Sims 3 Writer's Workshop

A guide to a successful career as a self-employed writer with The Sims 3: Ambitions Expansion Pack.

Writing in The Sims 3

The Writing skill is part of the basic game, but the Ambitions expansion pack made it possible to write as a "job" rather than as a hobby. The skill itself is relatively simple to develop. Sit down at any computer, select "Writing," and then choose what you want to do (either refine the skill or write something). The more you write, the faster your skill will develop. Like most other skills, you start with no skill and can work your way up through ten levels to master the craft. All it takes is a computer, time, persistence, and a high boredom threshold on your part (staring a screen to watch a Sim stare at a screen and click a keyboard is about as exciting as watching paint dry).

I'm lying a bit on the no starting skill claim because Toddlers can boost their starting Writing skill by having books read to them. "Frank I'm Not," "Bluish Eggs with a Side of Pastrami," and "Oh, the Destinations You'll Briefly Visit" will each add to the Sim's starting skill, up to the maximum of Level 3. Taking a class in Writing at the Corporation offices will start your Sim at Level 1 or add one level to your existing skill level.

I'm not a big fan of the "Refine Writing" activity. It will develop the writing skill a bit faster than writing books, but it generates no money and even Flops will net you a few Simoleons. Don't get me wrong; I have my Sims do it in order to level up their writing to Level 2 or Level 3 before starting on the real writing tasks, but if you're doing it for the money, don't bother. If you're doing it to fulfill the "Learn the Writing Skill" wish, go for it. In the long run, those LTR points are worth more than the Simoleons anyway.

Traits and Genres

A few traits will make it easier to develop the Writing skill:

• Bookworm: the more books you read, the better your writing will be. As your school teachers probably told you, "good readers aren't always good writers, but good writers are always good readers" (and if they didn't tell you that, they should have).
  
• Artisitic: helps the Writing skill develop faster
  
• Perfectionist: makes it take longer to finish a book, but the final quality is better

A few other traits make it easier to pursue writing as a career.

Useful Career Traits

• Loner: cuts down on the need for socialization
  
• Hates the Outdoors (requires Seasons): eliminates the "Stir Crazy" moodlet from staying in the house for too long
  
• Computer Whiz: reduces the rate at which writing causes the Fun need to decay (you're on a computer, remember?)
  
• Couch Potato: doubles the "Comfy" mood boost
  
• Neurotic: the "Freak Out" interaction gives you several hours of stress-free writing

Each level of the Writing skill that you develop will unlock a particular genre, with some genres opening earlier for Sims with particular traits, but any Sim can write Fiction and Non-Fiction from the outset.

Genre-Opening Traits

• Computer Whiz: opens Science Fiction from the start
  
• Brooding (requires Supernatural): opens Poetry from the start
  
• Supernatural Fan (requires Supernatural): opens Horror at Level 2 rather than Level 4
  
• Good Sense of Humor: opens Humor at Level 2 rather than Level 5
  
• Avant Garde (requires University Life): opens Poetry at Level 2 rather than Level 7
  
• Avant Garde (requires University Life): opens Satire at Level 4
  
• Hopeless Romantic: opens Romance at Level 5 rather than Level 10

In addition to traits that open genres earlier (and work as complements in those genres), certain traits will also boost the quality of your writing in certain genres, making it more likely that you'll score Hits and Best Sellers.

Genre-Boosting Traits

• Genius: Science Fiction and Mystery
  
• Flirty: Trashy
  
• Commitment Issues: Drama
  
• Diva: Drama
  
• Childish: Children's
  
• Family-Oriented: Children's
  
• Athletic: Sports
  
• Loser: Humor
  
• Inappropriate: Humor
  
• Mean-Spirited: Humor
  
• No Sense of Humor: Historical (also available upon reaching the Elder life state)

Certain genres are not available until you have written a certain number of books in other genres. You can think of these as being bonus genres (or you can think of them as the grinding that they are).

Bonus Genres

• Fantasy: write 3 Science Fiction books
  
• Autobiography: write 3 Biographies
  
• Satire: write 3 Humor books
  
• Masterpiece: write 25 books (any genre or combination of genres)
  
• Vaudeville: write 2 Science Fiction, 2 Humor, 2 Mystery, and 2 Romance (Level 10 required)

Some genres are dependent upon your having reached a certain point in a particular career field or in a different skill.

Career-Based Genres

• Comics: reach Level 1 in Painting or Street Art AND Level 1 in Writing
  
• Sports: reach Level 3 of the Sports Agent career
  
• Article: Level 3 in the Journalism career
  
• Children's: reach Level 4 in the Painting skill AND Level 3 in Writing
  
• Political Memoir: opens via an opportunity in the Political career
  
• Life Story: reach the top of any career field

Show me the Benjamins!

OK, all of that trait and career stuff aside, many potential writers are going to be interested in the paycheck. Since we're not dealing with the Journalism career and its steady paycheck, we need to think about where the money is. Most of the genres are only going to be of interest to people who are having their Sims write as a hobby or for role playing purposes. Those who are interested in writing as a career choice need to think about the money.

First, on a profit-per-page basis, Sports books are the only way to go. They're short (so you can crank out a couple per day), don't require high skill levels in Writing (Level 3 normally or Level 0 with the Athletic trait), and they pay better than anything else on a per-page basis. Basically, you're talking about the difference between lots of small royalty payments versus a few big ones and quantity wins in this case. Comics are a close second in my mind, but only because they require an additional skill, but based on length and potential quantity, Comics pay slightly better than Sports. Both of these genres are only available with University Life (see my guide on UL for the inside scoop on campus life).

Poetry, Romance, Masterpiece, and Vaudeville are the top four regular earners, take anywhere from four to sixteen times as long to write as Sports books, and even the best (Masterpiece) pays only two-thirds as much on a per-page basis. Poety is semi-borked as a genre as it doesn't work quite right without having Supernatural installed.

All of this is not to even imply that the other genres should be ignored, because a comfortable living can be made in any of them, but just that Sports and Comics win on an income-to-effort basis. If you want to take an afternoon off from writing Sports books, for example, your potential weekly royalty payment will drop a little because you produced one book less than you could have. But if you take an afternoon off from writing your Masterpiece, your income is still zero because you won't get paid until that monster is finished.

For example, one of my writer Sims made a career out of Science Fiction,one of the lower-paying genres. He cranked out about one novel per day, took the "Acclaimed Author" Lifetime Reward at some point, met all three writing challenges, and was eventually pulling down around $10K to $15 per week, depending on how many Best Sellers popped. That's significantly better than the paycheck for "World Renowned Surgeon," but there isn't much of a retirement package to go with it.

We Don' Need No Stinkin' Genres

Unless you're concerned about the royalty payments, you really don't need to know much about the genres aside from when they become available and how long they take to produce. Since I'm too lazy to run repeated trials on each genre to come up with consistent averages, I'm going to go with a 1-5 scale with 1 being the lowest-paying (this is liberally cribbed from the in-game stats on the Skills tab) and the Writing skill level required to produce them. As a general rule, the basic writing skill (no speed modifiers for meeting challenges) will allow a Sim to write about 150 pages per day before their needs deteriorate to the point where they have to stop to take care of them. I will deal with quality modifiers in later sections.

Genre	Writing Level	Pay (1-5)	Length	Days	Notes
Non-Fiction	0	1	90	<1
Fiction	0	1	90	<1
Science Fiction	1	1	150	1
Fantasy	1	3	440	3	write 3 Science Fiction novels to unlock
Comics	1	1	61	<1	University Life; requires Level 1 Painting or Street Art
Trashy	2	1	190	<2
Drama	3	2	305	2
Children's	3	1	105	1	requires Level 4 Painting skill
Sports	3	3	125	<1	University Life
Horror	4	2	400	2-3	Supernatural; Supernatural Skeptic cannot write
Humor	5	2	345	2-3
Satire	5	3	350	2	write 3 Humor books to unlock
Historical	6	3	505	3
Poetry	7	3	400	3	flaky without Supernatural
Mystery	8	3	510	3-4
Romance	10	4	675	4-5
Vaudeville	10	4	1250	8	write 2 each of Science Fiction, Drama, Humor, Mystery, and Romance to unlock
Biography	*	3	400	3	unlock with a Writing skill opportunity
Auto-Biography	*	3	400	3	write 3 Biographies to unlock
Article	*	1	79	1	Level 3 in Journalism career to unlock; can be either a story or a review
Masterpiece	*	5	2000	13	write 25 books to unlock
Life Story	*	3	400	3	unlocks at top level of career track
Political Memoir	*	3	400	3	unlocks via opportunity in the Political career track

Writing Quality Modifiers - Traits

As you might expect, there is a world of difference between being able to write and being able to write well and this difference shows up in the amount of royalties your writer receives after completing each book. Higher quality books yield higher payouts because your chances of producing a Hit or a Best-Seller are better. There are about three categories of things that will affect the quality of your Sim's writing, so let's take a loot at them individually

Thing About Your Sim

As discussed in the opening sections, your Sim's traits can make a world of difference. If you are planning for a writer, then your best bets for traits are

• Loner
  
• Bookworm
  
• Computer Whiz
  
• Perfectionist
  
• Artistic

If you want to swap out, a few useful standbys

• Neurotic (Freak Out to eliminate stress for several hours)
  
• Couch Potato (double the mood boost from sitting in a Comfy chair)
  
• Can't Stand the Outdoors (requires Seasons, but prevents the Stir Crazy moodlet)
  
• Athletic (boosts Sports book quality if University Life is installed)
  
• Hopeless Romantic (boost Romance book quality)
  
• Green Thumb or Insane (talk to plants or talk to self to fulfill social needs)

Lifetime Rewards

There is only one Lifetime Reward that is aimed at writers: Acclaimed Author (30,000 LTR points), but it will boost the amount of royalties your Sim receives. There are a few other that aren't career-specific, but can be helpful:

• Steel Bladder (10,000 points) - never have to go pee again
  
• Dirt Defiant (15,000 points) - cuts the Hygiene decay rate by 75% - the Squeaky Clean moodlet will last for 28 hours rather than its normal 7
  
• Hardly Hungry (25,000 points) - cuts the Hunger decay rate by 75%
  
• Moodlet Manager (60,000 points) - lets you remove negative moodlets, some of which will completely refill needs bars when they are removed
  
• Carefree (20,000 points; requires World Adventures) - fills your Fun need 25% faster

Writing Quality Modifiers - Environment

The environment in which your Sim is writing also plays a role in the quality of the books that they produce because the environment affects your Sim's mood. Maintaining a high mood is the best way to consistently produce Hits and Best Sellers.

The Lot

Writing on a lot that generates the "Beautiful Vista" moodlet can give up to a +40 mood boost as long as the Sim is on the lot. The problem with this is that the lot must be created with that characteristic built in, but almost all beach-front lots and houses have it, as do most lots and houses that are on top of hills. When you get a lot with this characteristic, make sure that your Sim is writing in a room that has windows so they can take advantage of it.

The Room

It can be difficult to do at the beginning of a game when money is tight, but making sure that your Sim's office is decorated will boost their mood as long as they are in that room. "Decorated" (+10), "Nicely Decorated" (+25), and "Beautifully Decorated" (+40) are achieved by buying plants, statues, and paintings, and using furniture that give bonuses to environment.

As soon as possible, spend the money on buying a chair that gives the "Comfy" moodlet (from +5 to +40, depending on the object) since their fanny is going to be parked in it for several hours each day.

A stereo will give a +10 moodlet if it is in the same room and turned on, but that can go up to +30 or +40 if it is set to play your Sim's favorite music genre. Better quality speakers give a larger boost, so don't be afraid to start cheap and replace it with better quality over time.

A working fireplace can give the "Cozy Fire" moodlet (+5 to +15), but they have a tendency to set the room on fire unless you have taken the Fireproof Homestead LTR or added an upgrade through Handiness. You can get much the same effect without the fire hazard by having a Flame Fruit in your personal inventory (requires World Adventures).

Other Boosters

Completely filling the Fun meter will produce the "Having a Blast" moodlet (+40), which lasts for 8 hours or so before deteriorating to "Entertained" (+25), which will last for an additional 6 hours.

The "Squeaky Clean" moodlet (+10) will last for 7 hours or so after taking a shower/bath in a good quality shower or tub. A high quality shower will also give the 4-hour "Exhilerating Shower" (+20) moodlet. If you are in a house without a shower, buy Duckworth of Bathington at the grocery store. Bathing with it gives a +15 "Duck Time" moodlet that lasts for several hours (double the bonus if combined with Bubble Bath, also purchased from the grocery store).

Eating a Perfect quality meal provides the "Amazing Meal" moodlet (+40) that lasts for 8 hours. Eating Ambrosia (which can only be prepared by a Level 10 cook and requires some hard to get ingredients) provides the "Divine Meal" moodlet (+75) that lasts for a full week.

Using a washer and dryer to do laundry will produce the "Fresh Clothing" (+15) or "Very Fresh Clothing" (+25) moodlet each time a Sim changes outfits. Both moodlets last for 16 hours. The amount of the boost depends on the quality of the washer and dryer, but the boost works for 2 days after doing laundry.

A Fairy (requires Supernatural) broadcasting an Aura of Creativity will boost the quality of your Sim's writing, but it's easier if your Sim is the Fairy doing it. It requires Level 2 in Fairy Magic to use, but just turn it on before you sit down to start writing and it will keep going until the Sim's magic supply is depleted (which generates a negative moodlet and takes 8 hours to refill). If you want to use a different Sim to generate the aura, set them to doing something time-consuming (like a large painting) nearby.

Elixirs, like the Vial of Bliss (Level 1 Alchemy) or Vial of Potent Bliss (Level 4 Alchemy), both requiring Supernatural, can fill the Fun need. Invigorating Elixir (Level 1 Alchemy) and Potent Invigorating Elixir (Level 6 Alchemy) can fill and hold the Energy need for several hours or a full day, depending, in addition to giving an "Invigorated" moodlet.

There are a few others out there that can be mixed and matched as you see fit, but those are the ones that come to mind first.

Specializing

With all of that information in hand (or in mind, as the case may be), it's time to look at a one other issue before we start cranking out books. More specifically, the Writing challenge for Specialist Writer can be a problem if it's not approached methodically.

On its surface it's a simple enough challenge: write 5 books in a single genre. Simple, only not really. If your Sim specialized in Non-Fiction, then they change specializations by writing more books in the new genre than they wrote on the old one. This means that if your Sim wrote a dozen Non-Fiction books, a new specialization happens when they write thirteen in another genre. That's a lot of writing. So we take advantage of one odd tidbit that the developers implemented, but didn't really document: ranking. The game gives slightly different weight to each genre when trying to decide what to do in case there is a tie in the number of books written in different genres, so five books written in one genre can count for more than five books written in another one.

The ranking order goes like this (higher numbers win ties):

1. Trashy
   
2. Drama
   
3. Science Fiction
   
4. Fantasy
   
5. Humor
   
6. Satire
   
7. Mystery
   
8. Romance
   
9. Historical
   
10. Children's (may actually require six books to change the specialization)
    
11. Vaudeville
    
12. Biography
    
13. Article
    
14. Autobiography
    
15. Masterpiece
    
16. Political Memoir
    
17. Life Story
    
18. Fiction
    
19. Non-fiction
    
20. Poetry
    
21. Horror
    
22. Sports
    
23. Comic

The goal is to complete the Prolific Writer challenge (write 20 books) as quickly as possible so that your Sim will be able to make a bit more money by focusing on the more profitable genres, gaining more profit for their efforts. In order to accomplish this, we don't want to write more than five books in any one genre before completing that challenge. Note that Fiction and Non-Fiction, the two starting genres, are rather high on the list while Science Fiction is low on the list, but it isn't available until your Sim has achieved Level 1 in Writing. This is where "Refine Writing" or maybe spending the 400 Simoleons for the Writing class might come in handy in order to quickly get that one level of skill.

We start by writing four books in each of Science Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Fiction, which pretty much exhausts the genres that can be completed in a few hours. By this point, our Sim's Writing skill should be around Level 7 or 8, so most other genres are open. But at this point, choose one of the following:

• go back and write one additional book in those three genres and then write five Sports books (the challenge will complete after the last Sports book AND our Sim will be specialized in that genre).
  
• write four Trashy books, and then start cranking out the Sports books (the challenge will complete after the fourth Sports book and specialization will happen on the fifth)
  
• write four Trashy books and four Sports books (completing the challenge, but not specializing), and then start cranking out your preferred genre where you'll specialize on the fifth book.

By this point, your Sim should be at Level 10 in Writing with a fairly steady stream of royalties coming in and you probably completed the Prolific Writer challenge in the process. If your Sim has the Hopeless Romantic trait, Romances are probably your best bet as you get an automatic boost to their quality from the trait in addition to the income bonus from Prolific Writer. Completing the fifth or sixth one (depending on your choice above) nets you the quality bonus from specializing. Between those bonuses, cranking out two or three Hits/Best Sellers per week will pretty much guarantee you a very comfortable income.

Putting it all Together

Probably the key to being a successful writer is to establish a daily routine on the days your Sim will be writing.

Get a full night's sleep, use the bathroom, shower, and eat before sitting down to write. The positive moodlets from "Well Rested," "Squeaky Clean," "Exhilerating Shower" (or the +15 "Duck Time" if you buy the Duckworth of Bathington at the grocery store and bathe instead of shower) and the "Great Meal" will last for most of the day.

If your Sim has the Bookworm trait, make sure that they read at least one book per day (recipes count, believe it or not). I try to do this before having them sit down to write as it can fill their Fun need pretty quick, but have also had them do it after finishing for the day and do something else for Fun before they start writing. The point is to have the Fun meter filled when they sit down in order to get the "Having a Blast" moodlet. If the stress level gets too high, stop writing and go do something to fill the Fun meter; the negative moodlet affects the quality of your writing. If your Sim is Neurotic, stop writing for a couple of minutes in order to Freak Out (find your happy place) and then go back to it.

About the only need that doesn't get addressed in here is the social need. Since there isn't a bonus for having that meter full, send them out to socialize after finishing for the day.

If your Sim's mood ever drops out of the top part of the meter, stop writing and go fix whatever is affecting their mood.

If you have done everything suggested thus far, your Sim should be showing as "Elated" when they sit down to write. Toss in the bonuses from decorations, the lot, music, and other environmental aids and the writer should be in an almost permanently good mood while they are working. This will produce an almost unbroken string of Hits and Best Sellers (which means money in the bank in addition to the usual fame and glory).

The Proof is in the Pudding

Meet Elise Cotton, a generic Sim that I cranked out to run this little test. She is a Young Adult living in Hidden Springs (a Store world). Her Traits are Bookworm, Hates the Outdoors, Computer Whiz, Artisitc, and Hopeless Romantic.

I plopped her down in a 1BR cabin in the woods with the usual basic amenities (bed, dresser, toilet, bathtub, stove, refrigerator, trash can, one cheap bookcase, and a table and chair for meals and workspace). Zero decorations and I even sold off all of the plants on the lot (mainly so that I would have enough to buy her a cheap laptop at the start). As money came in, I upgraded the stove and refrigerator in order to avoid the bad moodlets coming from food produced by the cheap stove and refrigerator, but added a stereo, curtains, rugs, paintings, houseplants, and that kind of thing as she could afford them.

I did not get beyond the "Nicely Decorated" stage before she had maxed the Writing skill, completed all three challenges, and had a weekly income in excess of $13K. The whole run took 15 game days. It would have been shorter, but I let her slack off for a day when a late writing session threw off her sleep time. Nothing blew up, but the toilet clogged once and a buglar stole her toilet on the first night, so we had to replace it.

She read about 1 book per day, did the usual socializing, and picked up a couple of lovers in her off time, so I wasn't being a total slave driver with her, although I was pretty single-minded about seeing how quickly it could be completed.

Day	Skill	Books	Advances	Royalties
1	0	NonFiction	40	28
2	1	NonFiction**	45	67
3	3	NonFiction* / NonFiction*	40 / 45	68 / 56
4	5	Fiction* / Fiction	40 / 40	58 / 57
5	6	Fiction Fiction** / Sports*	40 / 40 / 55	56 / 103 / 540
6	6	Sports / Sports** / Sports	50 / 50 / 70	329 / 508 / 702
7	7	ScienceFiction* / ScienceFiction*	75 / 70	160 / 179
8	7	ScienceFiction** / ScienceFiction**	70 / 70	241 / 259
9	8	Romance (started)	118
10	8	Romance	177	2055
11	8	Romance*	355	2426
12	9	Romance*	360	2825
13	10
14	10	Romance*	350	2877
15	10	Romance**	350	3718

* Hit
** Best Seller

She completed the Prolific Writer (20 books) on Day 14, and completed Speed Writer ($30K in royalties) and Specialist Writer (5 books in the same genre) on Day 15. Generally speaking, writing speed goes up with the skill level (note the differences between Day 1 and Day 4) and that first Romance book took almost two full days to write, while the last one was completed in a bit more than 8 hours after completing the Speed Writer challenge (her royalty check showed up just before the first advance and it was enoug to push her over the $30K mark). I'll keep messing around with her just to see how much steady income she can generate, but cranking out three or four Romance books per week (figuring about $3K each) means her income would steady to something in the $56K to $72K per week range in about 5 or 6 more weeks.

[CountBubbleRat]

@marstinson I'm sure you're right and I just didn't notice.
Although I did notice that my sim has written several Sports genre books, without any athletic skill or any experience in a sports related career. I believe she knew fishing, street art, cooking, and writing skills.

[marstinson]

@CountBubbleRat : you don't need a child to unlock but you do need the skills. Being Childish heps with royalties, but I don't recall it unlocking the genre the way Romantic will unlock the Romance genre early or Computer Whiz will unlock Sci-Fi. Since it's a radial menu, though, it's quite possible that it was there and you just didn't notice it. If you're sure it wasn't there, then I'm at a loss.

[CountBubbleRat]

I think to write Children's books you also need to have a child? My sim had level 10 painting and level 10 writing, without having this option (as far as I noticed), but then one day she went into the time machine and came out with a child, and I've just checked and she can now write Children's books.

But I'm not certain whether I just didn't notice before the child came along.

[Dr. Swift]

"Computer Whiz: reduces the rate at which writing causes the Fun need to decay (you're on a computer, remember?)"

There is no proof anywhere on any Sims 3 site supporting this claim.

[Mr. Fictitious]

Minor note: Hates the Outdoors doesn't require Seasons. I've had it since the start. You might be confusing it with Loves the Heat and Loves the Cold, since those require Seasons.

[TruebornJester]

Thanks for the guide. Perfect for what i am after.

[Norard]

According to the Wiki, Neurotic boosts the Fantsy genre. I'm going to test that & see if it's true.

[BIALaF]

@marstinson well you did a good job of it!

[marstinson]

@ashtrainer27: you're welcome. This was precisely why I wrote it. Happy Simming!

[BIALaF]

I've been wanting to make an author sim for a while but I was horrible at it, this helped so much. Thanks!!!