How did you decide on your tulpa's personality and appearance?

[vidoxi]

Is it something that you were instantly certain about, or did it take you a while to decide on a concept? Did you maybe use a certain method or guide?

 

I can't decide on anything. I come up with a concept I like but then after thinking a lot about it for a week or two I'm not certain that's what I want anymore. I have a lot of ideas and things I like so it's hard to settle on something. I feel like I'm probably too concerned with it looking "original", and that is holding me back as well. I'm not usually so wishy-washy but it's kind of a big deal, right?

[vidoxi]

I wanted it the form to be something that we could decide on together. You could always let the tulpa make the form once it's sentient, I guess.

 

That is pretty interesting. It would be exciting to give it free reign or work together and see what kind of creative mind the tulpa has. It could potentially result in something very strange that you didn't expect, couldn't it? Did you find that Catherine's appearance ended up being quite predictable to your tastes?

[Strangelove]

Is it something that you were instantly certain about, or did it take you a while to decide on a concept? Did you maybe use a certain method or guide?

 

I was certain on a form and personality from the start. Other forms were either too mundane for me, or something i didn't particularly care for. Hell, if anything I picked a pegasus because I think they're cute as fuck. That's literally all it boiled down to for me. Shallow maybe, but she doesn't seem to mind.

 

As far as personality goes? I wanted a foil to myself. Not on everything mind you, but on somethings I feel I need a second opinion from a different angle on. I care more about the end results, so she would care about the methods used more than I would. Things like that you see?

 

I can't decide on anything. I come up with a concept I like but then after thinking a lot about it for a week or two I'm not certain that's what I want anymore. I have a lot of ideas and things I like so it's hard to settle on something.

 

You could try just writing out everything and picking from that. Or you can try ranking them from top to bottom. Also, write them out and come back to them later. This is a sentient being here, ya dig? They could very well deviate from whatever you choose anyway. Not saying some form of ground work is pointless, just not really that big a deal as I see it.

 

I feel like I'm probably too concerned with it looking "original", and that is holding me back as well. I'm not usually so wishy-washy but it's kind of a big deal, right?

 

I dont think its that big of a deal. Your tulpa can change it's form if it wants, or you could change it yourself I suppose (Though I wouldnt if the tulpa wasnt able to offer its own input, or if there was attachment to the form). If you feel like its that much of an issue, then just pick the most appealing whatever and use it as a placeholder. Tell your tulpa that you're unsure on what you want, so you'll leave it up to either them to decide, or you two can both choose together at a later date.

 

Doing this insures that you have some basic structure to work with, a form to focus on, and also allows your tulpa to make whatever changes it wants, should it want to of course. If anything, it may like the placeholder you gave it.

[Redline]

The body/form is a serious decision, but it's still the sort of thing you can play around with. Nothing is final, and about a thousand things will change. I started off with something humanoid, and I just went for the gold with the forcing. I was never all that hard for me to visualize, so I guess I got lucky in that department.

 

 

For personality, I started doing the box method that everyone told me was one of the more basic ones, the whole 'slip of paper with a trait on it' deal, and then I changed it to engraving belt buckles because paper didn't feel right for me.

[ThunderClap]

Thinking up personality traits for my tulpa was pretty easy and I did it within a matter of -1 week. I had a good general idea on what I wanted my tulpa to be like when I first learned about them.

 

Appearance was a bit of a tough one. Placidia went through several different forms (including some non-human ones) before becoming how she is now. It took me way longer than I expected before we found a form that fit her perfectly, and that she liked.

[Monoko]

Nexus is based off a imaginary friend I had 2 years before I started. I was certain on the form and loosly based the personality off Link but my mind defaulted to "cute cute cute" when I couldn't think of anything.

The frist guide I used was a file a friend sent called tupperware party but I don't have it anymore. I thought he sent the wrong file at first.

 

Maybe sketch down ideas as well as writting them down? Doesn't have to be good sketches.

[NeonKnights]

I knew how I wanted her to look and behave at the outset, but as you might find with your own tulpa, within about a month she had completely developed a mind of her own and began to change in both personality and appearance. She started out as Eucliwood Hellscythe, an anime character that I wasn't particularly attached to, since I figured a cartoonish character would be easier to imagine than a unique realistic person. It was a form that I knew I wasn't going to miss sorely if she chose to deviate later on.

 

Presently her appearance is completely realistic and unique, though I do notice slight resemblances to people I've known (and been rather fond of). She's confirmed that as her trying to line up with my subconscious "ideals".

 

As for her personality, she's changed a lot from acting like her origin character. One small example: She's much more forward about what she wants, and sometimes she can even be a little aggressive about it. She was never at all aggressive about anything before her personality shift.

 

Now, to really answer your question, I'd say to just pick something you're comfortable with, don't worry about it being unique or anything. Whatever form you choose for them is not likely to be their final form. If you absolutely can't decide on anything, you can even leave your tulpa without a form and just talk to its essence until it decides to make a form for itself. A number of people have taken that route.

[TulpaCouple]

Honestly it was a very free flowing and natural experience. It took time, but it wasn't hard. I letting mind unconsciously choose based on preference and allowed the Tulpa the chance to make adjustments themselves. When creating my second Tulpa, the first Tulpa helped me out a great deal with creating the form.

 

Personality wise, I used five big traits to cover the whole idea of the personality (I could have broken those five traits into 50 or more, but I could get the concept down with 5 alone), but of course I allowed for deviation. No person is the same, opinions and reactions change--I know I am not the same as I was 5 months sago after all. So I got the idea down and essentially planted the seed--and allowed the personality to grow and change. Honestly Jaden's stayed relatively the same anyway, other than a few differences.

[The-Syreth-Clan]

Martina was a character years before I knew about tulpas, so yeah, it was easy.

[Celest]

Both were rather easy for me. I already had a form in mind for Vinyl, and since I wanted to fill that shell with a custom personality, I wanted to make her a compliment to my own personality. I wanted her goofy like myself, yet to be capable of having serious moments in times of need. Gave her a gamer personality similar to my own, as well as a loose taste in music, so that she would adapt it as she pleased as time moved on.