Help with writing stories

[cynamar]

I have never before used the feature in the game to write stories (I don't upload to the exchange and I write my stories on my own fansite) and I tried it this week.  I enjoyed it because it was easy.  I'm not a writer by any means but I liked that it helped me to organize and keep up with my new Legacy family.  I did not upload the story.  The computer with the game on it is not online.  When I exited the game, though, and went back into it the story was gone and the pictures were not available to start over.  I learned later that I had deleted the story file.  I always delete caches and the web entries and that stuff and do a disk cleanup (so they are not in the recycle bin anymore) before I load the game.  The pictures from that story are still in the folder in the neighborhood folder i My Documents but they don't show up when I'm in the lot and trying to write a story.  Is there any way to make them useable again?  I don't want to upload a story but just to use this feature to make sort of an outline of the story so I can write it later.  Thank you!

[cynamar]

Can it maybe be done with SimPE?

[wawayaya]

Have you looked in your "The Sims2" > "Neighborhoods" file for your pictures?  Each folder in "Neighborhoods" corresponds to the ones in your game, in the order of what you see when you load the game.  The first three are the ones that come with the game and the ones after that are whatever ones you've created.

Anyway, let's say you have only created one new neighborhood and so look in the "N004" file, and locate the "Storytelling" folder there.  All your pictures should be sitting there, waiting for you.  

I don't know what the thumbnails are for; I just trash mine.  I then create a folder and drag the pics into it, then drag that folder to the desktop.  When I write, I do it in word, and select the "insert" from file option to put it in the document.  The word document basically looks just like uploaded stories, but of course can have more font options.  (I have 2 stories posted on the adult site.)  I haven't used any other features in the game, so I can't be of help there.  (Even though I have BV, none of my sims have made an album.)
 
You can also use these pictures as your desktop background, etc.

I hope this helps.

[cynamar]

The pictures are in the Storytelling folder in the Neighborhood folder in My Documents, but when I'm playing the house and click the book icon to write a story the pictures that I used to write a story before (when I deleted the file of the story because I didn't realize that was what it was) are not there and neither is the story.  There are three tabs to click in that mode.  These pictures don't show when I click any of the three of them anymore.  I want the pictures to show again so I can use them in a story.  I have SimPE if that's necessary.

I also trash the thumbnails except for the pictures that my Sims order prints of because I'm not sure whether the framed prints on their walls use the snapshot or the thumbnail.  I trash anything I don't think I need every time I exit the game--caches and web entries.  I do a disk cleanup every time and my computer is set to do a defrag at 1a.m. every day.  I used to move all of my snapshots to a separate folder outside the game but if I write a story I'll leave them there.