So... please please check out this post on how GPF works and e-mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com.
OK... Now onwards!
Great Relationships
Great stories have great characters and great characters have great relationships. Now, by great I don't necessarily mean warm and loving relationships (though they may be). I mean dynamic, complex, interesting and fun relationships. Think of some of the great relationships in literature. Here are some I love:
Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy
Frodo and Sam
Denethor and Faramir
Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader
Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
See? Many different types of relationships and all of them great! I love stories with deep and complex relationships. (Okay, Wile E. and Road Runner don't have a complex relationship, but still…)
In any story your characters will likely be interacting with other characters, and therefore will have relationships. Those relationships are worth thinking about. All sorts of things influence our interactions with others. Appearance, first impressions, background, prejudices, shared experiences, cultural expectations… The list could go on. Relationships are rarely static, either. They evolve over time for better or for worse as each person changes and grows.
My best advice for creating great relationships is to first know your characters. Know them well. If they are real people to you, then they will interact with each other in real and interesting ways. If they're just cardboard cutouts and their relationships exist only to push the plot along…well, that's not usually very engaging. Make sure character interactions aren't based strictly on stereotypes, either.
I always say that great characters are the most important part of any story, but if you look a little deeper, you realize that the characters' relationships with each other can take your story from ordinary to something special!
So... which are your favorite relationships in books?
I agree! I think making the characters real - with issues and flaws of their own that people can relate to - makes any romance seem that much sweeter.
ReplyDeleteSo true, Talli. Thanks!
DeleteIt's not just how they interact with the main characters - it's how they ping off the others as well!
ReplyDeleteAnd also how others react to them. Not many people think of it, but other characters' reactions to the MCs can really give depth to relationships.
DeleteYeah, I especially like that, Alex. Thanks!
DeleteI prefer characters who don't particularly like each other at first. Makes for great tension!
ReplyDeleteYes, Jessica. I love the tension there too. Thanks!
DeleteGreat post! Knowing your characters inside and out is essential for creating dynamic relationships readers can relate to or at least feel invested in. Two of my favorite relationships in literature are Scarlett and Rhett from Gone with the Wind and Anne and Diana from the Anne of Green Gables series.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Those are some great relationships!
DeleteI'm with Laura regarding Scarlett and Rhett. But also Scarlett and Melanie - a more complicated love/hate relationship even.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I love those really complex ones. Thanks!
DeleteThere are so many it's hard to choose. It's not exactly literary, but I like the relationship of Calvin and Hobbes.
ReplyDeleteOh, me too! Calvin and Hobbes are terrific.
DeleteLove this! You named two of my favorites: Lizzy and Darcy, and Frodo and Sam. I also love: Harry and Ron in the Potter books, and although it's not really a "relationship," Javert and Valjean have such an intense rivalry going in Les Miserables!
ReplyDeleteOh, yes. I love those others too. Especially in Les Miserables. It's so intense.
DeleteCatherine and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. Really is "the strangest love story ever told."
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree with that!
DeleteScarlett and Rhett, can you say chemistry?
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your writing goal Misha.
Thanks, Johanna.
DeleteMy favorite this week is Augustus and Hazel from The Fault in our Stars
ReplyDeleteHaven't read that one. I'll have to check it out!
DeleteThese are such wonderful examples of complex, intense or well-drawn-out relationships. With the ones I recognize, I can easily recall how their interactions with others and others' reactions to them help to develop and build a three-dimensional character in my head.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Angela. I'm glad you enjoyed.
DeleteWhen I was young, the relationship between Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler fascinated me. Also, the friendship/love between Jo and Laurie in 'Little Women'.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Jo and Laurie is another great example. Thanks!
DeleteLove this!
ReplyDeleteI like protag v antag relationships where the antag is sympathetic and the protag is a bit of a jerk, LOL!
Yeah, that can work well sometimes. Thanks, Laura.
DeleteI like characters who know each other so well that they can operate as a unit.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite characters are from Downton Abbey, pick any one of them. Well, Maggie Smith, of course.
Yes. I like those kind also. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI love the examples of the relationships. My favorite of them all is Luke and Darth Vader. I love how it becomes a story of love in the very end.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I tagged you :) Check out this post :) http://sylviavanbruggen.blogspot.com/2012/02/campaign-games.html
Thank you, Sylvia. Me too!
DeleteI find character to be the most important thing to keep me involved in a book. Other things matter of course, but if I feel no connection either good or bad, with the characters, I select another book to read. Brutal? Perhaps. But really, if the author isn't interested enough in the characters to make them shine, why should I give my time to them? Great post. X
ReplyDeleteThanks you. I completely agree about character. The most important thing!
DeleteI'm really surprised that nobody has mentioned Harry, Ron & Hermione. Such a great, complex relationship between the three of them. Friends and romance, jealousy and loyalty. Harry and Ron come together for the simplest reasons in the world, but they have to overcome everything to stay friends. Harry represents everything Ron hates in the world: Harry overshadows him, Harry has money, Harry is close to Hermione. By definition, they shouldn't get along. But there's something deep down inside them that holds them together.
ReplyDeleteYes. Those three definitely have great relationships! Love Harry Potter!
DeleteI think character relationships matter as much as the plot...they are the ones guiding the action/emotion/sequence.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many out there but I loved the dynamics of another forgotten interaction "Sherlock and his Watson, even Moriarty".
Yes, I think so too. And that's a great example!
DeleteI couldn't agree more. Great characters are indeed the best part of a story! Excellent post.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Heather!
DeleteGreat advice on characters! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for hosting me, Misha!
ReplyDeleteAwesome words! I love characters who are diametrically opposite to one another. Makes for great tension and opportunities to allow them to grow.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jack! That does make from some great conflict and tension.
ReplyDeleteHi Misha, Hi Angie! Lovely post on how to flesh out relationships with words! I'm all for complex relationships! I vote for Kermit and Miss Piggy!
ReplyDeleteTake care
x
Hi, Old Kitty! Kermit and Miss Piggy definitely fall into the great relationship category. Thanks!
DeleteYou have been tagged madam! http://eyesoffate.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteKinda hard to top roadrunner and Wiley Coyoye. I do like FBI Special Agent Aloysius Xingú L. Pendergast and his evil brother Diogenes Pendergast.
ReplyDeleteSo true. And I loved Frodo and Sam's friendship in LotR. Great relationships can definitely draw a reader into the book and keep them there.
ReplyDeleteWow the blog is simply awesome, i must say worth reading!
ReplyDelete