Video games help me write, seriously.

I love to write but I also love to play video games. I’m very good at procrastination. My game of choice is Sims 3. It helps me work out story problems. Yes it really does. I can put my Sims in situations and see how they react (when I have free will turned on). Plus just as with characters in a book, my Sims need Lifetime Wishes (or goals). On top of their Lifetime Wishes they have daily (smaller) wishes. The daily wishes usually help them get closer to the Lifetime Wish. If your Sims (or characters) don’t want anything you’re just moving them around aimlessly, with no purpose. Where’s the fun in that? Just like in stories the characters need to want something. They need a goal they’re trying to achieve.

The Sims 3 goals aren’t that hard. Some of the Lifetime Wishes can take a while which can make the game even more exciting. Especially with aging turned on. You always have that goal to get your Sim to their Lifetime Wish before they die of old age. And with each expansion pack you get more Lifetime Wishes to choose from. If you have the Supernatural expansion pack you also have different playable life states. My vampire and witch Sims have very different wishes than my regular Sims.

The problem with playing Sims 3 is it takes away a lot of writing time. I get caught up in my Sims lives, in achieving their goals, in uncovering new things in the game. Just like when I write my stories. I get caught up in my characters lives, in them achieving their goals, in uncovering new plot points I didn’t know about. Now that I have a shiny new expansion pack that took away most of my Saturday, I have to use play time as reward for getting the writing done. After all, I want to find out what happens to my characters but I also want to know what happens to my Sims.

Short blurb of my November release, Tempting Evil:

In Satisfaction Guaranteed a wannabe succubus meets her match for her last assignment: The college boyfriend who broke her heart. ~ In Scale Deep a reporter learns more than she bargained for when she discovers that dragons are real…and they walk among us. ~ In School Bites a woman bumps into her high school crush at a reunion. Curiously, he hasn’t aged a day in 15 years. When the bodies start turning up she finds out why.

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