Getting characters to bond smoothly and believably

Anybody else have trouble with this? I'm trying to get two main characters together, but I don't want the writing to be bland. Most people are bored when reading everyday life.

If you have any experience here, it can help enormously.

Also: if you don't treat it like everyday business, and go at it like it's something really really special (if that's what you were going for, but that's what it sounded like you were going for), and perform adequately as a writer, you should be able to make it poignant.

edited 20th Jul '11 9:56:08 PM by TheEarthSheep

Nope, no experience. I can make a simulation of it in my mind, though.

I'm trying to make it fairly subtle, but obvious. Technically, he's a peasant and she's the daughter of the most powerful man on the entire floaty-thing (lingo I use in my notes), so they should NOT be toghether, but how they're able to bond is that he doesn't know until about a hundred pages in (my goal is 300), by which time he's already in love with her.

I think the key to this is just providing multiple oppertunities for characters to interact. Make sure they have time to be around each other, and make sure they talk to one another. It's OK if they talk about the situation at hand, but it's even better if they can talk about things related to the situation that are also fitting to them. For example, if they have to break into an abandoned warehouse (I have no idea what kind of plot you're running, but just as an example), perhaps A can remark on how similar it is to one of their favorite movies, and B can talk about how they love it too, and they can get sidetracked in discussing their shared love of movies until they get snapped back into reality. That kind of thing.

Currently? They're alone together, on a cool summer night. In a forest.

I'm tempted to have the girl, who is more snarky, crack a joke about it. But that'd break the atmosphere.

I did, yes, at first, but eventually I realized, that while I want the readers to be able to see that one particular couple (also a noble and a lower-than-peasant prostitute) was actually meant to be happy together, that doesn't mean that all of that couple's interactions with each other have to be smooth-sailing.

I examined what each character wanted underneath each of their facades, and I listened to what each had to say.

And then I built arguments around each - I let them disagree and have rows about things. I let them go for months at a time without seeing each other (due to social constraints), and then be angry when one just shows up with little to no explanation. I let them be at-odds with aspects of the others' personality, even though they love each other deeply - the noble, for example, is a sadist who desires control in her life and finds it by controlling the women whose contracts she buys and then doesn't see again because she's deeply afraid of attachment; the prostitute is definitely not a masochist nor submissive, but is aware of the deep affection the woman has towards her and so puts up with it, to a degree. However, by the end of the story, the control thing has become a much bigger issue for the other woman, as she has slowly lost her indepndence to crippling disability.

When I started letting them behave like people, and less like "characters," that's when things really started to gel, and the kinks I'd been struggling with before worked themselves out.

I agree completely with Freezair: opportunities for interaction and "the little things" are key, as well.

edited 20th Jul '11 10:39:22 PM by punkreader

There will be plenty of oppurtunities to put in little things.

Describing the setting might help: A woman is staying at her brother's (the main main character)house because her husband just died. The man also happens to walk in on a group of thugs mugging a noble-looking woman. He quickly kills one and knocks out the other. She is thankful, and asks to take refuge at his place to get away from her "dull" life (her father is a tyrant, and rules the "country". I dunno. It's a natural land mass modified to float by mankind).

There was a cute little scene where the noble girl changed clothes in the poor guy's livingroom.

I think I'm getting the idea now. Thank you.

edited 20th Jul '11 10:52:53 PM by dollink

It's good that they have time to be together, but in terms of bonding, it's important that they talk about things besides themselves. Have them do random little things together. There's a reason Curtain Fic is quite popular—character's bonds are often most apparent when they're doing mundane activities together. But the way they talk with one another, their ease of doing things like cracking jokes and even taking digs at one another—that shows the audience how comfortable they are around one another, which is what makes them feel like they actually like each other. Audiences don't actually mind reading about mundane things too much, so long as they're interesting and help advance the story.

I love reading about everyday stuff for some reason. I'll try to add mundane stuff. I just have to get them out of the woods (literally...).

I advise against over-doing it with little things, though; a few, here and there, show depth of character and relationship. Too many/too much make a reader say "okay, enough already".

Well, yeah, of course.

I think this is much easier than you believe it to be.

Write out some interactions between them with a little romantic tension (if romance is what you are aiming for) and post some of it here. I'd be happy to read it.

Provide a little backstory though, for contexts sake.

Backstory is higher up on the page. I'll try, but it'll be a while.