Saturday 2 October 2004

Pic of the day: "All the others think only about themselves, only I think about me!"

Life, Sims2 & NaNoWriMo

And not necessarily in that order. It is October, and NaNoWriMo.org has opened for the season. It is still a month till the actual novel writing can start, but the forums are open. This means that if you have nothing else to do, you can do it there. Plot ideas, friendly banter and word processor wars... the usual stuff. One could easily waste days in there, and it's just opened. Near the end of this month the forum activity is likely to reach a feverish pitch, at which time it will be hard enough to keep up with one's favorite treads, much less an entire forum.

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October is the month to make plots and develop our characters. So naturally I have given some thought to what kind of story I will write this year, if I can. I had originally planned a "realistic" fantasy story this year again. What I thought of was a kind of mirror image of last year's story. The main character of last year's story was supposed to be one quarter demon, or if not literally demon then at least some kind of alien with dark powers. In contrast, the main character of this year's story was supposed to be one quarter angel. Not literally angel in the religious sense, but close enough: The Visitors are kind of perfect humans from a parallel world, surrounded by a field of "miracle energy" that makes good things happen. From a Christian viewpoint, imagine a world where Adam and Eve never fell in sin, and all subsequent humans were born not just without Original Sin but with a kind of "Original Glory". If you've read the end of C.S. Lewis' Perelandra, you will know more exactly what I mean. (Sorry if that was a spoiler, but if you haven't read it by now you probably shouldn't complain.)

I still think this could make for a good story. I have a rudimentary plot, and the most important characters have already made themselves known to me. If I don't come up with anything else, I could probably pull off this one. I have a small problem with making it into shorter segments, as I have decided to do this time. Since I cannot write a complete novel, I want a string of short stories instead. These short stories should make sense on their own, or at least the first of them should make sense on its own; the second story would make sense in light of the first, and so on. That way, even if I don't compete a novel, it might still be interesting to read. But this is quite challenging. Each story or story arc might have a different atmosphere: Humor, drama, romance... but each of them would have to be meaningful, not just leading up to another or looking back at another. That may not be easy. I have never really done that before. I've done short mosaics with different viewpoints on the same overall story, but this is different.

And then I got Sims2, and discovered the joy of family stories. In many ways playing Sims2 is a lot like writing a story. Choices have consequences that may take a lifetime to unfold, or perhaps more. Young adults are torn between loyalty to the family and their newfound love for an outsider. And it is not really possible to say what could have happened if they had chosen differently.

***

Which brings me to today's events in the fictional lives of my Sims. Regular readers may remember the Vrimoen family (yes, it is a wordplay on NaNoWriMo, but Vrimoen is a perfectly valid Norwegian name, so realistic that I am not sure whether or not it actually exists). (OK, I just checked at Statistics Norway... it doesn't exist. Good thing too!)

A shy bookworm of a boy and lazy slob of a girl with almost nothing in common except for their niceness, they moved into the same neighborhood, and liked each other at first sight. By now they have five kids and are still madly in love with each other. The first fruits of their love is Nemo, who has inherited the best traits from each of his parents. And of course he got a lot of loving care during his childhood. Always ready to lend a helping hand and cheer someone up, he has helped take care of the twins almost like a third parent. The twins have become teenagers just at the same time as Nemo has grown up to an adult; they are really great people only with one obvious problem: They can't stand each other. There are precious few things they can do together without one of them insulting the other. But they both get along famously with their older brother. The problem is, he is ready to move out and propose to his longtime girlfriend Lucy. With his parents be able to keep the twins from each other's throats without his help? And will they be able to do that while taking care of the next set of twin babies?

(I don't know how often Sims have twins on average. I was pretty shocked when Nanna had the second set. Actually I was pretty shocked the first time too, but at least that seemed credible.)

As you can see, even without magic and demons and angels, my Sims are writing their own novel with my help, or perhaps the other way around. With 30 days still left before the start of NaNoWriMo, there should be time for plenty more surprises and conflicts, loves and hates and sibling rivalries.

Of course, none of us knows that we have 30 days, much less what will happen in them. But at least I survived the Pepsi poisoning, and so I am in a good mood.