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How To Write Friendships

🦢        ―        &. FRIENDSHIPS . ( steps to develop friendships )

Good friendships can turn a decent story into a memorable one as, it not only does it make the reader care more about the story, it adds emotional weight to the story.

But there's one problem. Good relationships are difficult to write. You thought writing romance was difficult? Well, writing friendships is a whole new level of difficulty.

Romances normally rely on professions of love and staring into one's eyes for lengthy periods of time. But, how do you develop friendships?

1) Make Each Character Their Own Person.

If a character's only purpose in the story is to act as "the friend", then it's guaranteed that they will be a flat and uninteresting character. This will lead to a friendship that no reader will be invested in.

Unfortunately, a lot of stories are like this ― you have your main character, and then their 1-dimensional friend who might crack a joke every once in a while. 

We have some good examples from movies like Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings. He isn't just "Frodo's friend" who tags along. He's a gardener and a cook. He has a fascination with elves, a crush on Rosie, and a bad habit of eavesdropping. He is loyal, brave, and can persevere even when there is seemingly no hope.

You see this is in Toy Story as well. Even though Woody and Buzz both have the same goal ― to escape Sid's house ― they both have different journeys. The story means different things to each of them .Woody learns to not be as selfish and Buzz struggles with accepting that he is just a toy.

2) Give Them Something In Common.

Once you have fleshed out your characters, you need a reason for them to be friends. What brought them together? What gives them the reason to hang out? You need to give them similarities.

This can be a number of different things, like:

Status

Hobbies

Struggles

History

Background

Interests

Enemy

Goals

Dreams

3) Give Them Meaningful Differences.

Once you've established their similarities, it's time to dig deeper and create their meaningful differences. Don't just make your characters different. Give them meaningful differences that can build off of each other.

With those differences, your characters can help support their strengths and build them up during their times of weakness. This can lead to a strong friendship.

Here are some great ways to give them differences:

1) Skills.

One of the friend can be smart in terms of intelligence while the other is good at using her hands and inventing stuff.

One might be good at coming up with plans, while the other might be good at improvising when the plan goes awry.

2) Conflict Resolution.

If there is a bully bothering them, one might want to go and blow up at the bully, while the other chooses to ignore it.

If they are having an argument, one friend would want to talk it out maturely, while the other just likes to play devil's advocate and throw more heat into the argument.

3) Personalities.

One is confident and sly while the other is shy and awkward.

A is cold and determined while B is relaxed and compassionate.

B is an easy-going pleasure seeker, and B is a serious planner.

4) Method of Action.

Both friends are trying to break into a house. One will look up videos on YouTube about how to pick a lock. The other friend will just break the window with a rock.

The two friends are trying to persuade someone to do something. One friend uses bribing techniques, and the other friend uses a more passive-aggressive approach.

5) Reaction.

One friend with freak out and the other friend will stay calm.

A will get discouraged and want to give up, and B will encourage them to keep going.

One person is terrified out of their mind, while the other tries to stay positive.

Worldbuilding Questions: Other* Cultures - a handy list for writers with little time

(*not the main characters')

After my extensive [list of questions for towns and cities] for your main setting, there will also be many countries, regions and cultures mentioned in your project, that aren't central to the plot, that you don't have time to delve into detail about, but that still should feel 'real'.

For this use (or, really, in general, if you don't have much time to worldbuild before you start your first draft), I prepared a list with 10 very rough, basic questions to make your world feel alive:

What is their most important export good or economy?

What was the most important event in their recent history, and how long ago did it happen?

What do people from that place wear and how do they style? Are they distinguishable in a crowd?

What is their language, and is it understandable for your narrator? Do they have an accent?

What are they famous for? (People from there, their humor, their food, their skills at something...)?

Are or were they at war / at the brink of war with other people; esp. with those at the center of your story?

What is their most important difference to your "main" / narrator's culture? (Religion, society, economy...?)

Are representatives of that culture seen often in your setting?

What is something outsiders say about them?

What do they say about themselves?

I recommend thinking about these for your side character's home cultures, as well as for your setting's most important regions and neighboring countries. Five or so might even be enough, just as a handy ressource to make your setting feel alive and real.

Millennial girls and women have grown up with the sentiment that independence is one of the most important qualities for a modern woman to possess and that we should never, ever let our happiness depend on a boy. While those are certainly important tenets to try to live in accordance to, it can be hard to reconcile that with our needs as humans who have the basic desire to be liked and cared for. What results is the tug-of-war between finding healthy companionship and maintaining your own self-sufficiency that comes to define late-youth. Katie Crutchfield, the woman behind Waxahatchee, is now 26 years old—a good age to begin the inevitable power cleanse of the toxic relationships in your life. Her third album Ivy Tripp documents this transitional period with even more of the self-awareness and wisdom that characterised her previous work.

There is subtle sunniness to the album suggesting that whatever was burdening Crutchfield during the making of her last two albums has dissipated, most likely through her own will. While, as a whole, Ivy Tripp stays on brand for Waxahatchee, there are a few pop tracks sprinkled throughout that prove Crutchfield is growing sonically as well. Crutchfield’s fingerprints are all over the album and the delicate lo-fi quality harkens back to her debut album of bedroom recordings, 2012′s American Weekend, making the maturation of her lyrics even more apparent.

Even with some of the quieter songs, Ivy Tripp is never boring. However, the standout is, without a doubt, its first single “Under A Rock”. The pop-rock track is Crutchfield’s rallying cry against dudes in whom she’s become maybe too emotionally invested, flippantly singing “Now you’re someone else’s mess tonight”. Later on in the album, in the hazy “<”, she croons “You’re less than me; I am nothing”, articulating the simultaneous self-deprecation and self-assuredness of a 20-something fumbling around with their newfound adulthood.

Ivy Tripp is the light at the end of early adulthood. While it is melancholic, there is a sense of contentment overshadowing that, or at least making it a little more palatable. Listening to it in one sitting feels like going to the beach on a rainy day at the beginning of spring; everything is damp and the air still feels vaguely bitter, but at least you’re finally outside.

Success

If success is not accompanied by failure, it may makes us arrogant, insensitive, and, eventually shallow.

NEGOTIATION AND DEAL MAKING

Negotiation and Deal Making is a wonderful and useful course that helps you to deal with businessman, entrepreneurs and negotiators. In order to put in perspective the “great deal” about the course, we need to compare the past (without any course) and the present (with the course) in my personal experience as negotiator. I still remember when I founded an Expo in Mexico, and most of 30 businesses got together around my business because they found a mutual benefit. I should say they did get a more beneficial interest than me, except for the fact that I was on the spotlight, which brought me a lot of social presence that I used it in the future. However, to gather those businesses together meant to give away concessions against my own interests.

I negotiated with no goal in mind except than putting them together at all costs. I did not know anything about role-playing, deal-structuring skills, critiquing role playing scenarios, negotiation skills development, and self-awareness (except bringing those business together at all costs). With the knowledge of this course, everything would have changed, and mutual benefits would have existed for both parties in the negotiation process.

 Nowadays, the expectations for the future in business negotiations look very promising with this course taken. Someday the student will become a businessman with knowledge on how to deal with people in different environment and scenarios. The road to success is filled with little bumps along the road as Fisher, Ury and Patton (2011) stated in his book Getting to Say Yes “This may require experimentation and a period of adjustment that is not so comfortable” but they highlighted that the negotiation power would be amplified if you believe in you.

 How does the negotiation start in real world? Human beings and their emotions are the main topic in Negotiation and Deal Making. Even though we are rational, there are always emotions involved in any negotiation process that could get the deal in hold, go forward or in an impasse. It would be endless to talk about all of the different kinds of emotions, but Fisher and Shapiro (2005) in his book “Beyond Reason” express that we have five core concerns: Appreciation, Affiliation, Autonomy, Status and Role.  These emotions and their knowledge will play an important role in business negotiation. The outcome of the deal will be successful depending on what perspective we apply towards those feelings: if we recognize, deny, block, or forget those emotions. If we want a successful deal, we need to be proactive and acknowledge all these emotions with our negotiators if we want a successful negotiation.

Do not forget our BATNA that is the most important piece of equipment. Our Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement is the key in case we do not have a beneficial agreement, and we should consider the other negotiator and his BATNA to be more successful.

 What have I learned from this course? I have learned to valuate the other people’s interest because there is a lot of information in them that we can use towards the negotiation process. When there is an obstacle, I try to scrutinize what kind of emotion and where in those 5 categories might fall, or as the author stated, “use the core concern as both a lens and a lever”. Also, I try to acknowledge what is the driving force in that individual whom we are negotiating with. Additionally, I will always review the kind of communication we have with our negotiator (good o bad terms), our communication process (do we listen to each other?), our interests (do we have mutual interest?), our options (What options do we have?), our commitments (what commitments we both can agree with), and finally our BATNA (His BATNA and mine).  It is only then when we could say we are prepared to face the challenge to get a deal done.

       REFERENCES

  Roger, Fisher,, Shapiro, Daniel. (2005). Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate. Penguin Books, VitalBook file.

  Roger, Fisher,, Ury, L.. (2011). Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Penguin Books, VitalBook file.

Fictional Notes and Letters

                Notes, journal entries, lost letters, a book tucked into the back corner of the store—written hints and exposition can show up in storytelling across many forms. Given how useful and easy as it is to divulge information through perfectly scattered journal entries or a conveniently timed newspaper article this form of sharing information is a common trope across storytelling. Because of this, it can feel cheap or unearned.

                So here’s how to use written hints without making your readers feel cheated:

Don’t overuse it

Unfortunately this is the long and the short of it. The more information you have through written mediums, the less realistic or earned it will feel. If you can, keep this trope down to once or twice in a piece. If you can convey that information another way, choose that instead.

2. Create purpose behind its creation

Not only does the writing have to have the relevant information you need to convey, but it has to have a purpose for existence. Remember that people write notes to remember something, something they’d be likely to forget. If you can’t think of a reason someone would need to remember (or would believe they might forget) a piece of information, don’t convey it on a note. Journals are made to review someone’s day or emotions, it’s unlikely someone would journal about the government’s secrets (and even more so, scatter the pages around in an order for the protagonists to find to pace out said information—I’m sorry, I’m throwing just a little bit of shade at the indie horror community ;))

                If it’s not news worthy, it shouldn’t be in the news, etc. and so on. Think about why your written material was created, and by who, and how it ended up where it did.

3. Place it behind a barrier

This is a bit of a sneaky trick, but hiding your written hint behind an ‘effort wall’ is going to make it feel so much more earned to gain. Maybe the journal they’re looking for is within a locked desk, and the characters have to break in to get it. The sticky note with the password is in the suit pocket of the antagonist (they just happened to leave at the dry cleaner that morning). The binder of secrets is behind three security guards and a locked door.

                Any effort your protagonists have to make to gain the information is so much better than just happening to find it, and could trick readers into believing the information was more difficult to gain than it was.

4. Don’t make it too convenient

Lastly, make sure the characters don’t just learn what they were looking for, but a little bit less, and a little something else. If they need to know exactly who was at the party in 2005, maybe they don’t find a list of names, but rather a photo album of people they then have to do a bit more work to identify. The written hint should be that—a hint, a start of a greater solution. If it’s the end, a lot more effort should have come before.

                Good luck!

novlr.org

Character Archetypes and How to Use Them in Your Novel - Novlr

There are twelve character archetypes split into four motivations at the heart of every story. Learn about archetypes and how to write them.

The idea of the twelve character archetypes was suggested by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. His theory on basic human personalities suggests that each human is led predominantly by one of four motivations during their lifespan, split into three separate character traits. These archetypes are now often used by writers as a basis for their characters.

The "Provide Structure" trait includes:

The Caregiver

The Creator

The Ruler

The "Spiritual Journey" trait includes:

The Innocent

The Explorer

The Sage

The "Leave a Mark" trait includes:

The Hero

The Outlaw

The Magician

The "Connect With Others" trait includes:

The Everyman

The Lover

The Jester

Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.

Fernando Pessoa (via quotemadness)

Literature must be a wonder, the most intriguing and hidden secret that nobody can unfold, but the writer