All you need to know to write a better Sims 2 story, includes tips, tricks and general writing advice.

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I have had several people ask me simply, how do I write astory? Well, the truth is, it is very easy, but does require some work and alittle talent and interest in literature. So, welcome to my writing better simsstories tutorial! Let’s begin, shall we?

Step 1.

First of all, you need characters, you can’t have a storywithout those. So load up your game and create some interesting looking simsand move them into a house. Depending on your personal preferences, actuallywriting the story can happen before, or during game play, so I won’t becovering that. It’s up to you to decide how the typing will be going on, I’mjust going to give tips and general help. Although, a pen and paper handy isn’ta bad idea ;) Okay, got those characters ready yet?

Here’s my tutorial family, we’ll call them the Tut familyfor short. Not the best looking people, but that’s not the point! Mr. Tut ishaving an argument with Mrs. Tut, let’s get in closer on that action to adddrama to our story. To take a snapshot, press the camera icon or ‘C’ on yourkeyboard. If you pause the game before taking pics, it is easier to catch thescenes you want.

Step 2.

  

Oops, not close enough, is it? You can see the room, buttaking pictures of the room doesn’t give the reader a feeling of what’s goingon. The best way to capture pictures is to zoom in as close as the game allows,you might think it’s too close at first, but trust me it will look much betterif you can capture the sims emotions on film. Another good trick is to alwayshave the walls up when taking pics to add to the realism and take them in livemode, not buy or build mode to avoid those grid lines. And if you want good,not blurry pics, make sure to set your camera options to the best quality andlargest size setting, otherwise it will be difficult to see what’s going on.

Now, that’s much better. We can see Mrs. Tut is veryupset at her husband, what has he done? Let’s tell the reader, shall we?Dialogue is essential to storytelling. If you’ve read any kind of fictionalbook, then you can recognize it with these marks called “quotations”. Make sureyou use them or it will be hard for your readers to keep up with the story. Forexample:

“Mr. Tut, I know you were supposed to be at work lastnight, but I don’t think you were!” Mrs. Tut said angrily. “Why would you saythat, dear?” Mr. Tut replied defensively.

Step 3.

Now, see how we have started a conversation? Goodpunctuation helps here as well. A comma let’s readers know when to take abreath and well, do I actually have to go over this part? Just make sure youuse it or everyone will be very confused. That goes the same for grammar use aswell, I usually proofread a story at least twice before submitting, just tocatch any of those typos that appear. And for readers out there, pleaseremember that not everyone’s native language is English. Okay, now we’re readyto move on, you’ve got the basics down, so ready to do some advancedtechniques? Let’s say you want to have Mr. & Mrs. Tut go on a date to makeup after their fight. That’s great! Remember that any community lot stillallows you to take pictures.

Awww, looks like they are making up after all. Sceneslike this one give your readers a sense of what’s going on around your sims.Community lots are a great way to spice up a dull story, it adds unplayablecharacters and a real idea of the environment you’re playing in. Another greattrick is to use the other pictures from all the families in your neighborhoodby clicking on the plus sign in the family album area. You can take pics thatcross households and use them in the same story. (Useful for a telephoneconversation between two different houses or if you want to have a maincharacter “visit“ another lot) All right, the big date is over, so let’s followthe Tut’s back home.

Step 4.

Night time shots are great, but don’t forget thelighting! This one isn’t bad, but let’s see it with some light.

See how much better it is, now that we can see the Tut’sand their romantic moment on the lawn? A few plants would improve this scene aswell. Another great tip is to make sure and decorate before taking any pics,nothing looks worse than an empty room and it’s not very realistic. Look aroundthe room you’re in while playing and notice all the stuff around you. Pictureson the wall, or a nice plant maybe?

Step 5.

Not too exciting, is it? Bland, empty rooms areunrealistic and downright ugly.

See the difference now? That’s much better. Mrs. Tut’sbedroom is comfortable, cozy and ready for some romance. Don’t forget toutilize any expansions you may have as well, seasons is a wonderful addition tostorytelling with snow and rain, it can add a real dynamic to your story.

Step 6.

All right, got the tricks down for making it interesting,let’s say that you want the Tut’s to have a pretty picture for your cover shot.This part is not hard, and I hope I explain it without mass confusion, so bearwith me! You can start with a blank picture or alter one from the game, butfirst off you need a graphics program (and know how to use it, I won’t becovering that here). First example will be one that is altered from in thegame:

1. Load up your program, I am using Paint Shop Pro 7 forthis tutorial, and open the snapshot you want to edit. Your in game shots canbe found in different places, depending on which neighborhood you play. Startin your documents and then follow as shown:

My Documents/EA Games/The Sims2/Neighborhoods/

F001-Free Time Hood

G001-Riverblossom Hills (seasons)

N001-Pleasantview

N002-Strangetown

N003-Veronaville

N004-First Custom Hood

N005-Second Custom Hood

An easy way to remember the order is to think of theneighborhood chooser screen, they are listed in the same order from left toright. Okay, my pics are in my custom hood 4, so from the neighborhoods folderclick on:

N004/Storytelling (this is where all your pics arelocated)

2.Click on the pic you wish to edit and open it up.Here’s my pick for a cover page, now let’s add some text to make it nice.

3. There you go, looking better. You can add any othereffects you want and when you are satisfied, you need to save. Now this isimportant, so listen carefully or your altered image won’t show up in the game.The name of my pic I edited is: snapshot_14e55194_b4e55395. So I need toOVERWRITE the same image, don’t alter the name, save it as exactly the sameshot and in .jpeg format.

Got it? Okay, pic is overwritten, but how do I fix thethumbnail, it’s not showing up? You need to resize the edited pic to thecorrect thumbnail size.

4. Resize the image, (you didn’t close it did you?) tothe thumbnail size of 1.778 inches X 1.334 inches. You then save the image asthumbnail_14e55194_b4e55395 to correspond with your snapshot. Make sure yousave the thumbnail in the storytelling folder as well. Okay, that’s one way todo it, but let’s say you want a completely different image that might not haveany sims at all in it. You can start with a blank image using the sameprinciple idea.

Step 7.

1. Make a blank document 8.333 inches X 6.250 inches.Now, pick whatever you want for your cover shot and then you have to save it.The only thing is, you have to pick an existing snapshot to override. I usuallytake a few shots that I don’t mind losing for this purpose. Remember, you cancopy and paste to your hearts content to make a collage or group shot thatisn’t possible in the game, so the potential is endless here.

Here’s my finished cover page, not the prettiest thingI’ve seen, but the point is that you can do whatever you can think of with yourin game shots.

All right, I chose to overwritesnapshot_14e55194_34e553d6. So I need to do the same thing here and resize myimage to thumbnail size and then save it as thumbnail_14e55194_34e553d6.

There you have it, a beautiful cover page! They will bein your game the next time you load and if you want to keep them, remember youcan take it out of the album and save it for later use.

General Tips and Tricks

Remember, this is my opinion completely, so let thecreativity flow and don’t take the criticism too seriously. It takes time andexperience to become a good writer and anyone can do it as long as you have thedesire to do so.

1. Write it out! On paper. There’s no substitute forscratching down ideas when they come to you, write out character personalitiesor traits and things that you want to happen to them. For every chapter I writein the sims, I have about two or three written pages to go with it. And makechanges, that’s okay, everything is a work in progress, and you might take apicture in the game that inspires some change in events! (Like an impromptu WooHoo!)

2. Take your time! Don’t rush, it will become clear ifyou don’t take the time to care what you have written. Length is not important,it’s quality of what is there that matters. You can have 10 pictures and anincredible story and 30 pictures with two words to each caption that is veryboring. I personally like to read stories that someone has put a lot of workinto, it can sometimes take hours or maybe even days to put together a goodchapter!

3. Pictures, pictures, pictures! Like they say, a pictureis worth a thousand words. Well, in my opinion, only in the sims! If you aren’tgoing to write a lot of dialogue or thoughts and feelings, then you have tohave good pics to go along with your story. Otherwise, nobody will be able totell what is happening. Pause the game and wait for that emotion or perfectpose to come and if it doesn’t, maybe you can utilize some cheats like “moveobjects on” to help out.  There are also great tutorials on taking better simpictures here at TSR.

4. One of my biggest problems with reading stories is the“play format”. I actually can’t read a story like this and once again, this isjust my opinion and you are clearly free to write however you want to, but Icannot follow a story that is written like this:

Mrs. Tut: Honey, why didn’t you come home last night?

Mr. Tut: Because I was working late, woman!

To me, this is confusing and hard to keep up with.Utilize dialogue and you will be amazed at the difference. Don’t forget to tellus what’s going on in the background too, like “The birds were chirpinghappily, while Mrs. Tut went to check the mail.”

5. The last tip I can give is simply to enjoy yourself.Writing is creative expression of the soul and I encourage anyone to give it atry. Don’t pay too much attention to the critics out there who only want tobring you down, keep at it and someday you will be pleased with the result ifyou stay true to yourself!