A Bit of a Narration Guide

[waffles]

The poll

Don't answer unless you know, because you yourself have a tulpa. No guesses please.

 

Pointless foreword

Narration is pretty much the most important step in tulpa creation - I think so, at least, and I would expect most to agree. But how many narration guides are there? I can't see any. There are a load of nice guides for everything else, but still people rock up into Q&A and ask basic questions about narration. They could put in a bit of effort and search the section for their question, which has likely been answered ten times before, for sure. But why do that when you can read a guide? So here's a guide.

 

 

The actual guide

This is all my opinion on what you should do. Don't take it as the divine word, but take some hints at least. Even if some of this isn't necessary, it might help your narration to be more productive. That said, this is only a guide, so don't treat it like the law.

 

When to do it?

If you're going to do personality, but haven't started it yet, then don't. If you're underway with, or have finished, personality then do it. If you're not going to do personality, then do it. If your tulpa isn't vocal and you fit the above criteria, then do it. If they're already speaking back then you probably needn't read this.

 

Starting off; get an idea of your tulpa

So you want to narrate? It's not just talking to yourself, or talking out loud, it's talking to your tulpa. Before you start with the ridiculous monologue, you should get a sense of who you're talking to. If you've done or are doing form, or personality, or even just an introductory session, then you should probably have in your mind some idea of your tulpa. If haven't done any of this and you don't have any idea of your tulpa, then do one of them, or just try your best to get an idea of your tulpa through visualisation. If you visualise them as a fluffy cloud then you can talk to the cloud, and so on - more generally, you can visualise your tulpa and talk to that.

NB: This isn't strictly necessary, it just helps most. It is far easier to narrate productively when you have something to narrate to, but not necessary, and if you think you can manage talking to your tulpa without this then by all means do. Having an idea of your tulpa helps by giving you something to narrate to. This makes it, on the whole, easier to narrate, and likely more productive too.

 

Starting off; focusing

At this point you should have some concept of your tulpa in your head. If you don't, jump back a section. If you do, great! Now it's time to talk at length; or, it isn't. As I have already said, you need to talk to your tulpa. When you start narrating, the most important thing is to get into the habit of addressing your tulpa. Make a conscious effort to talk to the idea of your tulpa that you have. You can talk complete gibberish for all it matters, just get the hang of talking to your tulpa. Consistently address them by their name. If you suddenly realise you've been talking to yourself, it's not a big deal. Stop and refocus. To reiterate, the most important thing is who you're talking to right now.

 

Actually narrating

So now you can talk to your tulpa? Great. If you feel as though you've got the hang of that, then you probably won't need to ever revisit it, even if you think you've lost it. Then, the next step; talking. Talk to your tulpa about anything. It doesn't matter what you say, as long as what you're saying has some sort of meaning. You should try to communicate in words rather than ideas - this helps to build language in them, which helps later on in the creation process. Narrate at any time, anywhere. It doesn't matter if you're not focusing 100% on narrating. The important thing now is to narrate all the time.

 

I don't know what the hell to talk about

You don't? Idiot. Anything.

Talk about what's going on around you; explain what you're doing, or what others are doing. Talk about what you're studying (if you're studying). Rant about politics, or history, or your favourite TV show. Explain the deeper meaning behind Tim Hecker's latest album. Make things up at random. Talk about your relationships, your problems, your sources of pain and stress; narration can be therapeutic. And so on.

 

Continuing

Been doing this for a while? Great. Do it more. Unless your tulpa's speaking, you should be speaking. Don't think you can skimp on narration afterwards, either. It helps with fluency, with a clearer voice, with development in general.

 

 

FAQ

Because questions are asked frequently. Because these things would break the flow of the main guide. Because the reader is assumed to be lazy.

 

Is this all necessary?

I'd say you need to narrate. This guide, however, is not the only way to go about it.

 

Can I narrate about...?

Yes. You won't give your tulpa 'bad energy' by telling them about what makes you angry. If you're narrating 'about' something then it's not going to be bad.

 

Can I narrate through...?

Reading to your tulpa counts as narration. Anything that involves speaking words to your tulpa is narration; it's all good.

 

Can I narrate while...?

Unless you're performing a task that requires all of your concentration, then you can narrate while doing it. Mopping floors at some poorly-paid job? Great time to narrate? Driving? Try not to get too into it, but if it's not seriously affecting your concentration then do it.

 

Is it bad to narrate while angry/frustrated?

Opinions differ, but I'd say no. If you're losing focus because of your emotion, then you'll be less productive, but it's not actually detrimental. If you think your 'negative emotions' are getting to them, that's not really that bad either. They live in your head, and they're going to have to get used to your emotion at some point. It's not going to make your tulpa evil; worst case, they get upset themselves.

 

Can I narrate in my head?

Yes. By all means.

 

Should I narrate out loud?

It's preferable. Speaking out loud is better for narration; it helps to differentiate your from your tulpa. Even muttering under your breath helps. But again, it's not necessary.

 

Am I doing it wrong?

It's very unlikely. Whatever your problem, you'd have a hell of a job actually narrating wrong.

 

How long am I going to be doing this?

Hour counts are evil etc. Aside, anywhere from a few days to a few months. You'd be somewhat unlucky to be narrating for more than two months if you're actually putting any effort into it. If you have autism and you had a harem of imaginary friends as a child, then expect to be narrating for less time.

 

This all seems somewhat complicated.

I've embellished the process with more detail than most will need, just for the sake of making sure. It's simple, really; talk to your tulpa until they talk back.

 

This is boring.

Talk about whatever you enjoy talking about. If you don't like talking, then just do it anyway. Why have a tulpa if you don't like talking?

 

I get distracted. What to do?

At least this is a question. Do something else while narrating. It honestly helps. If not, then talk about something you enjoy talking about. If not, narrate from a book or comic or whatever. If you still can't concentrate, then you should take some concentration-enhancing drugs, and God help you when you get down to proper forcing.

 

 

In closing

If you still have questions, then ask someone, be it me or anyone else, here or in Q&A. Remember to have fun narrating.

[Guest Anonymous]

Sure.

[Sands]

Sure what?

[Averian]

Approved for guides. I don't want to nitpick. it's a decent starting guide to narration.

[NotAnonymous]

Approved for Guides.

 

Comments, in no particular order:

 

- Does the poll have any purpose other than to see what people and their tulpas commonly believe?

 

In my opinion all 4 options could apply depending on the tulpa('s personality), the host's personality/beliefs/expectations and the current relationship between the host and the tulpa.

 

It's difficult to predict how it would affect anyone in a general case any more than you could predict how a random person would end up if their friends/family/... was upset or angry or if those feelings were directed at someone else or you.

 

 

- Phi's guide is linked, but the link is broken: http://tulpa.info/forums/Thread-A-stage-before-personality-Treating-as-sentient-before-sentience

 

- The point Sands makes is very valid - the tulpa having a presence or essence is important for narration. Yes, it's possible to develop it by aimlessly narrating, but it's also possible and easier to just find it - every person we know (real, fictional, ...) has such a feeling associated with them.

 

Having this feeling is rather important as it helps with a lot of things:

• knowing if your tulpa is present or not
   
  
• knowing if they're perceiving/listening to you
   
  
• knowing if they're understanding you
   
  
• getting emotional responses or just developing emotional communication. it can be possible to know how a tulpa feels about something even if they have yet to fully develop their voice or if they don't feel like using it.
   
  
• most importantly, it feels like you have a live 'real' (in the subjective sense) person there sharing your mind with you.
   
  
• it also helps/partially solves a lot of common problems like parroting and independence issues as tulpa-willed thoughts will usually end up having those sort of feelings associated with them and thus you'd recognize the origin implicitly.
  

 

I'm not sure how one could easily explain how to get this feeling for one's tulpa: it seems to naturally end up there when one feels their tulpa is a person (note that I'm not talking about consciously/explicitly (saying that you're) believing they're a person).

 

For some people, FAQ_Man's personality stage helps people get this feeling, for others, merely narration helps them get it, in some cases, preexisting characters/people may already have this sort of feeling associated with them (especially if you can empathize with them).

 

While it would be nice for a narration guide to cover this concept as well, especially as it would help people who feel like they're talking to themselves or don't truly understand what it means to talk to one's tulpa, however since it's a tricky concept to explain accurately - despite it being a simple immediate, semi-persistent subjective experience, I won't insist that the guide should cover it.

[waffles]

- The poll is for the discussion I had with Purlox on page 2. It is supposed to collect opinions or experience, yes. And at ~90% agreement with my statement, though a small sample, I think it justifies what I wrote in the guide.

 

- Shame. I removed the link.

 

- Well I can only really reply the same thing to you as I did to Sands: the 'concept' and 'presence' more or less come to the same thing. I did extensively talk about not talking to yourself and talk to your tulpa, and how to do so. Beyond that I agree; there isn't a whole lot more I can say about it that would be helpful to people who don't get it straight off the bat.

[Linkzelda]

6/9 Approve for Guides, implying mayormorgan means sure for guides, which is kind of obvious.

[Ourania]

"If you have autism and you had a harem of imaginary friends as a child, then expect to be narrating for less time."

Do you have it, if I may ask?

[waffles]

No.

EDIT: PS: Sorry for the late reply.

[Dreamer13]

Should have an other, it distracts me and upsets limme

 

Edit: yes i have autisim