: Re: How can I get 2 characters to bond while standing alternate watches? Setting is standard space opera. I am writing a story in which 2 characters are crewing a spaceship. The characters are:

@Mendez196

Any budding relationship needs to overcome a barrier in order to be interesting, and this separation of watches is total genius in this regard.

The log is a great mechanism for communication, where the prosaic business of running a ship become a vehicle for developing more human contact. Kind of reminds me of J.J.Abrams' book "S" ("Ship of Theseus") where the two characters exchange marginalia in a library book for months before actually meeting.

But there's so much more which is possible: one character adjusts the seat to be lower, or crumbs on the desk, or a whiff of scent, or a file left open on the computer, or a problem left unsolved...

In fact, to me, the main challenge is not wanting to have the two characters actually meet at all at shift change. So either can speculate on what the other looks like etc. Which brings up the question of point of view. Do we see this from one character's perspective or both?

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