Letting go?

Bumping this up again because I was looking at the 'do you have your dream designs' thread and so many have been traded off and have new owners and I don't know how you can do that to a dreamie :,(

So I’m just going to answer some of these out of order. Generally I struggle to share my process primarily because: I feel ya- I can’t let go of anything

I’ve posted this Ic since what I’ve been moving towards for redosgned characters is to put the old stuff in an “old design” tab. I’ve had this character from 1998. She’s barely recognizable as her original design but ... I just can’t part with it. There is even a timeline of when I did what. 

I’ve actually been struggling as well since in that storyline SHE DiES and then is reanimated in a similar but different body(more uiman) honestly I’m not sure how to put that up since my characters are managed by storyline not by tiers of love- I made a hold profile on her new storyline but it’s the same character...

And on shipping- I just got my character Gail back together with her ex after a 10 year IRL break. Honestly- I’m a giant baby. Any of my couples I generally own both because I can’t beat breaking them up. (Gail’s partner is owned by someone else- my IRL ex, lol)

• How do you handle revamps? (by this I mean majorly dumping a story and re-purposing the design/personality into a new one)
  well more often than not the story is what i have to rewrite and with that the design gets an overhaul. I did this recently with a few characters from one of my stories; i realized that the story was, lmao, bad as shit and needed to be completely redone and because of this a few characters got merged, completely obliterated, or rewritten to be not terrible. i'm thinking of one character who got a complete rewrite and design change, while another got just a better story but his design stayed the same
• Do you struggle to rewrite old characters?
  yes in a way what i described up there was really hard for me to do but it was just so bad that i knew leaving it would really bring the whole narrative down 
• What do you do with the old writing?
  hadn't written it down yet so it gets BLOWN INTO OBLIVION
• Is there a way to cut this attachment? (to old writing/art/ocs, w/e)
  don't ask me once my characters have a name + literally one personality trait they are mine forever and ever; since i create characters before designs sometimes it can take me a while to get a design down. with characters i've adopted i almost always have thought about what i want them to do beforehand so they aren't going anywhere either. i can count on 1 hand the amount of impulse buys ive made, none of them are listed in my TH, they never got past "hm cute design" but also were never a "dreamie" of mine
• How the heck can you convince yourself to trade off a well-loved character? (by well-loved I mean someone with a lot of work and/or art put into them, but maybe their adventure ended a long time ago and now they're just sitting)
  i honestly have no problem letting some of my characters sit for months or even years so this doesn't bother me. they will be there when i come back to them.
• How guilty do you feel breaking up couples (where you own only one of the two) via trades? (Is it story related?)
  i'd never be able to do this lmao
• What do you do with art that doesn't suit your character anymore?
  keep it, i have a few things ive drawn that dont really apply to the character in question but i still have it!!! 
• Am I asking too many questions? (if not you can suggest more lol)
  nah bruh

especially since a character is both a DESIGN and a backstory (to me), i seriously dont understand when you're 'tired' or 'done' with a design besides from like a huge story revamp.... like the design isnt just a design to me? it's a character. even if i had to do a huge revamp i probably could not use the same character (when i talked above about revamping characters, most are completely different characters whose only commonality with their "old versions" is a name and their position, haha)

im talking too much!!!

"How do you handle revamps? (by this I mean majorly dumping a story and re-purposing the design/personality into a new one)" Well. I just deal with it I guess. I had to dump an old oc that I never used except for the story so uh. Oof. Tho I never got as attached to him as I do now since ocs were never a huge deal for me until around last year.

"Do you struggle to rewrite old characters?" Not really. I just see things that need changes and change them.

"What do you do with the old writing?" Not considering my story, I just laugh at the cringe. I'm mainly referring to my old Pokepastas since I only recently got back into writing. They're great if you want a really shitty horror story to read. (I was ScarLightStar on DA. You can find my old works if you search on there)

"Is there a way to cut this attachment? (to old writing/art/ocs, w/e)" Don't do anything with the character for a super long time and then maybe. If they have a special place in your heart, then it's probably impossible.

"How the heck can you convince yourself to trade off a well-loved character? (by well-loved I mean someone with a lot of work and/or art put into them, but maybe their adventure ended a long time ago and now they're just sitting)" Beats me. I don't trade characters l m a o .

"How guilty do you feel breaking up couples (where you own only one of the two) via trades? (Is it story related?)" I don't trade.

"What do you do with art that doesn't suit your character anymore?" I just keep it there I guess. More or less just try to forget it's there or make a new tab and put that art there. (like I did with Cry)

"Am I asking too many questions? (if not you can suggest more lol)" Nah, man. I like answering questions. It's fun.

These have been pretty rad to read (I agree with a lot!), but I wouldn't mind some input from people who like trading their characters around once they feel they're "done", too. :Oc

Prepare for TMI, because oh b o y is this something i wish i didnt have so much to say about.

First I will share the experiences I had to endure and then get to the questions; my first written role play started when i was 12 and in '06. It involved me using my all time most beloved character, Koru Lynxe. He was shipped with my best friend at the time's OC, Elodie. I had never done it before, only having done LARP with her before, and Koru quickly stole my heart and their ship was something I cherished above a lot. We were both artists, did a number of fan art of both El and Kory, together, seperate, and then we developed their children, whom also got art and love and development long before we ever reached the part when we wrote about them. In my entire expereicne of RPs and characters, they were my OTP. My only OTP. Koru was bound to El and i never thought I would have to consider the fact that she could be ripped from him. Now, the relationship i had with my best friend turned sour, we both struggled with mental issues and hard family life, but she took it out on me for years until late 2010, I ended the friendship. Hardest thing I ever did. We had dozens of RPs going, we loved each other's characters, but she was ruining my life and I had no choice. There was the fallout, and my beloved source of happiness, Koru, was now nothing but tainted and horribly heart breaking for me. I still to this day have not reused and revamped most of my characers from our RPs, and it wasn't until maybe....2014? That I finally started trying to retake back my Koru. But him and Elodie were so tied together in my mind, that his story still involves his wife having died in childbirth, so he can share my sorrow over the lost past. I kept his daughter, Seda, and I have used her, but Koru's character is now permanently the sad, tired single father who loves his daughter and mourns his past. (And to add salt to the woundin the aftermath, I had seen she had taken the art done of Koru x Elodie to have the info changed so she just replaced my character with one of her own making that looks identical, which I don't have the energy to be upset about anymore.) Once I get a visual reference of him I will bring him to TH, but currently have no link for him. 

And part two, a much shorter story, I went to an RP site immediately after losing my RP partner and it was where I developed and created all of my pokemon characters. I stayed there until early 2016, and it was another horrible experience where my entire friend group turned on me and I had to leave because of the toxicity and how I was treated terribly. I only had the strength to leave because of my partner's support (I love him so much), but I have only just recently started to revamp some, sell others, and just officially retire others.

https://toyhou.se/2929968.-hera- Hera was my main, and though I might never reuse her, I still love her so I have her listed. Other retired characters include https://toyhou.se/2609344.-ellyll- ; https://toyhou.se/2930053.-orique- ; https://toyhou.se/2997336.zapdos

https://toyhou.se/2884823.-caine- ; https://toyhou.se/2921109.-zacharias- ; https://toyhou.se/2404142.-bariyye- Are three other mains I have slowly been taking away from their original pokemon forms, and the future looks bright!

Now, onto the uh actual questions. I apologise for the stupid story

How do you handle revamps? Badly. I spend a long time thinking, developing, and loving my characters so when I feel they are developed or concrete in who they are, I do not want to change them. I might redesgn beloved characters whose designs were created by other people, because I want them to be designed by me as it feels more personal and intimate, but so just remake their story? I hate that, unless it is just bringing the same character to a new universe, like putting a regular human in the pokemon world, for an example.
Do you struggle to rewrite old characters? At first, yes. I have to get used to who they are now, but sometimes the original character idea was not a complete hit so reworking them to fit better into something I can write for can be a very freeing aand positive expereicne! But in cases like Koru, it is painful, almost physically so, though for someone like Caine, it was freeing, and I absolutely love who he is now.
What do you do with the old writing? I should leave it, delete it, and never look at it again. It hurts to, especially logging into my old account and seeing things that were. It causes me great stress, anxiety, and depression. I only look at them for reference in case I forgot a detail about a character, so I will look at their old profile, but otherwise....it is just bad for me. I am better off starting fro scratch with whatever information was inportant enough for me to remember.
Is there a way to cut this attachment? I don't know. My old characters still hurt me, I still love them dearly, but I know I can't go back to that time or place, so I just try to appeciate what I did in the past and just look to the future. I can love Caine's old ninetales art and still be happy with who he is now.
How the heck can you convince yourself to trade off a well-loved character? I don't do this. Ever. I'll never use Hera, Orique, or Zapdos again (and all have extensive histories, personalities, just years worth of information) but I would never give them away. They're mine. They're from a time I was proud of what I was doing, even if I learned I was being used and manipulated after, but it won't ever make me get rid of them, even if I could easily make back the RLC I spent on them. Others, I'll leave them. Delete the pictures. And never bring them back to light again, because it might be selfish, but they hold a part of my soul, my personality from a difficult time in my life, and I would never give them away.
How guilty do you feel breaking up couples (where you own only one of the two) via trades? Refer to...the first paragraph x: I felt no guilt, I had to care for my health, but damn.... Damn does it pain me, in such a deep and terrible way. Other couples aren't as bad, but Koru didn't deserve that shit treatment, and any emotion I feel from that situation is from the injustice my ex best friend gave him and me by being so disrespectful in the aftermath.
What do you do with art that doesn't suit your character anymore? Depending on the character and where the design came from, I am okay selling it-- with zero information of my character- or just saving it and keeping it somewhere because it's still a part of them, even if it's not current.

I... Apologise for typing so much. I hope it gives some insight.

• How do you handle revamps? (by this I mean majorly dumping a story and re-purposing the design/personality into a new one)
  • I don't do it a lot, but if I just don't connect with the story, I try to remake it and get rid of the unlikable parts.
• Do you struggle to rewrite old characters?
  • Old characters that had 0 personality are always difficult, but old characters who have become a bit too cliche are easy to rewrite for me!
• What do you do with the old writing?
  • BURN IT.
• Is there a way to cut this attachment?
  • I wouldn't think so. I'm attached to all of my old characters (none are on here though) and I always have been. I think you should always be attached to something you made, it's a part of you now.
• How the heck can you convince yourself to trade off a well-loved character?
  • Just do it. Try to pass it on to someone you trust, or make people work to get it. You'll feel better when you find it a home with a creator who will cherish it as much as you did.
• How guilty do you feel breaking up couples via trades?
  • I could never ;w;
• What do you do with art that doesn't suit your character anymore?
  • Leave it. I like seeing how things have changed over time, and how developed I've made my characters.
• Am I asking too many questions? 
  • Nah, you're good fam.

• How do you handle revamps?
  I revamp a character/story if I feel like the old one doesn't suit the lore of the universe they were placed in. I do it very often actually, especially with older characters of mine that make no sense in the current universe. A great example is my character Uta and the whole cult that revolves around her. I've rewritten everything about them (Uta is still being reworked to these days, as I'm still uncertain about a lot of things regarding her). Since I'm working on making a huge, functioning fantasy universe that can host all of (or the majority) of my characters, a lot of things I've written will be discharged and reworked to fit in. I have a general idea of how I want to build it and I'm writing stuff accordingly to it.
• Do you struggle to rewrite old characters?
  Depends on the character itself. How they look like, their species/race, their possible class (if they look like a sort of D&D character) or job all influences me. Most of the time I find it difficult to rewrite a character that doesn't fit at all my current universe (modern characters are the biggest example) and when it comes to those, I simply work on them as something different. They're their own thing, they don't have a universe at all. I just work on personality and general info. Some of them manage to get into my main universe, but when it happens I change them so much that sometimes they look like a different character.
• What do you do with the old writing?
  I usually scrap it and delete it entirely if it's irrelevant to the revamped character. I might keep it if it can give me some more ideas, but whenever I feel like it became completely useless, I delete it. I see no point in keeping something that doesn't help me in any way with the character.
• Is there a way to cut this attachment?
  As I said before, if it's useless then there's no point in keeping it. Just think about it as old stuff that needs to be thrown away, or else it'll take all the space and you won't be able to move in any direction.
• How the heck can you convince yourself to trade off a well-loved character?
  That's a tough one. Honestly, I've never traded a character I was attached to. I always rework them to fit my current universe so I can have a use for them and they won't sit untouched forever. I often use them as NPCs for my D&D campaigns, and this actually helps me when I want to rework them. If I had to trade one of those characters, I'd probably try to get it back as soon as I can. I'm bad at letting go characters that I've loved to the point of spending way too much time on their development.
• How guilty do you feel breaking up couples (where you own only one of the two) via trades?
  I've never experienced such situations, as I rarely ship my characters with other people's OCs. I either don't ship them at all, or ship them with my characters. I only have three characters that I ship with OCs that aren't mine, and their companions are owned by the same person, whose a really close IRL friend of mine.
• What do you do with art that doesn't suit your character anymore?
  I keep it, also because there may be some art pieces that I still like and that I don't want to get rid of. If I revamp my character's design, I make sure to put a divider between their new design and their old one + old art, so people don't get confused when looking at my character, but they can still enjoy its old design and art. I also like to compare old designs to revamped ones, and see how much a character has improved through time.