Hello, everyone! Today Ruth’s (un)Officially Wacky Boolprop Challenge is one year old, and for your reading pleasure and general edification, I am pleased to present a special feature about my writing process! The example used will actually be Chapter 1, since that is probably the chapter where the most steps happened consciously. (Actually, Myrna probably happened even more consciously, but I’m still trying to forget how difficult that was.) The pictures don’t all relate to what I’m talking about – many of them are just there for visual interest.

I decided more or less arbitrarily when she was a child that Ruth Shankel was going to start an OWBC. She and her family were all kinda dull, and I wanted to try one. Rather than add yet another family to the rotation, I thought it would be efficient to combine the two.

I figure that an OWBC needs a plot, especially since if Ruth was interesting enough to be wacky on her own, she wouldn’t need to be officially wacky. Unfortunately, I couldn’t plot my way out of a paper bag. You know who could plot, though? W. S. Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan. Their work was referred to as “topsy turvy,” and you know what that means: wacky. I decided that I would rip off Gilbert’s plots wholesale pay loving homage to Gilbert’s creative genius by appropriating some of his plots. (Mainly for my college chapters. College is boring and Gilbert & Sullivan usually involves many romantic complications.) So that this would not come as a complete shock, I gave Ruth an interest in Gilbert & Sullivan.

Alas, there was no plot that really fit Ruth. Princess Ida takes place at a women-only college, The Gondoliers is too male-centered, The Sorcerer is too hard to stage and takes place at a wedding anyway… So I decided that Ruth would simply be in a number of Gilbert & Sullivan shows, to sort of set the mood. But which shows? The Mikado, of course – I love that one, and it’s set in Japan, so I can do the costumes with no problem. I don’t use any custom content for fear of viruses. (shudders in horror at the very thought) Ruth could be Katisha in The Mikado, since Katisha is hands-down my favorite character and I would totally play her if I got the chance.

So: Katisha in Mikado, and she can be Ruth in Pirates because that’s the same vocal part and there’s that female Maxis pirate outfit. And then Little Buttercup in Pinafore, because I’ve heard recordings of the same woman singing all three parts and I can maybe use that yellow and white dress with the yellow shrug, maybe that will look period enough if I crop it right. And for the last one – Mad Margaret from Ruddigore. She’s mad, so she can wear pretty much whatever, and I can give her funky hair and maybe use a smustle pic. Good, that’s settled. On to the next steps.

With those goals in mind, I wrote down some dialog. I always carry around a notebook to jot down things I want to remember – dialog, grocery lists, whatever. I’m also very into the whole reduce-reuse-recycle thing, and as you can see, this notebook started life as an address book. As you can also see, I change my mind a lot.

(It was at about this point that Ruth’s former crush, who wasn’t interested as a Teen, decided that he was interested after all, so that had to be factored in.)

One of the things I do with my writing is make sure that any real information I provide is accurate, and that any made-up information is internally consistent. So the first thing I did was check to be sure that Katisha, Ruth, Little Buttercup, and Mad Margaret are all written for the same range. Nope. Mad Margaret’s a mezzo-soprano, while the other three are contraltos. (Contraltos are lower.) I know most people don’t care, but what if Professor Butters reads this? She knows Gilbert & Sullivan. I’d die of shame.

Okay, so who’s the contralto in Ruddigore? Dame Hannah? Dame Hannah is boring. She does have any good lines, and anyway, I can’t dress her using Maxis wear. What other contraltos are there? Can’t costume Princess Ida or Patience – and anyway, I might need the plot of Patience. Can’t remember the contralto in Iolanthe or Sorcerer. Haven’t seen Grand Duke. I might want the plot of Yeomen, and that contralto’s boring too. Hey, the Duchess of Plazatoro’s a contralto. I don’t want the plot of Gondoliers, and she does get off a zinger in the second act, plus I can use a Maxis outfit. The Duchess it is. Now I’ve got the roles picked out, what’s next?

Costuming and sets, I think. This is a bit tricky. Mikado can just look generically Eastern, and there are Maxis kimonos that will work. I can even use a blond or red hairdo because some productions do that and then the line “The lady who dyes a chemical yellow/Or stains her grey hair puce” takes on an extra layer of funny. (I’ve also seen “red” stretched to fit the meter.) I’ll need a gray “wig” for the Duchess, and I’ll use the theater lobby as sort of somewhere generically grand since I don’t remember where the characters are supposed to be standing. I’ll need a different gray “wig” for Pirates Ruth, plus I’ll need to have a set that looks rather like a mausoleum. As for Pinafore… Ay yi yi.

The yellow shrug doesn’t really look period, no matter what angle you use, and I need something that looks sort of like the deck of a ship. Not the real deck of a ship, because then I could just use the pirate ship that came with Bon Voyage, but like a theater set made to look like the deck of a ship, and there’s no way I can do that without custom content. And much better design skills than I possess. Plus, I think I might want the plot. Maybe I should just forget Pinafore and pick another show? No, because that’s one of the only ones where the contralto can logically kiss someone – they tend to get the plain-older-woman roles in G&S – and I want that for my plot. So they’ll be in rehearsal. She’ll look a little funny, but people will just have to go with that.

Which is what I did. DIRECTOR #2: Okay, Rafe and Josephine: “Oh bliss, oh rapture!” and then kiss followed by Captain Corcoran and Little Buttercup: “Oh rapture, oh bliss!” and then kiss. RUTH: It’s not scripted that they kiss, is it? DIRECTOR #2: No, but I like the symmetry. Let’s – “SIR JOSEPH”: Sir Joseph doesn’t have to kiss Cousin Hebe, do I? Only you’ve got Philip playing her, and I don’t like him like that.

Plus, that gave me an excuse to have Ryan-the-indecisive-suitor kiss Ruth. RYAN: You okay? RUTH: Little Buttercup has to kiss Captain Corcoran. RYAN: I thought there wasn’t any kissing. RUTH: There is now.

I can’t make a mausoleum set without custom content either, so I’m going to make it a generic outdoor set and show Ruth in the audience afterwards. Professional theater companies don’t do that, but they did where I went to college. After the show, the actors would all come down off the stage and greet their friends in the audience. And that gives me a chance to develop Ryan and Ruth’s relationship. RYAN: Wow, Ruth, you were great! I mean, I know we went over everything a million times, but you were really good up there. And the costume is really something. RUTH: Aw, you just like it because it’s revealing. RYAN: Not as revealing as what you usually wear. RUTH: Point. And you can buy me dinner for noticing.

But I have to be careful about camera angles, because there actually isn’t a pirate outfit for the YA age group, and my homemade custom content came out kind of funky. (See the backside and the boots? The front of the boots are even worse.) I’m not too good at making custom content.

While costuming and sets were going on, there was also the matter of plot. Previously in the story, Ryan had been pretty definite in his rejection of Ruth, even attempting to date another girl. Now, for some inexplicable programming reason, they have two bolts and he will autonomously Leap Into Arms. I need answers. 1. Why does Ryan like Ruth now? 2. He had his reasons for the rejection. All of a sudden, they don’t matter? 3. How is he going to break the ice? 4. Ruth was aware that Ryan was uninterested. How is she going to take this 180?

I decided that question #1 didn’t necessarily need an answer spelled out. I already had a pretty good picture and sometimes people really do look at people they’ve known for a long time through new eyes. Especially when said someone is in their jammies. (I later decided that the re-evaluation was prompted by Ruth’s not wearing a bra under her jammies.)

To answer question #2, Ryan had a chat with Ruth’s cousin Simon. (Technically, Ryan is first cousin once removed to both Simon and Ruth, but it’s by adoption, the game doesn’t recognize the relationship, it’s legal in all 50 states, and relatively few people could name their parent’s cousins anyway, so I’m not worried. It’s only incest if you’re too closely related to legally marry.) RYAN: So, Simon… What do you think of Ruth? SIMON: She’s my cousin. I don’t. RYAN: No, not like that. I mean… She’s weird, right? SIMON: Ruth? Weird? Nah.

To answer question #3, I figure Ryan would start by expressing interest in something Ruth liked or was doing. It’s the sort of thing that you’d do with anyone you wanted to get to know better. And since his rejection was in no small part based on her being so into Gilbert & Sullivan, why not have him express interest in one of their works? RYAN: This is by those opera guys you’re into, right? RUTH: Gilbert & Sullivan, yup.

And for question #4, I thought that Ruth would probably be rather like me: slow to realize that things had changed and unwilling to believe it once she did. RYAN: I, uh, haven’t seen you in a while. RUTH: How’s Lucy? Weren’t you two dating? RYAN: I, uh, not exactly… RUTH: Gee, that’s too bad. RUTH: I – You – But Lucy’s at school now! Aren’t you going to start dating her again?

Now I have everything figured out, the only thing left to do is play. Sometimes the pictures come before the words (Ryan and Simon playing catch; I just thought that would be a logical spot to put that conversation), and sometimes the words come before the pictures (Ryan kissing Ruth), but the hard part is over.

Or so I thought. Then some shots that should have been easy to get became very very difficult. For the “Miyasama” number, I needed a controllable Mikado and Ruth doing something that looked like singing. I had an easy answer for this: move in an extra Sim, just for the shots. Nope. I already had eight in the dorm, and the game refused to add number nine.

Okay, okay, I can work around this. I’ll just put one of the regulars in a Mikado costume and crop carefully. I don’t have the funny hat for the Mikado, but probably nobody has made that, and anyway, I play without custom content. This is Mifune Sanders as the Mikado. Pretty obviously Mifune Sanders as the Mikado, unfortunately. Also, Katisha has to wear a terribly un-Japanese hairdo because I haven’t got anything else that works. All the red and yellow hairstyles make her look too young and pretty. Fine. I can only do what I can do, right? I’ll have Ruth Freestyle – that gives some good faces and hand gestures, and with a little cropping, it should be good, right?

Except that when you tell someone to Freestyle on a community lot, everyone and their grandmother rushes over to join in. And then complains about having to go to the bathroom – which, by the way, is what I had told them to do before they took it into their little pixilated heads to run up on stage! I was lucky to get one useable shot.

I didn’t want that to happen with the all-important proposal scene, especially since you only get one try at that. So I took a bunch of pictures, just to be sure. Here you see about half of them. I ended up using seven. And that, boys and girls, is how I write my stories. (Sometimes.)

I hope you enjoyed this special feature, brought to you by Story Anniversaries. Story Anniversaries: Delaying proper chapters since 2009. We will return to our regularly scheduled programming next time. Until then, Happy Simming!