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A story for a doll or a doll for the story?

Sep 30, 2020

    1. Most of my dolls don't belong to any specific world/storyline at all, only three or four are physical representations of original characters of mine, the vast majority, I only got because they're pretty. They got a name and a basic personality (e.g. one "prefers" Goth style clothing, the other one's more into frilly, lacy dresses, the third's more of a tomboy, etc.) but that's it in most cases. For me, writing and the doll hobby are two completely separate hobbies that may touch briefly here and there (like - right now I'm totally into the Resident Evil movies and fanfics, and I'm also working on my "Resident Evil Crew", currently consisting of Alice, Claire and Nicholai) but that's about it.
       
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    2. I have found that no matter what my plans are, a large number of my dolls have completely wrecked them when they came home. They tend to develop personalities and write their own stories over time, which is both delightful and irritating at the same time.
       
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    3. A major point that got me into the hobby in the first place was giving my OCs a physical form (as well as a few favorite existing characters). I'd been developing this idea for a story in my downtime while working towards a graphic design degree, and the OCs from it just took on a life of their own. When I got back into the hobby, it became an outlet to further explore them.

      There have been a few hiccups here and there. Sometimes a sculpt eventually no longer works for that character, and a few of my crew have evolved and changed as their characters have grown. I've never found it frustrating to the point where it became burdensome though; I'm a bit persistent and stubborn—even if a particular sculpt isn't working in that moment, there will eventually be one that will be perfect.

      As for the story created for the bjd concept—I've got a couple of those as well. The Lumedoll Atik I have doesn't have a preexisting OC for him—I just kind of gave him a name and a backstory after I got him.

      My minifee Mika is kind of a weird blend of both concepts really. I strangely had my heart set on getting her, but didn't have an exact character idea when I purchased her. I actually had a couple character ideas popping around in my head for options while I waited for her arrival, until I revisited an OC I'd loosely developed several years back—which she ended up becoming in the end. In her case, the idea was pre-existent, but the character herself has developed along with the doll. :kitty2
       
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    4. Many authors find their book characters do the same. Arthur Ransome used to refer to it as being "Nancy Blacketted", since Captain Nancy was the character most guilty of doing it to him.

      Teddy
       
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    5. I can relate. The few times I've tried to write the characters end up becoming someone different that what I originally intended for their story to go. lol
       
    6. Typically, character comes first. I get attached to characters, not dolls, so a doll I think is pretty won’t be loved around here. In fact, I have to feel attached to the character for awhile before I even think about shelling the character. I agree that shelling a character from a book or movie or something would be entirely too limiting but mine are RP characters who grow and change over time, so those feel limitless to me.
       
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    7. I’ve certainly done both. But even when I fall in love with a doll at first sight, I won’t allow myself to push that buy button until I have a character in mind for them. Fortunately characters come that quickly for me: it’s like oh, who are you? And within the day, they start telling me...and I won’t buy them unless they do. I’m very story driven, so that's just how it works around here. I’ve only had one doll in the past 14 years in this hobby who arbitrarily changed his character after arrival...and it came as a tremendous shock! But fortunately I loved the new character and it stuck, so he’s still here. Certainly most of my dolls have come from pre-existing characters, which can have it’s own pitfalls...one took an entire decade to shell!
       
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    8. An interesting topic. I think it depends for me. Sometimes I write a story around a character/doll or I use a story to develop a character/doll. It juet depends on if I find a doll I just have to have or I imagine a character before finding 'The' doll.

      It is irritating when that happens. In the past I planned a character as confident and chatty and somehow as I wrote her backstory she became quiet and shy! But I love how easy it is when it seemingly writes itself as it takes any problems away.

      I am exactly the same. When I look at doll pictures online or sculpts and I think 'so pretty' I need to have a basic character idea as otherwise I just know that I won't do anything with them.
      I think I will never do a popular/known character from a book or movie as I want them to be my original ideas. I may use an existing character as inspiration or as a starting point but in the end they will be someone different.
       
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    9. My very first doll (an MSD) was bought to be an embodiment of an imaginary friend (the "spirit" of a tree in the yard of my parents' home that they were going to cut down that year, though thankfully the tree remains standing). My next dolls were purchased in an attempt to expand his world/create a story for him, though it was largely unsuccessful. The only other doll that size from that initial group that I really bonded with was one I realized resembled another imaginary friend from when I was a child. I suppose, in a sense, one could say that I "shelled" those OCs, but I never really had a set look for them and instead just felt their personality and, well, "spirit" was well represented by that particular doll.

      I've gotten several other secondhand MSDs that seemed to have a character spark in them as writing prompts of sorts and tried repeatedly to create a world and a story for them (I've never been good at drawing, so this seemed a neat way of envisioning characters and gleaning character traits from the quirks of the dolls). I had lots of ideas, just...nothing stuck. I liked the dolls themselves, and I am grateful for the enjoyment I got from them, but I ultimately ended up passing them along to a very creative friend of mine in the hopes that they will spur her creativity and just kept my two "imaginary friend" dolls because they are the ones I have a close emotional connection with even if they don't have very in-depth characters or stories. They're more comfort objects than anything, but they ignite my creativity every once in a while.

      I also kept my fantasy tinies, and while I have ideas for stories and characters for them every once in a while, I don't feel as pressured to have things solidified for them as I did with the humanoid MSDs. They can just look cute and remind me to approach the world with a sense of wonder.

      Maybe one day I will finally achieve one and/or the other: shelling a full-bodied, well-rounded OC or else creating a decent story based on a doll or a group of dolls. In the meantime, I don't really mind that neither method has worked for me so far and still find the hobby quite enjoyable.
       
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    10. A little of both, though I mostly like making ocs out of my dolls instead of the other way around. I try not to look to shell my ocs because that's a really frustrating process, the only times I look at dolls for pre-existing OCs is if I happen to find a doll that already fits the character. Like for one of my dolls, I couldn't get them out of my head once I saw them because they fit one of my favorite characters so perfectly and down to such specific detail. I think I would have gone insane if I was trying to look to shell that character but since I just sort of let it happen, it was nice surprise. I do have a couple dolls on my list that will shell some characters that are important to me, but the first and foremost thing is that I love the sculpt- even if it doesn't exactly exactly match my character. Conversely, I've found dolls that match my characters well that I just don't love enough to buy.

      I also tend to consider my dolls a separate cannon from the story that I'm writing, so if it's not absolutely perfect that's fine with me.
       
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