{"id":9462,"date":"2016-01-31T23:58:40","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T23:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2016\/01\/31\/hey-so-this-is-kind-of-a-stupid-question-but\/"},"modified":"2016-01-31T23:58:40","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T23:58:40","slug":"hey-so-this-is-kind-of-a-stupid-question-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2016\/01\/31\/hey-so-this-is-kind-of-a-stupid-question-but\/","title":{"rendered":"Hey, so, this is kind of a stupid question, but– all my novels depend on people growing closer together within the time frame of the novel. This might be in a platonic way, or a romantic way, but no matter what, the characters need to go from strangers to at least good friends who trust each other, if not lovers. But I don’t know how to do that. I’ve been trying to figure it out for essentially the entirety of my writing life, but I don’t know! Help?"},"content":{"rendered":"

legit-writing-tips<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

You said it yourself – building trust between your characters is instrumental for what you want to happen. So let\u2019s look at how trust is built in relationships.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1. Communication. No relationship grows without healthy, two-sided communication. So give your characters opportunities to talk to one another. If they\u2019re not naturally chatty, force them into situations where they\u2019ll need to or want to speak to one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2. Trust is based on history – not on short-term decisions. To that end, as your characters begin to develop relationships with each other, be sure that they begin to consider the consequences of their actions in the long term, and not just in the short term (unless their character dictates otherwise).<\/p>\n

3. Be sure your characters are honoring their commitments to one another, both large and small. If someone says to another character,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ll keep you safe,\u201d be sure they show that they\u2019re helping to keep that character safe in some way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

4. Ensure that your characters are showing one another respect. Even if they don\u2019t have respect for one another at first, this is something that can grow over time. Gimli and Legolas don\u2019t respect each other\u2019s mutual races at first, but getting to know one another allows them to gain a respect for each other\u2019s heritage despite their initial heritages in LoTR.<\/p>\n

Above all, remember that relationships are a constant work in progress. So as you\u2019re building your plot, remember to also be building your relationships. You may even build a chart for each relationship that coincides with the plot, and scribble in notes that help you figure out what should happen with each relationship so you can be sure to write in certain details and moments to help with the development of their relationships as you go along. Ultimately, it\u2019s all about remembering to let the relationships constantly grow, along with the characters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

legit-writing-tips: You said it yourself – building trust between your characters is instrumental for what you want to happen. So let\u2019s look at how trust is built in relationships.\u00a0 1. Communication. No relationship grows without healthy, two-sided communication. So give your characters opportunities to talk to one another. If they\u2019re not naturally chatty, force them … Continue reading Hey, so, this is kind of a stupid question, but– all my novels depend on people growing closer together within the time frame of the novel. This might be in a platonic way, or a romantic way, but no matter what, the characters need to go from strangers to at least good friends who trust each other, if not lovers. But I don’t know how to do that. I’ve been trying to figure it out for essentially the entirety of my writing life, but I don’t know! Help?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3384,137],"class_list":["post-9462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-important-life-and-writing-advice","tag-writing","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}