Authentic relationships are crucial to developing a compelling story. 

Your main character is at the heart of every story, which is why readers care to stick around. The characters who surround your MC influence them throughout their evolution.

Romantic, familial, friendships and rivalries all have a part to play in any fiction story. 

These relationships influence the plot and shape character development. 

Like every aspect of your story, the characters your MC interacts with must have a purpose. 

They must answer your readers’ constant question: “Why does this matter?”

As Lisa Cron reminds us in her book, “Wired for Story,” relationships are crucial to plot development as they often reveal characters’ internal conflicts.

Done wrong, a relationship can feel pale, forced or inauthentic. 

Various relationships may show up in your story. Each one comes with intricate pain points and unique purposes.

I’ll get into that in future blog posts.

Today, we’ll begin with an overview of relationships within any fiction story: how to write authentic relationships that strengthen your plot.

Use these 6 tips to develop authentic and purposeful relationships for the story that you are writing!

Key relationships in any novel should influence your main character’s journey.

This relationship is there to teach your MC a lesson, push them toward their desires, or reveal a fear or misbelief that they have.

A relationship could also be set up to mirror an aspect of your MC’s life.

For example, perhaps you reveal your main character’s fear of connection by mirroring the opposing ways they approach a platonic friendship vs. a potential love interest. 

Key relationships within your plot should also define emotional stakes for the characters.

What would they lose if this relationship disintegrated? What might they gain by strengthening this bond?

Understanding why a specific relationship matters in your story is crucial to writing authentic relationships that resonate with your readers.

Chemistry and tension are two essential ingredients to crafting believable relationship development.

If a relationship falls flat, your readers have no reason to care.

Sometimes, a character that may be intended as a love interest or someone you thought the reader would like could have them despising your character’s every move.

We must understand this relationship before it is written on the page to avoid these pitfalls.

A tense parent-child relationship will reflect different speech patterns than a secure familial relationship.

For any relationship, whether romantic, platonic or that of the enemy and hero, it’s important to consider how their influence on each other will be reflected in their dialogue.

Ask yourself:

• Does my protagonist’s speech reflect their inner feelings towards this character?
• Are they skirting around the subject or hiding something that they’d rather not have the other know?
• Does this character cause my MC to react abnormally toward them?

Like dialogue, body language can be used to show the relationship between two characters in your story.

Does your protagonist tense up every time they are near their frenemy?

How much distance do they keep between themselves and the romantic interest?

Body language helps to avoid overusing exposition when setting up character-to-character dynamics.

Ask yourself:

• How does this character’s physical actions represent the relationship here?
• How does the MC’s physicality demonstrate their feelings towards this character?
• How does their body language change when interacting with different crucial characters?

Power dynamics often shift as characters evolve throughout the story.

A character who feels little self-worth may gain confidence and thus assert themselves within relationships where they never did before.

To reflect on the varying power dynamics within your book’s relationships, consider tracking their progression throughout the story.

Ask yourself:

• When the audience first encounters these characters, what power dynamics are at play?
• As the MC changes and grows, how does it affect these power dynamics?
• By the conclusion, is there a shift in the power dynamics or will they stay the same?

Any evolving relationship will experience conflict.

A few relationships may be on solid ground from the start such as a parent who pops in and out of the story.

However, these relationships don’t heavily affect the plot or the main character’s transformation.

In the space between your characters’ conflicting desires and beliefs, you find not only tension to intrigue readers but also the key to what your MC will learn along their journey.

Ask Yourself: 

• What is at stake in this relationship?
• What will my MC gain/lose by continuing this relationship?
• How can these characters realistically resolve their conflict or is a clean break best for their growth?

A character who spends the entire story psycho-analyzing their feelings is kinda boring.

A story heavy with exposition exhausts your readers who just wish you’d get to the point.

How a relationship is strengthening or crumbling should be apparent within the actions and conversations between these characters.

Even more fun is when characters dance around what they feel or mean.

Your readers will pick up on the subtext if you use other core areas to write authentic relationships.

Ask Yourself:

• What’s not being said in this scene but should be obvious to the reader?
• How could their words hint at their true thoughts/ feelings?
• How can I use implications or contradictions to highlight their truth?

An unrealistic development of new or old relationships can seem too fast or easy.

I often think of romantic relationships when referring to pacing.

Have you ever read a book where a romantic relationship doesn’t seem deserved?

Chances are that the writer struggled with pacing leaving you uninvested in this duo.

Authentic relationships must either be held up by a realistic past or their progression should be carefully mapped out at a believable pace. 

Ask yourself:

• Has their relationship been given enough time to develop?
• Have they experienced growth or tension that influences their relationship?
• Have characters been provided time to ‘get to know’ and understand each other before big relationship leaps occur?

Use these prompts to check the authenticity of the relationships in your WIP.

Your readers stick around for your characters.

A huge part of what keeps them engaged is the development of key relationships within your story.

If you let relationships evolve naturally throughout the story, you’ll be on your way to developing authentic plots driven by your characters and their relationships.

Are you wondering how to create authentic characters?

Check out this blog post on creating multidimensional characters.

Let’s learn from incredible fictional relationships!

Share your favourite fictional relationships in the comments. Tell us why they work so well.

Talk soon!

Julia