The Sims 4: Writing Skill Guide
The Sims 4 writing skill is one of my favourite ways to make money in the sims because you can do it entirely from home. Your sim can write children’s books, screenplays, and even get to the point where they can write the book of life and be able to bring someone back to life with its power.
The best part about the writing skill in the sims 4 is that writing and selling books will give you daily royalties and you’ll make money each day at 10 am. You can even change the name of the books to really fit the mood you’re feeling and the story you’re telling.
Ideal Mood For The Writing Skill
Just like all other creative skills (i.e., painting or guitar) your sim is going to gain the skill the quickest when they are feeling inspired. If you need to get your sim inspired they can take a thoughtful shower to gain an inspired moodlet. You can also add a plumbob lamp to your writing room that gives off the inspired aura.
Traits That Help The Writing Skill
Creative
Since the ideal emotion for the creative skill is inspired, the creative trait is really a no-brainer. Creative sims get inspired moodlets more often and can really help your sim gain the skill and write better books.
Muser (Aspiration)
If your sim is developing their writing skill while also doing the Best Selling Author Aspiration they will be given the Muser trait. Musers will gain all types of creative skills much faster when they are feeling inspired so mixing this trait with the creative trait will be a great bonus to your writing.
Poetic
Poetic is a trait that is given once you finish the Best Selling Author Aspiration. This trait allows your sims to write The Book of Life which can help bring back a sim who has recently passed.
Perfectionist
The perfectionist skill is another good one for sims who are working on their writing. Perfectionists are more likely to craft high quality work, however, it will take them a lot longer to finish their books when they’re a perfectionist.
How to Learn The Writing Skill
The first way to learn the writing skill is to read books about writing that can be purchased on the computer or through the bookcase. However, it is important to note that reading books about skills will get your sim to gain them slower than if they were to just write a book or practice writing on the computer.
Your second option to learn the writing skill is to purchase a computer from build/buy mode and get your sim to either practice writing or actually start writing a book. Practice writing is a good way to gain the skill, but you can make a bit of money from royalties if you just jump right into writing books.
Writing Skill Levels
Writing Skill Level 1
When you first start out with the writing skill, you can only really write one type of book, Children’s Books! You can also practice writing to grow the skill, but you won’t be able to make any money off this, so it’s better to just write books.
Writing Skill Level 2
When you reach the 2nd level of the writing skill you unlock the ability to write sad books but these can only be written when you’re experiencing a sad emotion, so you can write them after someone dies or a bad holiday. You can also now self-publish your books so you can make money off of royalties.
Writing Skill Level 3
When your sim hits level 3 of the writing skill they can now discuss their favourite books/author with other sims allowing them to talk about their new found love of books. Your sim can also now write excuse notes for their children if they are missing school. You can also now write short stories any time, and motivational books when you are feeling confident, as well as playful books when you’re feeling playful.
Writing Skill Level 4
Your sim is now getting even better at writing books! Writing good books is way more possible at level 4. Your sim can now write poems, as well as send love emails to someone they are romantically involved with. They can even write romantic books when they are feeling flirty.
Writing Skill Level 5
Level 5 is an important part of the writing skill because you now have the ability to sell your books to a publisher which brings in much more money than self-publishing. You’re also given a new interaction where you can recite love poetry with someone you’re feeling love towards. You can also now write non-fiction books.
Writing Skill Level 6
At level 6 of the writing skill your sim could move to Hollywood! They are now officially available to write screenplays which can lead to some really interesting story lines.
Writing Skill Level 7
When your sim hits level 7 of the writing skill they are given a new interaction where they can enthuse about Iambic Pentameter. They are also now able to write fantasy books.
Writing Skill Level 8
At level 8 of the writing skill your sim can now write science fiction books.
Writing Skill Level 9
When your sim makes it to level 9 of the writing skill they can now write mystery books and also submit books to literary digest which they can only do once per week, but it can make a ton more money in royalties than selling to a publisher.
Writing Skill Level 10
When your sim finally maxes out the writing skill, they are now able to mentor other sims in their writing. Just click on a sim who is writing a book, and click mentor. This helps the writer gain the writing skill quicker. You can also start writing biography books!
If you’d rather gain the writing skill by cheating, you can start by typing in ctrl + alt + c and then typing in testingcheats true which will allow you to type in other cheat codes and make sure they work. Then you can type stats.set_skill_level major_writing X and fill the X section with whatever skill point level you want your sim to have.
Lot Traits That Help With The Writing Skill
Fast Internet
The in-game description states: A great online connection helps out those looking to improve their programming, video gaming, or writing skills.
The faster internet lot trait will give your sim a positive moodlet that will help to boost their inspired mood. It will also help them increase their writing skill a bit faster so they can write better books, quicker.
Home Studio
The in-game description states: The artsy vibe makes this a great place to be creative. Painting, Writing and Woodworking usually come out better quality.
Your sim will be putting out higher quality items much, much faster than if their home didn’t have the home studio lot trait so they can get the skill much quicker and make more money doing it.
Reward Traits That Help With The Writing Skill
The first traits that can help your sims gain skills quicker is the morning sim or night owl traits. These traits help your sims gain skills 25% faster.
The second trait your sim should grab from the reward store is the creative visionary trait. This trait gives your sims a higher probability of making high quality books and making more money.
The next trait your sim could grab from the reward store is the independent trait. This trait makes it so your social needs decay at half the usual rate, and since your sim will spend so much time at home by themselves this can be helpful.
Your sim could also grab the savant trait because it helps your sim increase their skill gains by 25%, if you grab this and morning sim and night owl, you’ll be able to gain skills 50% faster as the two stack on top of eachother.
And of course, you could save up all your satisfaction points and save up for the Never Weary reward trait so your sim never needs to sleep again, imagine how many books they could write if they never had to sleep!
Emotional Books
When your sim grows their writing skill to a certain point they can start writing emotional books. These are books that are only available to be written when they are feeling a certain type of way. For example, a sim can write a motivational book when they are feeling confident or a romance novel when they are feeling flirty.
Publishing Books and Royalties
Once your sim finishes a book, regardless of the book type, they can click on their mailbox to sell their book and make daily royalties. The first option is going to be self-publishing which will make you a little bit of money but won’t get you rich.
The next option that will become available is to sell your books to a publisher which will give you way more money than self publishing. And finally, you’ll be able to Submit a Book to Literary Digest once per week and it will give you way more money than the other options.
Note: save your literary digest submissions for the best quality books you can write as the better the quality the more money you’ll earn.
Your royalties are paid each day at 10 am and you can expect to see money coming from a book for over 10 sim days so there’s a lot of money to be made in writing books. You can publish as many books as you want at a single time (unlike writing music, where you can only license one song at a time).
The Book of Life
If you can manage to finish the Best Selling Author Aspiration, you’ll be nicely rewarded with the Poetic trait which gives you the amazing ability to write The Book of Life. This gives your sim the ability to write a book called the book of life and you can make that book stick with any sim that you have even the smallest relationship with.
When that sim happens to pass away, your writer can actually summon them to their home using The Book of Life and their ghost will appear on your home lot. You can them get them to join your household and if you get them to read the book about their life, they will come right back to life. Pretty cool, right?
Freelance Writing
In early 2019, the sims released a patch to the game that added a brand new type of career: freelancing! You can now make your sim a freelance writer, programmer, or artist and it’s an amazing way to make money from home.
To become a freelance writer, you will go to the choose a career page just like any other job and click freelancer. You’ll be given a pop-up that will let you choose which branch of freelancing you want to choose and you can choose Fighting Words for freelance writing.
Once you’ve joined the career you can use your sim’s phone or the career panel to choose a gig for your freelance writing. You’ll be given different gigs to choose from as you gain more of the writing skill and will be paid more money the further along you get.
You’ll have a certain amount of time to get your freelance writing gig done, but it is more than enough time to get the job done. You could probably finish more than one freelance writing job in a single day.
Freelance writing is a really awesome way to make money with your writing skill that isn’t just sitting and writing books!
Final Thoughts
The writing skill in the sims 4 is a really great option for making money as a sim if you want to work from home and your sim likes to be alone on a computer. It can be really great for geek sims, creative sims, and loner sims, and any kind of work from home parent who needs to raise their little mini-sims! Have you gotten to level 10 of the writing skill? Have you tried out the freelance writing career? Let me know in the comments.
