: Re: How do I write a friendship between a boy prince and an older commander? In my story, there is a certain man in his late twenties, who is one of the commanders in a war against a great

@Phylliss352

Vote Up Vote Down

The concept of friendship covers a lot of ground. As you note, the twenty-year difference would be a much different thing if the characters were ten years older. A friendship between a 30-year-old and a 10-year-old could work if they came from a common background; that is, they both grew up in the same neighborhood. Add royal status to the mix and you have a hard problem.

The only scenario that occurred to me was that the older man lost a child (and perhaps a wife) and the royal boy becomes a substitute for the lost child. Let the child have a lost parent or a distant parent that is strict and demanding. The boy wants to do well but does not know how to. The man knows what to do but has no one to teach. Now each character has a need that the other can satisfy.

On a trip accompanied by the older man and isolated from the Court, the child asks, if this happens, what should I do. The older man replies that it is not his place to instruct but the child, as a Royal, insists. The older man treats it as a hypothetical situation. The child listens, absorbs, and learns. Another question and another hypothetical answer. Then, one of those what-if situations becomes reality; the child reacts properly and the relationship is re-enforced. Rinse, repeat.

Such a relationship has a natural tension, and an inevitable conflict. Just what a storyteller needs to make a story work. However, I am not sure that such a relationship, particularly in the early years, could be called a friendship. It might turn into one when the child becomes a man. But perhaps your story can make that work.

(0)

Login to post a comment!