Writing a Platonic Relationship
I'm writing a story, however I just can't seem to form a platonic relationship between my characters.
Whenever I am writing my characters (Eric and Abigail), it feels they should just kiss and make out on the spot. The thing is I do not want their relationship to go too fast but let a few events pass before I make them committed to each other.
I (and they) know that it's love, but don't want to commit because of the situation they are both stuck in. What are the qualities of a platonic relationship and how do I apply this to my characters in my writing?
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2 answers
It rather sounds like what you are writing is not a platonic relationship but a frustrated romantic relationship. There are, of course, millions of stories of frustrated romantic relationships. And the key to them always is, what is it that is causing the frustration.
The basic shape of story is desire meeting with frustration. This is followed by an attempt to overcome the obstacles that cause the frustration, followed by either success or failure.
If it feels like the characters should just fall into each other's arms, that suggests that it is not clear what is preventing them from doing so.
Readers expect stories to be shaped like stories. They look for the story shape in the work as they read. If there is a guy and a girl, story shape says they must fall in love, be kept apart by various forces, struggle against those forces, and either be joined or separated forever. If it feels like they should be joined now, that is probably because the story does not contain anything that would keep them apart. If so, the solution is to provide a sufficiently cogent obstacle so that the reader recognizes at once that they can't possibly kiss.
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A few things to consider:
- If you're eager to write the "good stuff" where your characters are kissing, go ahead and write it out of sequence. Get it out of your system. Now you can go back and create the "building up to it" part.
- Your characters can acknowledge that they are attracted to one another but that it's not the right time, for whatever your obstacle reasons are. That's not platonic, but it's not full-on snogging either.
- Think about your own platonic (non-romantic) friendships. Practice writing those scenes. Describe the last time you hung out with one or more of your friends to whom you are not attracted. Write about how it feels and what you did. Use that as a template to write about Eric and Abigail not being attracted to one another.
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