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A lot of factors make stories more captivating, one of which is the characters. Incorporating interesting social and family relationships makes stories more alive.
Regardless of what genre authors are writing, social and family relationships are ever-present. After all, no story exists without other characters that influence the protagonists’ decisions, thus affecting the course of the story. However, while these relationships are bound to be woven into these pages, they’re also expected to be written with depth and meaning.
Other characters or extras are equally crucial in giving the story dimension despite only being supplemental to the important ones. These side characters add more vibrancy, dimensions, and profoundness to the story. Depending on how they’re utilized, they can make or break the tension present between pages – measuring how good or bad the story is.
When one thinks of side characters, the family is the most common.
They aren’t necessarily the central characters in the story, but they’re significant enough to have direct influence over these characters. Their opinions, traits, and history are still integral to the protagonists’ progress, making them as valuable as the latter.
Approaching Family Relationships In Paper
In The Streamlined Locomotive, a transport-themed storytelling, readers are introduced to a complex yet exciting family dynamic. Although from the title alone, it may seem as though the narrative revolves solely around the steam engine’s development, the protagonist’s family also plays a role in the story’s movement. They were the key motivators to why the central plot and conflict came to be.
The story plays around the complexities of families’ inheritance games. It displays Theo, the protagonist’s desire to keep his role in the family and his influence over it, and how his family utilized this sense of desperation to make him work for their benefit. Readers witness one of the most intensely yet captivating family relationships, a story of risky business with various possible drawbacks.
How authors play around with family dynamics can significantly impact their stories. In the book, it became the primary driver for the character to create the core conflict and plot of the narrative. Family relationships provide nuanced storylines, adding drama, color, and depth to the characters.
Relationships between parents, children, and other relatives aren’t only positive. Instead, they may be ridden with misunderstandings, poor communication, jealousy, and other complicated concepts. Utilizing these properly helps enhance plotlines, adding character arcs and developments.
With their importance, how do authors create absorbing family relationships?
Bank On Different Family Compositions
Families are complex. They aren’t only comprised of parents and their children. Instead, family relationships branch out into more diverse branches. This can be explored in stories. Whether purely biological or including half-siblings, family composition is an excellent source of storyline drama.
Who are the protagonists close to? Is there any room for jealousy between siblings?
These are possible questions authors can explore and uncover throughout the story. Authors can create more captivating and exciting interactions between characters by utilizing these details and the different dynamics across the members. They may even add red herrings or clues to excite readers further and captivate their interest.
Depending on these compositions, the protagonist’s characteristics may also change. After all, if anything can influence the latter’s choices or behaviors, it’s the people surrounding them for most of their lives. They influence how protagonists perceive the world and what they do about it.
Explore Families’ Interconnectedness
One of the essential aspects of family relationships centers on how these influence people. The opinions shared between the members, their shared beliefs, and how they impact their younger generations make families dynamic and realistic. These members may exist individually, but their words have the authority to mold each other. In stories, this gives rise to the interconnectedness.
This is what makes stories gripping and three-dimensional. One character’s decision can affect how their family reacts and the steps they’ll take in the future. On the other hand, these decisions may have also been derived from their family’s opinions and insights. These connections are a rich territory for conflict.
Utilize Their Extreme Emotions
Regardless of how close or separated family members are, they elicit strong emotions in a person, and these emotions are an excellent source of gripping narratives. Authors can dig deep into these family relationships that bring out the characters’ most realistic and heart-throbbing emotions. They shouldn’t be afraid of conflict or complex emotions. After all, these are what make stories more thrilling and dynamic. For instance, someone may feel resentment and love for another, making their decisions more difficult to make and settle.
These contradictions don’t necessarily make inconsistencies across the story. Instead, they lead to more life-like characters who hold realistically complex emotions.
Family relationships are a gem left commonly untouched by authors. In digging deep into these, better and more interesting stories will be crafted with incredibly dimensional characters to play their parts.