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Better Pre-Defined Story or No Story?

Jan 23, 2007

    1. For my two, I'm just letting them tell me what they're like. A few days ago the as then unnamed El told me that actually he wanted to be the dollform of a child from a roleplay I was in long ago. The kid never got past being a toddler, so he's got free reign to develop how he wants. So far he appears to have his father's narcissism :) The only backstory he has is of his parents~

      Ilye, though, I named before deciding how I wanted her to look. She's still developing, too, but so far she says she loves to wear white lolita style clothes and to cosplay :D
       
    2. Angela's being formed as we go along. She's my first doll, and I didn't know what to expect, so I didn't want to make a story for her.

      I'm sure one will come to me soon.
       
    3. I always have at least the basics of a character/personality in mind and usually a backstory. My first two dolls, I made up their story as I thought of it, but the rest of them all had long complicated pasts and were characters I thought of a while ago and wanted to bring into doll form. It seems like any more that I get will be following in that path, because I already have all the specifics for several more dolls figured out.
       
    4. Some came home already somewhat set, some created themselves. Kyo created himself for instance. Mike was set. Skye created himself after playing with wigs and eyes. Lily I tried to make back into a boy and she wouldn't have it. Raine is still a mystery. So for me, depends on the doll.
       
    5. I've never had any pre-ideas for my boys before i got them. Their characters formed themselves, and yeah, after time I did come up with a backstory for them, but that was after they let their personalities be known.
       
    6. I like the stories 'cause it helps me understand the sculpt and, while I don't usually follow the story to the letter, I do tend to consider it part of my girls' past.
       
    7. hmm, for me I actually had planned a story out for Ryohei before he came but I don't know why. When he finally arrived, he turned out to be kinda different from what I planned for him. But I think that was for the best. Cause I love him so much now. I guess you can say, I like to have a general idea of who they are but the dolls themselves give life to the story and their own special meaning to it.
      Like, if I take two different dolls and plan something exactly the same for them , it will still turn out unique and different, and special to them in a sense. I'm not sure if I make any sense >.<
       
    8. My dolls tend to define their stories when they arrive, but sometimes that's very quick.

      My i-elf Peaches screamed for her mother the second I opened her box. Now she is happily the daughter of my Dark Elf Leaf. As happy as a pouty little i-elf baby can be, at least. ;)

      And she picked out her father from a line-up, nearly. She said, quite distinctly, "Good Daddy" when I first saw Dollzone Wing, even though he had that big red sigil on his forehead. Columbanus actually fit right into his assigned slot, though I'm sure there's more to him than I know at the moment.

      Some people have characters picked out, who settle into their stories with no muss or fuss at all, and some people are disappointed in the match of doll & character.
      Some people freeform develop a character around a doll-body. Some find that said new character isn't someone they want to give house room to. -_-

      Fortunately, there's room for all different people and their different dolls in this hobby. :D

      Ann in CT
       
    9. None of my dolls have stories.. As they come, I just think of a personality on the spot, depending on its face. They just tend to develop on their own, really. I have enough papers to write, haha...
       
    10. I'm letting Aidan create himself. He's my first, and so far, he seems to enjoy playing video games and perching near wherever I am and watching me work. I feel it's best to just let his personality develop as we go. ^_^
       
    11. I thought it was easier to let the doll come to life when I got Daisuke, my Customhouse Bin. I just fell in love with the mould, and I just went with the flow (The name Dai stuck in my mind, and soon Daisuke)
      Though Bin is the only doll that I've desperate wanted just for the prettiness. I have two very precious roleplay characters of mine, and I originally wanted to find a body for him. I did, right around Valencia came out, so I winged it without owner pictures. Now I'm trying to get the other character, his girlfriend. ^^;; It took me about nine months to find a mould fitting for her... So I think it is definitely easier, but maybe not /better/, per say, to let a mould take on its own personality. x3
       
    12. Which is better, I can't tell you...lots of people work in different ways. Nowadays most of my stories are predefined, but when my DoD Si orginally arrived on my doorstep I had nothing precreated for him except for a vague sense of a serious nature and a love of books of all forms. When I had him in my hands I came up with the lamest possible story for him (he was a Korean exchange student who came to the US to explore it ^^; ), but later after I saw what other people were doing (sadly most of them don't post anymore) I realized that my resin pretty deserved something a lot more well thought out than a very shallow, silly story. Everything else spun out from him--and he is the reason I have as many dolls as I do ^^;

      Nowadays, most of the dolls I get I've already got a lot of them prescripted and unfortunately, I've also noticed a tendency of mine to get the wrong sculpt the first time around, but the second time seems to be a charm ^_^ I can't afford to do that anymore so now I am extremely picky about who I bring home.

      As for those occasional impulse purchases...

      (*cough*Loki*cough*)

      ...that's why my story and world is so broad and complex, I can find a place for just about anyone ^_^
       
    13. I need to live with them for awhile before they start "telling" me their story. I don't have preordained stories or ideas before they come. They just tell me when they get here.
      Nancy
       
    14. I like seeing when companies have stories for their dolls, to me that shows they put more thought into them. But when I start to put a personality to a certain doll, I ignore what the companies already have if it's there :P
       
    15. It depends. When my first doll came, I have no idea about his story, it was created *in process*. But now it's connected with the story of the next doll to come and I'm glad))
       
    16. This is really just a matter of personal preference.
       
    17. Both have their pros and cons. Emma didn't have a story when I got her, and I felt she needed a story since everyone else's dolls had one. So far, it's coming along ok, but I really had to push myself to start writing again. I'm never in the mood to write, even when I might feel that way earlier. Plus, I'm so guilty of creating mary-sues, as well as writing adult characters, that I was at a total loss of how to make Emma's character sound original, but not make her too much like a little adult (sometimes, her character gets too serious, which is my fault).

      Having a doll with a back story is good because you don't need to establish anything. Everything's all planned out for you, so to speak, and you don't need to start from scratch. It can be bad, too, because you may have set a rule for yourself where you're not going to pay more than $400 for an SD sculpt, but the perfect sculpt for the character you envision happens to be $700.

      I'm kind of going through both of these instances. Emma didn't have a character, but as I wrote, her brother started to develop. Her brother happens to have a much more advanced character than she started off with, and I do have some kind of picture in my mind of what I'd like him to look like. Unfortunately the *best* fit doll for him would be upwards of $600 - as well as a full-set - and I'm just not willing to pay that. But there are other dolls that fit the bill for him, too.
       
    18. I think to a certain extent that you should have back story. Knowing the way your doll grew up or if they have family or why they're scared of dolls can really help you develop complex and believable characters. It really helps me personally connect to them more closely than I would otherwise. That said, it's not NECESSARY, sometimes characters just invent themselves and you can't help it that you don't know why they are the way they are.

      There's no benifit or downside to having a character's life planned out for them like a story. Though I think that if you don't it becomes even more important to have a solid foundation so the characters can evolve and react naturally to unexpected things that pop up. I mostly do a blend of both these, knowing the general outline of where I want their story to go, but totally open to them being affected by other characters and events that may happen that I didn't plan. I'm even willing to rewrite what I may have had planned if it's needed, but try to stick to the outline :3

      Of course, this is all me coming from a mainly rp background with some personal writing. I don't have enough experience with dolls to speak strictly from that perspective.