#my perspective is that fanfic has evolved into more of a style of writing rather than simply being a category

[meyeheart]

Sorry to break character for goncharov but isn’t writing fanfic of a media property that doesn’t exist technically make it original fiction? Or because it is written and advertised with tags and typical fanfic conventions, make it technically fanfic. Like how smth like Dante’s inferno is not considered fanfic bc it wasn’t written with the same framework and conventions in mind that modern fanfic utilizes. Is goncharov fanfic bc it uses those same conventions, even though it lacks direct influence from any existent source material?

[plumbobpost]

Fanfic Friday: Spotlight on Skell’s Fortune & Romance

Sul sul!

Today Week of Woohoo continues with a very special twist. I have had the opportunity to ask Skell a few questions as part of a new series of posts about storytelling in The Sims community.

Skell’s Fortune & Romance serves as a prequel to the Pleasantview and Strangetown storylines in The Sims 2 from the perspectives of the Caliente sisters, hence the title which references their aspirations. Her story takes place in the time period between the first and second games and fills in the gaps between the contradicting timelines of The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3. Although the story is largely from Dina’s perspective, it features most of the iconic The Sims 2 characters ranging from Olive Specter to the Tricous to Bella and Mortimer Goth, establishing its own vivid mythology in the process.

In addition to writing, Skell has also created beautiful Maxis-Match content for The Sims 2 and is a frequent contributor to the Totally Maxis Tumblr and the fansite Garden of Shadows.

Without further ado, I’ll let Skell speak for herself.

You’ve said in the past that Fortune & Romance started out as your attempt to make sense of Maxis canon for the premade characters of Neighborhood 1, Pleasantview, and Sunset Valley. How did this evolve from your personal headcanons into a full-fledged story?

“I had played TS2 off and on for years before I was part of the fandom, mostly just goofing around but I had a lot of fun taking pictures and experimenting with posing. One day I discovered Strangetomato’s “Strangetown Here We Come” on TVtropes and was amazed at the way she fleshed out the premade stories from the game. Through her comment section, I discovered the whole fandom and started paying better attention to the premades. Eventually I came up with a backstory for Dina that I really wanted to write and share.”

Why did you choose Nina and Dina Caliente to be your protagonists? Did you ever consider different lead characters?

“It was always gonna be Dina because I was intrigued her backstory with the mysteriously inconsistent Michael Bachelor and the fact that she’s part alien. I wasn’t as interested in Nina until I noticed that she was shy (like me in RL) and also autonomously beating people up all the time. That’s when I realized she was gonna be a co-star and balance to Dina’s antics.”

Instead of ignoring Maxis’ characterization of Dina as a gold digger, you embraced it and made it a focal point of her character. Similarly, you fully acknowledge Nina’s romance aspiration while not making her a heartbreaker. How did you find a balance between their implied “villainy” in The Sims 2 and making them more sympathetic characters?

“I enjoy classic movies where Marilyn Monroe or Thoroughly Modern Millie is like “teehee I’m gonna marry a millionaire,” and it’s quirky rather than villainous. In those stories, she usually falls for a poor guy and chooses love over money (and often he turns out to be secretly rich.) Since Michael didn’t give her a “married a rich sim” memory, I wanted to write Dina the gold-digger as a modern version of that kind of story.”

“Maxis kind of setup Romance sims for “villainy” by not allowing for casual or open relationships, but of course that can be fixed with mods. With Nina, it’s interesting that she doesn’t really fit the “outgoing party girl” type. I think of her as a quiet person with a very intense energy. She needs lots of exercise and woohoo so that she doesn’t explode.”

There are a lot of unconventional relationships in your story. Nina and Servo. Olive and Ichabod. The Tricous. Even Dina and Michael. That being said, there is very definitely a theme of “love conquers all.” What motivated your approach to these relationships? How does that relate back to your attempts at reconciling Maxis canon throughout different games?

“I have a thing for mixed supernatural relationships. Dina and Mike bonding over their hidden supernatural heritages was always key once I figured Michael had a magic side. I knew I wanted to have Nina be intimate with a servo because that’s HAWT, but I didn’t foresee how intimate things would get until I figured out Servo’s character. The Tricous’ happy polyamory was my explanation for all the weirdness going on with their relationships and family tree. And I wanted Olive, Ichabod, and DJ make up this very loving and weirdly “normal” Unholy Family.”

Speaking of reconciling Maxis canon, you created your own version of Michael Bachelor in order to match his appearance in The Sims better and to create a resemblance between him and his famous sister, Bella Goth. Why do you think Michael was depicted so differently throughout the first three games? What did you draw inspiration from in creating “The Ultimate Michael Bachelor?”

“I think it mostly comes down to them wanting to use a familiar name for Bella’s brother/Dina’s husband in TS2, and carrying that forward. In TS3, I saw a boy who had his life all planned out for him by his father. In my headcanon, he screwed that all up and became the graduate of TS1 who had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. His relationship to Bella is the reason why he’s still single by the time he reconnects with Dina, who helps him find direction.”

There is an abundance of strong female characters in F&R, some of which were not originally portrayed that way. Why did you feel that it was important to write them as such?

“Well, because I’m a proud “SJW,” of course! But seriously, it’s less about being strong and more about seeing them as people?”

^Best answer that I could have asked for.

A large portion of Fortune & Romance is dedicated to the mythology of The Sims universe(s) and to supernatural sims. How did you go about the process of world building? Did you draw inspiration from different games in the series and/or from outside sources?

“My biggest worldbuilding is the explanation of where the supernaturals came from. The fairies are sort of fallen angel types who each have an animal form, and their magic rubbed off on human sims to create the supernatural life states.”

“I try to base the worldbuilding off things in game or aspects of game play. The fairy backstory was heavily inspired by fairy tales, in the way they morally test humans for punishment or guidance.”

Aside from premade supernatural sims such as the Smiths, Calientes, and Summerdreams, how did you go about deciding which premade sims were supernatural and which weren’t? How did you decide what life state they were?

“Bella has that awesome bio about being descended from “occultists, decadents, and mystics,” but then in TS3 the Bachelor family is uber-normal, so it eventually became that Jocasta is a squirellier version of Samantha from Betwitched.”

How has Fortune & Romance evolved since you started? Are there things you would do differently if you were to restart it?

“I was such a younger, different person when I started it, and yes there are many things I would do differently. (Michael’s skintone, for example. I tried to split difference between games with a custom skintone in between S2 and S3, but everyone assumes he was whitewashed to S2.)”

“When recreating families for TS4 I came up with a backstory for Dulcinea and Nestor’s relationship as well as a backstory for Don that explains how he got to be the way he is. I still can incorporate these things, but it would have been nice to bring them in earlier.”

With your story having reached a climax, many readers are wondering whether or not F&R will come to an end sooner rather than later. Not to spoil anything, but will the story continue after the party and if so, do you intend for it to last until the events of The Sims 2?

“I never intended for it to last until the events of TS2 because then it would be really depressing. There is more stuff planned for after the party though!”

Aside from writing Fortune & Romance, you have also created a variety of Maxis-match custom content. Why do you prefer working in this aesthetic? How do you feel it complements your writing?

“The game is cartoony, and I like to use that style to tell the story. I prefer to keep things heightened and silly rather than realistic, which very much fits into The Sims aesthetic.”

Speaking of Maxis-match, you have been working on a project for The Sims 2 that involves adapting Maxis-based custom content to blend in better with the game files. Would you mind elaborating a bit on The Maxis Match Repository Project?

“The TS2 repository project is made up of conversions/separates/or otherwise adapted Maxis which pull their textures from the ones that are already in your game, rather than creating new ones. This makes the files much much tinier. I also wanted to create a catalog where you can easily find it all in one place rather than hunt all over the internet. Check it out and don’t miss out on the gems in the back of your catalog!”

You’ve played every main game in The Sims franchise, and you’ve even made some very popular 2t4 recreations of the Calientes and Michael Bachelor. Do you have a favorite game for playing? Creating sims? Making Content? Building?

“I enjoy a lot of things about TS4. The game looks great and CAS and Build Mode are the best of any game. My favorite aspect is making sims, especially that you can share sims with traits/careers/skills so they have their own little story packaged with them. However, it is much more difficult for storytelling since there’s not even a way to pick up sims and move them around.”

“TS2 is still the best as far as premade sims go, and it’s the only one I make content for. I’m a bit of a control freak with my sims, and TS2 has been mastered by fans at this point where you can have ultimate control.”

Why do you continue to play The Sims? Do you feel that the games provide a creative outlet?

“I always loved playing with Barbies as a kid and The Sims really is the ultimate dollhouse. The first time I ever heard about TS1 I knew I HAD to have it. My aunt bought it for me while I was on vacation, but I couldn’t play it until we got home! During the car ride back home and I read that manual from cover to cover multiple times, so many ideas buzzing in my head.”

Any parting comments, teasers, spoilers, public service announcements, etc.?

“I’ve been on hiatus a long while and am just now getting back into the swing of things. I’m currently working on finishing up the chapter I started posting on Tumblr but never finished. It was FreddyAirmail who got me back in the TS2 spirit by asking me to help out with the Crystal Springs neighborhood project. It’s a community hood with houses based on each of the Stuff Packs, and I made the families for Teen Style and Family Fun!”

Thanks again to Skell for answering my questions. To those of you out there who aren’t familiar with her work, go check out her Tumblr and make sure to catch up on Fortune & Romance.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to visit my ask box. If you are interested, give Plumbob Post a follow, and reblog for anyone else who you think would enjoy this blog. Stay tuned for upcoming posts!

Dag dag!

 *Photo Credits go to Skell*

[lastbluetardis]

2017 Fic Writing in Review

I was tagged by the lovely @chocolatequeennk, @jemsauce, and @aneclipsedhabitue to do a look back on the fic I wrote this year. 

total number of completed stories:

102! And this number only counts completed stories, and so A Kiss a Day, A Kiss and More, and Lost and Found (coauthor: @chocolatequeennk) don’t count. This number also isn’t counting individual chapters, so keep in mind that there are several multi-chapter stories contained in that total.

total word count:

271,029

These are only the words I have published. But in addition, I have 74,112 unpublished words (90% of which are part of my Soulmates series), so technically, I wrote 345,141 words! And this count doesn’t reflect any words I have deleted in the many false starts I’ve had with some stories.

(And here is where I piggyback off of Nancy’s plug about using Word Keeper Alpha. This is such a useful website, and it has so many functions and ways of sorting/organizing your writing projects. It’s so helpful with keeping track of word counts.)

fandoms written in:

Doctor Who

looking back, did you expect to write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?

In some ways I wrote less than expected, but in others I wrote more. As far as numbers go, I wrote far fewer fic this year than I did last year. However, I believe the quality of the stories I wrote and published are of a much high caliber than last year. And writing decent-quality stories often takes time. Also, I’ve been so focused on my soulmates series that I sort of let other projects fall to the side. And I wrote more multi-chapter fics than last year.

what’s your own favorite story of the year?

Oh, so many. I can’t possible just pick one, so have a couple:

And Baby Makes Three -- I really loved giving James and Rose a baby. Ainsley had become my baby, so any fic with her (or her siblings) in it are my favorite.

And Baby Makes Four -- Ditto as above. It was fun giving James and Rose a second baby, and giving Ainsley a sibling, and to write about the changing family dynamics that comes with a new baby.

A Marriage of (In)convenience -- I’d never written any sort of historical romance before, and it was loads of fun.

In a Heartbeat -- Yet another soulmate AU story that was a lot of fun to write. I took a spin on the oft-portrayed perfect first meeting, and instead had it be one of fear and anxiety as Rose suffered injuries from a car accident just moment after they found each other.

did you take any writing risks this year?

Hmmm... my biggest risk was deciding to expand Perfect Match into a series. I’ve never tried conquering a series, and I’ve been nervous about the time commitment, and whether or not my brain will stay interested and focused on the series so it won’t become abandoned. But so far so good!

do you have any fanfic or profit goals for the new year?

Hmm, not so much. Which is probably a bad thing to admit... I should probably have goals. Okay, so on the fly, my fic goals are:

To write and publish the next story in the soulmates series

To continue my Kisses ‘Verse

To write and publish the Beauty and the Beast AU I’ve been sitting on for nearly a year

To write the next next story in the soulmates series

To coordinate with @chocolatequeennk and maybe finish Lost and Found

best story of the year?

My best stories are also my some of my favorites. This is probably very telling: if I really really like what I’m writing/wrote, it’s often my best writing quality, too.

And Baby Makes Four 

A Marriage of (In)convenience 

In a Heartbeat 

most popular story of the year?

So I looked at AO3 for these. It considers Perfect Match to be a 2017 fic, but I don’t, considering I only posted like four chapters in 2017. So apart from that, it lists  A Marriage of (In)convenience as having the highest number of kudos. I’m happy with that; it was definitely an excellent story, if I may say so myself. But is anyone else is curious, here’s the top 5 kudos-ed stories:

A Marriage of (In)convenience 

A Kiss a Day

A Way With Words

In a Heartbeat

Perfectly Matched Outtakes

story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

Ooh, this is hard. My gut-reaction answer is And Baby Makes Four. When I was posting the story, it wasn’t getting a ton of feedback or recognition. It was also lagging in stats behind And Baby Makes Three, which was frustrating because Sianin’s story was, in my opinion, of a much higher quality, and yet people seemed to prefer Ainsley’s story to Sianin’s. I just wanted to shout at the world while holding Sianin above my head, Rafiki-holding-Simba-style, and make people love her like I do.

most fun story to write:

Okay, since I’ve been repeating myself quite a bit, I’m gonna pick fics I haven’t mentioned yet.

Lost and Found (WIP) -- It’s so much fun writing and brainstorming with @chocolatequeennk.

The Universe Next Door -- It was so satisfying to dabble in a potential scenario where Vera wasn’t killed in the car accident.

story with the single sexiest moment:

I didn’t write a whole lot of smut this year. And when I did, it was often tender or romantic sex, not just pwp porn. My top four are:

Morning Shenanigans -- James and Rose get it on on their kitchen table

Family Planning -- James and Rose get it on on their couch

Even When We’re Far Apart -- Tentoo and Rose indulge in telepathic sexy times

A Change in Perspective -- a bit of Tentoo x Rose bodyswap porn

most sweet story:

Well of course, anything with Ainsley and/or Sianin ;) But I’ve been referencing their stories a lot with this meme, so I’ll try to think of something else.

A Way With Words was definitely a really sweet story. It’s a soulmate AU (surprise, surprise) where John is an author and he meets Rose at one of his book signings. Both of them had rather unfortunate soulmarks, but once they realized the context, all is well.

A Kiss a Day (WIP) is a sweet story with various snippets of kisses shared between the Doctor and Rose as their relationship progresses.

A Change of Plans -- this was based on a very adorable prompt by @doctorroseprompts​ where an AU Doctor forgot to ask Rose to the prom but just assumed they were going together. It was light and fluffy and fun to write.

”holy crap, thats wrong, even for you!” story:

Definitely Secret Love Passageways -- this was hilariously cracky purple porn wherein Rose has like 150 hands and they’re both in the most contorted positions. I never write crack, so this was definitely “wrong”, even if it was so much fun to write.

story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters & most unintentionally telling story:

I’m not sure I have an answer to this. I feel like I have a decent grasp on the characters I use, but I constant am expanding them to fit the situation I’m throwing them in in my stories. Maybe the best answer is the journey I’m taking James and Rose on in my Soulmates series? They’re constantly growing and evolving as their family expands, and that has been really great to write and explore. I’ve often found myself accidentally overlaying my James and Rose’s personalities on other Ten x Rose stories I write, so I need to get better with separating the James and Rose in my head with the ones that don’t belong in that series (idk if this answer makes any sense at all).

hardest story to write:

Definitely Sianin’s story. It quickly became darker/deeper than I’d originally intended. There were so many times I feared I would completely fuck it up, or that people would be turned off from the subject matter. @chocolatequeennk and her never ending support really helped me slog through the end of the story, and to make it the best it could be.

biggest disappointment:

Probably that I sort of let my Kisses ‘Verse die, or at least become stagnant. I’d hoped to write a little bit a day, but when that became impractical, I’d hoped to write a bit of it a week. Now, four and a half months later, it still hasn’t been updated :-/

biggest surprise:

People’s continued interest in my Soulmates series, I think. I know sequels usually have a smaller following than the main story, especially since the sequels are all baby fic. But the fact that people have fallen in love with Ainsley and Sianin so deeply was a wonderful surprise.

This was so much fun! Thanks for tagging me, everyone!

I’m gonna tag @perfectlyrose, @ebdaydreamer, @paigenotblank, @blueboxesandtrafficcones, @starsandfairytales, @tenroseforeverandever, @asarahworld-writes, @lizann5869, @megabadbunny, @whoinwhoville, @hellostarlight20, @hanluvr, @wordsintimeandspace, @goingtothetardis, @ofstormsandwolves, and anyone else who is reading this and hoping to be tagged (because I know I’ve forgotten many other brilliant writers). Sorry if y’all have already been tagged to do this; it’s been hard to keep track of who’s done this and who hasn’t.

[jungblue]

Hey! Thank u so much for updating FH, I bet it must be difficult keeping up a series for so long. I first read FH in the summer of 2016 so you could say it’s been a while :’) But your writing has grown so much, imo I think this was the best written chapter so far? The way you did the banter btwn JK + OC was so authentic. As a reader I felt like I was OC’s best friend sitting silently in the back observing and sending the fondness they have for each other (while secretly clutching my heart) 1/?

Also I love how you should Jimin’s character as a super caring and patient guy, yet someone who isn’t going to completely bend over backwards to convince OC to be with him. Ik lot of ppl are Team Jimin but I’m Team JK hehe but that might change after his secret is revealed and I have a couple of guesses of what it might be about! Idk I just feel like life isn’t that complicated and if she still has old emotions for Jungkook, she should stay with him. 2/?

Ik she loves Jimin too but I feel like with Jimin it’s more of a love that’s been built on trying to move past Jungkook and appreciating the care and love he’s given her all this time. Whereas with JK, the emotions are more simplistic since he was her first love, and obviously the fact that he hadn’t really changed from before doesn’t help her move on. But I’m rlly glad Jimin advised her to BE ALONE to figure out what she wants from life in general. I think she’ll definitely find an answer. 3/?

But keep up the great work!! I dabbled in fanfic for like two months back in the summer of 2016 when I found yours. Tho I haven’t read any others since then, I still keep up with FH. And as always plz take ur time with the updates even if the next chapter won’t come out for another 8 months! :) 4/?

omggg this message was so sweet thank you so much!! yeah it has been difficult to keep up with future hearts simply bc i feel as though my style of writing has evolved so much since i started it nearly a year and a half ago now. so sometimes i’ll look back on the past parts and i just think that it’s a completely different person than myself that wrote them. so sometimes i worry about the cohesiveness of the series for people who stumble upon it and maybe they see certain tone shifts from chapter to chapter you know? but regardless it is sort of cool to be able to go back and see how my writing has evolved. i believe pt1 of fh came out about 6 months into me starting to write fanfic so now here i am a year and a half later. so thank you for saying that you think it’s the most well-written part so far!

as for the whole jk vs jimin thing i can certainly see that perspective. though i would say that the oc has genuinely come to love jimin in the same way as jungkook. but i understand that it might seem as if it’s more of an ‘i care for him’ way rather than an ‘i love him’ way. 

thank you for keeping up with fh even though you don’t really read fanfics anymore. i hope that the eventual ending is satisfying and enjoyable!