the craft. Writing Our Village into Love Stories
When you initially sit down to write a love story, you may think it’s just about those two people. They meet, they fall in love, there’s challenges and the convenient 3rd act breakup and they live happily ever after. But I love thinking more about how community impacts our relationships and as Black and POC writers, we are a communal people and rarely is love happening in isolation.
Beyond the Meet-Cute: Why Friend and Family Dynamics Matter
Recently in my writing group, I received the feedback that they were happy the main character had friends in my work in progress. It can be complex to add additional characters, without them simply feeling like props instead of full fleshed out people.
It was natural for me to think about Carli’s surrounding community as a foundation when working on my debut novel. I’m a family girl, so trying to write my story without my mom, dad, and brother and his family or at least the influence of those people would be hard to do. Carli had friends, co-workers, and a family which created a bit of a juggling act to ensure that it didn’t get too convoluted.
What you don’t want is character soup, of course, but there are nuanced ways that you can incorporate a robust cast of characters to support your A story. Maybe it’s simply that they hold their hands the way their mother used to. Or they’re using their brother’s cabin in Aspen. Whether family is going to be on the page or not, there are creative uses of their stories that you can include.
In many contemporary love stories we see today, in film and in books, you can see easily that even if the romantic story seems like it’s at the center, when you peel back the layers, it tends to be the love story between friends that shines. They’re the ones helping the main character navigate the inevitable ups and downs of romantic love.
Honestly, I don’t really know another way. I’ve read books with limited secondary characters, but in the types of contemporary stories I write, I can’t help but include friendships. I mean, if you’re walking around here without friends, we have some serious things to talk about. But it is a delicate weaving of those external storylines and your main story and finding ways for them not to compete with each other.
This is an excerpt from the craft, our weekly newsletter on writing. For full access to our archive and to learn more about our membership community, Permission Granted, head to our website.