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Frequently Asked Questions

On this page, I'm posting questions, which have often been asked by people through my guestbook, or which I think are worth clearing up. I got very inspired around the end, so hopefully you have a bit of time. I tried to answer the technical questions with as much precision as I could. If you don't find an answer to your question in here or want more precisions, feel free to contact me by guestbook or E-mail.

Which Bella did you use to create 'The Fate of Pleasantview'?
Both! It's somewhat complicated... Most the time it's Pleasantview Bella. In fact, even in chapter 4, I mostly used Pleasantview Bella for the Strangetown scenes! Indeed, the Strangetown scenes weren't actually shot in Strangetown, but in Bluewater Village. Why? Because chapter 4 takes place in two neighborhoods: Pleasantview and Strangetown. Sadly, I could not use the pictures I took in Strangetown for a Pleasantview album. So I transformed Bluewater Village into a desert template (temporarily) and imported the Smith's home (did you ever wonder why you never saw any other lot in Strangetown?). So, where did Strangetown Bella appear? Also in chapter 4! Indeed, I once wrote a chapter which took place entirely in Strangetown and which followed Bella's quest in real time (whereas in chapter 4 it is told like past action). I didn't like this chapter after all so I never published it, but I did copy and paste a few pictures from it to Pleasantview. So the scenes in the clinic and a few other pictures actually feature Strangetown Bella… Yeah, I told you it was complicated….


Wait, Pleasantview Bella? How did you get her back?
When the game was created, Maxis had to include Bella in the game, even if you weren't able to play her. Indeed, they needed the Goth family to remember her in their family tree and memories. I don't think they ever intended her to be played though. In fact, they even gave her a dead token, meaning that if you attempt to play her, she dies right after…
However, there are two ways to go around this and still get the "real" Bella Goth back:

1) The SimPE method (requires the SimPE)
For this method you will need to download the program SimPE at this site (free and safe).
- Open the SimPE
- Open the neighborhood browser and open Pleasantview.
- In the arborescence on the left, click on "neighborhood memory"
- Find Bella Goth on the left and click on her.
- You will see her memories in a box. Delete the one that is called "Death Token" (you can also give her, her old memories back this way…)
- Load the game. Go to Pleasantview
- In the cheat box enter the cheat boolprop TestingCheatsEnabled true
- Enter the Goth household.
- Press the shift key and click on a sim
- In the pie menu, click on "Spawn..." and find "The Tombstone of L& D". Click on it.
- Click normally on the Tombstone that appears.
- In the pie menu, click on "Add neighbor to Family…" and find "Bella". Click on her name.
- Bella will be added to the household and will be playable. Enjoy!

2) The Resurect-O-Nitrom method (requires University)
- Load the game. Go to Pleasantview
- In the cheat box enter the cheat boolprop TestingCheatsEnabled true
- Enter the Goth household.
- Press the shift key and click on a sim
- In the pie menu, click on "Spawn..." and find "The Tombstone of L& D". Click on it.
- Click normally on the Tombstone that appears.
- In the pie menu, click on "Add neighbor to Family…" and find "Bella". Click on her name.
- Save and go to the neighborhood.
- Re-enter the Goth household. A message will appear saying that Bella is dead and she will disappear.
- Press the shift key and click on the newspaper
- In the pie menu, click "Career Rewards" and then "Paranormal" (the active sim must be an adult…)
- Go in the sim's career rewards and find the Resurect-O-Nitrom (paranormal career) You should be able to spawn it.
- Have a sim use the phone to call the grim reaper and resurrect Bella.
- Bella will be added to the household and will be playable. Enjoy!

Look out: the second method seems to have stopped working ever since The Sims 2: Pets Expansion Pack came out, so I would go for the first one if I were you, if you have that expansion pack.


How did you go back in time in chapter 1 to get Cassandra to be a teenager and Cornelia Goth still alive?
I had to use several cheats to get the neighborhood a few years back.
Already, if you want to get Cornelia Goth, Darleen Dreamer, Skip Broke or anyone else back from the dead, just use the Resurrect-O-Nitrom (University required). If you don't have that aspiration reward, then you can obtain it by using the same method described in the previous question for Bella Goth or by using the cheat: unlockcareerrewards.
How about making Sims younger? Try this:
- From the neighborhood enter the cheat boolprop testingcheatsenabled true in the cheat box.
- Enter the lot where the Sim, whose age you want to change lives.
- Press the shift key on your keyboard and click on the active sim.
- In the pie menu find the option Spawn… and click it. I the second pie menu, find the option Sim Modder (remember to click More… when an option is not directly available).
- A standing baby should appear next to your Sim. Don't worry; this is just an object, not an actual Sim…
- Make the Sim whose age you want to change active.
- Click on the Sim Modder and find the option Set Age…
- Next you need to chose whose age you're changing. Since we decided to change the active Sims's age, click the option Me (Active Sims' Name)
- Finally, you need to choose the new age for your Sim. You get the choice between: Toddler; Child; Teen; Adult; Elder (the current age of your Sim will not appear.)
- Your Sim will do the age transition interaction and will grow into the asked age. And will get a new age transition memory.


Where do you get your custom content?
Hmm… I think this is a question a lot of us storywriters fear. When I get downloading it isn't a pretty thing: I just go from site to site and download massively. So chances are, I won't be able to remember where I got everything the next day… However I do have my regular sites, which I check regularly for some new stuff. Also, if you point out a specific content and ask nicely, I'm usually willing to spend a few minutes trying to find it again for you, though I can't promise systematic results. Here are a few general sites I like to browse, just to give you some ideas:
ModTheSims2 - I download a bit of everything from this site. You probably already know it. If not, I recommend you join (free and safe content). They have some of the best creators of the community out there.
Rosesims 2 - I mostly get hair from here, though they have a good amount of fantasy content I don't use.
Pronupsims - This site specializes in wedding content. They served at the Goth - Lothario Wedding!
Parsimonius - Another general site, but I don't go there very often anymore.


When is the next chapter of 'The Fate of Pleasantview' coming out?
Sadly, I cannot answer this question, because I'm not very regular on release dates. I'm often kept very busy by school work and can't always find the time to get working on my next story. So I can't say that I release weekly, or monthly… The best way to know how long you'll have to wait for the next chapter is to read my blog. There's hardly an entry where I don't mention my progress on the next chapter.
Otherwise, you can just ask me to send you an E-mail every time a new chapter is released for the series. There are currently about 30 people who receive this kind of message. To be added to the list, just send me an E-mail at my address: alexi35@hotmail.fr or sign my guestbook (remember to leave me your E-mail address if you go through the guestbook…)


When will you finish the series?
I don't know. I don't have a specific amount of chapters planned. I do have a general storyline and I know what the end of the story is supposed to be, but there are always ways to make a story much longer, by developing secondary storylines. In fact, as time passes, the story just gets bigger and bigger. There are chances I won't have time to finish the story before the Sims 3 comes out, though I hope that won't be the case.


Can you tell me who did this? What will happen to…?
Of course, you'll hardly ever get an answer to such a question. I'm very secretive when it comes to future events in the story, and only give out limited information. I've had several of my contacts beg me to find out who murdered Angela Pleasant for example but they were all frustrated to see that I didn't cave. Besides, were I to tell you, it would wreck all the fun of discovery, don't you think? Once again, I'll ask you to see my blog if you want any sneak peaks about future chapters. I don't give away much, but I usually announce storylines for the next chapter in advance, and I sometimes make certain details a bit clearer.


How do you make covers for your stories?
I learned how to make covers for Sim stories progressively. If you compare the cover I made for the original series' first chapter, to the ones I make now, you'll hopefully see that the new ones are better and more precise. There are great tutorial on the official Sims 2 site so browse the exchange if you want a full explanation. I may make my own someday, but that'll be after I finish writing my own stories… I recommend you find yourself a good photo editing program. I use PhotoFilter, which isn't the best one you can get, but it's certainly enough for me, because it is easy to use and free. You can download it off the internet at this site.


How do you find your ideas? Can you give me some tips for writing my own series?
I get inspiration from books I read, movies I see, people I meet, situations I hear about… basically, anything! Sometimes I get a really good idea, because of something meaningless my Sims do. My favorite movies are listed on my Sim page and they are those who inspire me the most. Also, I get a lot of my ideas when I walk to or from school. Indeed, I have to walk for a half hour to get to school every morning, and another half hour to get home in the evening. So I spend about 5 hours per week just walking. To fill up this time, I'm usually thinking about my stories and what to do next with them. In fact, back in November 2005, it was while I was walking home from school that I got the idea to create 'The Fate of Pleasantview' in the first place!
I can't help you get ideas for you own series. What you write about should be personal and you should come up with it on your own. If you use someone else's ideas it'll feel like writing someone else's story. This was the case with the third chapter of the original series for me. I had just reread 'Menace over Pleasantview' by Nakka1181, and I had her story in mind, more than my own. So, in the third chapter my characters look a lot more like hers, than mine. When I reread it afterwards I was thinking: "Did I really write this? It doesn't sound like what I would say?" You see what I mean?
I can just give you a few tips about form. Already, before you start writing a series, you need to plan ahead! When I first though of writing about Pleasantview, I directly started with Chapter 1 without thinking about the rest. So the first chapter wasn't bad, but I think the two chapters that followed it, may have seemed a bit deconstructed. The reader needs to feel a logical progression in your story. You should know where your story is headed and how it ends. When I finished writing the first chapter of Pleasantview, I hardly knew more than you did, when you finished reading it… Well, that may be an exaggeration, but you get my point.
One thing, which I highly recommend, when making a chapter, is to read it without looking at the pictures. Try to see if you understand it. A lot of people forget the most important details when they write a story because it can be seen on the pictures, or because they think it's not worth mentioning. Remember the reader doesn't know your story at the start, so you'll need to introduce the characters and places that action is taking place with. Remember to write transitions between scenes! Tell the reader how much time had passed and where they are. Transitions don't need to be very complicated. Sometimes just a phrase will do: "That afternoon, they all met at Jenny's apartment to discuss the problem."
I also recommend that you don't write your story directly in the Sims 2 story mode program. Try writing it on a word document first. This has two beneficial aspects:
- You can read your story without the pictures and see if there is a logical progression and good transition
- The spell check feature will avoid spelling and typo mistakes, which I find very irritating in stories.
The downside of writing your story on an external document first, is that you will need to copy and paste your text into the story mode feature once you're done. I think it's worth it though. Remember that the text limit for an album is 1000 characters per picture, so remember to cut your story into small paragraphs to avoid going overboard (Word has a character counter if you want).
Remember, even the spell check feature can't avoid all mistakes, so read your story several times before uploading it. If you're writing a story about university students, remember to spell it college. Half the people I've seen spell it collage, which is a piece of art, but certainly not a university!
As you can see I have a lot to say on the subject. These are just a few general guidelines. Making a drama series is difficult so don't start one unless you're sure you're well equipped to do it. You'll need perseverance to continue the story for several chapters. I'm often disappointed to see good stories come to a halt because the writer has a short attention span. If you start something, finish it! If you think you're able to do all that, then great! Start writing!
Remember to write for yourself first. I know everyone, myself included, attaches importance to ratings we get for stories. For example, I was pretty disappointed to see that the first chapters of my original series were better rated than the ones that followed. I liked chapters 6, 7 and 8 a lot more, so it was frustrating, because I felt like I wasn't getting better. However, I realized that the important thing was for me to have more fun while making them, which I was. So it wasn't important if they were slightly under the previous ones, after that. Of course, we all hope to see our efforts praised, but don't get obsessed with ratings, because they can really spoil the fun. A four star rating, means people thought the story was good already. If you are proud of it, than not much else matters.
Finally, always be open to constructed criticism. Don't ask people to rate your stories high, or threaten not to write again if you don't get good feedback. This sounds childish, and often makes me close the story before even starting it. Tell people you're open-minded and that you're only trying to get better. Chances are, you'll get much more feedback. If someone tells you they didn't like something in your story, consider their opinion before responding rudely (trust me, I have had someone yell at me for telling her I didn't like something in her story…). Negative feedback isn't necessarily rude, and will often help you learn to get better.
I've been rambling on for a page and a half now so I'm going to finish up now. Just remember writing is a great talent to work on, if you take it seriously. Enjoy your writing, and others will enjoy it too!

Did you not find the answer to your question? You can always contact me through my guestbook of by E-mail (alexi035@hotmail.fr) if you want to ask anything else.