POLL: Imaginary friends

[kattahj]

Thinking about the different ways in which my ficcer/writer identity is a vital part of me, I came to think of my imaginary friends. When I mention to people that I have imaginary friends, even people who are themselves interested in writing, they sometimes look as if I'd grown an extra head, or claimed to still be playing with dolls. (As a

Comments

[sakuracorr]

Yeah, I was, erm, a fandom person, even when I was young.

Don't so much have imaginary friends now, but I did. I don't mind saying it. I'm the person who still plays imaginary god to the characters in my fics (and they occasionally rebel...). Someone once told me it was like my characters were little people who had decided to come to life and wage war on me. :P

[kattahj]

*grin* That's cool.

I started out with Mary Sues really early, so my imaginary crowd has always been a mix between OCs and CCs, and there's got to be hundreds of them in there by now.

[amaresu]

I never had imaginary friends, but I was jealous of the people that did. I tried to create an imaginary friend once and it didn't work. That was very sad.

I do hold conversations with myself though. In that I will argue both (or more) sides of something to myself and convince myself of something.

[kattahj]

I never had imaginary friends, but I was jealous of the people that did. I tried to create an imaginary friend once and it didn't work. That was very sad.

Aw. That is pretty sad. I know what it's like to want something that just doesn't work for you.

I do hold conversations with myself though. In that I will argue both (or more) sides of something to myself and convince myself of something.

That's interesting - in a way you're your own imaginary friend, then! I often use my imaginary friends for that, sometimes arguing with me and sometimes with each other. Usually each other these days. :-)

[eponine119]

This poll is completely fascinating to me. I didn't have imaginary friends as a child, but as a teenager I had a pretend imaginary friend. I knew I made him up and was pretending to have an imaginary friend, and was open about this fact. I don't know where that falls into the scheme of things.

I played with dolls forever. I would still like play with dolls. For awhile I used them to "act out" my stories, but really I was just playing dolls. And yeah, making clothes for them or styling their hair as though that's not really playing with them.

[kattahj]

What's the difference between a pretend imaginary friend and an actual imaginary friend? That you didn't play with him? I don't quite grasp the concept.

I was always aware that mine were imaginary, though they felt real - still feel real. If I wrote a list of names (I couldn't possibly write all of them, they're about the size of the Marvel universe) and someone asked questions like, "What's the name of Lucy Alcowitz' great uncle?" or "What's Penny Jenkins' bra size?" I'd know the answer right off the bat. Which is more than I can say about people I meet in real life. :-)

I played with dolls forever. I would still like play with dolls. For awhile I used them to "act out" my stories, but really I was just playing dolls. And yeah, making clothes for them or styling their hair as though that's not really playing with them.When my parents refurnished my old room, I had to decide what to do with my old toys, and I took the Sindy dolls and other medium-sized dolls with me, because they've got such personalities to me that I couldn't cope

[go_back_chief]

Heh, interesting poll! And by "interesting" I mean, "do I dare answer it, or will I be classified insane if I do?" To an extent, I think it's a matter of definition, I mean everyone daydreams, right, at least a little bit? Even if the daydreams are very down to earth and just about you, etc

[kattahj]

Interesting! I never talked to others about my imaginary friends, and while they can interact with me there have been periods when they do that a lot and periods when they don't at all, so I suppose in a sense they're more imaginary people nowadays. :-)

It's good to hear some comments like this one - when I got a whole bunch in a row saying they'd never had imaginary friends I got a bit disheartened.

[hibernate]

I have always had imaginary friends, but as I grew older I started to refer to them more and more as fictional characters that I write about. Even though I strictly speaking didn't write about all of them. After a certain age, having imaginary friends stops being cute and people just think you're kind of weird! :)

I never really played with dolls (except to do things like cut them open to see what was inside), but I played with other toys longer than most. At least I thought so - I hid it like you, but if you and I did it both, who knows how many others did too?

[kattahj]

After a certain age, having imaginary friends stops being cute and people just think you're kind of weird! :)

Yeah, I noticed! *grin*

I never really played with dolls (except to do things like cut them open to see what was inside), but I played with other toys longer than most. At least I thought so - I hid it like you, but if you and I did it both, who knows how many others did too?

I suspect a lot of kids did things they were "too old for".

I had very developed worlds for my medium-sized and small dolls, while the big dolls had personalities but not a set "world"; often I used the big ones to pretend I was a poor girl having to take care of her mass of younger sisters and make money so the evil landlord wouldn't throw us out.

I went to a Montessori preschool without dolls, and some people found it a bit odd that I'd immediately grab some building blocks or whatever and engage in the same kind of play acting I did with my dolls.