Giving your doll a story.

Dolls without story do not work with me.
Even if I don't choose a doll upon a character and simply fall in love with a doll, I promptly create a character and a background for her/him (I find this way too easy, unfortunately XDDD).

 

Don't think a story is necessary, but for some reason I find BJDs beg for a personality and history. Perhaps because I find the dolls have quite a powerful presence.

 

I am one of those people where, when buying a doll, having no backstory simply is not an option. On that same note, simply making up a story for a doll is also not an option. I can think up background histories and personalities rather quickly, and while I may like some of these ideas and think they're cute/fun/exciting/whaever, that still isn't enough for me to bring a doll home.

Instead, my dolls are based after characters that I have written about for years, and in all honesty it's because of all those years writing and role-playing them that has caused me to become so invested in them. Some of my favorite characters now, when I first introduced them into the plot (for example, Elijah who is my Elysium Jamie), I didn't even like them that much! They had entered the story practically just to get a quick scene done, but it was because I spent continuous months still writing about them, that is how I truly learned to love them, and it's that emotion that spurs me into saving hundreds of dollars for bringing their dollie version home.

I have to see a doll and instantly know it suits one of these characters. Sometimes I can bend the rules if I'm still a little unclear about what a character looks like then I will buy a doll I just think is gorgeous and then see if the character will suit it (such as m MSdoll head), but even then I'm fairly certain that if the doll ended up not working for the character, there's a high chance I would lose the desire to keep it as a large part of the way I bond with my dolls is due to their characters. No character? Very little love from me.

 

My first doll, I created a character around him. My second was a character from a storyline based on the first character. My third is completely unrelated to the other, and is one of my oldest and most tried and true role-play characters.

My kids always have stories. :3

 

I second this reply. My dolls have to be drawings and characrters that I make up first. It's hard for me to want to buy one and love one if I don't already have a character made up and come to mind when I see a doll that would suit it. I mean, I can draw it and really love it, and still have a doll suddenly match it, but then as soon as I pay for it or stare at it for AGES, I just end up making a whole story for it and stuff. Of course, I also have to love the mould and the doll, and I have to REALLY want the doll, and I ahve to make sure the name and story and what not suit it enough.

Another thing that happens to me, which is kinda weird, is like, I see a doll, and a name and story just hits me. It's happened with one of the DIM dolls, as well as a DZ doll, and I was like "Crap. there's another two." I just need to make them little people to really appreciate them. xD Which can be kinda irrating because I love so many, but I know I wouldn't give them any attention if they were here becuase they're just kinda... Empty shells, so to speak?

 

I try. I honestly do. They don't feel as real, if they don't have a backstory. But I often find myself buying dolls based on mold. I can't help it. I'm in this hobby, not to flesh out characters - but because I love BJDs, and I find them beautiful. Generally, I see a doll that takes my breath away, and then I create who they are. Of course I want them to have back-story. I love writing. The only thing is that when I do have a specific character in mind, I can never be satisfied by what a company is offering - I'm too specific; the character is the character - I would have to create the doll myself. What my character looks like is also not necessarily a doll that I would like to have.

To be honest, I love collecting dolls as dolls. They're beautiful, and just looking at them and having them gives me pleasure. RPing is enjoyable, but I've found myself lacking in creating truly detailed back-stories for all my dolls. They have their "personalities" and their own names, of course, but intricate and complex histories, relationships, and story-lines are not as large priorities for me, unfortunately. I suppose one day, I'll sit down and create their story. For now, just having them makes me happy.

 

My dolls really only have a name. I just think of them as the little doll people who run around my room at night. I have tried giving them stories but it never stuck. My dolls and characters tend to remain in two separate hobbies.

 

I have more of a comic book background than anime/manga/etc. I tend to swing more to the creative character creating aspect than anything else. If these dolls were simply of pre-existing characters, and could not be modified, I doubt I would be interested. I buy them for the purpose of giving a character I have in my head 3d life. Some of my characters are not the most unique, some are extremely unique. But wether you decide to make a background/history or not, have fun with your hobby, and don't let rude people tell you that you can't do something, or that you are not good at something. It's your hobby, and you should have fun with it as you see fit.

 

I actually created the characters first, but had trouble putting the story together. So I figured bringing them to life in dolly form would help me with that ^^

 

I think for me, because there seem to be so many possibilities for a story and personality, it's hard to choose just one for a doll. Perhaps that's why buying the dolls is so addictive, because you want to tell all those stories through them. However, the story and personality will come eventually. One story will stick and the rest will fade away, and that is how the personality of it would come to me.

 

At first I never thought of it as necessary but as time goes by, I get to develop a story for them. It's just a matter of time I guess.

 

I try to give a story to my dolls, but it's not often easy. I make up the doll and when I know the style I want to give her, I try to develop a story. It's a short story and ideas arrive unregularly !

 

All of my dolls do have some sort of character. Naming them does help a lot. A lot of their characters grow the longer I have them. Only two of them actually have a story that I came up with was when I first looked at them on the day the dolls arrived.

 

All of mine do/will.
But, usually, I give my stories dolls XD
They come after I've created a story, and if I like it enough, I'll get dolls for the characters. There's really only one story that I like that much, so the two I have, and the next...4? Would be from that story. Minus my PKF Ante, who I'm getting for a little character I used to doodle

 

My doll has no background, just a name and a personality she developed all by herself x3
I have to say though, I'm getting her more and more themed outfits and coming up with story-like reasons for her wearing them.
I think Dolls act like avatars for our personalities a little, creating a story for them is totally understandable. I don't think I'll ever be doing it though.

 

Nope.

For me, not at all - but I suspect it has a lot to do with why you're in the hobby/what attracted you to it.

Some of my dolls have characters and backgrounds (most of them rather sketchy) but what details there are have come about gradually through playing with them rather than through any deliberate process.

I came to the BJD through a lifelong love of dolls, bears and stuffed toys. For me it's a subset of the overall doll/toy hobby, rahter than one in and of itself. I have a house full of dolls, some of which have been with me since childhood, comparatively few of them have anything approaching backgrounds/stories.

I suspect it would be very different for people who came to the BJD world through Anime or Manga fandom, who I've noticed tend to approach buying dolls from the, "I have a character I'd like to realize in resin, whihc doll(s) would be best suited to that character" standpoint.

I get them because I like the look of them and I get to know them gradually one they've arived.

Occasionally I have a character/style in mind before I get the doll, but it seldom works out the way I plan (my glamerous, fashionable secret-agent type Narae, for example, ended up as a wafty-skirted hippy chick who wouldn't know one end of a make-up brush from the other). So, usually, I just get the doll I like and see what they become once I have them

Teddy

 

I'm buying a doll as a shell for a pre-existing original character... And it helps me on keeping my wishlist under control, as I have to find the *perfect* doll for the character instead of buying the first pretty doll I see...
I think I would feel guilty for wasting money and buying a doll with no backstory, just because it's pretty

 

This is pretty true for me, too. My dolls are all characters in the same story universe; I had some pretty basic ideas for the characters before they were dolls. Having them in resin has helped expand on their personalities and establish a core group for the story. The plot isn't genius, but each doll I've wanted has since found a way into the same story somehow. It's become part of the planning process, but I don't--and probably never will--own all the dolls that have corresponding characters.

I've tried to pick a doll to have as just a doll, no background story involved, but it's hard for me to NOT come up with something. Bored in class or just walking a long distance, you know, the mind wanders and suddenly there's a story.

 

I didn't think that I'd give Aiden a story until I decided to get Cain. It was actually a dream that I had and I was like; HOLY HELL I SHOULD WRITE THAT DOWN!!
So now Cain will be Aiden's fallen guardian angel/lover. I've been writing the story out actually. Let me know if you'd like to read it. !!!

 

Even before learning about BJD's, I already have some characters I created and played in the old RPG's with personalities and background stories. They're pretty much all set should I decide to "breathe life" into them as BJD's in the future.

It helps keep my list fixed to dolls I really want to have.