Inspiration for a Character?

My stories and characters tend to be influenced by whatever other things I'm into at the time. I also love creating detailed a plot, then spinning stories off that plot. Or, if I happen to have only a short scene in mind, I figure out a plot that can include that story.

The characters I have in mind now evolved from a silly spoofy drama scene involving a love sick girl asking tarot cards for her fortune, only to repeatedly get the "worst" cards in the deck. Out of that seed of a story, I now have: two fairly well conceptualized main characters, a third less thought-out main character for the future, and 3 support characters. It was important to me that I have a plot that allows for additional characters later... just in case....

 

I have many characters inside my head, not as a writer or anything but I spend a lot of time imagining (one may call it day-dreaming but I think of it more as telling stories in my head, creating worlds populated with characters that I create and know well, but often oversee as they proceed through their fictional lives somewhat outside of my concious control).

Not often -but sometimes- I will be looking through company websites or browsing DoA and suddenly see "Ah! That sculpt looks so much like X! In fact, with different hair/eyes/faceup/etc. it WOULD be X!" And from that moment, character X personifies that sculpt. For me, this has happened 4 times so far. That's 3 dolls on my wishlist and one on his way.

My tiny was an impulse purchase, so for me that was a very alien experience. The doll came first and a character had to be built around him. As a consequence, I have mixed feelings about him and his personality feels very chameleonic (I love him regardless :3) In that instance, the character emerged from his name. I agonised over names for a while before settling on one from Nordic mythology, and he then took on many of the characteristics of his namesake. But a second name calls out to me, a little less strongly, with a very different character. So at the moment I think he has two characters vying for ownership of his resin ^_^;;

 

I came out with character for my first bjd while watching Jrock clips. Damn, I thought, this guy NEEDS to be a girl! And now she represents fem-version of him ^^ But with her own original story.

 

I guess I'm the weird one who comes up with characters AFTER picking a sculpt. XD The two characters I've fully developed to be BJDs are based on the sculpts of DOC Homme Kirill and Ivan. How I came up with their characters...well, for one, I look at the sculpt. Kirill has that cocky-ish smirk, and so his character, Lucca became a smartass. XD Ivan, on the other hand, looks kind of distant and pained, leading to his character, Nico, to become a shy "wandering soul," or a ghost. Ivan also looks more childish than Kirill, and Nico acts like a child since he died at age 8.
Another thing that helps me a LOT is roleplaying. I would not have developed Lucca half as much without my RP with him, and I wouldn't have created Nico at all. ^^;;

 

After listening to the song "Hello Seattle" by Owl City, I am strangely compelled to eventually create a doll and call her Seattle. Her entire outfit as well as her eyes and wig would be a semi-medium blue.

 

i'm a lover of japanese anime's and my next two costum made characters will be out of that anime's, so they are special to me! I love characters out of a anime and because of that i'm trying to get them to my home! It's always a long way until the doll looks like in the anime and how i want, but it's always also a great job and a great result :=)

 

Haha my post got moved!

 

What happened with me is I had personalities for two of my first dolls from the same company but one didn't work. No matter what I did he just didn't look right. Than I decided to stop trying to make him different from my other doll and made him the twin. Suddenly he worked Perfectly. Even better than my girl did!
I very nearly sold him he wasn't working and I think I was fighting the sculpt too much. He was far sweeter than I was trying to make him. Once I let him look sweet his snarky attitude came through Anyways. Dunno how that worked but it did. XD
I don't know if this is a tip of just sharing but yeah.

 

None of my dolls have background stories and they're all completely different so I don't know if/how stories would intertwine. I have 6 dolls now and I sometimes wish they DID have backstories.

I don't know how I would even go about creating stories for them though.

How do you guys come up with the past/current lives of your dolls?

 

I'm pretty sure I've talked about my current boys already-- it certainly seems like something I'd jump in to talk about-- but the girl I'm saving for now is a character I roleplay as. I fell in love with her story as I had started playing her, I love her ongoing quest, her personality, and the image that I have of her in my mind, so much so that I just had to give her a sort of physical self.

I'm still just saving, but she's become so real to me as I play out her story and as I take copious notes to build her out, and I'm really looking forward to having her.

=^__^=
Anneko

 

My approach seems a little different from those listed. I buy what dolls I am attracted to - their face or expression or whatever - and don't really have a back story for them. Usually I have some idea how I want them to look - wig, eyes, how they'll be dressed - but the interesting thing is that sometimes the dolls refuse to be what I want them to be. I have trouble with the wigs or they don't keep their eyes in or something keeps going wrong until I change things around and then - presto - no more problems. Then I figure that they are the way they want to be and leave them alone except to change clothing or shoes. It's the same with their names. I try on names until one sticks or until somebody whispers their name in my ear. Sounds nuts but it works for me.

 

My first doll, I saw her on the website and an idea immediately popped into my head. My second doll I adored because he looked like a mini-Hellboy. I don't have a character yet for him, but once he's finally at the house I'll be picking him over and photoshopping ideas on to him.

As for the rest, I'll only be purchasing dolls to go with my own characters. The biggest thing for me, to get a doll right for its character, is the face shape (particularly the nose), the eye color, and the hair.

If those three things fall into place, my badass biker dude with tattoos could be in a tutu for all I care.

 

For me, the character came as soon as I found the doll. It's actually funny because I had intended to order a different doll from the company and while surfing through their dolls I fell head over heals in love with a different sculpt and her character came to me almost instantly. I had some help while listening to some music though because I actually have her "theme song" picked out too haha.