemption arc. theytraumatised their main character, this beautiful female character and one of mytop favourite characters of all time, to boost a man’s redemption arc, andthat’s just fucking awful and we’ve seen it too many times and buffy doesn’t deserver that bullshit.

 now I don’t know whether there’s a solid answer on whetheror not spike went to that demon at the end of season six to get his soul or toget his chip removed, but it also like…doesn’t matter, lol? I personally alwaysread that scene as he went to get his chip removed so he could kill her, andthen the demon was like lol psych herehave a soul! which I think also makes it easier for me to move past theattempted rape, because then it didn’t literally lead to him choosing to go have a redemption arc andbecome a better man for her, but like a lot of people do read it the secondway. and either way!! it’s a crock of shit!!

 not only did they put in this scene so they could kickstartspike’s redemption, instead of picking some other non-rape or non-violence againstbuffy related plot point to lead to him getting a soul, but then they sort ofmade it all about spike in season seven too?

 they do address bits and pieces of buffy’s trauma afterwardsand how it impacted her, but way way too much of the focus was placed onspike’s guilt and spike’s wanting to fix it and how it impacted spike etc., sonot only did they have buffy almost raped to kickstart a man’s storyline, butthey barely focused on her trauma over the “trauma” of spike and that’sjust…fucking awful. like it makes me so mad and it makes me feel so gross.

 as a writing decision I think it’s sexist, disgusting, lazyand unforgivable and the biggest fault with what is literally my favourite tvshow of all time lol (you wouldn’t think it is from this rant?? but it is?? andI like spike and ship spuffy??? god this is a mess) and I think it was probablythe worst fucking writing decision on all of buffy (and this is the show thatkilled tara, a literal lesbian angel)

 and honestly……the fact that I am aware of and think it’s theworst writing decision possible almost makes it easier to move past from acharacter standpoint? because it was a bad writing decision, it takes some ofthe weight off of spike’s actions for me and I’m aware that it was stupid and grossand it would’ve been better if spike tripped and accidentally fell into a gravethat had a stray soul in it that he inhaled.

 I don’t know if that makes sense, in fact I don’t know ifany of this makes sense…but it’s like: spuffy is interesting. to me they havechemistry, they have narrative and trope appeal (even though it wasn’tfulfilled, or wasn’t fulfilled right), they are two characters I likeindividually, and so…I continue to ship it and enjoy it despite the horriblefucking bad writing decisions that went down in season six. I know that evenwithout the attempted rape season or even without season six it’s still anunhealthy ship and it’s problematic (and I want better for buffy at the end ofthe day), but it is at a base level to me entertaining, and that’s what I likefrom my ships

 god this is almost two thousand words I’m so sorry I have alot of thoughts and I had to rewrite half of this so it’s really, really scattered and confusing butlike…yes I ship it, no I don’t think the attempted rape was a good writingdecision, no I don’t excuse or forgive it but I do move past it

 and in answer to what other people feel about the scene andship….it’s really divided lol, a lot of people feel like I do, a lot of peopleprefer bangel, a lot of people prefer spuffy, a lot of people can’t look pastthe rape at all, a lot of people look past the rape too easily, and a lot of people probably don’t know what to thinkor have no strong opinions lol

 god

this is two thousand words I’m sorry

[something-wicked-sims]

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.