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Sim Checklist
This checklist is primarily to ensure a consistent standard of writing when submitting sims to the ship’s group. To use it, simply start at the top and work your way down, answering “Yes”, “No”, or “Does Not Apply” to each of the questions.
If the answer to any of the first six questions is “no”, then it might be worth getting someone to proofread it before you click send, or - if it’s really bad - consider starting again.
If you’ve answered “Yes” or “Does Not Apply”, then move on!
CONTENT CHECK
- Does the work hold up to your own personal standards of writing?
- Everyone writes to a different level - this checklist really only works if what you’ve written meets your own standards. If you think that your work isn’t meeting these standards, reflect on it and see what you can do to bring it up to the standard.
- If you don’t like it, then don’t send it. There’s nothing worse than putting out something that you’re not proud of. Chances are if you keep doing it, you’ll start feeling bad about it and that will only serve to tarnish your experience of the game.
- Most of the time, the answer to this question is going to be “Hopefully?” in which case you’re doing good. If you’re really ripping into someone and you’re worried that they’re either going to misconstrue your intentions as aggressive toward them as a writer, or going to seriously derail a plot, it’s probably best to check with someone first.
- Does it contribute any meaningful progression to the story?
- Posts that don’t really add anything to the story aren’t much fun for your fellow writers to build off of. If you’re struggling, reach out and get a second opinion. Whoever you ask might be able to give you a spark of inspiration that really propels the plot line forward into an exciting new area.
- Is there any/enough character development?
- This is only really important if you’re involved in a scene where there is scope for you to really work something into your character’s personality.
- Is there any/enough scenic development?
- Consider adding detail to the story that other writers can build on. For starters, only describing what your character is thinking and feeling is great as a starting point, but it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to world building. What does the place look/feel/smell like? A good bit of narration will describe all of this and help the rest of the readers feel the same immersion that you’re imagining.
- Does the work follow a suitably advanced narrative arc?
- Narrative arcs are tricky to get right in this style of writing, where you submit chunks of a story that someone else builds off of. The question here is more to do with overarching themes. If you’re building up to something, does this particular contribution add to the arc by ramping up the narrative pace, or slow it down so that you can continue building it up in another direction? For this point to really make an impact, consider the scene in its entirety. Does it have an obvious destination, or is it something that is building on events that have happened between other writers in different scenes? In either respect, unresolved arcs often leave readers feeling unsatisfied.
- Have you deleted all the thoughts of the previously focused character?
- Unless your character is a Telepath then this step is pretty important.
- Have you deleted and replaced all the narrative pertaining to the previous character?
- Your point of view isn’t necessarily going to be the same as the character that your sim is following. Did you notice something different? Have your experiences made you privy to information they might not know?
TECHNICAL CHECK
- Is the narrative in third person?
- Spell check!
- Grammar check!
- Make sure that your sentence structure makes sense!
- Be sure to break your narrative into paragraphs for improved readability!
SB118 SPECIFIC CHECK
- Bolds?
- Italics?
- Commbadge marks?
- Thought bubble marks?
FINAL CHECK
- Change your draft sim title!
- Many of us use a draft title before coming up with a more concrete version. You don’t want to send something that bears an irrelevant title to the now completed work.
- This is only included as a way of showing that this particular contribution to the scene has concluded. Others may use ((TBC)).
- Important to include on every submission to the group so that work is attributed correctly to you as a writer.
- Timestamp (For accuracy with sim tracker)
- Not 100% necessary. Helpful if your Captain is in the Far East, and you’re on the West Coast USA, submitting close to a change of day/month.
- SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE
- If writing in a word processor.
- BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP
- Always back things up. Nobody likes a broken hard disk.
- Check your send address! Sims sent to the OOC address aren’t much good to anyone!
- Nothing is more satisfying than submitting something you’ve crafted with such enthusiasm. Now it’s time to sit back and enjoy the reaction your fellow writers have to your work! Who knows what they might throw back at you!
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