Sim_mania challenge entry + simsecret

[strangetomato]

I posted an entry for the latest challenge at sim_mania, if you want to check it out.

Also, check this out... Someone made a simsecret about me. That's pretty cool, but also way less fun than I imagined it would be. That's always the way, isn't it? There's a certain giddy thrill to realizing that someone has written your name on the wall of the highschool washroom, but then you realize that the rest of the sentence says, "...is a slut." (This may or may not relate to an actual event in my life.) Well, what are you going to do? I probably am too obsessed with these characters. I won't deny that. I think I have gotten too caught up in it all, really. It's probably unhealthy. (I'm also feeling that the fact that I've been posted about in a sim secret community might be a sign that I need to return to the real world. I really have fallen down a nerdy rabbit hole, haven't I?)

As for the second part... they must have started reading a different story, since both Jaxy and Ripp still swear like sailors. I don't think I really cut back on that much, if at all. *shrugs* They swear. Some people do. It's not all about them being "bad ass" (though that is a factor, for sure).

I keep intending to submit a simsecret, but I always forget or have trouble coming up with an idea. I considered making a joke secret about the simstorytellers comm, since it's so drama-free, but it never really came together. Maybe next time, I'll think of something.

ETA: I probably won't respond to any of these comments for a while. I have a busy day ahead of me.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/fileg_/]

I have always thought that Ripp and the band swearing was far less about showing how cool they think they are than characterization. I"ll admit, Ripp does swear a lot, but hey, I've been known to be just as bad, especially if I'm frustrated, and Ripp so clearly is, about so many things. It seems real to me.

Also,if my characters weren't in many senses real to me, I would never write. I think the reason I've never written with/for my sims is that they aren't as real to me as the characters I write fanfic for (Then again, I have had 40 years of my fandom rattling about in my head. And I actually started playing Sims 1 with the idea of making sims for the characters I write so I could *see* some things in action. I think the reason I've never bonded with my Sims2 sims is because I have lost every neighborhood I've made so far, and I'm wary of getting attacthed.)

Your Sims are not only *real* to you, in the sense of their characterizations, they are now real to many of us. Good job, that!


(edited for bad typing. Argh.)

[cameoflage.livejournal.com]

Then again, I have had 40 years of my fandom rattling about in my head.

Doctor Who, by any chance? Or are you just referring to how long you've been a fan, rather than the time the show's been running for?

[http://users.livejournal.com/fileg_/]

No, I am a new convert to Doctor Who (though I probably saw at least the Tom Baker and Peter Davidson episodes go by since I had a friend who loved them. My true fandoms are Lord of the Rings and Man from UNCLE, both of which came into my life in 1963 when I was 11.

[cameoflage.livejournal.com]

Aha! So it was the latter after all.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad that comes across. Ripp picked up the habit when he was young because it was something that Buzz hated (he did it when the General wasn't around, of course), and it just stuck. He swears more when he's angry and when he's carrying on, and he consciously doesn't around certain people (like Phi), which seems about right to me.

That's how I feel about it too. I'm not sure how I would muster the energy to do something like this without being invested in the characters like I am. It seems to increase the more time you spend writing it too.

Thank you. I'm humbled to think that others do find them real too. To be able to get a reader to respond emotionally to a character is why I love devoting so much energy to it the first place.