Personality Forcing by JDBar
Personality forcing can be considered an optional step in the process of creating a tulpa, and it’s entirely okay for you to not force a personality at all. Your tulpa can and will develop its own traits and quirks naturally through life experiences. However, it may aid your tulpa’s development to at least partially define her personality as a groundwork for your tulpa to grow or deviate from. The act of personality forcing itself also puts a lot of focus on your tulpa being a separate sentient entity from you, giving you a nice head start on her becoming an autonomous being. There are many ways to influence or define your tulpa’s personality, and what will work best for you may not work as well for someone else. So I’m going to cover several forms of personality forcing that you can experiment with and employ on your tulpa: list-based trait forcing, symbolic trait forcing, parrot forcing, and music forcing. Each of these are varied enough from each other that at least one of them should cover your needs sufficiently.
List Based Trait Forcing
This method of personality forcing is covered in the earliest guides of modern tulpa creation. It’s very straightforward, and consists of defining your tulpa’s personality with an outline of many broad traits. In FAQ Man’s Personality Guide, Dane suggests listing about 30-35 traits, and speaking directly to your tulpa about how those traits are manifested in her. You should talk to your tulpa about, “how the trait helps them rationalize, how the trait works within their logic system, how the trait plays a role in morality, their perception, their likes, dislikes, social endeavors, faith, personality, quirks, emotions, how the trait makes them interpret their own emotions, how the trait plays a role in their hobbies, and many other things not listed here.” The advantage to this method is that you will become very intimate with how your tulpa’s personality works, as the whole process is quite straightforward. The disadvantage is that this method is generally slower and less exciting than other methods.
Symbolic Trait Forcing
This method of personality forcing is also covered in earlier guides, but is aimed at people who may not be content with the rinse-repeat trait lecture method. It essentially consists of creating a more abstract way of attributing personality traits to your tulpa that resonates well with you. Common symbolism includes letting the tulpa absorb trait-orbs, drinking trait-potions, etc. This method gives much room for your own creativity. For all anyone cares, your tulpa could be eating broad trait cupcakes with more intricately defined trait sprinkles on top. That advantage to this method is that whatever symbolism you come up with, there’s really no way it can fail. The disadvantages are that is can also be somewhat slower than other methods, and has a little more room for some unpredictably.
Parrot Forcing
Parrot forcing is a less commonly used method, since the acts of parroting and puppeting tulpas are somewhat controversial, and their effectiveness is up for debate. I personally find this to be the most efficient method for myself, although it does have its cons compared to other methods. Our personalities today are largely defined by our experiences and memories as a person. We aren’t just born with personality traits -- genetic predisposition aside. The goal of parrot forcing is to allow our tulpa to experience life so it can develop a personality in a similar way we do. Where other methods of personality forcing involve telling your tulpa how to act, parrot forcing involves letting them experience how to act through parroting/puppeting. What do you do while you puppet your tulpa? Whatever you want. Make her walk, make her talk. Take her places in your wonderland, force food and games for her. Act through her the way you think she would act. Is she lovable and sweet? Have her hug you whenever you visit her in your wonderland. Is she totally tsundere? Make her act like she wants nothing to do with you (but really she does). You’re basically kind of roleplaying her using her body, while you’re with her in your body. When you start to feel like you’re really getting used to this exercise, possibly in a few days, stop puppeting cold turkey and let your tulpa take the reigns. The advantage of this method is that with it you can tackle personality, speech patterns, gait, and many other behavioral things all at once. The disadvantage of this method is that you may feel like you missed out on watching your tulpa grow from scratch through it’s own will and intentions.
Music Forcing
Forcing personality through music is something I’ve been experimenting with on my youngest tulpa. It involves creating a playlist of songs with themes, moods, or lyrics that reflect the personality you want your tulpa to have, and listening to it with your tulpa while refocusing the meaning of the songs to their personality. It’s like attributing a theme song to them. For example, I wanted my tulpa to be a really energetic party animal, so I played a lot of energetic J-Pop songs towards her. The advantage of this method is that you can tackle both personality and voice at once, if the songs you are playing contain the reference voice you want to use for your tulpa -- not to mention that it’s really fun in general. The disadvantage is that it can be the most unclear method of defining your tulpa’s personality, and you may get tired of listening to the same songs over and over.
Creating Your Own Method
There’s a possibility that none of these methods really suit you, or sound appealing. Fortunately, tulpaforcing can be a very creative process, as the rules and laws of it are easily bent by your own will. You may want to go down the path of concocting your own personality forcing method. The focus point of your method is how well it can communicate the host’s intentions to the tulpa, which may actually vary depending on your personality and the desired personality of your tulpa. Perhaps if you wanted a very artistic tulpa, you could create a forcing method involving abstract painting with your tulpa, collaborating with her to create paintings that convey her personality. Or maybe you’d like a tulpa who enjoys traveling around with you; you could take your tulpa to places that instill emotions and memories you’d like to correlate with your tulpa’s personality. There are many possibilities, but the most important bit is that your method can clearly convey your intentions to your tulpa to properly influence her personality. Other than that, you're at your own creative freedom.