Sim Update - Procrastination is thy Name

[orikes]

Warning: Sim Stuff Ahead

I've been sitting on the first part of Miranda's BC for about two weeks now. It's all laid out and all the pictures are ready. All that needs doing is the writing part. Unforutnately, I haven't forced myself to sit down and actually start. I'm hoping to nudge myself into doing that his week and have it up this coming weekend. There are no excuses any longer. I've gotten some actual playtime in and there's a long weekend coming up.

While I've been procrastinating on that, though, I've been working on the rest of the legacy hood. All houses have been played from the beginning of spring to the beginning of summer. Houses that aren't integral to an upcoming plotline have been played through to the beginning of Fall. Those houses that are important for the plot, are sitting at the beginning of summer. There are some very plotty scenes that have to be shot at the right time for the other houses, so they have to wait until those are done before they can advance. That includes the main Legacina house, the Walton house and a couple of others.

What I'm working on will cover the next two updates, though they're definitely going to be separate updates. No more two-parters for me. Chapter 4.7 will cover all of Spring and the beginning of summer. It WILL end in a cliffhanger. I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for it. Chapter 4.8 will pick up right from that cliffhanger and probably go through summer and into fall. I'm thinking that'll get most of the older kids of gen five to teen. There will be a delay between 4.7 and 4.8, though, since I am determined to get the BC done. Miranda needs to pop out a kid or two to help with Persephone's LTW, so I don't want her to get too far behind the rest of them.

I want to talk about what's going on in the game so badly, but I do not want to give any spoilers away. I want honest reactions to what's coming up and don't want to give anyone a heads up at what will happen. One person other than me knows. A friend was hanging out with me on Friday and he is nice enough to listen to me babble about my legacy, even if he's not a simmer. I explained to him what I was planning, why it was going to happen and where it was going to lead. If you could find him, you might be able to bribe him to give you spoilers, but that's about it. ;)





This is a common sight at all Legacina and extended family parties. Invariably, the parties start between 5pm and 7pm and at 8pm, Uncle Brody turns into a werewolf.



This is also a common sight at all Legacina and extended family parties when Brody turns into a werewolf. Occasionally one of the other family members might look a little freaked out, but Jeremiah is always rushing over to worry about Brody. I think it has to do with him being shy and being a Family sim. Persephone is a family sim, but I've never seen her freak out like this. It's always funny to me because everyone else is so blase about it.



Micah is the BEST grandfather ever. EVER! This is Micah with his granddaughter, Mercedes. No, I'm not going to tell you who her parents are. It's bad enough I'm showing you this picture, but I couldn't keep it in any longer because he is seroiusly the best grandfather EVER.



I've always loved him, but since he became an elder, I've fallen in love all over again. Completely on free will (since he was a guest and I couldn't control him), he became best friends with both of his grandsons while they were toddlers. This is him with Caleb.



Speaking of Caleb, here he is as a toddler. It's sort of funny sharing these pictures, because he hasn't even been born as far as the updates themselves are concerned, but he's already a child in my game. His birthday fell at the right point that in one season he went from infant to child.

Caleb is a shy one. He's 6/2/10/7/4. I already know what his aspiration is going to be and it was one of the few times I 'cheated'. He rolled something really not appropriate for him, so I did an immediate reroll.



I find him to be a very interesting mix of his parents features. I don't think he looks quite like either Jeremiah or Meadow, but a blend of both. I suppose that might change when he gets older.



And of course, if I've shown Caleb off, I need to show off his brother too. I think Jacob looks a lot like his father, but he looks like he's avoiding the jaw/mouth that Jeremiah has. Jacob has also inherited the Legacina Popularity gene. He rolled popularity. Much better him than his brother. While he's not as outgoing as some of the Legacinas, I think he's well suited for this aspiration.



Considering he's already making the rounds with the other neighborhood kids. He's doing his best to be friends with the other playable kids, and he's made good strides with the Thompson girls. Savannah thinks he's cute.



And Raleigh thinks he's a ton of fun. Though she does kick him when it's her turn to win. She's a meanie.



Speaking of the Thompson line, Charlotte is now a teenager. A very pretty one, in my opinion. She looks like a clone of Sophie, though. I don't see anything of Orlando in her features at all.



Of course, the same can be said for her baby brother, Austin. As it turns out, Austin is a clone of Charlotte. I'm almost certain I randomized before both their births, but they both have the exact same personality, and ultimately, the same face. It's just that on poor Austin, it's going to be the craggy Komei face.



And over in the Parker/Thompson/Toyanaga house, Beta is busy being a true teenager.



Well, at least when he can summon the energy for it.



Alpha, on the other hand, has energy to spare. Which he spent wooing Melissa Larrea. I've always liked Melissa, and she and Alpha have three bolts, so if he rolls up the wants for her, I'm probably going to turn her into a dormie like I did with Orlando and Meadow.

Alpha and Beta are very endearing. I love to play the two of them and I'm looking forward to sending them off to college. That's going to happen the next time I play their house, since they'll both be four days away from adulthood.



The surprise, though, is that it won't leave that house childless. Chastity is a new addition to the family. No, I am not going to tell you who her parents are. :)




And finally, I leave you with Star as a child. Even though I can't play the Walton house any further, Star did grow up into a precocious child. No siblings yet, but Aeric and Venus have been trying. I really can't wait to play that house some more. Of course, I also can't wait to play the main house some more. And and and...

Does anyone have any advice on how to make me write faster? :} The playing and picture taking is all easy. The writing is slow... I'm guessing that my writing will pick up this summer when work slows down and I can start writing in my spare time there. But until then.. I am a lazy, lousy procrastinator. :}

Comments

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

*gentle prod for BC*

Great looking kids, even the ones from the "mystery parents." I can't imagine ACR letting Aeric and Venus have only one kid for too much longer.

Now you've got me excited to see what's coming up next!

[ahrubyblue.livejournal.com]

Oh criminey, seeing all of these pictures just makes me want to get to know the kids already! Well, and who their parents are.

Also, Micah is awesome and I think Beta's really cute in a weird way.

I've got no advice for faster writing. I have to admit that I find it sort of funny that you're known so for your writing here in legacy land but you like the picture-taking so much more. :)

[ndainye.livejournal.com]

Cute kids! I think that someone installed a new hack :)

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Venus honestly isn't that interested in more kids. It's not like she's a BAD mother, but she could take or leave having more kids. Aeric, on the other hand.. Well, after some thinking, I decided his secondary aspiration was family, so now he's pretty anxious to have at least one more.

And I wrote two slides for the BC this afternoon! Woowoo! Only 91 more to go! *sigh* :)

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Actually, nope. No new hacks. :) I thought about it, but in the end decided it would help me keep a control on the neighborhood population. Not that I've got all that many gay couples to worry about. It won't be too long before the parentage Mercedes and Chastity are clarified. I think I've got both due to be explained in 4.7.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Writing's actual work! Pictures are easy. :) It is kind of ironic, though. I don't think I'm a slouch at writing, it's just harder for me than the picture taking. And being the lazy procrastinator I am, I flee from anything resembling work whenever possible. ;)

I agree with you on Beta as well. The more I play him, the more attractive I find him. Even with the big ears and the slouch. I'm letting him be a lazy sim, though I'm still shying away from letting him be fat. I just don't like the fat morph on guys in the game.

[robinoli.livejournal.com]

Hah. Somebody used the boolprop cheat to get kids, huh? ;) Also, *flail*, elder!Micah? That makes me sad!

I know what you mean about the writing, by the way. My updates are a lot less work than yours, but they're still a pain. I've been meaning to write my next update for about two weeks now, but so far I only have slides sorted. :} I was going to get started on it on the weekend but my friends dragged me out of the house both days so I couldn't.

[penguingirl03.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...being a procrastinator myself I understand your pain. I always find that once I've started writing things go a lot quicker but I avoid starting like it is the plague sometimes. I'm definitely looking forward to the BC and all of your next gen kids are looking very cute.

[(Anonymous)]

It's honorkid, but unfortunately, my Live Journal isn't letting ym log in :(. Oh well.

I love the kids. I think I have the naming theme... cities in Texas? I think that's it, because we just took a test on the geography of Texas. Am I right? And the two kids who's parents are boggling my mind the most are Mercedes and Chastity. Mercedes's face is hidden a bit, but the only two parents who could be her's would be Kiley and Julie or Nate and ____? Nate is an unlikely answer, and unless you have the Preg. for all genders mod, then I'm not sure who's it is. Jeremiah may have the gene for the skin 1 (or 2?) from Genesis, but she looks like a Face 1= Julie? This is really confusing me >:O. And Chastity looks like Adrian, she has the Toddler Meadow Thayer face, which is Charlie's (RIP) face.

Non-Procastination is my Name
The real reason I'm posting here, though, is because I know how you feel about procrastination with writing, and I experience it ALL the time with school and my summer job. For school, we have short term(1 week) essays and long term(3 weeks-1 month) essays. To make the writing seem easier, and more fun, I think about all the benefits about writing Quicker. For you here are a few:
1. You have loving, adoring,... and waiting fans. The more you think about how long they have been waiting will motivate you to write quicker. For me, my motivation is not getting yelled at by my English teacher.
2. If you divide your time properly, then the stress will be lifted off of your shoulders much more quickly.

I'm going to use a simple example here, which will included non-realistic numbers. If you have a total of five days to write an update, and it will be uploaded on the sixth day without any writing, and you need to get 50 slides, you'll need to to 10 each day. So set a reasonable date/amount of days in which you want to complete writing. Then, just do that number. In this example, you'll need to do 10 slides each day. So just calculate your numbers, and then make sure that number of slides gets done each day. If they don't all get done, make sure you make them up the next day, otherwise you will have a lot to do. So, pretty much, just do:
NUMBER OF SLIDES TO BE DONE divided by NUMBER OF DAYS TO COMPLETE SLIDES = NUMBER OF SLIDES TO WRITE PER DAY. If you want to upload on the weekend, like you said, then just use the numbers you have, and figure out what needs to be done.

I'm hoping this little guide will help you. I'm thinking of making it into a tutorial on boolProp, but I wanted to make sure it helps. :)

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Adorable sim kids! I'm trying to think who wins. I think maybe it is Star, who is gorgeous. I like Caleb, too.

Oh, Micah. I always adored Micah. I think I adore him even more than Brody and that is a lot, so it's very sad to see him get old. The only thing that makes it worth it is that he seems to like playing with his grandkids.

Writing quicker/more easily? I think Pen's right--getting started is the worst. I can't do a number of slides/pages per day thing. I know it's not "disciplined," but I find that I need to get on a roll. I wish we could trade places, because I'm definitely graphically challenged, and nervous, too. I'm always afraid I'll screw something up, so I don't even touch my storytelling folder. But I love the writing bit. Usually I have lots of dialogue written out in my head so it's a relief to get it down. Of course, you're doing more complex stuff than I am. I don't have to have perfect transitions, and I don't have to have true narrative flow.

I know that pressure does not help. Sometimes faking yourself out works. . ."OK, I'm not *allowed* to write until. . . " I'm really eager to see the BC, though. I want to know what happens. In fact, all of your hints have me really curious now!

PB

[(Anonymous)]

Very true about the pressure. This comes differently to different people. I guess maybe the way I see it, I feel motivated by pressure, whereas others dread pressure. I guess we all have our pace. And maybe the setting goals only works for some people. I find it as a very useful skill, but I guess it all depends on your persona. And yes, getting started is a pain, but once you are into it, I guess it's not AS bad.

I am super anxious to see the BC. If it's out by this weekend, like Orikes said, I will have the best weekend ever!!! No pressure. :)

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Y'know, it really was pretty sad to see most of gen three elderify, but I don't think they've really minded. Most of them are very happy settling into their roles as retirees and grandparents. Micah just happens to be the BEST GRANDFATHER EVER. Of course, out of them all, he actually has the most grandkids. He's up to five at this point. Persephone only has Louise so far (admittedly with more on the way) and Brody only has Star (with Aeric wanting to have another on the way).

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Once I reach about the halfway point in an update, the rest is easy. But I have to get myself to that halfway point, which is like pulling teeth. I'll write a slide or two, not be happy with it, and give up and go do something else. By the time I get halfway through, I suddenly WANT it to be done, so push myself to get through it.

[mmmfobbs.livejournal.com]

I am almost the exact same way, except I hate choosing pictures. I'm not too good at taking them either, except I know I need to for things to make sense.

Anyway, I don't do a slides per day thing either, because the first half is tough! I was doing only about 12 slides a day on my last update. Then, I got over 60 done, and from there it was smooth sailing. Which was strange, since that covered two pretty intense scenes. I guess I just thought about them so long, knowing they were coming up, that I knew what to put in when they popped up on screen.

I find that sometimes it does help to switch from Story mode to Blog mode. In Story mode, there's just that single slide staring at you, isolated and maybe scary. But if you're in Blog Mode, it's a little bitty picture and a little bitty text box and you can see all the stuff that happens around it too! You just have to remember to switch back before you upload!

[smoothiegarten.livejournal.com]

I find that staring at the slides for a while helps. Also, I tend to add pictures to the album a scene at a time. I write the scene, save my progress by exiting story mode, and then come back in and add another scene. The flow works better for me that way.

This is probably why Episode 6 is still a jumble of pictures...I put them all in at once and now have no idea what I'm doing with my life.

Micah = total love and cuteness.

[rcubical.livejournal.com]

Can I steal those kids? Seriously, how do you get them so cute?

I can't wait for the Pseudo updates; they're always my favorites out of everything.

[cori-chronicles.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed reading a lil about all of the people and seeing the pictures. You have quite a story going on. How do you keep track of it all???

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

I think its cool that Micah is the BEST GRANDFATHER EVER. All 3 of the Gen 3 kids seem so nice and caring, but Micah almost certainly the most. :)

Caleb has brown hair? Or blond hair? I never liked having "Light Brown" hair in my game, I always deleted it. I think thats why. (I could never tell what color it was.)

Jacob ad Caleb are both adorable! Raleigh grew up pretty, but how odd that she didn't get ANY of Orlando's genes. And poor Austin, who is going to have the Komei face. :(

What generation are Alpha and Beta again? They've been around for so long, but I never figured out what Gen they were.

Chastity and Star are adorable, they are omega cute. Yay for Spring and Sumer in the world again! :D

I can't wait for The BC and Plottiness though! :D

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

I wish I could help you with the writing thing! I write as I go, unless it's late, and then I'll generally write the slides up the next time I play. That's just how my brain works best, I think.

Sometimes you just gotta do it.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

My head is a storehouse of useless but organized trivia. There's a reason I always ending up being the 'quartermaster' in the groups I'm in for D&D. :)

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Caleb has brown hair. I'm generally with you on light brown hair, but when I tried it on him, I felt it worked. It was also as close to blond hair I'm going to get out of Meadow's kids, so I decided to go with it. He'll be keeping that hairstyle into adulthood, so it won't be a big difference for him.

Alpha, Beta, the Thompson kids (Charlotte, Savannah, Raleigh, and Austin) plus Chastity are all technically gen four. Their parents are the children of gen 2, making them gen 3. But, because I didn't play the Thompson line concurrently with the main Legacina line in gen3, they are running a bit behind.

I suppose I really should do a family tree.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Sorry to bother you again, but I really want to know where you got Micah's elder outfit. :) Sorry to bother you!

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that one is from All About Style, but it would be one of the ones she moved off site to the Yahoo Group if you want to find it.