This isn’t for all books, just a good number. An author could write in a best friend with all the importance of that one black female character in a Hallmark movie. They really serve no purpose. Family members are another issue. If it’s not a feel good novel or an intense fantasy, I feel the MC should be orphaned. An author writes all these relationships in, states they’re important to MC, then after 2 or 3 appearances, they’re never seen again.
EDIT: Evidently, my post was misunderstood. My issue is different. If you want to add relationships and attachments to the MC, they should be fleshed out; not used as a 2-d background to the 3D MC.
by FrustratedMashup
29 Comments
do you have titles/authors as examples?
I mean, I like to feel like my characters have lives outside of the story. I’d get bored of every single protagonist being an orphan
the edgy dnd backstory
orphan
lone wolf
daring today arent we
Because it’s extremely unusual for a human being to have no friends or family whatsoever, and most of these characters are human beings?
Good Lord
lol wut?
Because not every story has to be about an orphan with no connections or friendships? It’s kind of strange to think of that level of loss/isolation as just ‘what main characters should have by default’ instead of its own important backstory element that needs to be brought into the depiction of the character. If somebody has absolutely no support system, that should be a big factor in their characterization, not just a convenient way for the author to avoid writing side characters.
I do think it’s strange if a character’s family or best friend isn’t developed in the story, but that just means the author needs to think more about how those characters should be integrated, it does not mean that they shouldn’t exist.
cause relation ships are important? Making your character an orphan does not make them better or more interesting all the time
You are dreaming of a very boring literary world.
Bc usually books follow only one specific period of a person’s life not all their life… You don’t see from birth to death so the important people in a character’s whole life may not be in at all times with them. Are real ppl always with their parents? Or their friends? No. Yet they’re important to them.
It’s called worldbuilding. Even worlds set in a modern non-fantasy setting needs fleshing out with believable background characters.
That being said, if you want zero supporting characters and an isolated MC you’d probably love the graphic novel I’m working on right now.
WHY DO THEY WRITE WITHOUT CHECKING WITH YOU FIRST!!!
It fleshes out the character. What a weird question
What kind of question is this? Did you give this any thought at all? Because this reads like an author who always takes the lazy way out, and wants to justify it to themselves, rather than someone who asks a question to inspire genuine discussion.
I think maybe we cannot be the therapist you are looking for.
If you only included the things of absolute necessity, most books would be 20% of their length. Fiction isn’t usually purely about conveying the necessary details. It’s about the world, about the language, about the feelings, too.
The Orphaned Chosen One Book 1 – Why Life Sucks and I have no Friends
Ok I reached the bottom of the barrel of posts, time to go to bed.
Writers when you tell them social interaction is important to maintain the bare minimum of dialogue:
I want this to be a joke thread so badly.
While we’re on the topic, why do they bother giving the main character a name!?
> If it’s not a feel good novel or an intense fantasy, I feel the MC should be orphaned.
This has got to be the weirdest take of the week.
I’m trying to imagine what your ideal story would be like. “Why did you describe what the protagonist looks like? If it’s not directly relevant to the plot, then stop wasting my time!”
this is a pretty weird take. depends what kind of books you like reading, i guess.
Uh, wut?
Wow, I could not disagree with an opinion more than this one.
I wish when authors come up with a best friend for their MC that that friend actually had character traits that would make them be a realistic friend to MC. Too often these best friends get put into a story just to push the MC ti certain things that a true friend would never do.
“You should REALLY come to our crazy outdoor hiking survival trip. It will be great for you to get over the breakup. I know you are not fit, clumsy, hate the cold, hate camping oh and you hate one if the people in this group because he is always the biggest imaginable jerk to you. But you NEED TO COME!”
A true friend wouldn’t do that. A true friend would create an event that is catered to MCs interests to help them get over this difficult breakup. Ugh
This is an extremely limiting viewpoint. Like people have friends and family that make important contributions to their lives. Most people are not loners. Geez, I’m severely introverted and still have a bunch of friends and family.
One of my biggest problems with fiction is the lack of platonic representation compared to romances. Friends are important!
Are you sure reading’s something you want to do?
This post says a lot about how you view representation and it’s “lack of purpose”. I would suggest switching to non-fiction, self-help perhaps.