Hello! I hope you're well! I was wondering, do you have some advice for the best-friends-to-lovers trope? My characters have been best friends since childhood and start living together but I have trouble getting the romance going as they're already very affectionate towards each other.
I’ve written quite a few articles surrounding the subject that I thought might be helpful, so I’ve linked them below :)
Guide to Writing Friends To Lovers
Tips On Writing Skinny Love
Resources For Romance Writers
Resources For Describing Emotions
Relationships Between Characters With No Connection
Relationships Between Polar Opposites
Skinny Love Prompts
Enemies Turned Lovers Prompts
Best Friends Turned Lovers Prompts
Tol & Smol Prompts
Guide to Writing Enemies To Lovers
“Just Friends” Playlist Listen On Spotify
Childhood Friends to Lovers
Hope these can help you!
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Writing Prompts to Get to Know Your Characters Better
I’ve created a list of 48 different scene prompts to get more familiar with your characters and their relationships, that are more fun (in my opinion) than lists of deep questions to ask yourself about them. Feel free to do as many (or as few) if you want. If you answer any, please tag me!
Individual Characters
Write a description of them from the point of view of their best friend or a person who has a crush on them.
Write a description of them from the point of view of a person who absolutely hates them.
Write their earliest or favorite memory.
Design what their Instagram page would look like. (Yes, even if they’re from a time when they don’t have Instagram.)
Write their death scene, even if you’re not planning on killing them within the piece.
Alternatively, write them a eulogy or obituary.
Your character is in high school, and has become valedictorian and has to give a speech at graduation. Write it.
Write a letter of recommendation for this character. For what? I don’t care. Write it.
Your character has a YouTube channel. Write the script for their most watched video.
Write the notes written on the doctor or therapist’s clipboard after a meeting with the character.
Your character has been arrested. Write the news posting.
What song did your character make an embarrassing dancing video to as a child?
Your character has become a celebrity and is on a talk show, telling the story of a traumatic childhood memory…
One-On-One Friendships
First meeting scene has been done so many times. Write the first fight instead.
Write a series of text conversations between the two.
How would they behave at an elementary school sleepover?
One friend has been detained–arrested, grounded, detention, you choose–and the other is trying to convince the detainer to let them out.
The two decide to enter the school talent show, solely for the $50 Cheesecake Factory gift card prize.
For whatever reason, they must pretend to be siblings. Bonus points if they are different races or just look nothing alike.
One friend got evicted, and has to live with the other for a week.
They’ve been working on a joint bucket list since they became close. Write the list.
One is extremely drunk and the other must stop them, as they have decided that now is the time when they just have to…
Your characters reunite in a nursing home in their 90s after not having seen each other for at least a decade.
A creep hits on one of them, and as friends do, they pretend they’re dating to ward off said creep. Only problem? Said creep keeps showing up.
The maid of honor/best man speech.
Friend Groups
They’ve been in a car together for 6 hours on a road trip, and someone tries the dreaded “Are we there yet?”.
A group picture goes horribly wrong. Write the scene– or draw the picture if you’re a visual artist.
It’s middle school. There’s a snow day. Everyone goes sledding. And then…
Compile the memes that are most commonly sent in the group chat.
They discover one of them has never seen Star Wars. Write the following discourse and movie marathon.
Look up “Most likely to” challenges on YouTube, write down the best questions, and use them with the group. Even better, write a scene where the group is using them with each other.
Write your characters as overly passionate PTA members planning the next school fundraiser.
One of them goes out of town, and the group has to watch their house/plants/pet/kid while they’re gone.
A member of the group was minorly wronged. Everyone decides to enact petty revenge.
The wedding was going so well, until the rest of the friends decided to make the reception a little more interesting.
One friend works at a restaurant. The rest decide to eat there while the friend is working. Describe how the group gets the friend fired in one night.
For whatever reason, nobody can go home for Thanksgiving. They decide to have Thanksgiving together instead.
Romantic Relationships
Write a breakup scene. Doesn’t matter if they’re not going to break up in your piece.
Write the moments when they each knew.
One’s meeting the other’s parents for the first time, and accidentally lets slip that…
The siblings/friends scheming together about how to get the two to date without being creepy.
Write the stupidest argument they’ve ever had.
What text message conversation is framed in their apartment/house?
Somehow kill one of them, and let the other react.
It’s Valentine’s Day. The couple goes out to eat, when both of their exes walk in… with each other.
The Mario Kart match neither of them is allowed to talk about.
They’re not speaking. Write the development of the fight only through conversations with the buffer friend.
Write a proposal scene, even if you’re not planning on them getting married in your piece.
They return to the place where they first met/kissed/dated. Somehow, the place has been changed, and not for the better.
Inspired by this post, I decided to do what they did. Not too hard, and not really a deep reason behind it other than I wanted to see what it sounded like.
Kinda neat, in my opinion. Sounds like Mettaton got some chill.
For 30 days, create something based on the day’s later of the alphabet and accompanying word. I gave an example prompt for each word, and but feel free to tweak them as wanted if you’re inspired to do something else with the letter or word of the day. I tried to keep most of them pretty vague, so there are a lot of directions to go in.
Perhaps you’ve noticed there are only 26 letters in the alphabet. Don’t worry, I’m also aware of that: the last 4 day are inspired by special characters on the keyboard.
1. A - Age. Do the otp+ plan on spending their lives together? How do they imagine their relationship years from now?
2. B - Bath. The otp+ share a bath or shower, or bathe as in swimming or sunbathing.
3. C - Commitment. How committed are the otp+? What do they promise to and expect from each other? How do they show their commitment to each other?
4. D - Dance. Do a little dance! Make a little love! Get down tonight! Whoo~!
5. E - Energy! A member of the otp+ is hyper or more hyper than usual.
6. F - Folklore. Write about your otp+ in a fairy or folk tale style. Or: the otp+ shares their favorite folk tales and urban legends.
7. G - Game. The otp+ play a game together.
8. H - Holiday. The otp+ celebrate a holiday or holiday weekend together.
9. I - If. Hypotheticals, uncertainties, worst and best case scenarios, you name it!
10. J - Just in case. The otp+ has all their bases covered. Or at least they think they do…
11. K - Kiss. Write a kissing scene of any kind! Get creative. 😚
12. L - Looks. The otp+ share glances.
13. M - Muscles. The otp+ show off their muscles, or lack their of, flexing for their partner(s).
14. N - Nevermind. Whatever it was, it isn’t important anymore
15. O - Our. In what ways do the otp+ share their lives?
16. P - Past. The otp+ find something that reminds one or both/all of them of the past.
17. Q - Quote. A member of the otp+ remembers something their sweetie told them. It fills them with DETERMINATION!
18. R - Rain. Are the otp+ caught up in the bad weather, cozy inside, or are they somewhere like on a space ship or in the middle of the desert yearning for a good storm?
19. S - Smooth. A taste, texture, a pick up line. Anything as long as it’s smooth.
20. T - Token. Person A gives person B and/or C+ something of theirs. Or arcade tokens. Or both??
21. U - Urban. The otp+ spends some time in a big city
22. V - Vows. Write your otp+’s wedding vows or, if you prefer: love letters to each other.
23. W - Wish. Make a wish!
24. X - Xylophone. There aren’t many x words.
25. Y - Yes. The otp+ or a member of the otp+ accepts a challenge, quest, request, etc.
26. Z - Zoo. The otp+ spend some time observing and/or interacting with animals.
27. & - the otp+ have multiple activities planned. Maybe too many.
28. ! - Surprise! Something unexpected happens. (Ex. A member of the otp+ shows up for a surprise visit)
How does the otp+ react?
29. ? - Time to clear things up! A member of the otp needs something explained.
30. : - It’s Prompt: The Sequel. Write a second part to one of the previous prompts.
I’ve never liked the existing 30-day challenges, so here goes. Interpret the prompts any way you want to. Make up a new prompt if you think one of mine is crappy. Some are/could be taken as nsfw; those are optional, obviously.
Firsts
1) First meeting/date
2) First kiss
3) First confession/declaration of love
4) First time
5) First holiday season together
Dynamic
6) Cuddles/Post-coital
7) Mornings
8) Rough sex
9) Sweet sex
10) Behavior in public/at a party
Angst
11) Long separation
12) Someone they’re close to dies
13) Jealousy
14) Breakup
15) Mutual pining
AU time!
16) Coffee shop/Bookstore AU
17) Genderbent (Girl/Girl? Boy/Agender person? Anything goes.)
18) Single parents AU
19) College AU
20) Soulmate AU (change stuff up here too.)
One-word prompts
21) Reverse
22) Enemy
23) Letter
24) Dream
25) Bonus round: Urban Dictionary’s word of the day is your prompt.
Future
26) 3am conversations
27) Meet the parents/family
28) “So what are your thoughts on children…?”
29) Marriage proposal
30) Wedding day/night
Have fun!
Hey, a chart! This is inspired by an ask I got (I’m gonna be honest, I promised the person I’d tag them, but then sent the reply before I wrote down the URL. So, if I told you I was gonna tag you in this, tag yourself!!)
Your main concern with grammar in fiction should be, does it make sense to the reader upon first pass-through. You can have sentence fragments. Half-formed thoughts. Periods where normally there would be question marks. You can throw out many of the rules you learned in school. But that only works if the writing can still be understood without question and without unintended ambiguity.
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