Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Writing a Platonic Relationship

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...

posted 8y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:49Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24305
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:01:38Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24305
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:01:38Z (almost 5 years ago)
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.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-08-24T21:01:55Z (about 8 years ago)
Original score: 7