This is my first post on here, though I've been reading and commenting on a few today. I hope someone can give me some advice. As the title says, I want to bring two of my main characters together naturally. I don't want my readers to suspect too much, though I do want them to ship the idea. My problem is that since I already know they will end up together, I'm having a hard time making their friendship seem just that. I don't want them to think it will lead anywhere else until the very last page of my first book. Background on characters. Fiction/Fantasy/Young Adult based. LGBT based/2 guys. Jake (MC/1st person POV) and Arthur become friends. Each date girls in the beginning. Jake's gf "dies" early on. She actually ends up joining the enemy and becoming bitter, blaming Jake for abandoning her. Jake dates a guy later on, and falls in love with him, and that falls to hell. Nothing to do with Arthur/they don't get together until book 2. My main issue is that I keep creating scenes with Jake and Arthur that makes it too obvious they'll end up together. I want to keep Arthur's gf jealous of how close they are, and I want Jake's bf to feel the same, but I want it to be more of a tease and less of an actual development. I have been stuck on this for a while.
My suggestion is to stop making scenes that any kind of relationship between the two is fostered too heavily, but have then gain experiences and spend quality time doing whatever is required for the story plot to progress together. You already said this romance is slated for book two, which means it really isn't pivotal, and any happenstance slight direction towards their romance should be arbitrary at best. Bottom line, focus on the plot. Have them spend time together as partners helping one another or working together. Make it a more brotherly relationship. And if there are hints of the relationship, make them vary slight and have a frequency upgrade as the story progresses. I would really worry about getting book one completely done before I would worry terribly about the next.
Thank you for the feed back. I've tried to go along with that before, but their relationship is actually a giant part of the entire series. Like HUGE. So I have to tackle this challenge before I can finish the first book because without out those parts, it makes no sense to just jump into it in book 2. The progression is what I have the hardest time on. My beginning is fairly good. I show how close they are like family, without giving things away. But around the middle when I introduce Jake's bf, I start having problems. Because I want him to love his bf, but I don't want him to lose the attraction he has for Arthur at the same time. So sometimes it either goes way too much for his bf or way too much for Arthur. I used to have Arthur dating a guy, but then I thought about how that would give my readers too much hope, so I made him have a girlfriend instead. I am so happy to have made that change, and it helped out a lot, however, I can not do the same for Jake's bf. And I can't delete him because he's the entire point of book 1. I could be overthinking things too because I already know the ending. So I might be able to read into things more than a regular reader. I just don't know though.
I believe I was confused by your first post. Is this a fantasy romance series you're trying to produce here? I believed this was a fantasy series only from your first post. If the romance is the core of the plot, then I would correct my statement. You should focus on all those little details and tensions between the two. They could have a struggling plotline to learn and figure themselves out mentally together. Considering they both are dating women at the beginning, there should probably be an impetus to why they both change what attracts them. What I said about their struggles together and experience depending on each other should be played out higher. The tension of the boyfriend could be a core plot issue as well. Creating a relationship rift between them that culminates in events that push it to the edge, could really bring excitement to the story. Just some thoughts.
Thank you, and I'm sorry for confusing you. It is a primarily fantasy type story, however a lot of the story is dependent on them. I can't explain it without giving too much away, even though it makes it sound so sappy. Its actually a lot crazier then that . . . and a lot more sad and bloody too. Anyways, thank you again for the reply/revaluation of my post. It makes me feel a little better that I might not be totally destroying things after all.
Characters Meeting other characters will happen naturally during meaningful events driving the story forward. Introduce some candidates and pick your second main character when you have found the match with interesting personality flaws and a memorable introduction. You can write a side-story testing your characters and then remove the less memorable characters from the final story. A good story can be used once but good characters will write many good stories for you. Story Getting there is the hardest part, so don't ruin the whole journey with weak motives and unlikely events just to get the first plot you had in mind. The best out of ten abstracts going quickly forward will probably give you both better plot and a natural way into it for free. Then flesh it out with more details and see if it still sounds emotionally credible with all the motives.
It seems to me that the reader will be mentally pushing them together. I would! You'll need something visceral. Maybe think in terms of a bad habit or quirk or physical quality that (appears to) make attraction impossible.
I was thinking about that. I considered having Arthur being verbal about woman, but I thought that would take away from his natural character. I just need to fnid the right bad habit ><
