Developing Character Relationships

Character Relationships

How hard is it for you to create character relationships? Do you pre-plan them, or do you end up letting them develop as the novel goes on?

For me, "writing character relationships" is basically synonymous with "writing a novel." My novels are 98% character-based and, since romance is my home genre, a lot of the information, plot, and storytelling is done through their relationships -- or the lack thereof, depending. That's not saying that I can't write a novel that's not centered around a relationship (because I'd like to think that I can), but in regards to my series that I'm typically writing in? A lot of times, just the pairing of the main character and whomever it is that they will be dating is all I know about a book when I think it up.

Writing character relationships comes pretty easily to me at this point. That probably goes / went without saying after the previous paragraph. But, that's also a very misleading statement. In fact, I almost want to say that it's a borderline lie.

Maybe the relationship is easy at a surface level, but then when you get down to writing the dirty details, it's not so easy any more, especially when writing a huge series. No two relationships in real life are the same, so fictional relationships should follow the same vein, right? Well, theoretically, yes. They should. But that's where it starts to get hard. There's only so many different ways to write a first date. Eventually, things start to get repetitive (at least in your own head) and it's almost a crippling fear of mine that they're also going to come across that way to my readers. I don't want to bore someone and I don't want to write the same book seventeen times. I think (fingers crossed) that I'm not and that the differences that are there are strong enough that I'm avoiding that sort of thing for the most part, but everyone has their insecurities; that's one of mine.

Also, as a planner, I do typically pre-plan out most of my major fictional relationships. It's a control thing. I like to know what's going to be happening in my own novels to avoid the winding rambling chapters of death that I would otherwise be left with. But, that's not to say that things always work out as I'd intended. And sometimes the way they develop within the novel themselves is to blame for plots changing and novels (in the form of prequels and sequels... And sometimes entirely new spin offs...) being born. Yeah, that's happened to this particular series more than once already. Awesome, right?

My favorite example is Erika and Colin (RIP Erika and Mike). They are a part of the Mississippi region of the series and I thought it would just be the cutest thing for Lindsey and her best friend (Erika) to end up happily with another pairing of best friends. As a modern-day Southern Belle, I just thought that would be an adorably appropriate ending for Linds. Unfortunately, Erika had other plans. See, she and Mike? They don't really work together. I should have known that putting two opinionated, hard-headed, sarcastic, world-hating assholes together wouldn't work out for very long from my own real life experiences. But I guess I thought that if I were the one in charge that I could change that and make it work. And I probably could've forced it, to be entirely honest. But then... Then I created Colin. He was meant to be a background character in SLS. Nothing more than a passing name of a character who happened to work alongside Erika in the coffee shop downtown. I wrote a prompt featuring the two of them for Runaway Tales (back when I was still posting there) and people liked it. I had a few more ideas for their arc, so I penciled those into my plans and intended for that to be the end of things with Colin. Now he had back story and a little bit of depth so that if he ever got a speaking part in SLS, he wouldn't just be a flimsy piece of cardboard. 

Except then he kind of stole my heart. And Erika's, much to her own disappointment. And Mike's (except... Well, never mind. That's delving too much into my plot if I keep going down the road that was starting to traverse). 

Anyway, long story short, Erika and Mike? They're not forever and I'll have to think of another way to incorporate that adorable best friends duo love story idea into the series, if I want to use it still. But Colin? Colin and his smarmy personality are here to stay because of the amusing and interesting way that his relationship with Erika developed during writing.

Alas. That's enough about relationships today. I'll continue this topic next week! 

This was written for the WriYe Blogging Circle post for February.