Tips For New Systems
Unsure if this'll become a "series" of posts, but if any newer discovered systems want them, I'll brew up ideas.
Please keep in mind what might help me, might not help you! Also, we're a C-DID system, some stuff we mention might not align with entirely non-trauma systems. :] We hope all origins get help out of this regardless.
Acronyms...
We love acronyms, blame SpongeBob for that! Here's a few, hopefully easy to remember, acronyms for your use!
A.S.S.I.G.N
Age, source, sexuality, internal role, gender, name.
N.A.P
Two meanings for this one! Name, appearance, purpose OR name, age, pronouns.
R.O.L.E
Role, orientation, location, experience
Speaking of documentation...
Getting caught up in documenting things will stress you out, at least in our experience. We highly suggest letting headmates make themselves known first before documenting them, however this obviously won't work for everyone.
When documenting write down what you consider important (or let whoever wants to make themselves known write down what they consider important about themselves). I gave you acronyms for funsies, but in reality you don't need to write down anything I gave if it's not beneficial to you.
Omit age if it doesn't matter, omit gender if it doesn't matter, omit roles if it doesn't matter. You don't need to document things. (Although, we are biased and personally thing it's helpful, so do with that what you will. You're free to ask questions about it.)
Aesthetics is a trap (in our experience).
Don't get caught up in making things look nice. This is for you first and foremost (and a potential therapist second if you have one) so please don't stress yourself trying to find the perfect symbol to put next to a custom field title. I promise you you'll be okay. You aren't faking or ugly as a system for not following along with the crowed of aesthetics (and those that do make theirs aesthetic aren't faking either!!! people are allowed to like pretty things!!!)
Going back to roles...they're to be helpful.
Roles are for you. If you have headmates that want to identify as a role, let them. Even if you don't think it'd suit them. Let them try on the label.
Even though roles are, somewhat, social constructs you might notice a few headmates align with common system "tropes" (unsure how to phrase this) such as a protector, persecutor*, little*, and even gatekeeper.
*persecutor is something I have qualms with as a label headmates put on other headmates. Do so with caution and I suggest, if applicable, asking said "persecutor" if they want to be titled that.
This is why I suggest letting them try on their own labels. Getting assigned persecutor when you're, for example, a protector doing your job can cause internal conflict. Sometimes helpers do things you don't like, maybe keep this in mind.
Also, not all persecutors, if they actually are one, are "misunderstood/misguided". I suggest reading this post about "evil" headmates I made.
*littles aren't just 5 year olds and can be complex in age; age varying, age flux, adult headmates that identify as little due to being permaregressed, etc. not deminishing the systems that do have below 10 year old littles, however your littles don't need to be innocent beans (in lack of better wording) to be littles.
Self expression's important
I made a small post about this here. The end of that post reads:
But just because you're not showing it off to the internet or a family member doesn't mean it's not seen, is it?
Was about headmates. You, whoever you are, can draw and express yourself and it'll eventually get seen by another headmate eventually.
Expressing yourself, in our opinion, is vital to being a system. You need to get your system...well...out of your system lol.
"How can I do that?" Good question!
How to express yourself as a system!
All of these have examples! These are all from us; no AI used!
Make a showcase of voice claims
Userboxes (feel free to send an ask about templates or making one of your own)
Draw yourself/others (look below!)
Site used, everything else is by Blade! Heart Burst is his ponysona. That cutie mark took ages to draw, by the way.
You can use bases to express yourself! We promise it's okay!!! Art is fun!!!! Deviant Art's entire culture was around being yourself and bases are EVERYWHERE. Feel free to shoot us an ask for our favorites!!!! (PLEASE!!!!!!!!)
One last note...
Let your headmates front. I'm not joking.
