#simblr tips

Thought that would probably count as witchcraft to the wagnersz

So, it's a long answer! I’ll put some bullet points with advice below the cut.

On a related note, though, I think now is a good time for an exciting(?) announcement: I am working on an “Ultimate Guide to Fundie Simblr”-type document! I hope it will end up being a handbook of sorts for both current and prospective fundie simblr-ers.

The doc will include gameplay advice (keeping your sims alive, DIY sim-homeschooling, ), simblr advice (taking screenshots, making posts, templates for tracking your stories/characters), CC/mods stuff (my recommendations, MCCC features essential to fundie gameplay), and whatever else I can think of. In writing it I've been using every single piece of fundie simming knowledge I’ve collected over the last decade. (Before I had this blog, I ran another fundie simblr for a few years; I have also played many a fundie family on my own time!)

I’m creating this type of guide because this community is a really fun space as it is, but it’s the most enjoyable when we have more people sharing stories and interacting within the community. So I want to make it as easy as possible for people to join in! It won’t be done for months (the perils of overcommitting oneself to extracurriculars…), so in the meantime, everyone is more than welcome to come to my inbox with any questions about fundie simming and fundie simblr-ing they may have. (That’ll still hold after I share the document, of course!)

Hi sweet Nonny! 

First off, tysm! and secondly, wow I can’t believe you trust me and my blog with such a big important question? Like, I feel honored? When/if you do end up making a simblr (totally up 2 u but) I’d love to get your URL so I can follow!!!

Anyhoo! 

Create a “new simblr” post, introduce yourself and your blog! Let everyone know what kind of stuff they can expect to see from you! I regret not doing that myself! The community seems *really* good at reblogging those. The simblrs that make them tend to kinda take off quickly and make friends fast! 

Network! Commenting on & liking other blogs content helps create those relationships! For me, it’s how I express that I care abt your blog (Since I am literal trash at communication.) It feels good to get the notes, sure, but it also feels really good to give them and let people know you like what they’re sharing. One thing I like to do is click on random simblr accounts I see that like/comment on things my mutuals share. I’ve found a lot of cute but smaller blogs with great stories that way, who deserve the love! Another great way to meet people. Same with keeping an eye out on the “recommended blogs” section when they pop up.

Post content YOU like.  It’s important to have fun with your blog, that’s why we are all here, right? No matter how many notes it gets, don’t get discouraged. If it’s something you like, and you are having fun with, others will see that too! Those are the kind of blogs I love to follow! 

Join a discord! It’s a great way to discover new blogs and make friends. They always seem to have a lot of useful resources too, like a “wcif” section or posting about CC they’re making, so you kinda get to know first! The one I am in is prob the greatest server ever (in my biased opinion.) The people are so nice and helpful, everyone seems to get a long. Here is a link to the post for the server! 

Avoid the drama! Unfortunately things in the community will pop up that gets everyone feeling a certain way, or running to a drama blog to be petty. Unless it’s something you feel extremely passionate about, I’d just avoid it in general. Community drama tends to blow over very fast and everyone moves on. Also, try and be aware of the types of blogs you are following. You don’t have to put up with anything or anyone that makes you uncomfortable. 

Learn how to make/recolor CC or use blender, or put your sims up for download! If you start to really get involved with the community and want to put yourself out there more it always helps to give back a little! A lot of us are here for the custom content and each others sims! People also love seeing what others are capable of with editing software like Photoshop or Gimp. So don’t be afraid to experiment! (Also, if you need an invite to simfileshare to help make it easier to upload your content, let me know. I will hook you up! And I got the hook up for other things so shoot me a message someday if you want!) 

Anon hate...You do NOT have to publish hate from anons! Don’t even give them the time of day. We all have, or will get it at some point. Try not to let it get you down!

Don’t be afraid to post non-sims related content There are people out there who love to know about the person behind the blog. To see your personality and get to know you. Tag it as a non sims post and they can sort it out if that’s not what they want to see. 

Time zone reblog. Sometimes people miss things since simblr has users from all over the globe. It helps to give your post a little bump for them. Make sure to tag it appropriately so people can filter!  

Editing practice taking pictures in tab mode, usually the closer you are to your sim the better the pictures look. Then comes the editing. Play around with psds and other things in gimp/Photoshop to find your style.

i made my first basics post on nov 23 2016 and current me doesnt even know that innocent bitch anymore.. though she made some points

i won’t be repeating myself from before unless it’s to clear up somethin so here we go class

Sure I’ll try to give some tips. 🤔

For the simblr, I just followed simmers who followed me, used tons of tags in all my posts, reblog my posts so more people see them maybe for timezones and stuff, ask for collabs and tried not to be shy. :)

For taking pics of your families, I do it anytime that I have free time to. I take pics during the day always and I have a lighting mod by burnt waffles I THINK. But mostly my pics are good because I edit them with gimp using the holycolorsbatman mod. :)

I’m honestly super honored that you’re asking me! I’m still a pretty small simblr compared to a lot of people.

I’m going to put this under a cut, just so it doesn’t clutter up people’s dashes because I RAMBLE (like seriously, I’m re-reading it all now and I go on and on and on) but I’m gonna cover everything you asked!

TL;DR: get mildly inspired, get involved in the community and have fun with it!

I cannot recommending creating a new blog enough. While it’s definitely easier to just create a sub-blog off your personal, you’ll have a harder go at keeping things separate once things take off. Plus then you probably won’t have ALL your million tumblr things that you’re already following mixed in with your sim stuff, making things so much harder to follow.

Once you start your simblr (whether a sub-blog or whole new tumblr), TAG EVERYTHING. XKIT SAVES LIVES. Not really, but it will save you a lot of time once you install the Quick Tags and make tag bundles. Seriously.

At least once a day, a “reblog if you’re a maxis match simblr” thing comes across my dash–don’t be afraid to reblog those when you’re starting out. (Or the alpha equivalent if that’s your thing).

Seriously, don’t be afraid to reach out to people and get involved. Ask for sim requests, reply to things, join a Discord server–don’t be afraid to talk to people! I’ve actually made a few good friends this time around. It’s awesome.

This is just one of the unfortunate realities about things–if your pictures look good, you’ll get noticed quicker and blah blah. You can get by on just writing, but it’s a lot harder. This is still tumblr. It’s microblogging. LOOOOONG text posts (like this one lmao) are not what it’s geared towards.

Anyway. I play TS4 on Ultra, and that does a lot of work for me. Sometimes all you really need to do is sharpen and brighten things up. Reshade is another good alternative, if your computer can handle it–that takes a lot of the decision making out because it edits for you! I used to use PickyPikachu’s reshade presets. The downside is that it’s pretty resource heavy.

The basic point here is that having good lookin’ pictures goes a long way to making your stuff look “not mediocre.”

Also, and this is a side thing–find a good theme for your simblr, something that looks good for both text posts and pictures, probably something with either a sidebar or header (or both).

This is the meat of the section and it’s all really Kit/Pastille-specific.

I started up the Pastel Pastilles because I saw Berry’s challenge–I had already read Splash of Color a long time ago, and had a (now obviously abandoned) TS3 rainbowcy. But TS4 was fun and ran like a beast and I liked berry sims, so I dove in. If you were to go back in my archives, though, you’d see that I started posting a TS3 LEPacy, and that’s not even my first one.

I’m not going to even talk about the Grims in this post, since they’re really new. But they’re a prime example of using community involvement to stay interested haha. I’m very excited to play with Ruby and her future family because of all the nice sims people sent for her to eat alive become friends with. 

Planning with the Pastilles

With the Pastilles, I honestly got a little tipsy one night and did my initial planning based around Halsey’s Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. Like… Not even gonna lie. That was honestly my starting point. You can almost see hints of this in some places. From there, I had certain scenes I wanted to hit.

Gen 1 - Luna - “Hopeless”; it’s about being in a shitty relationship and hoping that changes lmao (“I hope hopeless changes over time”). Luna and Dianthus were meant to have a much more obviously toxic relationship but Luna ended up having four kids by her second pregnancy and I just couldn’t play and write that fast. However, I always knew that Luna’s big moment would be telling Dianthus to get out.

Gen 2 - Verity Vine - “Now or Never”/“100 Letters” - There are a couple things that have stayed consistent in this gen: Veri and her dreams, the peach spouse’s dad was gonna be a dick and they would be separated for years, and they were gonna hook back up at a wedding. 

My very first concept was that Riesling was going to be a bit more wishy-washy and bend to his father’s will (hence “Now or Never” being the song). By the middle of the generation, it was clear that Veri would become the distant one (“he said ‘please don’t go away,’ I said ‘it’s too late’”).

Part of writing a sims legacy sometimes is… letting the sims do the writing for you. Meri and Forest weren’t supposed to be the ones getting married (it was supposed to be Chai Tea and Black Cherry) and they definitely weren’t supposed to have the twins but honestly the story is better for it, you know? And obv most of Veriling’s story isn’t the way I initially planned.

All this said, once I knew where I wanted the story to go, I knew I wanted to plan around a few set-pieces: the fountain scene where Riesling trips onto Veri and she realizes “OH SHIT,” the scene where Eiswein walks in, Punk!Veri’s “I don’t dream at all anymore,” and Riesling’s “Hi, I’m Riesling Puck, you might recognize me from your dreams.” Those were all scenes I knew I HAD to get.

Gen 3 - ??? - “Angel on Fire” - it’s about anxiety lmao so I don’t mind linking it, it’s pretty obvious. Gen 3 has an anxious heir, a song about anxiety was on the nose.

I don’t really recommend the getting tipsy part, but definitely do recommend going in with a basic concept.

The cool thing about challenges is that you already have the guidelines as a starting point. One of my favorite parts about this challenge in particular is seeing how people re-interpret the rules–for instance compare the Gumdrops, Frosts, Amours, Pastilles, Fairyflosses, Prisms–we all started from the same basic rules and there’s still a lot of variation, especially once you get past the initial introductions.

Also, SERIOUSLY: don’t be afraid to take inspiration from crazy places–a song you heard on the radio, a movie, your own life, whatever. Like, I decided Veri’s generation would have it’s first Act at Oxtail University because of the “dream of ivy covered walls and smoky french cafes” line in “Beautiful” (from the Heathers musical). The song otherwise has VERY LITTLE to do with Gen 2. It’s just that line became a starting point for me.

Keeping Things Lookin’ Snazzy with the Pastilles

Looking back, you can kind of see Gen 1 was a bit brighter and lighter/different in editing style than Gen 2. I purposefully set out to get a “dreamy” feel for Gen 2′s pictures. It works for me and the Pastilles–it might not for your legacy! Play around with things to see what works.

I’ve also noticed a lot of banners nowadays (they weren’t as big my first go around here on simblr, but they’re everywhere now). I think that helps to keep things “on brand,” organized and consistent too. I personally don’t use a banner for the Pastilles–I didn’t start with one, and now it looks super wrong to me when I try to use one…. So instead, I’d recommend looking at @frost-rainbowcy–she is SUPER on-brand. I can only aspire to reach that level of #a e s t h e t i c.

HOWEVER, I do keep everything on my blog hyper-organized–there’s a main page where everything’s pretty much linked, and the character page. 

TBH, you don’t need to go that in-depth. I just like leaving weird easter eggs in places. You might too.

Posting Consistently

So, I started posting the Pastilles officially almost a week after I made the first post with Luna. That’s because I played a BUNCH right at the beginning, so I’d have something consistent to post for a while. It wasn’t initially as story-heavy as it is now. That’s something you probably want to decide before you start posting.

Right now, I’m posting inconsistently because I’m trying to wait around for Cats and Dogs and not give into the temptation to give Veri and Ries the babies they keep wishing for, but….

I’m in game almost every day–I get off work most days between 2 and 4 now, so by 6 PM I’ve eaten/showered/started up TS4. Even if it’s just to make a sim for someone.

I tend to do all my picture editing on Sundays, as it’s my day off. Sometimes it bleeds over into Monday, my other day off. I don’t always write posts up those days, but I at least stick them in the queue so they’re THERE. For me, it helps giving myself that weird deadline lmao

As a result, I almost always have something queued up.

I utilize the queue like MAD. Right now it’s set at 6 posts a day between 3 PM and 12 AM EST, but I change it up depending on what I have going on and what I can crank out. Usually I leave it on 13 posts a day.

Basically, learn what works for you. It does take some trial and error, but you’ll get it eventually.

Now here’s the real truth: you won’t post consistently if you don’t love your game or your sims.

I love playing the Pastilles as much as I love writing them. To the point that I have them backed up in several places just in case. I’m genuinely attached to the family, and that makes it worth it to me. Sometimes that doesn’t happen immediately (I love Luna, and Vino, and even Dianthus that shitbag, but you can tell that I got invested with Veri and Ries–Gen 1 is 30 pages long on my blog. Gen 2 is 92 and counting).

Storywise, I stay interested because I love the fluffy romance bits and snappy dialogue as much as the Drama Bombs, and also (spoilers) I’m a sucker for supernatural stuff. So I tailored my legacy to fit that.

But when I don’t want to play sometimes I just go in game, grab a few pictures of them in CAS and redo the character page for the 25th time. And that’s okay too. I just always try to make sure I have something to post, even if it’s a small (even if it’s just Riesling’s face. Because I know that’s what y’all want. It’s cool. I get it).

Sorry about the late response to this! I’ve been seeing some good responses and tips from @simcitiess, @frost-rainbowcy, @socialbunnies & @bouquet-of-scissors, but I’ll try to add what’s been helpful for me. :)

I’m sure to ramble so I’ll just put my response under a cut…