Evolution of a storyline
Nov. 10th, 2008 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dicreasy2Now that I have got Alexandra's story done and on the exchange, I'd like to share how the storyline changed and evolved with you. This is extremely spoilery, so if you haven't read chapter 15.3, don't read this.
My original idea for Alexandra and Joe's relationship was completely, completely different to the relationship you have seen. When he was first dropped from the well I was going to write and play them as being in a pretty happy relationship. They were going to marry and have children, and Joe would be the slightly hen-pecked husband always following in Alexandra's wake. The fact that he was a well drop and they were happy was going to be referred to in Eddie's storyline too, so it all seemed to fit well to me.
Then came two turning points that made me re-evaluate where I was going with it.
The first was when I started switching my focus when playing and shooting from William to his children. I was writing Alexandra as being spoilt because she always wanted to be the centre of attention as a toddler and child. Once she was a teenager, I wanted to add more depth to her and start exploring why she acted like that. It was whilst I was following her around with the camera I realised that she pulls the most wistful and sad faces of any sim I have seen. It wasn't a great leap for me to start seeing a vulnerability there that I could bring into her character.
The second was when I invited Joe to stay for three days. He never did interact with Alexandra of his own volition. I had to have her speak to him each time since he would rather speak to Vicky or Beth or play one of the pianos .
Then of course there was the fact that he left on the first day at the normal teen curfew time. I'm still not sure if this is how the game is coded since I've not dug out my BV guide to look, but it certainly threw my plans into disarray. I had invited him because Alexandra would not stop rolling the want to ask him on a date. I actually ran out of time to have her ask him that first day since I'd taken Beth, William and Eddie to the businesses and was then running around trying to keep Beth and Eddie happy once they got home. I had planned to have her ask him on the second day, but of course he left.
I started to think how I could use this and ended up developing the relationship as I was writing so that it looked as if Joe wanted out, and was hoping that by avoiding Alexandra he would be giving her hints to leave him alone.
Alexandra's natural persistance would mean that she wouldn't get the hints, especially since she had set her heart on being with him forever. That meant that I started thinking about how I would end the relationship. My first idea was to have Alexandra see Joe with another girl somewhere on campus, and then know that he didn't care for her. It was a good idea, but somehow I just felt that it needed more. Also as a young adult, the wistful and sad faces I had noticed in her as a teenager were much more apparent. I just knew then that although she acted with such forcefulness and was so bossy it was a front and that underneath it all she was incredibly vulnerable and just wanted someone to love and care for her. She thought Joe did because of the interest he had shown in her and so clung to that like a lifebelt.
As is so often the case, my next brain wave occurred whilst I was letting my mind wander. I came up with the idea of Joe leaving her at the altar. I liked that, because I like drama, and so started thinking about the logistics of it. I needed to come up with reasons as to why Joe wouldn't call it off before the wedding. Alexandra's persistance wasn't quite enough, which is where the ideas that he could see she would be a good wife, and was extremely attracted to her, once it was pointed out how pretty she was, came in. Once I knew he would desire her it was a natural progression for me to have her pregnant when he leaves her. I also started to develop Joe's character more at this point so that him sleeping with her before the wedding would make sense and not be out of character for him.
So I now knew where I was going with Alexandra, but it wasn't complete. I had no idea what would happen to Alexandra or her baby. Would I have Beth and William pretend that it was their own, even though Beth was too old to have more children? Would they claim it ws a foundling? What? I was clueless.
I stayed clueless until I was procrastinating here at LJ and shooting preview pictures of the green eyes I had recoloured to share with you all. Since I was playing Charles at SSU, I went into the YA CAS to take them. I grabbed a random sim from the premade Maxis ones (not the templates the full sims) and took the pictures. As I did so I decided that I wanted to see what the jade eyes looked like in game, so I called him Anthony Smith and accepted him
So there I was in SSU with this sim wondering which dorm to put him in. I had my next brainwave. I could use him to get reaction shots with Joe: he could be a friend that Joe tells about Alexandra and how she won't leave him alone, and he wants out. In fact this Anthony can give him advice. That was it. A firework went off in my brain and I had the rest of the storyline worked out in a split second. Anthony would fall in love with Alexandra, and hate how Joe was treating her. He would try his hardest to get Joe to acknowledge how he felt and get him to tell Alexandra. He would be there when Joe did leave Alexandra, and he would marry her even though she was pregnant with another man's child.
So there you have it. That's how a combination of sims' actions and my thoughts caused me to develop this storyline into what you have seen in chapters 13-15. I still have a couple of scenes to shoot with Anthony and Alexandra which will put the finishing touches to this part of their lives, but I am very pleased with how it turned out.
My original idea for Alexandra and Joe's relationship was completely, completely different to the relationship you have seen. When he was first dropped from the well I was going to write and play them as being in a pretty happy relationship. They were going to marry and have children, and Joe would be the slightly hen-pecked husband always following in Alexandra's wake. The fact that he was a well drop and they were happy was going to be referred to in Eddie's storyline too, so it all seemed to fit well to me.
Then came two turning points that made me re-evaluate where I was going with it.
The first was when I started switching my focus when playing and shooting from William to his children. I was writing Alexandra as being spoilt because she always wanted to be the centre of attention as a toddler and child. Once she was a teenager, I wanted to add more depth to her and start exploring why she acted like that. It was whilst I was following her around with the camera I realised that she pulls the most wistful and sad faces of any sim I have seen. It wasn't a great leap for me to start seeing a vulnerability there that I could bring into her character.
The second was when I invited Joe to stay for three days. He never did interact with Alexandra of his own volition. I had to have her speak to him each time since he would rather speak to Vicky or Beth or play one of the pianos .
Then of course there was the fact that he left on the first day at the normal teen curfew time. I'm still not sure if this is how the game is coded since I've not dug out my BV guide to look, but it certainly threw my plans into disarray. I had invited him because Alexandra would not stop rolling the want to ask him on a date. I actually ran out of time to have her ask him that first day since I'd taken Beth, William and Eddie to the businesses and was then running around trying to keep Beth and Eddie happy once they got home. I had planned to have her ask him on the second day, but of course he left.
I started to think how I could use this and ended up developing the relationship as I was writing so that it looked as if Joe wanted out, and was hoping that by avoiding Alexandra he would be giving her hints to leave him alone.
Alexandra's natural persistance would mean that she wouldn't get the hints, especially since she had set her heart on being with him forever. That meant that I started thinking about how I would end the relationship. My first idea was to have Alexandra see Joe with another girl somewhere on campus, and then know that he didn't care for her. It was a good idea, but somehow I just felt that it needed more. Also as a young adult, the wistful and sad faces I had noticed in her as a teenager were much more apparent. I just knew then that although she acted with such forcefulness and was so bossy it was a front and that underneath it all she was incredibly vulnerable and just wanted someone to love and care for her. She thought Joe did because of the interest he had shown in her and so clung to that like a lifebelt.
As is so often the case, my next brain wave occurred whilst I was letting my mind wander. I came up with the idea of Joe leaving her at the altar. I liked that, because I like drama, and so started thinking about the logistics of it. I needed to come up with reasons as to why Joe wouldn't call it off before the wedding. Alexandra's persistance wasn't quite enough, which is where the ideas that he could see she would be a good wife, and was extremely attracted to her, once it was pointed out how pretty she was, came in. Once I knew he would desire her it was a natural progression for me to have her pregnant when he leaves her. I also started to develop Joe's character more at this point so that him sleeping with her before the wedding would make sense and not be out of character for him.
So I now knew where I was going with Alexandra, but it wasn't complete. I had no idea what would happen to Alexandra or her baby. Would I have Beth and William pretend that it was their own, even though Beth was too old to have more children? Would they claim it ws a foundling? What? I was clueless.
I stayed clueless until I was procrastinating here at LJ and shooting preview pictures of the green eyes I had recoloured to share with you all. Since I was playing Charles at SSU, I went into the YA CAS to take them. I grabbed a random sim from the premade Maxis ones (not the templates the full sims) and took the pictures. As I did so I decided that I wanted to see what the jade eyes looked like in game, so I called him Anthony Smith and accepted him
So there I was in SSU with this sim wondering which dorm to put him in. I had my next brainwave. I could use him to get reaction shots with Joe: he could be a friend that Joe tells about Alexandra and how she won't leave him alone, and he wants out. In fact this Anthony can give him advice. That was it. A firework went off in my brain and I had the rest of the storyline worked out in a split second. Anthony would fall in love with Alexandra, and hate how Joe was treating her. He would try his hardest to get Joe to acknowledge how he felt and get him to tell Alexandra. He would be there when Joe did leave Alexandra, and he would marry her even though she was pregnant with another man's child.
So there you have it. That's how a combination of sims' actions and my thoughts caused me to develop this storyline into what you have seen in chapters 13-15. I still have a couple of scenes to shoot with Anthony and Alexandra which will put the finishing touches to this part of their lives, but I am very pleased with how it turned out.
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-11 02:15 am (UTC)Well, it all clicked together beautifully because this storyline was probably one of my favorite ones that you've done. Not to mention that we got Anthony out of it, whom I adore, and we got to really get to know Alexandra in a different and more appealing way. It was really well done.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-11 07:17 pm (UTC)Aw thanks. I'm glad I didn't ditch it as being too similar to Eddie's then.