: Re: How to refer to siblings who are friends? Two of the MCs in the novel I'm working on are half-sisters, and also great friends. Currently, when referring to them, I alternate between using "sisters"

@Jessie137

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You’re using unequal terms interchangeably.

Imagine Alice is Bob’s sister and also does his taxes. The former is a personal relationship and the latter is professional; for most people those belong in distinct hierarchical levels, with family at the top.

While referring to Alice, if you kept switching between calling her Bob’s sister or Bob’s accountant, it would seem you were downgrading and upgrading their relationship all the time, making it unclear what they mean to each other. That would be even more problematic if the description were to not match the action. For example, Bob sacrificing his life for his accountant Alice is far less relatable than him sacrificing himself for his sister.

While two people being both siblings and friends is neither confusing nor uncommon, it is common to consider those as different levels of personal relationships. Whatever you feel is the most important (friendship or family) to your story and characters, stick with it once it’s established. If you change the term again, that should reflect a change in the characters’ relationship (i.e. be meaningful to the narrative).

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