Finally we come to the end of our series, where we’re going to tackle what might be the trickiest type of platonic relationship to write. And yes, you read the title right. We’re talking about friends… who stay friends.

OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES:

Platonic Relationships #1: Mentors

Platonic Relationships #2: Parents

Platonic Relationships #3: Siblings

If you’ve already written characters who are friends, you might have noticed how difficult it sometimes is to push that they are never, ever going to be in a romantic relationship with each other. That’s hard to conquer, but even worse is when friends of the main character are pushed to one side and never developed. We’re going to talk about friendship as well as some spIcY side character development.

FRIEND TO FRIEND

Friends are interesting characters to write because they can often take on many different roles. It’s always fascinating to explore how different personalities can play off from each other and contrast or reflect the main character.

Oftentimes, a good friend becomes a piece of the main character’s heart. And if written well, you can make your reader support their deep friendship with each other 110% 😉

Contrasting characters

Some of the most dynamic (platonic) duos you can get have characters who are the complete opposites of each other. Take a reserved, yet well-mannered scientist and a wild and hyperactive tour guide, for example. They sound nothing like each other. However, don’t just throw in two contrasting characters just because – when making friends, there has to be a click when both of them realize they like the other person enough to be friends with them. This could be through a common interest, a mutual admiration for a specific quality the other has, or through time spent with each other.

We’re all different

When it comes to friends who are nearly alike, there has to be something that makes the reader see them as similar, yet still their own persons. This has nothing to do with physical appearance, although that does help a bit. You’ll want to make sure that they have different personalities. Dig deep with this!

Here are some starter questions to ask yourself:

• What characteristic(s) does Character A have that Character B doesn’t?
• What turns off Character A? How is this different from what turns off Character B?
• What is the breaking point for Character A? Character B? Make sure they’re not the same 🙂

Play around with their desires, too. Perhaps Character A wants to be a famous actor, but Character B dreams of becoming the number one chef in the country. Both want to rise to fame, but in different ways.

Quality over quantity

The one thing to be wary of when writing friends is that you don’t want to put in too many. Not only do too many characters force you to divide page time as evenly as possible between them, it also means you run the risk of making your side characters way too flat.

A lot of beginner writers have multiple POVs in their books – up to ten sometimes. Even published books have multiple POVs in them. If done well, this can make for a great story, but what I often see are flat, underdeveloped characters.

Multiple POVs aside, I’ve found that I’ve had to push many a side character to the back so my main character can shine. This makes sense from a glance, but what’s really happening is that the main character’s friend has no real role in the story. They’re just there for the sake of being there.

I’m actually facing this problem now as I edit my novel. I have a couple of side characters who are supposed to be my main character’s friends, but don’t actually add much to the story. Sure, they each have one or two key scenes, but that doesn’t amount to much. By the end of the story, the reader still doesn’t know much about them. I have a couple of options to solve this issue:

1. Rewrite the plot to give them a larger role.

One way to tell if a character does not have much use is by imagining what would happen if they were to be taken away from the plot. If the story still works without them, you have your answer – they’re not necessary. To fix this, you could take out your outline and add, delete, or edit a couple of scenes to give them a larger role so they are indispensable to the book.

2. Introduce them later into the series.

If you’re writing a series and you know a specific character is going to be important later, perhaps it’s better to introduce them later on in the series, when they’ll actually have an important part to play. This may not work all the time, but it’s still a good option for those characters you can’t get yourself to cut.

3. Cut them out entirely.

If neither of the above options work for you, sometimes the best yet most painful choice is to cut them out of the story altogether. There’s a reason why the saying kill your darlings is accurate – editing is hard, and as writers, sometimes we need to make sacrifices for the good of the story.

I’ve cut characters before, but for one that I especially missed, I reworked her to have a quick cameo in the story – as an extra. It’s a small easter egg that no one but me and my original alphas will know about, and it helps me cope with her loss 🙂

It’s your story

Okay, in the end, after all that’s said and done, there’s really no way to stop other people from shipping characters that you never shipped in the first place. It can feel strange to have your characters in other peoples’ hands, but it’s still your story. You decide what’s canon (factual to your story), your readers can write fanfiction and dream if they so desire.

Platonic relationships need more attention in today’s fiction. I’m seeing a lot right now, but they’re often subplots (and that’s okay). Still, with so much focus on writing good romance, it can be nice to have advice on writing good platonic relationships.

Back at you!

As we finish off April, tell me what you thought about this series on platonic relationships. Was it helpful? In-depth enough?

Do you think side characters are often underdeveloped and one-sided? Or that modern literature needs more characters with platonic relationships? Also, tell me if you’re going to have to make some editing sacrifices for your book 😉

All the best,