Suggestion from T

Hello, I'm back lol. Eve certainty loves this forum, and I have never felt so good in ages then when she's at the forefront. I don't know how she was 'born', but she seems like the 'perfect' little kid; never upset, always happy. She was only anxious over the coloring book because she wanted out, now that I know about her. Is that how it is with most Littles?

Any who, my T said something interesting over the phone today. At our last meeting, I told her I liked to write stories and I usually use the same characters over and over again. I have a very clear image in my head of each one of them, and it is usually very difficult for me to come up with 'new' characters (unless they are bad guys, or characters that don't really matter in the long run). The only thing that changes about them is the storyline; their personalities are always the same. To get to the point, she mentioned that these characters could be alters themselves. I've always had them, each has a distinct personality...etc etc.

What is your take on this? I personally don't know what to make of it. These characters have always been with me in my head, and yes I've asked myself a few times 'what would Nikki do?', but...eh, I dunno lol.

Anyone else write and think they may, in fact, be writing about their alters?

It makes sense to me!

IF.... your characters are similar in age. It would be odd to have all alters under 2 and yet your characters are adult?

I hope my story characters are not my alters! In my fiction book the men are BIG - Like 400 lbs body builder big. My alters are all kids so far and my book characters are adult.

Hehe, most of our littles are like that, as well. Gotta love them.

And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. A lot of the characters we write about represent ourselves. When we're imagining something involving ourselves, we usually feel safer to use the character we chose to represent ourself. And if you write the same characters over and over, it's definitely likely. Try writing yourself into their story and asking them about it. See what happens.
~Rage and Katherine

tylas wrote:It makes sense to me!

IF.... your characters are similar in age. It would be odd to have all alters under 2 and yet your characters are adult?

I hope my story characters are not my alters! In my fiction book the men are BIG - Like 400 lbs body builder big. My alters are all kids so far and my book characters are adult.

Four hundred pound body builders!! o.o;; That would be interesting. XD

Well, my characters have changed with my age. I've always felt they were 'part of me' in their own little world in my head. I used to say 'they create their own world, I just write it down', up until someone said it was BS and I shouldn't let my characters run the world.

There is one story I've been writing and rewriting (one of three that have really stuck with me out of the hundreds lol) called 'I'm All Out Of Breath'. That one holds my first five characters ever to be created. They were ten at the start (when I started writing lol) and have aged as I've aged.

Summary:
Five kids with elemental powers are abandoned by their family. They are taken in by Gaia (spirit of Earth) as her protectors (since they have elemental powers). These kids don't know that they were given a warehouse in the middle of the woods, far from modern day life, for this purpose. After they hit age ten (or 23 now, lmao!), four other kids (minor characters here) arrive with elemental powers as well. They fight for 'Seylolays', a god-like being in the sky who wants to destroy the spirit of Gaia and take over himself. So, Nikki (fire), Brittany (Light), Rogue (Gravity), Dustin (Earth), and Trinity (Water) buck up and fight these four others: Rei (Psychic), Adrian (Lightning), Hale (Air), Mani (Ice). They ultimately have to fight it out, learn their strengths and weaknesses, come together...all that jazz. And of course, the love interests too. In the story, they do meet two children who are slaves and badly beaten, and protect them (Hope and Destiny). In the end, they all die, giving their lives for the very people who threw them away at birth, defeating Seylolays and his dream of destroying the humans.

It was that story that made her think of those four being alters. I'd go deeper into detail, or send you the story lol, but it's poorly written and I get nervous letting others read it...

It's totally possible. My Poet writes stories that have elements of of my parts in them, but they have never been consistent. For me, the closest example would be recurring dreams where I am a certain type of character or specific person over and over again, but it's "not me." Recently, she and I have been writing a sort of fairy tale together about this journey we've begun in therapy, which is kind of my life story by metaphor. We plan on giving every part (or at least groups of part) a character to play, in addition to important real life figures.

Well, my characters have changed with my age. I've always felt they were 'part of me' in their own little world in my head. I used to say 'they create their own world, I just write it down', up until someone said it was BS and I shouldn't let my characters run the world.

That person's statement was bs. Artistic ability, they say, is often times gauged by just that: Your ability to have characters who are able to be themselves instead of a caricature or an empty shell for you to imagine yourself as. Your characters should run their own story. It just means that it's that much less forced, that much more natural.

It's totally possible. Wraith only feels "comfortable" being real in story form as far as I can tell. She started writing for the first time after two years when she had a scene in which Timothy, Jason, and I think Vie came into play. Jason's actually an internal helper created for use in stories, but he seems to have a life of his own outside of them.

But yeah. Wraith's reality isn't "reality". She can't handle reality proper. She seems to only be able to accept an internal "story" reality as "real." And honestly, I believe that the stories we "lived out" in our mind were a good way for different parts to interact and helped us learn to be co-con and allowed us to process without directly dealing with what was up before we realized what the eff was up in here. If we had tried to process the truth as the truth, Aecy would have had to suppress it back in the day. So we processed as "characters" in a "story" that has a lot of creepily striking parallels to our own life and struggles. Lleu with his mommy issues, Wraith feeling like she's already dead but trapped existing, unable to die, half her soul held by a demon who tortures her to try to get her to give herself up the rest of the way to him but she resists and endures. She's able to go invisible and shift into the 'undefined' realm, Aecy the kind, nice, but resolute character who was more often than not possessed by something dark and nasty, Diedre, mother of Lleu, the deceiver with her beautiful voice, able to beguile anyone, but beneath her loving, warm, convincing exterior, she's a horrible manipulative sadistic controlling witch, and seriously effed up Lleu by raising him to believe whatever she said, so on, so forth.

That, and she processes through metaphor I suppose. ~Shrugs~ Whoever played her "demon", however, is definitely a full-out alter who can take control of the body. That part isn't evil, just... well-suited to playing an evil part due to its particular oddities. >.>; So it's totally possible in my opinion.

Aecy wrote:That person's statement was bs. Artistic ability, they say, is often times gauged by just that: Your ability to have characters who are able to be themselves instead of a caricature or an empty shell for you to imagine yourself as. Your characters should run their own story. It just means that it's that much less forced, that much more natural.

Thank you, it's nice to hear someone agree. I think he (he had been my English teacher at the time) was talking about how Stephen King says he doesn't let his characters 'rule' him. I don't know what my English teacher thought he was doing by telling me that, but it really had hurt my stories for a while. Up until I 'daydreamed' Nikki rolling up her sleeves and telling me to 'man the ###$ up, who cares what they think?'. She lives up to her fire element; she's very explosive in her emotions and very 'in your face'. She's one of my favorites.

It's totally possible. Wraith only feels "comfortable" being real in story form as far as I can tell. She started writing for the first time after two years when she had a scene in which Timothy, Jason, and I think Vie came into play. Jason's actually an internal helper created for use in stories, but he seems to have a life of his own outside of them.

Hmm, you know, I always wondered if I was really the one creating these stories. I don't know if it's the same for you, but I always 'blanked out' for hours at a time, lost in an internal world. I never felt like it was actually me writing. I wonder who in my system was actually writing through me, and where she/he had gone? It would explain my sudden ineptitude to create a single story now, without some pretty serious struggling. It used to come so naturally, and now I spend fruitless hours feeling the uncontrollable URGE to write (more like extreme compulsion) but I get frustrated and have mini-panic attacks because NOTHING comes out. It's worse than normal writer's block; it's been like this since...well, it might be TMI but I believe it started really dissappearing when I lost my virginity. I don't know what that would have to do with it. Perhaps that alter started hiding then, when I dove into my deep depression? Hmm...I'll have to think about that now. Maybe I'll ask Eve, since she seems to be the most stable and easily accessable alter.

But yeah. Wraith's reality isn't "reality". She can't handle reality proper. She seems to only be able to accept an internal "story" reality as "real." And honestly, I believe that the stories we "lived out" in our mind were a good way for different parts to interact and helped us learn to be co-con and allowed us to process without directly dealing with what was up before we realized what the eff was up in here. If we had tried to process the truth as the truth, Aecy would have had to suppress it back in the day. So we processed as "characters" in a "story" that has a lot of creepily striking parallels to our own life and struggles. Lleu with his mommy issues, Wraith feeling like she's already dead but trapped existing, unable to die, half her soul held by a demon who tortures her to try to get her to give herself up the rest of the way to him but she resists and endures. She's able to go invisible and shift into the 'undefined' realm, Aecy the kind, nice, but resolute character who was more often than not possessed by something dark and nasty, Diedre, mother of Lleu, the deceiver with her beautiful voice, able to beguile anyone, but beneath her loving, warm, convincing exterior, she's a horrible manipulative sadistic controlling witch, and seriously effed up Lleu by raising him to believe whatever she said, so on, so forth.

A lot of my stories have to do with running away and staying a kid forever. 'Haven', 'There's Always Eternity', and 'I'm All Out Of Breath' are three that generally talk about a 'safe haven' away from abusive parents (in 'Haven', the kids pick an age and have all their abusive memories erased upon arriving in the forest world and 'There's Always Eternity' is where both stories, and my other set of normal characters, meet. I've contemplated calling it 'When World's Collide').

I'm very interested in reading your stories! Your character/alters sound like amazing people.

It's totally possible. My Poet writes stories that have elements of of my parts in them, but they have never been consistent. For me, the closest example would be recurring dreams where I am a certain type of character or specific person over and over again, but it's "not me." Recently, she and I have been writing a sort of fairy tale together about this journey we've begun in therapy, which is kind of my life story by metaphor. We plan on giving every part (or at least groups of part) a character to play, in addition to important real life figures.

Though my Story side is in hiding (or gone, but I'm keeping hope that he/she is still around. ), I know my Poet is still alive. She loves writing poetry, and her style changes constantly.

Nikki sort of came to me in a dream, if I'm remembering correctly. I dreamed of a girl being surrounded by fire, smiling, with her gloved fist clenched in front of her. She is so cool! I can still see her, though she's older now obviously, and her clothes don't fit lmao. I think it's time to draw her some new clothes and maybe she'll wear them (she's VERY partial to what she has on though). Honestly, I think Slap takes Nikki's looks and some of her explosive personality (hence the Fire element). I should ask her if she really is Nikki, whenever Slap decides to come back. Slap got really tired from being out for so long. Does that usually happen with alters, btw? I know I get tired when I have to fight them (for control of emotions or body, either one sucks), but I didn't think they could get tired...

Hehe, most of our littles are like that, as well. Gotta love them.

And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. A lot of the characters we write about represent ourselves. When we're imagining something involving ourselves, we usually feel safer to use the character we chose to represent ourself. And if you write the same characters over and over, it's definitely likely. Try writing yourself into their story and asking them about it. See what happens.
~Rage and Katherine

That last sentence gave me shivers! I started imagining myself talking to them and had to stop. I'm going to write a short story and throw myself in there with them, and see what they say. I've never tried that before.

There was a contributor here who said he would never integrate because he made his living writing stories about his alters. I forget who that was, but I bet you can find him in the archive easily.

Interesting. I remembered always that I wrote one story with a guy named Aaron in it. But your thread reminded me of another. I have written two stories with a character named Aaron. And in both he had the same chillaxed personality as my actual alter Aaron has most of the time.

Very interesting.

LinaeveWorkman wrote:Hello, I'm back lol. Eve certainty loves this forum, and I have never felt so good in ages then when she's at the forefront. I don't know how she was 'born', but she seems like the 'perfect' little kid; never upset, always happy. She was only anxious over the coloring book because she wanted out, now that I know about her. Is that how it is with most Littles?

Most of the time for my little, yes. She seems like the 'perfect' little kid. She can be mostly independent if needed, and can also be very mature for her age. She's also usually happy. Like all little kids though she can get scared, upset, sad, etc. and then it can take some time/effort to calm her down.

LinaeveWorkman wrote:Any who, my T said something interesting over the phone today. At our last meeting, I told her I liked to write stories and I usually use the same characters over and over again. I have a very clear image in my head of each one of them, and it is usually very difficult for me to come up with 'new' characters (unless they are bad guys, or characters that don't really matter in the long run). The only thing that changes about them is the storyline; their personalities are always the same. To get to the point, she mentioned that these characters could be alters themselves. I've always had them, each has a distinct personality...etc etc.

I started to realize that the characters I had in the stories I wrote were either my alters themselves or they were very similar.

One character I almost always write about is a girl usually in her late teens. She usually has black hair and blue eyes, and a scar over her right eye. Kat, my oldest alter, has black hair and blue eyes. Though she doesn't have the scar, she's always wanted a scar on her face, preferably over her eye. My best guess is because to her scars show strength and she wanted the world to know the pain she's gone through and survived, so she wanted a scar in an obvious place. The character always starts out as independent, angry, usually on a quest for revenge. This mirrors Kat's personality. Most of the time my character meets a love interest where they start out hating each other, or at least she'll hate him, but then over time she'll come to realize she's not as heartless as she thinks. (Cliche I know, but sometimes the classic story lines are the best when combined with your own plot twists).

Characters that are younger, like stories starting with a character as a child, I've noticed mirror my little, Cassie. And characters that are wise and the advice-givers, very logical and calm characters, they mirror Rain. When I'm writing a dark story, such as a plot dealing with a "beaten-into-submission" type of character, it'll often mirror Ray. Apathetic characters mirror L.C., and often the villain of the story will mirror "Hannibal". I've realized that it's easy for me to write characters that are like my alters because I can see and feel how they would react in the story's situations. It's as if I'm writing their biography with a fictional story line, if that makes sense. I never realized how much they come forward when I write, and sometimes I wonder if it's me writing or them, but either way it makes it easier for me to imagine my character and develop their personality within the story.