Recently, I've been thinking about this Character vs Personalities topic and I find it quite interesting. A friend of mine has personalities for her dolls rather than characters and I am hugely jealous that she can do that. I find myself wishing that I could do that too. I'd love to have just personalities for my dolls and not have to worry about their backstory. I'm trying this out with my Tinies and I have to admit, I enjoy it quite a lot.
However when it comes to my MSD and SD collection, for some bizarre reason, I cannot have them as anything other than characters. I can't help it. Whenever I've tried, I end up creating some insane backstory for them and I've come to the conclusion that this is simply what I do, how I enjoy my dolls.
And I suspect it's just second nature to me now.
When I started playing the Sims back in 2000 (boy, has it been that long!), I would always make some backstory for them and it progressed to full on movie sets when Sims 2 came around. I still do that now when I play and I recognise it happens a lot on a subconscious level. I like to understand things, their circumstances, how they became who they are today.
I write creatively for fun, I enjoy it and right now, at this point in my life, I have no plans to do anything more serious with my writing, maybe in twenty years time when I am older and wiser and have more discipline for long term projects than I do now ... but for now, I write for fun and I am finding that maybe this subconscious storytelling thing is just a part of that.
Interestingly enough, my dolls have been a source of inspiration for me in that they have kickstarted some story projects. In my case, my dolls are my muse. I've given up trying to mould them into characters from pre-existing stories. It seems they want their own brand new shiny stories. In a way, I feel I have them to thank because I am writing again after a four year hiatus. (Dolls will do that to you, a distraction and inspiration - a deadly combination.)
What about you? Do you prefer to have Characters or Personalities? How do you enjoy your dolls on a creative level? Do they have their own story world?
This is such an interesting topic to debate! It happens differently for me. I find myself unable to think of my doll as a character with a story, but I know she has some "personality" or likes-dislikes. I always admired people that writes a lot about their dolls, and have a fixed image of their background, and everything. I guess is like you said: different ways of enjoying the hobby.
ReplyDeletePS: will love to read some of your dolly-stories, by the way!
Sometimes I do wonder though whether the line between Character vs Personality is blurred. I never knew the difference until I started coming across this in the hobby.
DeleteIt is interesting, I think I probably do a bit of both, I hadn't realised they were sort of different things.
ReplyDeleteI guess mine usually start as personalities then start telling me about their families and the time they did x or y.
I never knew either to be honest until I started seeing it around. I had to really think which one my dolls were and I have to admit, a majority of them already exist in stories I've already written so they tend to shell those characters much in the same way my Sims characters used to.
DeleteThis is an interesting topic! Most of my characters have backgrounds and stories but their complexity depends and a couple of them have just personalities. However I find that I bond much more to those I write about, they end up coming to life for me :)
ReplyDeleteI love reading about your doll stories btw! You should post more ;)
I really need to get back to writing a lot more but it's hard once you've stopped!
DeleteI do know what you mean about bonding more with those you write about. They do end up taking on a "life" of their own when we're constantly writing about them.
That's actually very interesting! I hadn't really thought about the fact that these can be very different things... But I sort of do both. All my dolls have a backstory, but my Lati Yellows have fairly uncomplicated ones, as they're just kids. They are also more children in their behaviour and I tend to focus more on their feelings and how they would say and do things rather than focus hard on their backstories.
ReplyDeleteWith my bigger dolls I tend to focus a lot on their backstories, and they all have elaborate, slightly insane, backstories.
I love insane stories! I've been really enjoying reading everyone's thoughts on this. It's been so very interesting to see how others interact and enjoy their dolls.
DeleteI have found my tinies don't tend to have any complex stories much like how you do your Latis but my SDs have the most interesting stories. I think it coincides with their larger than life presence.
I'm pretty much like you. My dolls have to have characters. It's just second-nature for me...but more than that I started getting the dolls for the characters, so I don't really know how to do it another way. I have tried in the past to have a doll that I just dress up pretty and have no "life" for but it never works. Either I sell them, or like Anna, they somehow end up with a character and worm their way into the "main" storyline and now I'm going to have to try and draw her because she's in the comic.
ReplyDeleteWeirdly, I also have a handful of YO sized tinies who really don't have much of a backstory...they're bunnies, they wear Victorian-inspired fashion and look cute. They're the only ones who escaped a character in my world XD
That's exactly it, I do the same. I try to make them have no life and just be a doll I dress nicely but always, they end up as a character of some sort. Maybe we just tend to do it that way because they already exist in our stories. I do love the idea of shelling characters. To be honest, it is one of the reasons that drew me to this hobby. At least with dolls, they're tangible and 3D. That was the issue I had when my characters existed only as pixels in the Sims. BJDs were like a dream come true for me in so far as "seeing" my characters.
DeleteI've really appreciated reading everyone's thoughts on this. It's been quite fascinating.