Details and Choices
Nov. 29th, 2010 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
genlisaeSo I actually "played" Sims for a few days. No, really I did. I don't do that, like ever.
In fact I don't do that so much that I didn't realize I had the wrong version of a hack installed after the reinstall and I now have five children that should not be. If you are ever wondering a 2% chance of birth control failing can be a lot!
Just playing was good though. I have been getting bogged down in details. So many little seeming insignificant things that need to happen for so many different characters all building toward a goal, *sigh*. I get lost sometimes. More often overwhelmed and then through lack of planning on my part I screwed up the timeline. That has been fixed now though. Of course I kind of reinvented the year while doing it, but hey, what is a few less days in one month and a few more in another in the grand scheme of things? (If you are curious, Pleasantries now works on a year of 12 months all with 30 days each. *nod* Nice, neat even blocks of time. I like even! More to the point I am much less likely to forget what the hell time of year it is again).
The details though. Getting back in touch with the characters themselves helped. Just watching them go about their own little lives unhindered by these million little details that are all weaving together and twisting and turning around on themselves. It was good. Some of the kinks that I just couldn't see a way around smoothed out simply by getting back to the basics of how the characters would react to them. It also had it's downside.
I now have options for how a few key moments will play out. Watching them wander around and interact, ideas kept popping into my head about different ways to handle plot points. Some would alter later events slightly (very slightly! like person x is now wearing a blue shirt instead of a red one, slightly!), others wouldn't change anything at all beyond how that scene played out. One of those moments is the very next thing I have to write. I don't know which to go with.
So, here is the question. If you have a choice to make on how a scene will play out and the only difference it will make is in a few flexible details further down the line, how do you decide which one to go with?
In fact I don't do that so much that I didn't realize I had the wrong version of a hack installed after the reinstall and I now have five children that should not be. If you are ever wondering a 2% chance of birth control failing can be a lot!
Just playing was good though. I have been getting bogged down in details. So many little seeming insignificant things that need to happen for so many different characters all building toward a goal, *sigh*. I get lost sometimes. More often overwhelmed and then through lack of planning on my part I screwed up the timeline. That has been fixed now though. Of course I kind of reinvented the year while doing it, but hey, what is a few less days in one month and a few more in another in the grand scheme of things? (If you are curious, Pleasantries now works on a year of 12 months all with 30 days each. *nod* Nice, neat even blocks of time. I like even! More to the point I am much less likely to forget what the hell time of year it is again).
The details though. Getting back in touch with the characters themselves helped. Just watching them go about their own little lives unhindered by these million little details that are all weaving together and twisting and turning around on themselves. It was good. Some of the kinks that I just couldn't see a way around smoothed out simply by getting back to the basics of how the characters would react to them. It also had it's downside.
I now have options for how a few key moments will play out. Watching them wander around and interact, ideas kept popping into my head about different ways to handle plot points. Some would alter later events slightly (very slightly! like person x is now wearing a blue shirt instead of a red one, slightly!), others wouldn't change anything at all beyond how that scene played out. One of those moments is the very next thing I have to write. I don't know which to go with.
So, here is the question. If you have a choice to make on how a scene will play out and the only difference it will make is in a few flexible details further down the line, how do you decide which one to go with?
