Writing How do you sell character relationships?

[soupsabaw]

Is your question how do you make your readers like your characters or how do you write character relationships so that your readers understand the feelings and/or dynamics between them?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Is your question how do you make your readers like your characters or how do you write character relationships so that your readers understand the feelings and/or dynamics between them?

I think the question is (at least how I tried to answer it after the obligatory snide comment) "How do you make a relationship believable?"

 

[soupsabaw]

I think the question is (at least how I tried to answer it after the obligatory snide comment) "How do you make a relationship believable?"

I'd answer it if op confirms but welp

 

[WhaleSprite]

Generally, I think it's important for the characters to have a real connection of some kind. Don't just have them say "I love you" show the small intimate actions they do for the other person. If you're taking the slow route, you want your readers shipping them long before either of them notice their own feelings or long before they get together.

A trick I've learned recently is to study different ships in fandoms I'm a part of. It might help if you ever look into popular ships whether Canon or Fanon in different fanbases and check out why everyone ships them so much. Then look into Canon ships that are not popular and study why they aren't as popular as the Fanon ships in that fandom and avoid writing your characters relationships like that.

Edit: I'll give an example. And I'm not bringing this up because I'm a fan or trying to create a debate. From Anime, you've got several examples where authors failed to make their Canon ships more popular than the Fanon ships. Like in My Hero Academia. There was a lot of backlash that Deku wasn't a couple with Bakugo. (I am not a BakugoxDeku shipper, just using it as an example) I think this is because the mangaka had put too much emphasis on their bond and chemistry. Even though Deku and Ochako are canon, they're not all that popular of a ship because compared to other characters like Bakugo, Deku did not have much time with Ochako. There were moments, yes, but they were completely over shadowed by his relationship\friendship with Bakugo. Deku and Bakugo had more growth as characters together than Deku did with Ochako. I mean the same thing can be said about Ochako and Toga.

So I guess another thing to bring up is, they can have more chemistry if they both are growing together as characters. At least that's my analysis ?