The Liebster Award

"The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to bloggers, to promote the blogging sites we love and support."

Accepting the nomination comes with these conditions:
1. Post the award on your blog.
2. Thank the blogger who presented the award and link back to their blog.
3. Nominate 5-11 bloggers whom you feel deserve this award and have fewer than or equal to 3,000 followers.
4. Answer 11 questions posted by the nominator, and ask your nominees 11 questions.

I have to give a special thanks to Van for nominating me for this award, and for other reasons as well. The Kingdom of Naroni was one of the first Sims story blogs that I found, and I immediately became enthralled with the story. I devoured each chapter, spending hours on her blog. I honestly never expected her to read my story, let alone leave me the amazing, in-depth feedback that she has. It felt like one of my favorite authors reaching out to me personally and I was ecstatic. Every time she leaves me a comment I get so excited I drop everything to read it. I can't express how much I appreciate her taking the time to read each update I make, and for sticking by the story despite my long hiatus. She's a wonderful person and an extremely talented storyteller.

It is now my turn to nominate my fellow Sims storytellers for this award. A few of the blogs I have chosen haven't been updated in a while, but the stories are still incredible and I highly recommend each of them. I have hope that these writers will return to them as I have returned to mine.

My nominees are: 

Keika - The White Legacy and the Wynter Wonderland WYDC

Ivaristal - The Briar Valley Build a City Challenge

MeganPagan - The Kingdom of Celestia

Blu Paws - Chambered Hearts

alittlestrange - The Duckling Prettacy, The Dimwit ISBI, and The Black Widow Challenge

Here are the eleven questions asked by Van, and my answers to them:

1. What is your opinion on conventional writing "rules" (e.g. minimal adverb use)?

I used to stand by Stephen King’s adage of “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” I’d go back through my stories and delete every adverb that I didn’t feel was vital, trying to keep them out of my dialogue most of all. I also own several copies of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. As I’ve progressed as a writer, though, I now tend to take more liberties with the “rules”. WITCH and the series of novels I’ve been writing are told from a first-person point of view and therefore, I want the narrative to sound like someone is actually telling a story. People use adverbs and often speak in clichés. I think sometimes the right adverb can add more flavor and meaning to a sentence. Sentence fragments can add more drama to a paragraph. In Chapter Thirteen: TheProposal, when Corynne gets drunk for the first time, she uses the words “floaty” and “topsy” to describe how she is feeling. Most of the time, I try to follow the rules, but every now and then I will write what I feel best suits the story.

2. How do you choose clothing and hairstyles for your Sims? Is it more important that they reflect their environment or situation, or their personalities and ambitions?

What I typically like to do is assign each character a color. Corynne’s signature color is purple, and she wears clothing on that color spectrum. Ivaine’s color is red, often with accents of black to show how volatile she can be. Galaea is always seen in black. Lothar wears bold “royal” colors while Markius is often seen in more earthy tones. Keiry usually wears blue or green. I like to go the Disney route and put my villains in darker clothing and my heroes in lighter or more colorful hues. I switch up hairstyles a lot while keeping them (as close as I can, anyway) true to their intended color and length. Because Lyvenia is a fantasy world, I want my characters to have a more whimsical look to them. Characters with more outgoing personalities get more imaginative looks than my humbler characters, who have more “regular” looks.

3. Do you refer to your Sims' in-game aspirations and personalities when developing their characters, especially when it comes to born-in-game Sims whose personalities you didn't get to customize?

When I play legacies, I do this, but as far as my Sims stories go, I create the character before creating the sim. I shape their personalities to how I want them to be. Even my characters’ children have predetermined looks and personalities. The biggest example of this is Donya. She is supposed to have a specific appearance, so I made her in Body Shop and used the reproductive adjuster from the Insiminator to make her have a baby with herself. Infant Donya is actually the child of Adult Donya. In other cases, I use the born-in babies for infant scenes, and for the rest of their life stages, I use differently aged versions of pre-created sims. I actually have random babies lying around my lots that will never grow up or be cared for. I suppose I could kill them, but that just seems cruel.

4. Similar to the above, when it comes to love interests, do you allow in-game chemistry to influence which Sims get together? Or do they get with whoever you want them with, whether the game likes it or not?

My characters fall in love with who I say they fall in love with. Or hook up with. I adjust their relationships accordingly. When I first create my sims, I choose their turn-ons so that they will have higher chemistry with their intended love interests.

5. If you were to start your story again, are there any major changes you'd make right off the bat? If so, what are they?

Hmm… I suppose so, considering I started writing this story as a teenager. A lot of time has passed since then and the characters and story itself have evolved. Not sure if I’d still make the choice to begin WITCH with a sex scene. As I was rereading it recently, I felt a little uncomfortable at the sight of teenagers bumping uglies. If this were shot with real people and not sims, that kind of thing would be quite illegal, regardless of the standards of this fictional world in my head. At the time, though, it seemed perfectly acceptable to me because that was what happened in the story.

6. Are there any books, films, shows, games, or even other Sims stories that you think have influenced your work?

This is a hard question, because I think art is influenced by more things than we realize. Inspiration is literally everywhere, and it absorbs into us with everything that we watch or read. I will say that the Lyvenia series in general was first inspired by the magnificent works of Holly Black. A lot of music inspired it too, particularly Evanescence, Within Temptation, Hawthorn Heights, Smile Empty Soul, 3 Doors Down, Blue October, Linkin Park, and Staind (what can I say? I was a teenager). As I began working on this project, the Sims stories that inspired me most were The Kingdom of Naroni as well as Sea of Moons, and The Kingdom of Varuna—The Warrior.

7. What are your favorite character names? Do any of your characters have names you dislike?

My favorite character’s name would have to be Donya, and for a reason. When I was nineteen, her character came to me in a dream. She basically said, “My name is Donya and I belong in this story. This is who I am and what I do.” When I woke up, I could still see her so vividly and I immediately grabbed a notebook and started jotting down notes. I’ve never been hit with inspiration quite like that before. Fantasy-sounding character names are hard to come up with, but she essentially gave me hers and made demands with it. How could I refuse? My other favorite name belongs to a character who won’t be born for a long, long time. I won’t tell you who he is, but his name is Amarion. I sincerely hope I can keep the series up until then because his character and story are my absolute favorite in the whole series. The other names I like are Keiry, Lathian, Saleri, Ivaine, Galaea, and Viletti—who will join the story in a few chapters. As for names I don’t care for, I think Dracarus sounds a little childish and obvious. It was a play on the Latin root of “dragon”, which I suppose would be the kind of name Ivaine would choose for her child. I came up with Markius in a pinch because I really couldn’t think of a name for the dude so I just added an “I” in the middle of Marcus and changed the spelling. Magrid’s name is intentionally ugly, and I think it suits her.

8. Do you listen to music while writing or creating visuals? If so, what kind of music, and why do you feel it helps you personally?

Absolutely. Music is a must. I write to a wide variety of music, but whatever it is, is has to suit the scene I’m writing. I listen to everything from movie scores to symphonic rock to oldies. True story: the song I was playing when I wrote the scene in Chapter Fifteen: Wifedom, in which Corynne is left alone to take care of Donya while Markius is out drinking, was “Are You Lonesome Tonight” by Elvis Presley and it made me bawl like a little bitch because I could relate so well to the feeling. And that’s it, really. Music makes me feel deeply, and when I feel, I’m moved to write. I always hope that my emotions come through in my words and that my readers feel something too.

9. Are any of your characters based, however loosely, on people you know in real life?

As I believe is true with every writer, all my characters have a piece of me in them. I had no idea I’d end up relating so well to Corynne, but she became an outlet for some difficult emotions I was experiencing at the time. Chapter Nine: The Sickness might as well have been autobiographical. As for other people I know, Keiry was inspired by a couple friends of mine; I mixed their qualities to give Corynne a supportive, yet believable, best friend. Galaea was based strongly on a couple evangelical ministers I had the misfortune of knowing. ((NOTE: That does not mean I think all evangelical minsters or people are bad. I am referring to the emotionally manipulative, power- and money-driven kind.)) Ivaine has the *ahem* qualities of some of the bullies I knew in middle and high school, amped up to eleven with some sociopathy and murderous tendencies thrown in.

10. If you can answer without venturing into spoiler territory, which of your characters do you think have the best chance of overcoming their personal hurdles? Are there any that you fear may be doomed?

This is delicate ground here, but I will give it my best shot. Some of my characters will get their happy ending, while others are definitely doomed. Corynne does have a chance to conquer her personal hurdles, but first she has to learn that she is powerful. Conversely, she must learn to put the needs of others before herself. She is so wrapped up in her love life that she doesn’t give much thought to the evil around her, which may threaten everything she holds dear. She has to learn that romantic love is not the highest love—self-sacrifice is. Corynne is stubborn and misfortune-prone, but I think under the right circumstances, she can realize these things. As for who has the worst shot, I’m afraid to say that would be Markius. He is buried under his addictions and past demons, and he doesn’t seem to want to find the strength to pull himself back up.

  

11. Does anyone you know in real life read your story? If so, how do you feel about that?

My ex-husband used to read it before my hiatus. I haven’t told him I’ve continued it, and if I did, I can’t say whether he’d be interested in reading it or not. I’ve shown the story to my cousin and a few friends as well, but as far as I know, nobody that I know personally currently reads it. And I’m okay with that. It’s a lot less nerve-wracking to present my work to strangers than people from my real life.

And now, here are some questions of my own!

1. How did you become interested in Sims stories? If you write plotted stories, why did you choose The Sims as a platform to share them?

2. Which do you feel you put more time and energy into: pictures or writing?

3. Who is your favorite character to write about? Your least favorite?

4. How much trouble would you be in if you were trapped inside a room with your villain?

5. Which character do you feel is the most like you? The least like you?

6. How have you advertised your Sim stories for people to find?

7. Do you plot your stories ahead of time, or do you let them develop as you write?

8. Which character(s) turned out the most different from how you originally thought or intended them to be?

9.What do you do to become inspired to write?

10. How long do you play with or think about story ideas before you begin writing?

11. Do you ever find yourself with a love/hate relationship with a story or writing in general, or is it all love?