I was not sure where to post this, but this is something I have been thinking about for a book. Do you prefer to read books about sisterhood or friendship? What are your reasons? I think that family can feel warm when they are close, and still have their conflicts but they resolve them, but a focus on friendships creates more opportunity for characters with different backgrounds, which can be more interesting.
I'm not sure I understand the questions. Do you mean it as a binary choice? Like if a story could only be about either sisterhood (but not brotherhood) or friendship with no other possibilities, which would we choose?
Yes. I think it would be difficult to have both elements in one book, depending on how many characters there are.
There's something about family bonds (if they're healthy) that have the potential to be stronger than most friendships. My brother's my best friend. We're very close. We tell each other everything. We're supportive. We've taken good care of each other when one or the other was devastated. We share a history going back almost as far back as I can remember. If you're trying to figure out whether to write a book about sisters or a book about friends, I vote sisters. I love the movie Practical Magic. It's sort of a guilty pleasure (and oddly, the movie is actually better than the book.) They're two very different people and even get into spats, but their love for each other and the depth of their connection makes me cry like a big damned baby every time I watch it. You could explore something similar relationship-wise. Just a thought.
Depends on what you want to say. I can write one story about sisterhood - in fact, I did - see By The Light of a Single Candle in May, 2023 contest - https://www.writingforums.org/threads/may-short-story-contest.175310/ - but in another story I can write about friendship - see The Greatest High in Sept., 2023 contest - https://www.writingforums.org/threads/september-short-story-contest.175883/ - you can write more than one story!
Well, you're talking about theme/subtext, which doesn't really fill up a wordcount so much as it colors the words that are already there. The story itself could be about vampires, aliens, or 14th century workers in a leper colony, and have thematic elements from either column. It's kind of up to you, but there's room for both. Unless you're talking about whether two characters who are going to do XYZ no matter what should be sisters OR friends? That's a different question.
I dont think i've read many sibling books. the only one I can think of is My Sister The Serial Killer. That was a good one and very much on the "how far would you go to protect your sister" type of thing that had me questioning what i would do, tbh. maybe i've read more "sisterhood" ones but they werent as memorable?
I went through my most recently read list to see which I gravitated toward, and I have a healthy mix, although I will say there's a solid "found family" vibe in several of them. So perhaps it's possible to mix the two in a roundabout way?
