Well, my friends, NaNo is nearing its end, and I have almost 15,000 words. I can either lock myself in my room for the next 9 days and churn out 3800 crappy words each day, or I can put NaNo 2005 behind me, eat turkey and pumpkin pie, sing some karaoke, see the new Harry Potter movie a few more times, and try again next year. I know, I’m weak. My hat is off to those of you who are still plugging away, whether you reach the finish line or not — you totally rock, and you have my sincere admiration. Keep it up! You will feel like the king of the world when you reach that 50K.
As for me, I’m fine with remaining a pauper for the time being. My problem with NaNo is that I don’t have a story crying out to be told, so there’s nothing driving me to write all those crappy words. It feels great to reach 50K, yes, but I’ve already proven to myself I can do that (and the resulting novel didn’t have one good paragraph in it). So I’m not going to torture myself any longer this year. I’d rather focus my creative energy elsewhere, and save the big push for when I have a story that’s dying to be told.
That means I’m going back to my Sims stories for now, and I have a few things in the works. Read on, if you’re curious! Feedback is welcome.
First off, the Ravelos have 19 grandchildren (now you see what I’ve been doing with my time when I SHOULD have been writing), and I’m gearing up to finally go back to the main house and have that 20th grandchild. Then I’ll probably do a little update on all the satellite families, if you guys are interested, just showing you who everyone married and how many kids they had.
Secondly, I have been missing my Victorian families like mad, so I’m going back to Annabel Island. I’ve moved the Braytons there, so they’re returning to the Victorian era (even though Harry’s house is a bit “modern” for the Victorians — I guess he’s just a little ahead of his time!) I had a Cecily update planned a few months ago, but the pics are so old, and I’d rather move forward with her, and you guys can either guess what happened, or it’ll all come out in flashbacks. How does that sound?
What I really wanted to do with Annabel Island is have my own little Victorian soap opera going on, so what I’m going to do is focus on one family from each “class”. The other families will be secondary characters here and there, unless they get drawn into the storyline of one of the primary characters. Instead of having each update be about just one family, I’m going to attempt soap-style and jump from family to family within the same update. “Attempt” being the key word here. So what do you think? Have I told you too much? :-)
I know some of you aren’t crazy about the Victorian stuff, so I will definitely continue on with the Ravelos, too. I love them and wouldn’t dream of giving them up. So as long as you guys are enjoying them, too, I’ll keep posting updates about them. And as the holidays draw nigh, I’m sure they’ll throw a few happenin’ parties, which should be worth a fun post or two. ;-)
All right, thanks for listening to me ramble — it helps to get my thoughts in order, and of course I’d love to hear your thoughts as well. Happy Simming, Happy NaNoing, and for those of you in the States, Happy Turkey Day, a bit early!
Selfish toughts are filling my had “glad she stopped the NaNo, more updates on her sims”, I know it’s not nice, but I’ve been missing your stories like crazy, havind no time at all to do my own. Can’t wait to read the next update Jen!!
Ohh, Im sorry you gave up on NaNo Jen, but it will be great to have sim stories again! It’s great when you update every few days! I should go back to my blog really, and straighten things out, but my sims game has been messing around a lot lately, and I need to get it all sorted first.
I like all your ideas Jean, cos it seems no matter what story you churn out, it’s always great! I miss the Braytons, they were great, and Annabel Island (Im glad the Braytons are there too now) but Im also dying to hear about all the Ravelos and their marriages and children!! So basically, Im sooo looking forward to your next update, no matter what it is!!
Kath x
ps – what ever happened to Christal Chinchilla? ;)
So sorry Jen, I called you Jean in my last post x_X darn typos
Hey Jen I love reading your stories, and I cannot wait until the next update. The Victorian Soap Opera sounds very intriguing, keep up the excellent work.
Don’t feel too bad about NaNo Jen, I’m not going to be able to finish it either. Due to a super busy work schedule for the past couple of weeks (I work at Target retail supercenter!) I have only gotten to 20k words, and I absolutely can’t do another 30k! So, like you, I’m going to sit back, spend some much needed time with my family, and play the Sims again! I’ll make an update on my site kinda like this one telling what I’ll be doing from now on!
Now…about your site! I love the Victorian era too, and isn’t it so much fun to play?! The Braytons and Anabel Island have always been my favorite stories of yours, so I am sooooo excited to read more of them! I like the Ravelos too, so woohoo! Can’t wait for you to update again! (And I’ll start updating my site as well!) I’ve got an update for my Victorian Saga in the works, so hopefully I’ll crank it out soon! Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
Awww, shame about NaNo Jen, but y’know, some things can’t be helped. I’m looking forward to new updates from the Brayton family, I always liked them.
19 Grandchildren?!!! My god. How do you manage all those kids???
By the way…
Will you be updating Maude’s Tales at all?
As usual I’d read your updates even if it was about soup stocks, wood stocks or even financial stocks! ;D
I too am one of the selfish masses, if for nothing else than the fact that Sims 2 = Jen updates more often! But hey, at least you gave NanoWriMo a try. I have yet to even attempt it. :/
You can always try again next year! I tried Nano to and only got to about 5k b4 I threw in the towel. I guess I’m not meant to be a writer or at least not one in a month :) I’m so happy though that your going to start posting the Braytons again. I love Victorian/ Jane Austen stuff so personally I enjoy those more even though I may be in the minority.
Aren’t you being a little hard on yourself, Jen? At least you’ve got that far, and I bet that a lot of people didn’t. As well as my blog, I write short stories, and one of them, I’ve been writing for around five months. See, you’re not so bad!
I echo that question, by the way! What happened to Miss Chinchilla?
Hiya Jen.
I never got on the Nano thing …too much going on but I’m glad you’re back to Sims though :)
Hey I finished my Moonlights! Got to gen 10 and I will get back to them eventually but for now I’m starting a new blog with the Prosperity challenge and I’ll get back to my Domino Theory Family. Have fun on turkey day 8)
I stopped doing NaNoWriMo a bit early, too– my brothers were really starting to get upset at my spending so much more time on the computer. So, I had to pull the plug. *shrug*
Hope you have a happy dappy T! (Thanksgiving.)
I was missing the Victorian stuff a bit (maybe a little more than a bit, actually…), to be honest. :D Whatever stories — or, spork, non-stories-just-writing-about-what-happened-with-the-game — you choose to go with, I hope you have fun with ’em! (I’ll still be here, either way.
Lurking.
In SHADOWS.
Boooo.
Imma get youuu! >:D)
Count me one of the selfish ones–I love hearing that you’ll be updating again. :-) I think the Victorian soap opera sounds fab.
Hey Jen! Well better luck next year :) I think you’ve made the right decision interms of NaNo, since if you don’t feel your story is worth writting and much prefer playing sims 2, you should do that instead! And we’ll all be extremely happy with your wonderful simming tales :D I really quite enjoy your victorian tales, they’re wonderful because I can feel the passion and effort you put into the characters, setting, storylines.. the lot. so yes efinately interested in Annabel island and the idea of a “soapie”, makes it all the more entertaining! Ravelos, definately keep them going they’re a really cool bunch… 20th grandchild o.o I truely admire your determination!
ps. can’t wait to see the new HP movie! It’s not out in Australia until Dec 1, I’m so annoyed! Great to know you’re a HP fan!
Better luck next year on NaNo. Maybe next year all us Simmer NaNo-types should form a support group or something, lol! Can’t wait to read new updates from you.. especially on the Ravelos. 19 grandchildren.. goodness! I was thinking about trying the 10 children want (again) and the 20 grandchildren want (for the first time) for my Legacy’s.. since the G11 heiress is now a teen and she’s rolled Family. We’ll see how that goes. And hooray for Harry Potter! I haven’t gone to see it yet.. is it good? Harry Potter and Narnia are on my list of ‘must watch’ movies for this season. Now I just need to find the time to see them! Anyway.. sorry about Nano, can’t wait for updates.. and have a happy Thanksgiving! :D
I think I’m one of the selfish ones too :D Well, I think it’s a pretty good desicion. Can’t wait to hear more Sim stories.
19 Grandchildren sounds like a big handful to me! I can’t wait to hear about the Ravelos, Braytons, and Anabel Island. I missed them all.
If you don’t mind me asking, will you be making anymore updates about the Shanleys? :D
Hey guys, thanks for all of the feedback! I’m really excited to get back to my Sims stories; it’s just a matter of which one I want to do first.
Wow, I didn’t know so many of you were doing NaNo. As Audrey said, we should definitely form a support group or something next year. It’s nice to have that kind of encouragement, and people to commiserate with, on a smaller scale than the huge NaNo boards can provide.
To answer some questions —
Kath and Kay – You both asked: What happened to Christal Chinchilla? Well, that could take a whole post by itself. Maybe I’ll write it up sometime, even though I’m not playing them anymore. The ISBI challenge is fun, but VERY challenging, and I couldn’t handle it for more than a generation!
Paige – Hey, 20K words is pretty awesome. And I love SuperTarget! Haha. Looking forward to your next Victorian update! And yes, Victorian Sims are fun to play. :-) We just need to get Maxis to do a historical expansion pack with horses, carriages, and wind-up telephones…
Alex – I’m sure I’ll get back to Maude’s Tales at some point; I had big plans for Mt. Geneva!
Janice – It stinks that HP is opening so late in Australia. :-( Are you going opening night?
Audrey – Yes, the HP movie is excellent! Everyone I’ve talked to is saying it’s the best of the bunch, and I would be inclined to agree if I didn’t have such a soft spot for Prisoner of Azkaban. :-) I’m looking forward to Narnia, too — the previews look amazing! Hope you get to see HP soon!
Rachel – I was just thinking about the Shanleys last night, and wondering how they’re doing! Haha. I haven’t played them in ages, but who knows — maybe I’ll start missing them fiercely and decide to update them, too. Thanks for asking!
Yeh definately going on the Opening day, its a school day (thursday) so hopefully all the kids WILL be at school XD and we can have a somewhat non-packe theater :D I’m really excited about it, I’ve heard it is the best of the lot, yet anyway :) but I have to agree prisoner of azkaban was pretty awesome too :)
I’ll be glad for any post you make. I enjoyed them all. Still, I catch myself wondering what Cecily Brayton is up to these days. In Nano, I didn’t get to 4,000 words, (thanks to my family’s needs dipping into the red so often). If you ever get a book published, I’m sure that everyone who reads this blog will buy it. Happy Turkey Time! :)
Can I just beg you to bring back the Shanleys????? PLEASE??
Ahem. Bad luck with NaNo, if I ever tried it I’d get to about a thousand words then get bored and start Simming!
Love,
E-Liz xxxxxxx
I quietly second (er.. third? whatever) the motion to take another peek into the lives of the Shanley’s at some point. I do loves them. :)
YAY! BRAYTON’S!!!! I’m giong to go and die silently now. Haha wow, i can’t wait for the annabel island update. The Ravelos either. I love them both. Oh i’m quite sad that you didnt finish the 50,000 words, but i know that when you get ready, you will be able to finish so that is great. Whatever you did write, i am sure that it was worth reading, even if you dont think it is.
Oooh, hooray! I always love reading your updates, Jen! And going back to the Shanleys would be wonderful (they’re my all-time favorite Legacy family). By the way, I love Marlee’s hair, where did you find it?
Just wanted to let you know that kayssims.net is no more! I’ll eventually start up another website, but I think I’ll wait until Open for Business comes out.