Real or fake

[Melinda]

Are your imaginary people real people in the world or characters you made up?

Are your characters famous people?  You create your world to be their special someone? 

[Tila]

Mine are all transparently based on real life events that I find inspiring, on real or fictional things I read/hear about, and rarely things I see in TV shows and movies. But most are based on fragmented, and then fabricated moments of real life events...

It's like living a parallel life in my head in which everyone lives in England instead of New York. Haha!

I guess I like imagining all the cultural differences that would change the interactions with the characters.

And I guess it's kind of cool that my real life is actually the muse behind all of this madness! If only I could see myself as I am, with the same glowing halo I give my daydream alter ego.  :P

[Zoe Boehemianlover]

Oh well......I think I'm one of those who actual daydream events including people from their real life! Yes I do and it's really bad and depressing because I have them on facebook and when they upload a statous or a photo I'm like "oh my god look at them! They actually have a real life and I'm not a part of it!"

[Yaz]

My dds involve people I know in real life that I wish I hung out with more and a few famous people..both sets of people are friends with my alter ego.

[Luna]

My daydreams revolve around a character that I made up, using fictional characters that I did not make up (characters from books, TV shows, movies) as supporting characters.

[Rose]

Mine are made up, except for when they discuss political or historical figures. All the celebs in my world are politicians. Also, if someone upsets me in real life, I create an over the top version of them for my characters to talk about. I only do this if I really want to talk to a real person about something but no one cares. My imaginary friends are supportive, haha.

[Katherine Milano]

Usually my characters are borrowed from tv or books. I daydream in the universe of the show or book with those characters, but I will sometimes bring someone from my real life into the story or create a new character in that context. Sometimes I even daydream as one of the characters instead of as my idealized self.

Every once in a while I will create an entirely new world that is usually populated by people from my life and also new people that I create. I used to daydream that way much more often when I was younger. When I daydream that way I find that it is much more healthy and doesn't really feel the same way that the other type of daydreaming does. It is more calming as opposed to stimulating, even if the same type of events are happening. I also feel much more mentally engaged. As opposed to passively daydreaming and searching for emotional stimuli in the plot, it is more focused on creating an interesting plot and discovering things about the characters and their relationships and motives. Still daydreaming, to be sure, and still too fast paced to be put down into an actual story, but closer to storytelling than the other type.

Let me stress, however, that the second type happens like 2% of the time.

[Rose]

I know how you feel. I have 'levels' of daydreaming. Some of it is healthier than others. Working through a problem I have in real life as my alter ego is therapeutic, whereas the extreme emotionally charged daydreaming, which always involves lucid dreams and soaring highs, makes me feel like I'm 'coming down' off a high or I have a hangover afterwards. I used to do this sort when I was younger all the time, now I've cut it right back to about once a month.

Katherine Milano said:

Usually my characters are borrowed from tv or books. I daydream in the universe of the show or book with those characters, but I will sometimes bring someone from my real life into the story or create a new character in that context. Sometimes I even daydream as one of the characters instead of as my idealized self.

Every once in a while I will create an entirely new world that is usually populated by people from my life and also new people that I create. I used to daydream that way much more often when I was younger. When I daydream that way I find that it is much more healthy and doesn't really feel the same way that the other type of daydreaming does. It is more calming as opposed to stimulating, even if the same type of events are happening. I also feel much more mentally engaged. As opposed to passively daydreaming and searching for emotional stimuli in the plot, it is more focused on creating an interesting plot and discovering things about the characters and their relationships and motives. Still daydreaming, to be sure, and still too fast paced to be put down into an actual story, but closer to storytelling than the other type.

Let me stress, however, that the second type happens like 2% of the time.

[Jessica Cottingham]

I have many different "stories" that I daydream about that are separated by fandom (movie, tv show, etc.) and all have an alter ego of me involved with varying degrees of continuity. I have so many it's hard to keep track of, and for that reason I created a book that logs them all (that is how I kind of came to the realization that I have a problem). Each sub-story in a fandom can have individual alter egos of myself as well. Two of my worlds are set in real life and involve people I know (those are the ones I'm quite shameful about actually). On rare occasions there is no alter ego of me and that usually means that I'm planning a story. 

[Cyan]

I'll have daydreams that are only fictional people borrowed from books (with a few original characters of my own) and daydreams that are for fictional people (with real people sprinkled throughout).

[Kay M]

My characters are a mixture of real and made up people.

The main is an idealised version of myself, and also existing in real life is my wife (but she is not in a relationship with me, I just have a crush on her), some of the kids we have together (we both have kids in real life), and some of our relatives, but the rest are completely made up, as well as two of my character's siblings, as I always wanted an older brother or sister. Some of my character's friends are real people who are friends of mine, others are people who I made up.

My characters family has ties to a cult, which actually exists in real life-other real life people connected to it have come up in my daydream, and my character has met the cult leader. None of the real people from the cult are regular main characters, just name dropped, or have occasional contact with the cast. The cult members and ex cult members that are regular parts of the cast are made up or loosely based on real people, or sort of a mixture of different people who I have read about or personality types I have found that are common in people still in it or people who have left. I have worked out how Sally (crazy religious aunt who is also a sociopath) fits in with the other cult members, what they would think of her, and what she thinks of them.

The minor characters who my character meets in her daily life are pretty much the same as people she meets in real life, as I just naturally make things around me fit into my daydreams. When my character is called into her child's school to speak to their teacher because they've not behaved, the staff members she speaks to are either my real life kids actual teachers or teachers from when I was growing up, even though the school they go to is in a completely different town.

[Ivy White]

A large part is borrowed from books, movies, series etc - I get most of my settings from outside (though I do have some completely self-generated universes). Some characters are made-up completely, often my alter-ego is, but not always (if I identify really strongly with a character in the canon I will continue DD as them).

I will incarnate some people from real life into a character, but since it's usually in a fantasy setting they will not be themselves but an elf or a hobbit or something.

[Alexis Faith]

I just play over and over a conversation or situation I was in. The only thing I fantasize about is myself. For example being a more attractive person, longer hair , perfect skin, body and so on.... I guess the problem I have is excepting myself..