The Kid & Me – A Look Back
In the late 1990’s, I was an owner of the Original Sims game which these days is referred to as Sims 1. I bought the game out of curiosity more than anything else. The whole concept seemed fascinating and I wondered if there was really a point to to micro-managing the lives of some animated pixels on my computer screen. I had tried my hand at the Sim City game, but had tired of building cities up to a certain point that I never could manage to get beyond without the help of a cheat.
Certainly Sims1 was much more to my liking, but after three expansion packs I quickly tired of playing the game. I did continue to design and build houses of every size and shape on occasion, often as just a way to pass time. I know that’s not much of a hobby but you have to take it any way you can get it. Besides, even that didn’t last very long and soon the game was pretty much forgotten as other things in my life took precedence.
When I moved out to the West Coast in 2001, I did reinstall the olc game on the computer but I didn’t do much with it.. I seldom visited the Official Sims 1 web site and when I did it was to do nothing more than download new items for the game. In fact, I didn’t even know at the time that there was about to be a Sims 2. I didn’t find that out until I was browsing around Best Buy one summer afternoon and they were taking preorders for it way in advance. I couldn’t help but wonder what if any improveme
nts had been made so I plopped my money down to reserve a copy. So on September 17, 200
4 I picked up my copy of The Sims 2 and rushed it home where I stuck it on a shelf to collect dust for the next three or four months. Yeah, I was busy with other things.It was late December before I finally installed the game and gave it a test drive. It was also late December when the game developed a few glitches which led me to the official Sims 2 site where I landed on what they call the Sims2 exchange, which landed me in the story area. After reading quite a few of the lesser efforts, I honestly thought that I could write something at least as good if not better than what I had been reading. At any rate, just like building homes with the game I viewed writing a quick story as something to fool around with. I had already written and posted the first part of The Kid & Me. At that time there was no fancy covers and I don’t think it was actually called The Kid & Me. The title didn’t come to me until after having posted about 40 or 50 frames that I realized there was story to be told and that it sure wasn’t the one I was telling. The following are my from My Sims 2 blog. I titled the entries The Kid and Me: Deconstructing a Story:
I uploaded the start of my first story of The Sims today. After I uploaded it, I reread it and noticed a few mistakes although I had proof read it a couple of times. Guess I shouldn't be proofreading at
The Sims strange aging process makes it difficult to write the story the way you want sometimes, but I'm finding ways around that. Next time, I'll do a better job of proofreading also. Hopefully, I can have the second part up soon. A lot depends on if anyone actually reads the thing or not.
The Kid And Me: Deconstructing a Story
How did the story The Kid and Me come about a? It actually came from events that unfolded while I was playing the game. When I started playing the Sims 2, I thought that I knew in what direction general direction I wanted to take the characters. The characters in the game though, seemed to have their own ideas.
As relationships developed and changed the story itself began to take shape. What really turned the story around was a mistake I made in clicking the wrong button. I didn't know one little click could change things so drastically, but it did.
I was quite angry with myself for my idiocy at the time, but as it turned out, that one little mouse click changed things completely, and as it turned out for the story, and the characters, much better.
I didn't set out playing the game with the intention of constructing a story such as The Kid and Me. As a matter of fact, just playing the game and having the characters play out their lives is time consuming in itself.
The thing of it was, many of the characters in my story had reached a point where if I was going to write about it, now was the time. Some were aging, others were growing up, and if I went too far, writing the story that went with it would have been even more difficult. Several of the key characters were at a critical point in their lives, and I was hesitant as to how I should help guide them along. So it was that I decided now was as good a time as any
to begin writing. So the game was put on hold for a while, as I went to work. If I had known what a daunting task it would become, I may have thought twice about it.(Note: As you can see I was a complete novice at manipulating the game and the Sims in order to take pictures to fit the story. I mean I didn’t even know how to stop the aging process. I naively thought I could just take pictures while I was playing the game and write the story around them. It didn’t take me long to find out that wouldn’t be possible unless I wanted to bore everyone with a legacy story. Two of the pictures you see is what the original looked like
with walls down and crystals over the Sims head, and another one is a comparison between the original and what I used in the blog. When I put the story on this blog, I was able to edit many of the early pictures and what I couldn’t I just left out. You can see many of the "left out" pictures here and the reasons are obvious)Friday, 28 January 2005
The Kid And Me:
Deconstructing a Story
Whew! I'd been thinking about it all day and finally decided I was going to have to bite the bullet and do a major rewrite on the first part of the story. I decided to do this when it would have been much easier to work on the continuation.
Part of it just wasn't working. The whole deal about Frank's wife having up and left with the kids just seemed awkward. It came to
me at some point during the day
that I should have just made Frank a widow.The reason the whole bit about Shelley having run off came about because when I started the game, the Knight family was as the picture indicated. So I had gone with that, maybe just to get some use out of the original picture. I'm not sure if anybody read the story over the past twenty four hours, but if they did, I apologize for the changes. Hopefully, I won't have to do it again. At least I can work on the next part of The Kid and Me, knowing the story will work better now, plus I think the rewrite helps define the relationship between Frank, Joe, Nick and of course The Kid. And probably even Susan.
I had been in a fickle about what to do abo
ut Susan. I had been dead set on doing one thing, but again at some point during the day, I came up with something that worked better.I guess this would be easier if I had constructed the story from scratch before playing the game. Unfortunately, that's not what happened, and it's causing some major headaches. I guess I had better get to work so it's not too long before I upload the next part.
Saturday, January 29
The Kid And Me:
Deconstructing a Story
Real Time vs. Sim Time
Writing a story based on what happened while you played the game presents some daunting challenges. One of the biggest obstacles is how time is conceived in the world of The Sims 2 and how time really functions.
When I began writing the story, how the difference between the two would effect the story wasn't at first apparent to me. It didn't take long for it to rear its ugly head though.
As you well know from playing The Sims 2, because of the way the aging process is designed it's entirely possible to have a set of parents, who have kids, and those kids have kids, but yet can end up involved with teenagers of other families in your neighborhood who were teens when your grandparents weren't even married. It just depends how often you move from lot to lot, and which families lives you control the most. This is what happened to me. In essence, at one point I had at least one teenager who was dating the daughter of someone, yet this teenager was a teen at the same time as the parents. It wouldn't have mattered except this involvement became crucial to the storyline of The Kid and Me. So a decision had to be made, just go on with the story, telling it as if age wasn't a factor, or adjust the story so that it plays out in Real World time. I guess it depends on the type of story you are telling as to what decision to make.
My decision was to do my best, if possible, to make the adjustment to real world time. Now, it may not be always possible to do so as the story moves along but we'll give it our best shot.
If you read The Kid and Me, before my quick rewrite, there was a reference to age. In that reference, it would have made the ages of Frank, Susan, and Joe, around thirty give or take a year. Obviously, I had my blinders on because in real world time, that would have meant that Nick and Bettie would have been born when Frank was about twelve years old. Somehow that just wasn't going to work. So in the quick rewrite, I took out any specific age references, and will be careful to leave them out whenever possible.
The other thing the Time anamoly forced me to do was to include a note about Pam's daughter saying at the time the story begins, she was just a baby herself. In the game, she actually did start out as a young teen, so I had no baby pictures of her. Why was it necessary to make this reference? That will later become apparent.
(Note: As you know by now if you read the story, my problem was the fact that there was such a big age difference between Joe and Bettie. I’m not sure anybody would buy the whole story on such a premise even though I knew of at least one couple who did have a happy marriage with just about the same age difference. But the guy had no children either. Given the chance to do it over would I have written it different? That would mean eliminating Frank as Bettie’s Father so that I could either make Joe much younger or Bettie a little older. I honestly believe that the story works well as it is written, but I’ll leave you the reader to decide.)
The Kid And Me:
Deconstructing a Story
As long as it took me to get the first part of the story together and then less than a day later doing almost a total rewrite, I'm glad to say I made it through the next part of the story without a hitch...well, except for a few minor ones. The game did go down for a minute while I was typing but I have learned to save after every page written. And there were some pictures missing so it became necessary to shorten a few scenes which may be for the better.
If you've read the story, or at least the new section, you will know that Susan Dale has left. So are the events told in the story, the way it happened in the game? Not exactly, except that yes, Susan and Joe did have a one night fling, and yes Susan did leave her husband but not the very next day. If I had written Susan the way she was in the game, I think you would have found her to be a very unsympathetic self centered person. I like the Susan in The Kid and Me much better. Will we see Susan again? Stay tuned.
The Kid And Me:
Deconstructing a Story
Townies can be a pain!
Townies! Sometimes they can be okay, at other times they can be a pain in the ass. In initially playing the game, my characters made friends with many townies and it wasn't until much later that I wish they hadn't. The first problem is, if one of your Sims makes friends with a townie as a kid, that's all well and good. But unfortunately, the townie kid does not grow up with your character as it moves into its teenage years, then into its adult years, and finally senior citizenship. And those townie kids can be pesky. Popping up all over the place and forever calling on the telephone.
"You never call anymore, don't be a stranger, perhaps we can get together sometime" How often have you gotten that phone call? And they'll call and call until your own sim finally bites the dust. What a pain in the rump!
At times, it got so bad that I finally turned the sound effects in the game off, just so I wouldn't have to listen to the phone ring. My girlfriend was getting annoyed also, as she always thought it was our phone doing the ringing.
A few of my teen characters had relationships with teen townies, and that was cool. It especially helps if your teen has the romance aspiration. But if most of their romances are with other teen townies, as soon as your teen enters adulthood, the romances are wiped out and you're back to square one.
The idea originally was to start The Kid and Me story at a much earlier period in time, to get to know the characters better, their motives, their wants and their desires. This was to be important especially in establishing the characters of Nick and The Kid. As it turned out, when Nick and The Kid entered adulthood, those relationships were left behind, along with a good deal of the story.
Of course, in the story I have posted so far, I haven't used the Townies, but the gardener (Erika), the mail person (Alison Bertino known in the game as Dagmar), and a fix it lady (Arcadia). As you can know if you've read The Kid and Me,
In other words, if I need Joe to find something out that happened somewhere else, I'll just send him to Erika. She does do quite a bit of gardening in the neighborhood, so who better.
The Kid & Me
Deconstructing a Story:
I now wish I had waited a while before posting the story. I've had a lot of problems with the first part of the story since I wrote it and edited it again tonight. And still it isn't right as I have discovered that I left a cell in there I should have taken out that pretty much repeats the cell before it. Oh well, I'll fix it tomorrow. It's three in the morning and way too late to be revving up the game again.
The major thing I took out was the whole part about the
Another thing I ended up doing was clarifying some things about Susan, and the loss of her child years ago. I hope it adds to the story. Maybe it's a good thing almost nobody has read it. Doesn't matter though, it pleases me to write it anyway.
I read a great tutorial today on the Story site about how to take pictures of your Sims doing the things you want them to do. It will be a big help and only wish I had read it sooner. I think the tutorial is in my bookmarks.
Oh yeah, the funny thing about having so much trouble with the first part of the story is that I've had almost no trouble with anything else afterwards. At least nothing major. I added another section today, so I'm getting there.
It is also apparent now that most of the pictures I took during game play will be almost entirely useless. One, there aren't enough of them, and two the story has evolved and is still evolving as I write.
I won't be as quick to get the next section of the story up, as it is going to take some major doing. Especially since Joe went away on this little trip. But the trip really does serve a big purpose, so bringing him back immediately is out of the question.
Maybe I'll go ahead and fix that messed up section real quick after all. How long could it take?
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
I think I have the first section straightened up. After correcting one error, I found I had placed a picture out of order, with no text. So I finally fixed that and hopefully, except for one small change, that first section I uploaded a week ago is now as it should be. But is it really?
When I first started writing the story, I thought I was writing more of a comedy-romance type of thing. But as the story has gone on, and as I've planned ahead, much of the comedy if there ever was any is now gone. That's probably why the story starts out on such a light-hearted note. There will be more light-hearted moments to come, but nothing I would consider comedic.
If I had ever thought I would be doing this, way back when I started playing the game, I certainly would have named my lots differently and many of my characters. A couple of the families were based on TV shows from the 50's. The
In writing the story, although I have edited the first 10 or fifteen frames several times now, I would love to rewrite those first five or ten frames. Unfortunately, time does not permit me to do so now, but before it's over with I may do so. If I were writing a novel, or even a good short story, it wouldn't be a problem. But the interface used to write the story in the game does not make it an easy task or at least I don't think so.
The next piece of the story may not be uploaded until the end of the week. I do have a real world that I have to play in, Monday through Friday, and although I did well with progressing the story last week, this next part will take some elaborate staging. It would have been easy to leave Joe Baker at home, and find a way to move the story forward. But for me, and I'm the main person I have to please, I think his leaving when he did is what someone with his life, his money, and his way of coping with issues would do. His instinct would be to runaway from them.
Before I add each section, I always want to have in mind where I want it to end before I post it. You always want to leave off at the most dramatic moment that you can, in case anybody does happen across it, reads it, and likes it enough to come back and read the rest. My preference for this next section, would mean it would be a long one.
I could also do as many others have done, and post the story as Part One, then Part Two and Part Three. It would probably have a better chance I finding a few readers that way, but it's not really what I want to do. It's one story, and I'm certainly not Steven King writing The Green Mile, so I won't be uploading it as Part One, Two, Three etc. If it forever stays buried in the web pages of thesims2.com, then that's just the way it will have to be.
Now when I finish, is there a chance for a sequel? I don't really like sequels, and if the story ends the way I have my mind made up at this moment it will, a sequel will not be in the offing. By that time, if I ever get to the point where there is a that time, then I'll probably be ready to move on to a new story, and new characters.
(Note: As you can tell, I had to eat those words. There is a sequel.)
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
Before I sign off and go back to slaving over my story, I thought I would write a little more about it.
If you've read it, you'll notice that on a few occasions I have referenced old movies. Okay, I'm a movie buff. It doesn't matter what kind it is or whether it's one of the old black and white classics or something as recent as the one I saw last week with Dennis Quaid at the theater. I have always loved films, and it has always been an inspiration. One thing The Kid & Me has done, is given me a chance to put some of that film watching to good use. That's why I made both Joe Baker and Bettie old movie buffs. It's not that a whole lot of people will get the references, but some will.
If you've read the description on the details page, or at least the latest one as it has undergone three revisions, you will note that it says, "We all lead two lives, the one we learn with, and the one we live with." That line came out of a film, and there are certain lines in some films that always stick with you. In case you're wondering, it is something that Glenn Close says to Robert Redford in The Natural.
In Susan's letter to Joe, she references a line from the film Summer of 42. In that film, a young woman has just lost her husband in the war. She ends up sleeping with a young kid and to understand why it and how it came about you'd have to see the movie. If you haven't seen it, then be forewarned that what I am to say gives away the ending. When Hermie goes back to her house the next day, she has gone. She has left him a letter. The one line in the letter that has always stuck with me is the one I used, "I wish you good things and only good things." I have often used it when writing people and it is one of those lines that stay with you.
Another reference was to Sunset Blvd. As that film opens, William Holden is floating in a swimming pool dead as a door nail, thus you now know what The Kid was referencing when she joked to Joe about being a candidate for a remake of the opening of that film.
Let's face it, most books and movies are born of the same basic plot elements. What makes them interesting to watch or read, is how the author or the film develops characters, and what if anything happens to bring freshness to the basic plot line. If you take a story, twist it, shake it, bake it, and turn it all around, you can take any standard plot and make it readable and watchable.
Take the new movie Million Dollar Baby. In truth, isn't its basic plot premise from Rocky? Wasn't The Karate Kid the same way? It's what you do with the basic plot elements and the characters that inhabit your story that makes it readable or not. So if you're having trouble thinking of a story idea, think of all the books you've read, all the movies you've seen. What was the basic plot and how can I change it to make it my own story?
You've always heard the old joke about a Romantic story being boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. It may be a joke, but you could write a thousand stories based on that alone. As a matter of fact, there have probably been a million of them that have been told already, and there may be a million more ways to tell it. See how easy it is?
Tuesday, 01 February 2005
The Kid And Me:
Deconstructing a Story
After having read many of the blogs on Thesims2.com, I have found that there are some who enjoy making the pictures for their story more than the actual writing of the story it self. Others enjoy writing the story more than taking the pictures to fit the story. After yesterday I can tell you that for me at least, the writing of the story is the best part. Constructing a "set" for your characters that will only be used briefly, then posing your sims around the set, was a long tedious task. In the end though, if the work turns out satisfactory and you are pleased with it, it's well worth your while.
As I have gone deeper into the story of The Kid and Me, I have been taking greater care in what pictures to use. I haven't always been successful in what I was trying to achieve. Sometimes it's difficult to keep the crystals above their head out of the picture. For me, the crystals aren't really even needed in game play and I wish there were a way to turn them off. If you know of one, please let me know.
The other major problem, and one I have slipped up on quite a bit, is to make sure the walls of the house or "set" if you want to call it that, are up. I slipped up badly when doing the pictures in front of
I'm sure my pictures won't be perfect, not ever. But they will be better. If I had the time to work on it all day, and to experiment more, than I'm sure they would be perfect. At the moment, my life doesn't afford me that so we do the best we can.
Anyway, the first set was built, the pictures were taken, and now I have to build another one. I'll be glad to get back to writing the story. I'm still shooting for Friday or Saturday at the latest to add it one. Keep your fingers crossed.
The Kid And Me:
Deconstructing a Story:
Things are looking good so far. I will certainly add the next section of the story on no later than Friday, perhaps as early as late tomorrow. I had a few problems with the pictures yesterday, but they were easily solved. Well...maybe not that easily.
I was setting up a scene that involved
And then, later I was lectured by the game. I needed a furnished house for a character. I suppose I could have used an unfurnished one but it was not conducive to what I wanted to do. In order to have the house empty with all the furnishings, I had to enter the lot, move everybody out but one person, and then let the one guy left die of old age. If you haven't had this happen, when the grim reaper comes to call, you'll get a message basically saying your're not a very nice person for letting your Sim family die out. Frankly, I kind of laughed about it, waited for the grim reaper to leave, (he took his time, he stopped at the fridge for a drink), then exit and moved in who I needed on the lot. I moved the urn to the back of the lot, although it wasn't necessary because at this point in time I didn't need to use the house for any pictures. I just needed the house for someone else to live in so he could develop a friendship, and show up at one of the other Sims houses. The things you have to do to write a story!
But
Deconstructing a Story
I made good progress yesterday, and have even begun writing the text. It was late when I was writing though, so I have a feeling I'm not going to be entirely pleased with it when I get off of here and get to work.
And of course in writing the text, I'm afraid I may be short a few pictures and might have to go back and take a few. It shouldn't be much of a problem though. At least I hope not.
After this next section that I post, you can expect events to unfold a little more quickly. At least thats the plan. It just depends on how much detail I figure is necessary. In writing a story in this format, there are many details that have to be taken for granted. If it were a novel or something, it would be different. My suggestion is, if you're wondering about certain details, just fill in the blanks in your own way.
One of the problems in The Kid and me is that in reality, Joe Baker is not an especially endearing character. He has few qualities that would endear himself to most people. The fact that he is such good friends with The Kid and Nick is more the exception in his life than the rule. Even the women he dates are more acquaintances than anyone he really knows. When he stopped at Pam's house to see her baby, it wasn't because of friendship but more or less out of a sense of duty. That and maybe he was covering his bases in case he wanted to date her again down the road somewhere.
In a longer story form, it would have been great to go back and tell in more detail the relationship of Joe and the women he dated and how he views it. It would also have been great to go back and explore the non-relationship with his father not to mention his friendship with both Susan and Frank. I can tell you that later in the story, that subject will come up again, but not in the depth one would like it too. But perhaps instead of writing a "sequel" when it's finished, I could write a "prequel" instead. For the most part though, I don't think prequels work that well, and you can take the latest Star Wars film as an example. (Although I realize there are many who would disagree with that).
It's no doubt that The Kid and Me is a long story as Sims stories go. But it is a story that relies so much on Joe's thoughts, and the personalities of the characters involved, that to not use those details to the fullest would minimize what the story is about. It is a story of changes not only in one's life, but changes in who they are and what they are, and without fully knowing the characters, then how could we even begin to understand why and how those changes occur? We could take the short cut and just say they happened, but then that that would be shortchanging the reader, the characters, and my own personal view of how the story should go.
Deconstructing a Story
Finally, I was able to keep my word and upload another whole chunk of the story last night so I made it under my self imposed deadline. Of course, I had to stay up until almost three in the morning to get it done, but what's losing a little sleep when Joe Baker's life is in such turmoil. I will make no promises for the next section, but last weekend, I was able to get two done. If you count the one I just uploaded, the hope would be that by Sunday night, the next part will be finished. But I'm not promising anything. Anyway, if you're reading the story, and it's too serious, I can say that for a while at least, the story will take on a more light hearted tone. You'll have to read to find out why.
I have been thinking about this issue of loading the story up as The Kid and Me Part One, The Kid and Me Part Two, etc. etc. etc. The reason I am thinking about it is because of the technical issues that have arisen because of the length of the story. It seems it does take a while for the pictures to load, so if you're on a dial up, it may be an interminable length of time. If you are a continuing reader the best way to read where you left off is to go to the story, go forward one page, and then you can go backwards as far as you need to. Of course, you might wait a minute or so, because the last pictures are also the last to load.
Last night I didn't think I was going to get the next section up. My cable modem went down and I had to use a dial up. The first time I sent it, it said timed out, unable to send. Everytime after that it came back and said there was an error. I don't know how long it did this, but finally I gave up. However, when I visited the site, what I had uploaded was there even though the game had told me I was a totally inept failure! Anyway, who knows?
The Kid and Me:
Deconstructing a Story
Well, I finally decided to bite the bullet and begin uploading The Kid and Me in parts. The first section of the story has now been renamed The Kid and Me: Part One and Part Two. Part one now has a "Forward" at the beginning, and then Part One is subitled The Diary, Part Two is subtitled The Letters. If I had my preference it would still be one big whole but technically, it has just become too bulky to continue in that manner. The longer it became the harder it was to upload it.
Also, because I was doing it from one lot, the lot from which I started playing the game from, it became necessary to create an alternate universe in another neighborhood for reasons I can't explain at the moment.
This meant going to the "alternate universe neighborhood" setting up the pictures then having to transfer them back to the neighborhood where I had begun to write the story. This is very tedious and time consuming, especially since you have to transfer way more pictures than you'll actually need. I laugh now when I think back to when I started the story, and how naively I though I would be able to use the pictures I had taken during game play. As it turns out, most of the pictures you see in the first pages of the story, are ones I did take during game play which is why they aren't very well done. If anybody has any advice on how to make the pictures more easily accessible, perhaps something I'm not aware of let me know.
I have been working hard this weekend on getting the next section of the story done. I have most of the pictures ready, but have to take some more. Hopefully, if not tonight then tomorrow I'll have Part III up. I want to thank everybody who has been helpful with their advice in all aspects. This has definitely been a work in progress.
Last night I also changed my cover page on The Kid and me, for the better I believe. I wasn't happy at all with the way the last one turned out, although the last one was far better than the previous one which was just a picture of Joe Baker against the generic Blue background. I also went back and "tweaked" the first part of the story some more. There were a few minor details still left over from the original story that had to be cleaned up. The story has come a long way already from those first days.
I'm really pleased though with my ideas for Part III. I think they will give the story a much lighter tone. Not to say by any stretch of the imagination that Joe Baker's life will suddenly become all peaches 'n' cream. Far from that, far from that. He's got a long way to go yet. Thanks for reading.
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
Monday, and it was back to work for a lot of people. Hope you had a good time watching the Super Bowl. I didn't. Why? Because I was busy working on Part III of The Kid & Me. As a matter of fact that's how I spent most of the weekend. It was a painstaking picture session that needed a lot of set up with interaction between the characters. Trying to get your sims to do just the right thing can be painstaking. Then there's the stupid things you do that aren't the Sims fault. Now I know why they have continuity directors for films. I ran into a major continuity problem in taking the pictures. I had one character wearing an outfit that she couldn't possibly be wearing, and had to go back and shoot the whole set over. I can't be more specific than that lest I give away too much about Part III.
Then there's the other absent minded things you do, such as forgetting to put the walls up or the crystals above their heads appearing. When I first started writing The Kid & Me, things like that didn't concern me, as I had no intention of becoming that involved in it. Now, though, even while trying to be aware of the fact that the walls should be up, the crystals should be hidden, I sometimes make mistakes.
And then there are those little moments that just happen. I was taking the pictures for the last few frames, and I knew there was something I wanted and needed but wasn't sure what. Then, lo and behold, she did it on her own, making the wrap up for Part III just perfect. So thank you Sim Bettie, for your wonderful improvisational skills.
As for when Part III will be up, I have already started to work on the text. So hopefully it will be up sometime this evening. So until then, take care.
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
It's a late Tuesday for most people but only about
For instance, when Dagmar falls asleep on the floor near the end of Part III, I could have gone with a close up shot of her or the one I chose, a long shot showing Joe and The Kid in the background. Despite the fact that the crystal was showing above Joe's head, I went with that one. My only mistake was that I could have gone and brushed the crystal out before posting the picture. This is something I have done on many occasions. Somehow though, the picture escaped my attention and by the time I reached the point of using it at about three in the morning last night, I was too tired to even worry about it. Then there are two other big boo boos in the pictures that I just flat out missed but I decided to just go ahead and leave them, hoping nobody would notice too much. Eventually I hope to go back and fix all these things, but as it stands now, just moving the story forward has occupied a great deal of my time.
Now, I should comment on the story so if you haven't read it, be forewarned that when I do this, I do give away plot spoilers. If you have been reading my blog, you will recall that in one of my very first entries, I said that a simple absent minded mouse click changed my Sims World. This mistake in playing The Sims 2 is where the idea for the story actually began to develop.
I was in the first stages of playing the game, and I'm not much of one to peruse instruction books unless it's absolutely necessary. When I introduced the character of Joe Baker into the game, my intention was to keep him a confirmed bachelor and womanizer especially since he had the romantic aspiration. One evening, I had been playing quite a while and wasn't entirely watching what I was doing. I think I was trying to have Joe order a pizza or something I can't really remember. I wasn't watching what I was doing and when the little box came up, I simply clicked okay. The next thing I knew was that the game was telling me the Social Worker would bring my kid the next day. HUH???? I could have quit the game without saving and erased that mistake, but I had spent a great deal of time in that session building up Joe's skills. So I figured there had to be another way out. There wasn't one, at least not without murdering the kid. I was mad about what I did initially, but as my progress in the game moved on, the one absent minded mouse click changed everything in the game, and as you now know, led to the story of The Kid & Me.
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story:
A late night entry to be sure. I was going to write my daily entry earlier today, but I had trouble getting into the site. That's the bad news. The good thing about it was that I went to work on Part IV of The Kid & Me. There is a very elaborate sequence of events that happen at the end of Part IV, and it was a lot of tedious work getting it staged. That's not to say I'm done with the pictures already for the next part. I just decided to do the sequence of pictures out of order this time so I could get the hardest ones out of the way. You wouldn't believe the difficulties I had. I took probably about fifty or sixty photographs, and I doubt if I'll use more than five or six of them. Some of them will be automatically discarded for various reasons. At least I'm sure I got all I need for the sequence. Let's hope so.
Now, in case you're wondering about Part III, I hope the fact that Joe Baker suddenly had a kid dropped off to him doesn't make you believe that this is a simple fish out of water story. You know the spiel-confirmed bachelor and womanizer suddenly has a kid. There is so much more to the story than that.
At any rate, the day of rest yesterday did me a lot of good, as I was anxious to get back to the story once again. I am determined to see it through to completion, so if you're reading it, have no fear. I won't just suddenly quit in the middle of it or drop it. Without the whole story, there is no story. And worst, to not finish it when others have already invested their time in reading it would be a shameful thing to do.
I love these characters I have created. They may be nothing more than computer generated figments of my imagination, but in my mind and heart they do exist when I bring them to life on the pages of this web site.
(Note: More times than I care to remember I would start to read a person’s story and they would never finish it for one reason or another. One of the hazards of The Sims)
The Kid & Me
Deconstructing a Story:
For the first time since I've begun writing The Kid & Me, I've run into a bit of a snag. If you read Part III, Joe Baker seems to be crossing a bridge. The problem is, which bridge will he choose in the end. Will he step hesitantly across the one that could lead him to redemption, or will he continue on across the same path, to the same bridge, to more of the same that's on the other side.
My problem is, no matter which bridge he chooses to cross, there has to be a good rhyme or reason. We know he isn't totally devoid of any human values. Certainly The Kid doesn't think so. She's about the only person left who hasn't given up on him, although we can't say that Susan really did. So whichever bridge he chooses, there has to be a reason. If he totally ignores the events happening in his life, or refuses to accept those events, he will continue on the same path he always has. If he does change course, and takes the new path, there has to be a good reason for him to come to that decision. He just can't magically change his ways without some underlying motivation. Whatever happens, I hope you are enjoying reading The Kid & Me.
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
I want to thank whoever the anonymous reader or reader(s) were that helped push part III up to a four. I appreciate you rating my story whoever you are. As I've said before, if you have any questions or comments, other than your posting in the guestbook, you may contact me at clydesplace@hotmail.com
The picture taking session went really well last night. As for the storyline, I think I've come up with a few things to work myself out of that snag I mentioned yesterday. On top of that, I came up with the line I needed to close out Part IV.
So, what's it looking like for Part IV? Thanks to the help xsimgalx, I should have it up by the end of the weekend. The reason is, I don't have to do all the moving and pasting that I was doing when I was writing the story out of one lot. Of course, I still have to edit some of the photos and there are two from Part III that I really need to fix.
The other thing good that happened this morning is I came up with the closing line I needed for Part IV, you know, before I write To Be Continued. The story now is laid out in my mind to the Conclusion, and what will be in each part. If you are reading it, thanks again and thanks for visiting my blog.
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
Saturday morning and I would like to say that I got up this morning all bright eyed and bushy tailed to work on The Kid & Me but I can't. In fact it's already
The good news is that the pictures for it are finished, ready to go. Now all I have to do is apply the text. Of course in writing the text sometimes I find out I'm a picture or two short but usually it doesn't take long to remedy that. If I can, I try to work around it, if not I do my best to reset the scene and take the pictures I need. The problem that develops is if your Sims had to do a number of costume changes during the particular section you are writing. Then you have to make sure they are wearing the right clothes on the right day at the right time for the right scene. Continuity Directors in
The other bad news is that I have much to do around here today. Yes, I have other obligations besides writing The Kid & Me. So the next part, unless I have upload problems will be up no later than tomorrow night.
Oh, yeah. And I finally fixed my browser problems. It had to be that update I downloaded from Microsoft the other day causing the problems. I just simply went to system restore and returned my settings to what they were before that time. It worked.
That's about it for today. Thanks for stopping by, and keep those cards and letters coming in.
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
About this same time last night (
As it was, I labored well into the night and was nearing the finish when at
There is no doubt that Part IV has to be exactly right, or the whole story may fall apart. At any rate, with very little sleep as it is, I'll work on it as long as I can. It should be up no later than tomorrow evening (hopefully) and possibly tonight if it finally comes together. Thanks again for all the kind comments left in my guest book.
The Kid & Me: Deconstructing a Story
As some of you know, I managed to get Part IV of The Kid & Me uploaded last night. After re-reading through it a couple of times I only noticed a few minor errors, so maybe I am getting better at this. As last week, I'll take a day or two off from the story to rejuvenate myself. It certainly helped get Part IV up a lot sooner than I thought it would.
I want to also thank those on the BBS who gave me help today with a problem I was having that I needed to solve and solve quickly to move on with the next part of the story. Thanks to Stargatehappy, Kmlough,and relativeaffect, for their assistance in my time of need.
As for the story itself, it seems Joe Baker has certainly decided to change paths and take the bridge to the unkown. His journey has just begun. My guess is that most of you who are reading it were hoping he would finally begin to wise up a little bit. Well, he did take a major step but one step does not a journey make. Hmmm...that sounds almost poetic.
Of course, I had no intention of having him ship Dagmar off to somewhere, at least not at this point in the story. My problem always was, how do I bring these two characters together. In a longer novel form, it would have taken many more scenes, many more ups and downs than what you read about in Part IV. So we do the best we can with the format, and on that level I think it succeeds.
On Saturday night when I had finished writing most of Thirty Days, Thirty Nights, I felt the ending of Part IV was okay but that it was somehow missing something. Originally, Dagmar did not lose conciousness at any time before Joe Baker rescued her from the pool. The reason for that being was to shorten the scene somewhat, and so that Joe wouldn't have to give her resuscitation. It didn't occur to me that Dagmar should have this vision of her mother while unconscious until just before I went to bed. It was perfect, and had accidentally been set up perfectly with the letter that Bettie found in Dagmar's overnight bag. So when I went back and did the rewrite, she did lose consciousness and had this vision of her mother, after Joe had quickly prayed to her for help. Sometimes, things like this just work themselves out.
(Note: For those of you who have read the story, you know that my decision to have Dag have a vision of her mother worked out really well for the end of the story also.)
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
I know I said I was going to take a break for a couple of days but last night I decided to get busy building some important sets that I would need in the future. I made good progress, and it's a lot easier since building my studio lot.
I was reading some of the stories on here last night, and there was one that kind of irritated me. I won't say whose it was or what it was about except to say that it was a tutorial that was suppose to be informative. I'll give it that, but about halfway through the section, the author seemed to develop an attitude that he/she was far superior and those of us who are doing our best and putting our all into our stories, were just little peasants for he/she to bestow his/her wisdom on. By the end of the tutorial, I could have cared less about how much knowledge he/she was imparting to us. I would rather read a turtorial about something I already know by someone who is truly trying to be helpful than something like that.
The whole thing about ratings is we all like to have good ones whether we say so aloud or not. I think for movies and downloads, the higher the rating the more people there are who can appreciate your hard work. And that's how I view the ratings, as a means to an end. Yet, I abosolutely refuse to go around and beg people to rate my story. What I do is to read theirs, and if I really like it and appreciate their work I say so in their guest book. I leave it up to them if they want to return the favor.
As far as my own guest book goes, I visit the page of each and every indiviudual who signs it. My feeling is that if they can take the time and trouble to read The Kid & Me, and to let me know your thoughts about it, how much trouble can it be for me to return the favor and look at their items or read their stories? None at all. So if you sign my guest book, there's no need to ask me to visit you blog, I'll do it anyway because that's what I should do.
As far as ratings go, I try to rate and judge the best that I can after reading someone's story. I take a lot of things into account. For instance, am I going to downgrade someone's work because of their inexperience or that they may not have the same tools as someone with a fancy video editing program or photo editing program? No, I can give a five star rating to a story that may not seem like much to the experts, but in reading it I know the author did their best. If I can't give a good rating, then I just try to pass it by. I've only given out two of the worst ratings (one star) to stories. One was a story where somebody was just being obnoxious for the sake of being that way and the other low rating was because it was filled with a bunch of nonsense ridiculing lesbians. What's the point in that?
The point I'm trying to make is, it's nice to have high ratings, but in the end the only one you have to really please is yourself.
(Note: This is when I began to have the first feeling of disenchantment with The Sims 2 web site. It was also my first inkling of the maneuvering that many did in order to have their work recognized instead of letting it be judged on its merits.)
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
Today I go back to work full boat on The Kid & Me. I did do some work last night, trying to set up a couple of scenes that I just have to have. These scenes take place outdoors, at night and that does present other problems besides the usual of trying to get the "Sim" actors to do things they aren't supposed to be able to do.
Setting up these shots can be time consuming. Last night, I had just about figured out how to set up the scene so that it would appear the characters were doing what they were supposed to be doing. It's a night scene. I no sooner had it figured out when of course, in the shortened hours of the Sims world, daylight was upon me. If you’re setting up shots indoors this is not a problem. You simply pause, and then switch to nighttime view. Outdoors it's a different story. When you pause the game to switch to nighttime view, the lines in the lawn appear. Bummer! So it's either take the time to speed the game up through another Sim day, then try to reset the shot again to get what you want or take the shot and disregard the lines in the lawn. Seeing as how I had spent so much time setting up the shot, I went ahead and took the pictures line and all. Whether I'll use them or not is another matter.
Let's face it there are just some things the Sims aren't designed to do and figuring a way to get them to do the undoable is always a challenge. If you've read part IV, the simple act of Bettie falling asleep in Joe's lap turned into a bigger problem then even I could imagine. My first Idea was to have Joe rub her aching feet for her. Couldn't make that happen. She would lie on the couch and lounge or nap just fine but when I used the move objects on cheat to move her down so that her feet were resting on his lap, she just wouldn't lay right either flying up into the air, or sinking down into the couch. Eventually, I was able to work out what you saw and did away with the feet rub. Even accomplishing that wasn't as easy as you might think. Whew!!! At any rate, it's time to get to work. Thanks for stopping by and if you have any questions or comments you can email me at the address in my profile which I rewrote last night. Keep those cards and letters coming in.
(Note: As time has gone on, it has become much easier to manipulate the Sims into doing what you need them to do to tell a story thanks in no small part to the many mod creators.)
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
Things went well last night. I did some picture taking and didn't have to take near as many as I usually do because my actors seemed to be cooperating for a change. I have a Baker homestead before moving on to the studio lot and others.
I will get to start work earlier today. I went to school today, got there and realized I had forgotten my glasses. It's a thirty mile drive to school so I wasn't going to drive all the way home, then all the way back and get back in time for just one class. The girlfriend won't be happy that I missed but what can I say?
I was reading someone's blog yesterday where somebody had written in that person's blog some stupid inane comments about their writing. The gist of it was that they were criticizing this particular author because their stories were too long and too many of them were about the same subject. What kind of criticism is that?
I am afraid that the way things are going; in depth reading is going to become something strangely foreign in this country. I see signs of it all around me. I'm sure that some people have seen this blog and passed it by because "of all the writing" or have passed The Kid & Me by because "it's too long." The fact is I like the longer stories where the authors take their time developing their characters so that as you read, you get a true sense of who they are and what they are going through. That's one of the reasons my story is so long. It would have been easy to bypass a great deal of what I've written and shorten it, but then who would really care what the characters are doing?
I think one of the biggest problems in this country right now was the passing of the "No Child Left Behind." While it sounds good on paper, the fact is that now instead of opening new horizons by exploring subjects thoroughly, kids are being taught simply how to pass a test to go on to the next level. And a few weeks later they've forgotten everything they've learned. The classes I remember from high school are the ones where the teacher took a lot of time to explain things thoroughly or tell us more about a subject than the few paragraphs in the text book.
I someday fear that as time goes by, more and more kids will never understand the joys of picking up and reading a novel with three hundred pages or more.
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
I had my first big catastrophe last night while trying to get the Sims to do what they weren't cut out to do. What happened was that I had to move Joe, Bettie, and Dagmar to another lot to try and get this done. It was difficult to say the least. I never could accomplish what I was trying to do. Finally I had to give up and clicked the options to go to the neighborhood screen. It asked me if I wanted to save and I said no, because frankly, there was nothing to save. When I got to the neighborhood screen, not only did it show that lot as being for sale, Joe, Bettie and Dagmar were no where to be found. They weren't in the Sim Bin, they weren't in Joe's house, they weren't anywhere. I tried going to someone's lot and having them invite them over, because they were still showing up as people's friends. No luck there. So that left only one thing to do.
Luckily, before I had installed Maxi's patch some weeks ago, I had packaged Joe's house along with Bettie and her house onto my hard drive. I simply reinstalled their houses onto the lot. That still left the problem with Dagmar. I tried adopting about four or five times but none of the kids were Dagmar. I finally had to go into make-a-sim and make a new Dagmar. Since most of the faces on the kids are similar, I think she turned out looking just like the other Dagmar. Then it was a matter of getting her into the game, having her mother become friends with Joe, have them move in, then have the mother move out. Whew! It took some doing but I finally got it done. But that's not all.
A bunch of people from the neighborhood came to visit Joe and lo and behold three of them were the Joe I had been using, Bettie, and Dagmar. But they have no home! Anyway, you can see how complicated and messy this story stuff can get sometimes. Anyway, let's hope for better things tonight as I head off to work on the story. Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend.
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a story:
It's Saturday, there's work to be done so let's not spend too much time on frivolities. The original Dagmar is back in the story. It was weird-a-rama time again. Once again the original characters came to visit the replacement characters. This time, I had them make friends with one of them, then asked them to move in. They did. Then I moved the replacement characters out to the Sim Bin. I was glad I was able to do that because I couldn't help but think that I was working with clones, silly as that may seem.
And there was a slight difference in the original Dagmar and the replacement Dagmar. It was small and subtle, probably no one but me would have noticed but it was there. At any rate, I'm glad to have the original characters back.
I once again tried to get the shots I wanted the other night that caused all the problems in the first place. This time there was no catastrophe and I did get a few pictures but I don't know if I got enough to use in the story before the whole thing came apart and I couldn't get it set up again. I'll try one more time today and then give it up and write around it.
Hope you have a good weekend!
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story:
I'm getting another early start on Part V of The Kid & Me. It's
Yesterday was long, tedious but exceptionally fruitful. Almost all of the pictures are taken and I hope to finish up the few remaining today, not to mention having to edit a couple of them. With luck, Part V could be up as early as late tonight or tomorrow night sometime.
I think Maxi's should do something to give you more control of your characters while they are on a community lot. As you know, you can use the move objects on cheat. You can use the boolprop cheat to some degree although even that can be tricky. For instance, if you need to use the tombstone of life and death, you can or Paul's Reaction Tester, but you had better hope that when you spawn them they appear somewhere out of the way. I used the reaction tester at a community lot yesterday, and when the box appeared it blocked one of my sims in. Of course there was no way to do it.
There are some great community lots on the exchange, and two of them get some lengthy use in Part V. I wonder if somehow there is a way to change a community lot to a residential? Probably not, but perhaps as a favor to moviemakers and storytellers alike people could start building community lots but make them residential just to make things easier on us. Anyway, it's a thought.
Also, with each part I'm going to try to change the pictures on the cover so that they include scenes that are actually taking place in that particular part of the story. Sort of like a preview if you will. I did this for Part IV, so if you want a clue about what's taking place, look on the cover.
The Kid & Me: Deconstructing a Story
Now that part V is up I feel I can talk about it somewhat. So if you haven't read it, you might want to do so before reading this entry.
I have to wonder how many people who have read Part V, were taken by surprise at the way it ended. Some may quarrel about adding a tragic element to the story, but some of the best stories are those that combine several elements such as comedy, romance and tragedy. Part V certainly has all of those elements or at least that was my goal. As a matter of fact that has always been my goal in writing this story.
So just when it seems Joe Baker has his life on the right track, we add another obstacle to it. The fact is, Joe has made many mistakes in his life, and there was always the chance that one of them would come back to haunt him. It's just ironic that the biggest mistake he made in his life, the one that started him on this long road of change, is the one that has returned. Although we haven't seen Susan since Part I, I have always tried to mention her at least once in each part of the story so that she wouldn't be forgotten when it came time to reintroduce her into the story line. So those of you who have read all five parts, will be very familiar with Susan's relevance to the story. Those who have only read Part V, won't have a clue or entirely understand the importance of what happened at the end.
I know many were probably hoping Part V would end differently, but redemption for our mistakes are not always a simple matter. I have always said Joe Baker has a long road ahead.
Except for the two missing pictures that didn't upload, I am more pleased with Part V than any of the others. More work definitely went into it. Do you know how hard it is to get Sims to sit in a car? It's mind boggling!
(Note: A couple of expansion packs later, the Sims indeed were given automobiles and were able to sit in them. Up until that you had to fake it and it wasn’t easy. Sims had to ride taxis to get around until then.)
The Kid & Me: Deconstructing a Story
Just as in the previous weeks after uploading a part of the story I'm anxious to get back to work on it. I always think I need a few days off. I need to be doing some more work here around the house so I may put off getting back to it for another day.
One of the things that is aggravating in taking the pictures is the fact that in order to have complete control over all the sims in your scene you have to make them a temporary part of your family to get them to behave. Even then they sometimes don't want to do that. This can lead to some tricky maneuvering in starting relationships and then quickly breaking them off. It's not to bad if you don't need them much for the story, characters that are temporary such as Charlene or Dana or Mrs. Martinson. After you are finished with them you can move them to the Sim bin and if you are finished with them, delete them to make room for more. In the restaurant scene, I had to make Charlene, the guy she was sitting with, and the chef part of the family so I would have more control on the community lot. If there is a way to control visitors let me know that will save me a lot of time! Now they are all back in the Sim bin. I don't think Charlene will be showing her face around Bettie again!
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
I went back to work a little on the story last night, taking some of the easier pictures to set up. I Hope to do a lot more work today, but I have some things around here to today, clean house and typing a resume out are just a couple of them.
There is a moment coming up in Part VI that I have had planned for a long time. It's supposed to be a key dramatic moment that comes at the end. I've had this planned in my head for a long time, and now that I've reached it I'm not as positive that it fits the story and am beginning to have my doubts about it. In the end, I'll probably go with it, and maybe it's just one of those things that fit but you don't really want to write. I would ask my girlfriend for advice but she says she won't read the story until it's finished so that's no help.
In order to get her advice I have to explain a scene thoroughly. Without reading the story up until now, she couldn't give me advice on this one. When I get Part VI up, I guess that's when you'll find out.
I have a subtitle for Part VI, but I'm not entirely happy with it. Maybe something better will come to mind. Thanks again for stopping by and keep those cards and letters coming in at clydesplace@hotmail.com
The Kid & Me
Deconstructing a Story:
I always watch my community rankings for amusement. One day I'm a Professor of Llamology, the next day I might be a Social Bunny or a Pollination Technician. My ranking rises and falls more than the Dow Jones industrial average. When I'm busy working on the story, it usually plummets like a satellite hitting a cloud watching Sim. Anyway, I find it all amusing.
I though I would talk about some of the things I had planned for The Kid & Me that didn't quite make the cut for one reason or another. The basic story is laid out in my head all the way to the end. Certain scenes can change however on a whim, or depending on whether or not it accomplishes its task.
For instance, in Part V I had a scene where Joe and Bettie were in the hot tub splashing each other after Dagmar somehow convinced them to let her try the hot tub out with them. I was able to get Dagmar into the hot tub alright but in the end, I didn't like the scene that much although the pictures turned out great. The reason is, after thinking about it, I decided that after what happened that night in the hot tub with Susan, the hot tub would be a bad memory and would take away from the scene. So in the end it didn't make it into the story and the pictures remain unused.
I also had a lot of scenes where Joe was walking around the yard with Bettie having conversations as their relationship grew. In the end, they didn't really advance the story so they ended up not making the cut. Sometimes I'll take the pictures, plan on using them, but when I begin writing the text is when the final decision is made.
I had several more scenes with Nick planned, but in the end they did nothing to advance the storyline. When I first began writing the story, Nick had a couple of subplots of his own but if there's anybody out there who has been following this from day one just about every single subplot is now sitting listlessly in my Storytellers folder, perhaps fodder for a future story.
(Note: The only Nick story I kept was the
The Kid & Me
Deconstructing a Story:
It’s an early morning start for me (
Now that the fact that Joe is obviously in love with Bettie, and since I said some of this story is based on what happened when I played the game, I'll clue you in on how that relationship occurred during game play.
When I first started playing, I made the mistake of making all my Sims have the romantic aspiration including Joe, including Bettie. When I first made Bettie, she was a teen and I played her character more than anybody's, even Joe. As a teen, to fulfill her romantic aspirations, she had to date quite a few guys and make out with them. At one time she was in love with five or six different guys, but all except one was a townie. So when she aged into an adult, she had no more love interests because all the guys were teens.
Joe would visit their house when Bettie was a teen, and they had become close friends. When she turned into an adult Joe was there, and WHAMMO! it was almost love immediately because she already had a very high daily score with Joe and a very high lifetime score with Joe and vice versa.
And since Joe had known her all her life as a teen, then suddenly they had this attraction for each other it was very weird. Her meter kept coming up, flirt with Joe, make-out with Joe, give Joe a back-rub etc. etc. I finally gave in to them. I can't say what happened to them after that....because that would tell you how the story ends!
The Kid & Me: Deconstructing a Story
A long long day in the picture taking session yesterday. There was a set of pictures that I needed that were absolutely crucial to Part VI. I have one more "big" scene to photograph but I'm sure I won't have the problems with it that I had yesterday.
There were also some problems I had with a lot I was going to use that I uploaded from somebody. I just needed it for a couple of scenes so when it wouldn't load properly, I decided to write around it. I also had problems with another lot by someone, a community lot, that I was going to use later but it had roaches. As a matter of fact, every lot I have installed from this person has had roaches! I won't be using their lots anymore. At any rate, I hope to start writing the text sometime this evening. My best guess is Part VI could be up as early as Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning at the latest.
It seems everybody on the BBS is going ga-ga over the fact that there's a rumor the next Sims expansion pack after University might be one called Night Life. Yet, University is still two days away from release here in the States! I guess that's what they call Sim fever!
Tuesday, 01 March 2005
The Kid & Me: Deconstructing a Story
I imagine that the attention of a lot of the people on this board is being swept away by the new University Expansion Pack. As for myself, I'll go pick it up tomorrow but I won't install it until I finish with The Kid & Me. While it may not, and probably wouldn't cause a problem, sometimes installation glitches can cause things to go haywire and I just don't want to chance it. As it is, before installation, I'll have to back up my game and that does take time, time I don't have at the moment.
I have finished all the pictures for Part VI. I was called away yesterday for a while, so that cut into my story writing time. I'll be starting on the text shortly, so Part VI should be up no later than Wednesday morning but it could be up earlier.
I have been giving some thought that at some point, I will do a video in regards to the story. I'll give it a test run in a couple of weeks and if it's not too complicated, I'll take a shot at it.
Sorry for the short entry, but there is work to be done and no time to play! Thanks for stopping by!
(Note: The video was made and is posted in the right hand column if you haven’t viewed it.)
Skipping Ahead:
Gee do I even have time to write about The Kid & Me? At any rate, it would seem readership has fallen off but that might be a sign of the release of the expansion pack more than anything. Truthfully, there's no way of telling if anybody's reading it unless they either sign the old guestbook or the rating on it rises and falls. I'm a Social Bunny on here today; I was a Professor again for a few days. I suppose I'm having identity crises. What's your sign?
As for Part VI, I think it's the best I've done yet. The story has now turned the corner and is heading for the stretch run, meaning there are not too many parts left.
Frankly, in the final scene during the confrontation between Joe and Bettie, I had my mind made up to use a certain word in there. Yeah, it was a naughty word, but I'm not sure what you can get away with on here so at the last minute I chickened out after having had the scene already written in my mind for over a month. It's strange about the naughty words. I've seen more than a few of them and they don't bother me, but as soon as some outraged parent crosses your story or page, then they'll be griping to Maxis and poof - No more story. I never could get a straight answer from anyone about what is acceptable or not in that department. I guess it just depends on what you can get by with. Anyway, the scene is up, I cut the word, and the scene stays the way it is at least for now. Thanks for stopping by, catch you later.
(For those of you who have read the blog version of The Kid and Me, you know that in the confrontation I wrote about that I did indeed use that word along with a few others throughout the story.)
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
Worked well into the night on the story last night and will get right back at it as soon as I finish writing this entry. The writing went well for the most part except when the game decided to take a dive on me a few times. One thing I know for sure that as soon as I finish the story, it'll be time for a good clean-up on the computer.
This much I can tell you about Part VII. In some instances the mood will be a little lighter. Not entirely of course, but some. One thing I do different then a lot of writers is that I take the pictures then write the text. Most other writers I talk to do just the opposite. There's several reasons why I have done it this way for The Kid & Me. Before I even put the story into text, I know for the most part what my characters are going to do and what scenes I need to set up. I now am to the point where I take an abundance of pictures. As I'm taking the pictures, I also write some of the dialogue in my head. The reason for this is that while doing the pictures, it often inspires me to come up with something that makes a scene work better, or even a completely new idea for the scene. It may be an odd way to work for some people, but that's just me I guess.
If I write another story, I may try it the other way. It's hard to say. I do know that if I do, the story will be mapped out entirely in my head beforehand unlike The Kid & Me was. I didn't map out the story until after I had uploaded most of part one. That required several quick rewrites. We live and we learn!
Gee, I really have been lax writing in my blog. I guess The Kid & Me has just taken up so much of my time. As you can tell Part VII has been up for several days now and I just barely made my self-imposed deadline.
I think this chapter was the one a lot of people have been waiting for. It was certainly the most difficult for me to write yet. I couldn't take the chance of screwing it up. So far, all the comments I have received regarding Part VII have been quite favorable. I want to especially thank for her extremely kind comments about it! Thanks Kira!
So finally they kiss there in the moonlight, and at the same moment Joe and Bettie are finally engaged. The engagement part was a last minute decision on my part...well I came to it a few days before I wrote it. I had always planned on them getting together there at the top of
There's no doubt that Bettie and Joe are meant for each other. When I play that family in the game, those two can't keep their hands off of each other. While other Sims go to play pinball or video games, Joe and Bettie take the free time to start smooching and flirting. This made it difficult to photograph many of the earlier parts of The Kid & Me, because I didn't want them to be that affectionate. In other words, with those two there was no such thing as a friendly hug! I guess I could have broken them up for a while to make the story but I just flat out couldn't bear to do it to them! Can you believe I'm writing this way about computer generated animated characters! Anyway, I was finally glad to get those two together. It's been a long haul hasn't it?
The Kid & Me
Deconstructing a Story:
Issues of length
I have written in this blog and in the forward of some parts of The Kid & Me regarding its length. I have always said that because of that it wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea. That issue came up again today and I thought long and hard about it. I was wondering if and how I could have shortened the story and still have it come out the same. In the end what I decided was that in reality, as long as the story is now, it is in reality shortened in many ways already. There is a lot more I would like to be able to express about these characters, their thoughts, their backgrounds or to even expand on certain aspects of it. In this format though, that would be extremely difficult since it's length is already a turn off for many.
For instance, how Joe Baker finally accepted Dagmar and coming to the realizations that he does in regarding Laurie are abridged and it would have taken him much more of a struggle to come to terms with those issues. But let's face it, this is not the place to be writing a lengthy novel and in the end perhaps I chose the wrong site, the wrong place, and the wrong format in which to write it.
Perhaps if I had divided the story up into more parts it would have made a difference. What I would have ended up with is sixteen shorter parts, but by the time you reach the end the story it would still be the same length many would not have noticed. Take Part VI for instance. Not only do we deal with Susan's death, but we also dealt at length with Joe's rejection of Laurie along with his guilt concerning Susan's death not to mention the confrontation at the end of Part VI with Bettie. It would have been easy to split all that up into three parts, but honestly my purpose has been to give those who have invested their time in The Kid & Me as much of the story as I possibly could in each Part. I feel as if I owe it to them. Likewise, I could have split Part VII into three parts - Joe learning to take care of and accept Laurie, Joe at the bar with Frank then finally mourning Susan's death, and then his final reconciliation with Bettie at the end.
I have decided that the story is what it is. I never expected anyone to read it in one sitting, especially late comers who have just started. If the story is too long for one sitting, then bookmark it and get back to it when you can. If there is too much detail that you can't get into it, that's okay also. And for those of you who have invested your time in it despite its length, I am forever grateful to you.
(Skipping ahead and more disenchantment with EA games and the official site)
Special Late night entry
I have been working on the story The Kid & Me quite a bit today. Every once in a while I would check my page to see what was up. What I find is that the ratings on my story, in just a few short hours have taken a complete nose dive. Some people on this site, probably a few who think more highly of themselves then anybody else ever would, decided to go around and down rate as much work as they could. Not just mine, but many many other talented people who have worked long, hard and put a lot of effort into making thier stories, their Sims, or their lots for other people to enjoy. Some parts of my story worked their way up slowly over time to a high rating. It wasn't an overnight thing. The only part to achieve a five rating rather quickly was the last part I put up, Part Seven. Now, if I knew for a fact these people were rating work fairly it wouldn't matter. Obviously they are not. So a lot of people on this site, including myself are asking themselves why bother? Why put that much time and effort into something when all someone has to do is gather up their buddies and go around and lower ratings with just a few quick mouse clicks. I find it odd that it only takes a few ones to lower a rating so drastically. And yes, I know it was only a few because I've kept track of my page views.
Obviously, if this site is going to live and die by ratings, then they should come up with some preventive measures to keep trolls like this from having so much influence. There should be a way to put a stop to it when all of a sudden somebody's work gets hit with a bunch of ones. And much of the items that have taken a big ratings hit the last few days on this site our certainly not even close to ones, no mater how critical your judgement is.
Obviously, a lot of these people probably used to get their kicks by downrating people on the BBS by rating people's posts on there. Now that that outlet too them is gone, it would seem they have found a way to wield their mouse buttons somewhere else. Well, whoever you are, all I got to say is this: Go ahead and down rate my stuff and other people who have worked so hard if it makes you feel any better. Even if you are anonymous when you do it, you've proven nothing except that your brain is so limited in function that the only thing it is capable of is clicking a mouse. So you might as well make use of what little brain power you have left. Have at it.
The Kid & Me
Deconstructing a Story:
I have a bit of a cold this morning and left classes early because of it. I'm still going to work on the story though. Last night I accomplished a couple of things. The first was that I designed the cover. I had enough pictures to do so and was sure of which scenes were staying and which ones were not. So having done that, I was able to start writing the text. I wrote about twenty-five frames worth before it got too late to do anymore. I'm still sticking to my prediction that I will have it up by week's end barring any unforeseen complications.
One of the things I like about what I've written so far is that in this final chapter, we finally get to see all of Bettie's personality, and are able to tune into her more private thoughts since her relationship with Joe has now changed. It's been difficult up until now to bring her personality fully to the surface as I would have liked since the story is told entirely in Joe Baker's eyes. As a matter of fact, you could almost call most of this last chapter Bettie's Story. Of course that's not the subtitle I gave it but it should give you some clue as to what's coming.
I also thought I would struggle with the text for this final episode, but I haven't so far. I was surprised at how easy it was coming to me. Part of this may be because I now know these characters inside and out and understand what makes them tick. That's one of the advantages of having written a long story such as this.
One small thing that went wrong was in examining the pictures of one of the scenes, I noticed a small glitch. I had looked at the pictures before and hadn't noticed it but it's there and I'm sure there will be people spotting it if I use it. The problem is twofold: I really need at least two of these pictures, and to restage the event surrounding them would be practically a whole evening’s work. In the end, I'll probably bite the bullet and hope nobody notices too much. It's a mistake I've made before, but sometimes when taking pictures I'm concentrating so much on what the characters are doing I don't examine their surroundings as much as I should.
Friday, 25 March 2005
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
I'm starting to feel a little bit better tonight. At least enough so that I can write a half decent blog entry. I'm not sure what I got or have had the last few days but it did make me miserable and slowed down my work to a crawl. I don't think I'm going to make my "week's end deadline." However, I did make some good progress this evening.
Did you ever try to write snappy, witty dialogue when you're feeling lousy? It isn't the easiest thing in the world to accomplish. Even harder is trying to write a romantic scene of some kind when your coughing your fool head off and your head is spinning around in a cocoon of congestion. Nothing seems funny, nothing seems romantic, and you end up liking nothing that you've written. That's the way it's been with me the last couple of days.
Hopefully my recovery will continue and I can get back on track trying to get this story done.
THE STORY IS COMPLETE! Sorry I just had to yell it. Yes, finally! It finally has ended. As you will be able to tell, this is the longest part of the story yet, but it covers a number of years so that would attribute a lot to its length. Now, for all of you who have been asking me to read stories and sign guestbooks, I hope to catch up on all that in the next few days. Once I began to recover from being sick, I gave The Kid & Me my undivided attention. It's been over three weeks since I started on Chapter VIII and I had no idea it would take me this long to finish. Of course, as I said, getting sick threw quite a monkey wrench into it.
I hope those of you who have invested so much time in reading the story will find the ending worthwhile. It's not the ending I had planned, more of which I will write about in the next few days. The ending, or the last thirty or so pages, didn't come to me until this morning as I drove to my computer classes. Why did I change the ending after having one in mind for so long? I can't explain it right now but I will in the days ahead.
I really want to thank those many people who have been so kind to me over the past several months while I saw this thing through to the end! It's always what kept me going. I also want to thank everyone for their patience as I struggled mightily to get the story finished. Once again, I would like to know what you think even if you signed my guestbook. Please email me at clydestuff@bak.rr.com. Thanks again everyone.
The Kid & Me: Deconstructing a Story
From the time that I did the first re-write on Part one, I had some idea about what the ending to this story should be. It was an ending that I didn't really want to write even at that time. As the story progressed, the thought of writing that ending became more and more depressing. Yet, no matter how I racked my brain, I could find no suitable substitute. By late Tuesday night, I had reached that point in the story where I had to write that particular ending.
Don't get me wrong, it was a good ending in it's own way. But I felt that it would leave the story on a low note no matter how I wrote it. The ending I ended up writing is different. I had thought of ending it in much the same way, but could find no way to do it where the story meant anything, and was sure I would stay with my original idea.
Then yesterday morning on my way to classes, it came to me out of nowhere. Absolutely positively out of left field as if there were some kind of divine intervention. The ending I wanted to write, was suddenly doable and would bring the story to a satisfying conclusion tying everything together.
Now, do I like the ending I wrote, better than the one I thought I would have to write? As Joe Baker said at the end, "You betcha!" Bringing Susan and Veronica in at the end was just the thing the story needed, and gave it just as much if not more meaning than the one I had planned for so many months. Sometimes these things have a way of working themselves out.
Since posting the concluding chapter, I have received emails, comments in my guestbook, and on a message board regarding the story. The funny thing about The Kid & Me, is it's length automatically turns a lot of people away from it, but those who have read it from the beginning have been extremely loyal to it, and I love all of you who have taken the time to read it and to write to me! I'll never forget the many kind comments that you have written to me, they helped in more ways than you will know to see this through to it's conclusion.
I have always said there would be no sequel or spin off. The original ending kind of made that necessary. Now, there is a little bit of room there that if I choose to, I can continue with some of the characters. That depends on if I can come up with what I consider a worthwhile story line for them without repeating myself.
Not right now though. I need a long break. I have been living with this story on a daily basis for three months and I need to get away from it. It has taken it's toll on me in ways you can't imagine. I haven't actually played the game just for fun in a long while. So maybe I'll just go have some fun!
The Kid & Me
Deconstructing a Story:
As I mentioned before, in finishing the story there were some small parts that ended up hitting the cutting room floor. As you know, the story already was running long. I had originally planned to write about Dagmar's first date coming to pick her up but had to drop it. Likewise, there was a sequence where Joe was going to teach Little Frank how to dive. In the end I felt I could live without them. Although both were supposed to be humorous in one way or another, I felt they did nothing to advance the story. The decision to drop these came at the point when I counted my frames and found out Part VIII was already up to 180, and I had yet to write the sequence where Bettie and Joe walked around the house before her accident. So that's what happened to those.
If you notice, you'll see
Remember the glitches in a couple of pictures I spoke about a week ago? Yes they were in the wedding pictures but I was able to cover them pretty good. I had move objects on and in a couple of key pictures, the wedding arch somehow got stuck in the wall. I was able to cut it out and expand one of the pictures, and in the other one I was able to use a little editing to make it look like both sides of the arch was there. If you're into finding mistakes though, you should be able to find both pictures.
It was sort of like the two glitches I had in Part III that somehow escaped my attention. If you go back, you'll notice that in one of the pictures the TV is sticking in the wall, and when the pizza delivery guy brings the pizza, there's a painting sticking in the side of the house. If I had caught those before I uploaded the story, I would have fixed it. As it was I didn't and fixing something then trying to reupload is always risky.
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
The alternate ending, the one you'll never see had the story end like this:
The officers come to the door. They tell Joe that Bettie was killed instantly when hit by the driver of the car. It is left for Joe to be able to get his family through the funeral and hold himself together. Drawing on the strength he received from Bettie, he is able to do so during the day. At night, he cries hisself to sleep. The house is like a tomb. There is no joy, the kids sit around unable to function. Finally Dagmar comes to Joe and tells him, she is no longer interested in going to college. "What's the point," she says. "We go through all that learning, studying, and then we just die?" At this point Joe realizes that there has to be something done. He gathers the family into the dining room. He tells Dagmar that she will go to college because it was what Bettie wanted, that it made her proud that she was able to win a scholarship to go to college. Joe also tells his family, that he knows everyday they are asking why this had to happen and cannot come up with an answer. He repeats the words that Bettie told him in an email once, and that Frank also repeated to him. "If we continue to ask why, we will never find the answer. Sometimes, there is no reason for why things happen the way they do. There just aren't any answers."
The family is finally able to pull through it, Dagmar goes to college. At the end of the story, we would be told that Dagmar graduated with honors and whatever else happened to her, that Laurie also graduated from college is in Cancer Research, specifically dealing with brain tumors. We see Joe sitting at the computer typing, but we only see his hands. He is typing how proud Bettie would have been of all her children. He is interrupted by a voice, that of Dagmar telling him his grandkids are waiting for him to take them to the park.
For the first time we see the adult Dagmar, standing next to him. It is the first time we see Joe's face, and he is now old. He tells Dagmar just a few minutes more. She reads what he has been typing.
She says, "Veronica, Susan, and Bettie would all be very proud of you dad!" she says. And as he returns to the typewriter, he remembers Bettie uttering those words to Dag at the telescope, telling her that her mother would be very proud of her.
"I hope so," he tells Dag, I hope so. The last paragraph he writes is that now you know the reason for him telling this story, that he did not write it for fame or glory. And certainly not for the fortune. He wrote it so that his grandchildren, their grandchildren, and their great grandchildren would know that there once was a girl, who gave all the lov she had to give, and the only thing she asked in return was for us to love her also.
And then the story would end with practically the same paragraph is what I ended with, Only there would be a shot of the tombstone engraved with
Bettie Knight Baker
Loving Daughter, Sister, Wife and Mother
"The Kid"
And there you have the alternate ending just like on a DVD. So why did I change it? More on that tomorrow.
Tuesday, 05 April 2005
The Kid & Me:
Deconstructing a Story
Getting back to what I was writing about yesterday, the question remains, why did I go with the ending I did instead of the one I had planned for so long?
When I was trying to map out a conclusion to the story some time ago, I thought of several possibilities. One of these for instance, had Nick getting killed in the war. It would certainly be tragic, but as it turned out, Nick was so much of a minor character that I doubted his death would have the impact that it should. The only answer I could come up with is the one I wrote yesterday. To me it was the only way to bring the story to a conclusion and have it mean something.
The problem is, from the time it first entered my mind that the story would have to end with Bettie's death, the idea was abhorrent to me. As I wrote deeper into the story, I almost dreaded getting to the end of the story and having to write that ending. Yet, I could think of no other satisfying conclusion, and if I had to write it, I would.
Two days before I posted the story, I had thought of no alternative. Most of the story was written, and the pictures of the police coming to the door had been taken. Nothing that would come after that had been done, not the pictures or the text. I had put it off as long as I could. The only way out of this dilemma as to whether or not Bettie had to die that I could come up with was to have her in a coma at the hospital with Joe reading the story to her. Yet, I found that ending incomplete and unfulfilling as well, and the morning of the day that I knew I would have to write the ending, I had resigned myself to Bettie's death.
That morning, as I drove to my classes, was when the idea of having the ghosts of the two girls mother appear, and to have Bettie appear also. I don't have a clue how I got the idea, as it more or less just popped into my head out of nowhere. But the more I thought about it the more I found it the perfect way to make the ending rewarding and fulfilling without having to end it on such a tragic note. Plus, it answered a few questions such as why did Joe go up the stairs at Pagoda Park after turning breifly away, and it helps to explain Dagmar's vision during her near death experience at the pool.
And then, the fact that these two mother's whose lives were ended so young, were still able to look after their daughters, even from beyond this world, made the ending more rewarding. So whether you disagree or agree, the ending on the story is the one I wanted. It just took me a long while to find it.
The Kid & Me
Deconstructing a Story:
What have I learned from my first experience in story writing? Quite a bit I think. Early in the story I was pretty much floundering around trying to find my way. I think by the fourth or fifth part I had hit my stride. So what I though I would do is give you my own personal thoughts about that experience, with a list of my own do's and don'ts.
1. Plan your story in advance. When I began my story, I only had a general idea of what I wanted to do. I had a lot of characters in mind and a lot of plots. What I found out is that I had too many characters and too many subplots, just about all of which bit the dust and necessitated a quick rewrite of the first chapter, not once but three times.
2. Start writing your story before you cement your story idea. What I found out when I started writing The Kid & Me, was that as I wrote the first part, the focus of the story changed tremendously. If I had taken the time to write the first couple of chapters on paper beforehand, I would have discovered this early. Also, by doing this you can discover if you're story idea is not only going to work but whether or not you can maintain your own interest in it as well as those who read it.
3. Be flexible. If in your writing you get a better idea than what you originally had, or a new idea comes to mind go with it. This happened to me often during the writing of The Kid & Me.
4. Plan your pictures. This is something I didn't do in the first two parts and it shows. There are some things you just can't get Sims to do no matter how hard you try. There are many things you can get them to do with a little imagination and a whole bucketful of patience. Some of these things can take an enormous amount of time to set up, so if you're not willing to invest the time in the pictures needed, cut the scene.
5. Make your conversations meaningful. Conversations in your story should do several things. They should let us know what your characters are thinking and are feeling. They should also help to advance the story in one way or another. Just don't have your Sims conversing in your story about nothing. Conversations are a great way to get people interested in your characters because it let's the reader in on their thoughts and motives.
6. For Pete's sake people, if you don't plan to see your story through to the end then don't write it in the first place. Nothing is more frustrating than to read a writer's story then go to their BBS and find out that they are tired of writing that story and they are starting a new one leaving the previous one unfinished. I have run into this a countless number of times. Sure, you have invested a lot of time in writing your story, but a lot of people have invested their time in reading it also and you owe it to them to finish what you started.
7. Don't make a cliffhanger just because you can. If you have a cliffhanger there should be a reason for it. I always tried to give as much of my story as I could in each part, so that each part was an entity unto itself. It would have been easy for me to split up several parts of The Kid & Me into two or three cliffhangers, but when I would try to end it so that the next part would deal with a completely different part of the story. For instance, when Dagmar had her pool accident, it would have been easy to have her lying there unable to breathe and tack on To Be Continued and have her come out of it in the next part. Instead, I ended that part of the story with Joe reviving her. This wrapped up the main part of the Dagmar story, and enabled me to build the romance in the following part. Likewise, I could have split up the part with Susan's death by having it end there, and then have another part dealing with Joe's inability to deal with her death. Instead, you got the whole thing in one Part.
8. Minimize your characters. Too many storylines and too many characters lessen the impact of your main story, so try to stay focused. The more characters you have, the less you know about any of them and after a while you really don't know anything about any of them. There's no need to populate a story with the entire population of a small city.
9. This one can go down as just a pet peeve of mine. When ma, pa, brother, sister, or Aunt Millie dies, don't bury them in the backyard, sideyard, or front yard in your story. Certainly this is acceptable in game play because that's the way it is. It's also acceptable in Legacy, Heritage and Challenge stories because those stories are generally about your gameplay also. But in most other stories I find it irritating.
10. One of the comments I have heard time and time again is how some of the Sims in my story look strange. I guess this means they aren't ready for The Miss America Pageant, or The Bachelor, or
11. Don't be afraid of being a bit wordy. As long as you are developing your story, and telling us the background and thoughts of your characters we will be interested. If we are not, then that means we've never advanced beyond reading Green Eggs and Ham anyway. No matter how good your plot is, it isn't going to matter if you can't write emotionally about the people in it or if we dont' have a clue as to their motives or what they are going through.
12. If you are writing a long continuing story with the same characters, and you get to Part 99 or whatever and you have run out of ideas, isn't it time to wrap it up? I have read a few series on this site that got deep into about the eighth or ninth part sometimes less and the writer will say, "Thanks to such and such for helping me come up with some ideas for this part." That's all well and good and very fine, but it tells me you've been writing the story on the fly and have no clue as to where you wanted it to go. It also tells me that a few parts from now you will probably just quit on the thing. It's time to end it and go on to something else, and didn't you know before you started writing where you wanted your story to go?
13. Don't be afraid of criticism. I get it all the time and guess what? If it's worthwhile, I'll take it into consideration. If it's ridiculous then I just laugh about it and move on.
14. Ask people to read your story, but don't beg them to and don't start your story off by saying "please rate high." It sounds like you're groveling. If they don't like it, they'll quit reading after a few pages. If they do like it they will rate it high. Anybody else who rates it is going to rate it regardless of quality or whether they even read it or not.
I'm beginning to wonder if I didn't burn myself out in writing The Kid & Me. I put everything I had into it, so much so I wonder if I can ever get into writing a story and care about it as much as I do that one. I have had several story ideas since I finished the story, and while some seem like they may make a good story, I'm having doubts in my ability to write them.
Maybe part of the problem is the fact that Sims stories do limit you in what you can write. When your story has to be accompanied by pictures, you have to work your story around what could be in those pictures. This can be a daunting task especially if your story takes place in another era. I have at least three ideas for stories, but none of them would work as well in a present day setting.
I want to write another story. I really do. But maybe I'm afraid that The Kid & Me is a story I will never be able to top. Think about it. David O'Selznick, the producer of Gone With The Wind, tried all his life to make a movie as successful as that one and never came close. Margaret Mitchell, never tried to write another novel as far as I know, although she did meet an untimely and early death. Harper Lee, after writing To Kill A Mockingbird, never wrote another novel. Michael Cimino was never able to equal the succes he had in directing The Deer Hunter. I'm sure I could think of many more instances of this occuring throughout literature or film.
Then again, maybe my thoughts are that if my next story isn't as good as The Kid & Me, then perhaps I would have failed in some way. I guess I won't really know until the day I rev the game back up, and begin to write once again.
(After swearing up and down there would not be a sequel to The Kid & Me, exactly one week later I began work on Laurie and Dag, the sequel to The Kid & Me.)
No comments:
Post a Comment