: Re: How do you write boy & girl protagonists without turning them into a love story? I've played with the idea of a multi-book fantasy story for years, where a female and male protagonists' lives

@RJPawlick285

Vote Up Vote Down

I assume you want good ways to have a platonic male-female relationship when they aren't related and about the same age, making it clear to the reader that they are in no way close to having a romantic relationship. I am also assuming that you are not using any sort of maneuver, like creating individual relationships for one or both of them or making one or both of them gay.

It is quite probable that no matter what you try, there will still be a great part of your readers that will expect (or want might the right expression, sometimes they realise you have no interest in creating a relationship between them) some type of romance to develop between them. Try to make them as friendly as possible between each other without making them awkward. In real life it happens very frequently, so I don't see why it should be different in fiction. One way would be to have them be open about their attractions to other people. I don't know which type of fiction you write, but try to use the story in your favour. Are they friends at school? Friends at school often talk about how hot this or that person are. Are they fighting evil? They could have a perfect balance between them that would easily be ruined by a romantic relationship, and that could play a major part in why they couldn't or wouldn't date.

It is common though that friends have some sort of sexual attraction between them, and maybe you shouldn't really ignore that. Of course, it all depends on what you are writing. But have them at some point discuss this possibility with a laugh, or even dismiss completely the idea after a brief "what if", could help. There seems to be a cannon in fiction that if they aren't going to date, they have to see each other as asexual potatoes. Just don't. Friends often realise their friends are good looking. Friends often realise their friends cause them some sort of sexual frustration. Short term friends feel this way more frequently, in opposite to long term friends, who are already saturated by their friends and therefore eventually learned not to care. Sometimes, friends do sleep together before realising that yeah, it's not gonna happen. It's always a good idea to keep in mind that sexual attraction doesn't equal romantic relationship.

There is a lot of things that could cause you problems, but there is also a lot you could work with. There's many, many types of friendships, and there's lots of ways you could create a healthy friendship between them without making two characters who are completely unsexualized to each other. Create their personalities, the setting, and everything else, keeping in mind what you intend to achieve, and I am sure you will be able to create a great story.

(0)

Login to post a comment!