What do you do when your character dies?

Ok, wow ... I haven't had that happen, luckily ... if I may ask, what sort of character was she? RP or story or something else?

For a while I considered shelling characters from books / TV shows (I had dolls picked out for most of the DS9 crew, plus Caramon and Raistlin from the DragonLance books, and a couple characters from the Potterverse). Some of those died in their stories. I never considered that to be a problem ... the dolls would have been like a 3D snapshot from a place in time where they were still around, if that makes any sense.
If it was one of my own ... I think I'd be the same, keep them the way they were. Some people shell the same OC at various ages. If I can have two version of the same OC, I guess I could have them still shelled even if their story has come to an end.

If you want to keep the doll but can't think of something to do with her right now, maybe just put her into something neutral (clothes/wig wise) and wait until she starts "speaking" to you again. I've had a doll reject every suggestion I threw at her, only to learn years later who she really "wanted" to be. (If you know what I mean. I realize dolls don't speak, but it's the picture I use for a doll inspiring me. Foreign languages are tricky. )

 

Yeah, OCs tend to have a mind of their own.

That does sound like a plan. In my experience dolls never stay "uninhabited" for long - at some point an outfit or wig or new faceup will just "click" and be the beginning of a new identity. (Case in point: My IH Bianca was supposed to be a pop culture girl, but came home to be all punk and alternative. All her girly-girl trendy stuff just seemed wrong. Now she's one of my main characters' sister. Who would have guessed?)

 

Oooh yes.

Good luck finding her "new" self!

 

Interesting topic. I'm quite amazed that you even consider selling your doll although you love her so much … My own stories don't have a determined outcome, so even if a character might die in one timeline, things could be different in another version. My dolls are like character snapshots from the story, so they don't age and they will always be alive at that certain time in the plot.
However, I also have a doll of "L" from the comic Death Note. He died in the original story, and I was quite devastated because I didn't expect that. So I created my doll a bit different from the original and gave him a parallel life, or maybe an "afterlife" …

 

Oh, being stressed by doll without a character is a new thought to me. I always enjoy the time when my doll is a perfect blank page and could become just anybody …

I hope you show us a picture of your newborn muse here!

"Vanished" opens a lot of possibilities … I don't know the nature of your story universe, but if somebody vanishes, they will most likely just go somewhere else …^^

Haha, yeah, I made sure there's a lot of candy in the afterlife, too! L has also found a friend, my coyote spirit Fejd. Not the most reliable of friends, and a fierce one too, but a friend, after all. *g*

 

When you say vanished, did you mean that your interest in the doll's character vanished and you no longer feel any connection with it, or do you mean that the doll vanished in the story universe you have attached to the doll?

If your doll's character truly vanished from your interest then I can imagine that it might be hard to find another character that fits the doll, however if the doll vanished in your universe she should still exist so perhaps you can't find another character because she is still there somewhere?

Personally I have redone all my dolls, changed them from their original story to a new world and all of them got new characters. I didn't have a problem with letting the old characters rest and create new characters for the dolls, so I don't have the same problem as you, however I did have an issue with deciding on the right names and getting used to it, however now I like it a lot more than how it was before.

 

I have a shelf of dolls who all shell my preexisting OCs from a point in their past (IE: their teenage selves, set in the 1980s), even though they are much older in the present. One of those characters is no longer alive, but since her doll form is perpetually styled as her 16-year-old self I welcome her presence; it reminds me of her youth and how wonderful a character she was to write about during the duration of her "life."

I actually have a lot of characters who die or vanish... at least in canon. Combine that with how I'm one of those BJD collectors who has no interest in changing a doll's clothes, etc. and it's not really a problem for me. I view each doll as a representation of an OC during a point in time, and that point in time is static, be it set in the past, present, or future. I guess I'm weird in that regard.

If your issue is that you no longer find yourself attached to your doll's character, I can't really help you there. Your feelings could be caused by a creative slump and you just need to find a burst of inspiration! Maybe try drawing them, or making props for them... anything to help your mind churn out new ideas.

I'm the same way, so I empathize. If I buy a doll to shell a certain character and it doesn't work out, I sell it (and I don't buy a doll if I don't have some idea "who" they will shell, either). Keeps me in check, heh.

The one exception is my YoSD Kira. I'm still struggling over what to do with her, even though she refuses to accept any of the OCs I've offered to her. I love the doll sculpt and wanted her to work so badly but... ugh. Just thinking about her stresses me out. Sometimes I feel guilty because

 

There was a time, about four years ago now, when I realized the character I had created for my second doll had developed to the point that the doll he was shelled as no longer worked. I knew which doll I needed for the character (and to be fair, the sculpt I needed didn't exist when the character first came about), and it was like, as soon as I knew the sculpt I had was wrong, I had that sense of the character "vanishing." The character was still there in my head, but the doll felt... almost lost? I knew someone was in there waiting to tell me a new story but it took a few weeks and some clothes and wig changes to pull him out. By now, I have the new doll for that first character, and the old doll has inspired a character, a story, and a world that I'm writing about now

Whenever I buy a doll without having a certain personality or character in mind for them, or in the case of the character that vanished until his new sculpt was bought, the "empty" doll was never really a problem for me. It was like, I knew there was someone in there, I just had to figure out who. In 6 years of collecting I've only ever sold a doll once (it's hard to bond with a doll when the only personality impression you get off of them is that they hate you ).

 

I have a doll who didn't work with her first name, I renamed her which helped, but still found her frustrating. I bought her a different head, which turns out not to work with the proportions of her body at all. However the character seems to have jumped to the new head. The original doll is cute, but she just isn't working. I've decided to sell her since she doesn't work for me as an individual or as part of the group.

I had a character in mind for another doll, and even blank and wigless she let me know that was NOT who she was right out of the box. I have a different character for her now that works for her.

 

If I lose interest in keeping the OC, I sell the doll. Most of my dolls aside from the favorites, tend be temporary anyway. They stay a year or two, then move along. Sometimes, if I really loved the OC but the story isn't interesting anymore, I'll move them along to a new situation, and that revives them. Other times, their story has just ended, and it's time for me to focus on someone else.

 

Hmm... To me the dolls that are avatars for characters and the characters themselves are still pretty separate things, so I don't have any trouble with, say, my resin version of the Alabaster Prince of Ashes hanging around even though the original tabletop RPG character he was based on (My favorite Moonshadow Exalted Abyssal-) met an unfortunate end in-game some years ago. The doll version of Al has sort-of become a reminder of all the fun I had playing the original.

That said, if you've just lost interest in your character there's nothing stopping you from either selling the doll and starting over with a new one if you've gotten tired of the sculpt OR, if you're still fond of the doll sculpt you picked for the ex-character's avatar, re-doing that doll's look and coming up with something entirely new for them. (It's pretty amazing how just a new wig, eyes, faceup and outfit can change the whole look and feel of a doll, so if you're still fond of the raw sculpt, that's probably the best place to start.)

 

If you just don't like it, then yes, "Sell it and buy another." And, that really can make you happy again for a while, but alas, there is nothing new under the sun, and just as you grow weary of one you will grow weary of another. Lol

You wouldn't have made this thread if you didn't want to at least make an attempt to reconnect, in my opinion at least.

I wouldn't try to change her into something else, I don't think it really helps that much, especially if you had a particular connection with the doll to begin with.

Put her away for a while, pack her in a box and don't think about her, let her eat dust for a couple of years even. It goes by faster than you think. Save up money for a new doll, something you think you like, get that instead and enjoy it as a character.

...then take your old doll back out again. When her character has been dead for a long time and you've again experienced the anticipation and happiness of a new doll, a new story, and a new character, and your old doll is just an empty hollow vessel, dress her up and take her out.

If you still feel nothing for her, then yeah, sell her, but I think that first love never really dies an easy death, and sometimes you have to love another to appreciate what you had before.

 

Glad to hear it

Some things just take time, time together and time apart.