Ever feel like abandoning your stories?

I feel like abandoning my stories all the time, which is exactly why I don't want to make dolls of my characters! I want a doll to have exactly enough backstory to give context to looks & photo shoots, and no more. Makes for more versatility and freedom. And if the slim backstory I came up with doesn't suit my goals anymore, I have no problem changing it (I've had my Unoa, Charlie, for 2 years and I've already retconned several things about her, haha.)

 

I'm almost the exact same way. I only really have one doll that I have a real story with because he's my D&D Character that I've had for years. I started out having stories for all my dolls, but as time went on, it became a little frustrating because sometimes I'd just want to switch things up! I, too, have just enough backstory/character design to make them their each character, but not enough to write a full story about. It makes is so much easier to change things if the mood strikes.

That, and they're all more or less "one-offs" in that each doll has their own thing going on so I don't have to worry about shelling a bunch of OCs. Some of my current dolls have connections to each other, but nothing like, "Oh I have to make them work perfectly together."

 

I often feel like abandoning stories as I'm writing them. I've learned to embrace it and just put things on the backburner, and years later I'll re-read out of curiosity and rediscover my love for the universe I've created. But we're talking about dolls here, so let's see...

I do have inspiration photos, mostly of dolls, for my novel characters but I don't think I'd be able to stomach having those characters who are already very vivid in my mind in an actual, physical form in front of me. I've had a devil of a time trying to find one that suits my main character, and while I did eventually find one recently, I know I wouldn't be able to stand having a doll of him. I'd be far too picky about how he looks and the clothes he wears and even what his nude body looks like (something he's extremely scandalized to discover I've put thought into), and I feel like that's unfair to the man I've grown to love as a treasured (imaginary) friend.

So instead, I have dolls that are 'character sketches'. Just vague, ephemeral ideas of what the character should be, but nothing concrete in terms of their looks and style. I'm blessed with a creative process that allows me to fill in the blanks later, and often times they'll fill themselves in when I'm just going about my day. Atropa, my pocket fairy, is the only one who has had a concrete sculpt and style picked out before I ever purchased the doll - she's been with me for twenty years now, and her doll for less than 5. I'm still working on styling her to look exactly the way she wants to look, but she's actually changed personality several times over the years, from a stoic coldness to more of a blunt but charming person, and now she's somewhere in the middle.

Teasel was a complete accident. He never existed until I saw the doll, and all of a sudden this spunky little guy was born and running amok like he owned my cerebral cortex. I imagine in several years time he might change a bit too, but at the moment I'm still learning who he is. He's still learning who he is, so we're in it together, I suppose.

In terms of the story of these two, though... the world around the characters is changing just as much as they are. I feel more as though I'm just on the outside glimpsing into their world than having any hand in creating it. So I don't suppose I've ever felt the urge to abandon it, because it isn't something that belongs to me; it's theirs, wholly, and I'm only able to glimpse it when they feel like sharing it. There is a sort of 'timeline', in that the characters do have age groups and relationships through the passage of time, but at this point the character that documents their histories has not revealed themselves yet. I know they're out there, though, just as I know several of the other inhabitants that do not yet have dolls.

Long story short: Rather than have characters with established stories, backgrounds, and relationships, my dolls are designed to be adaptable to my everchanging whims. That way, when I do inevitably find myself bored with a story, I can change it without feeling as though I'm abandoning the character; I'm simply changing the environment they're in, or discovering a part of their past that was previously unknown.