The protagonist's best friend

[DokiDokiTsuna]

A childhood friend, a BFF, a soulmate, even. How do you create one, especially for a main character?

Personally, I make a conscious effort to stay away from 'opposites attract'. Not only has it been kinda done to death, I really find it difficult to understand how one can be that close with someone who argues with you and frustrates you constantly (or worse yet, actively does things that make your life more difficult)...

I KNOW I'm not the authority on the subject of friends, far from it, but I'm not gonna implement something that doesn't make any sense to me; stone me if you will. Even siblings, who are notorious for getting on each other's nerves, have genuine 'friend moments' from time to time, where you can see why they choose to hang out with each other despite it all.

That's what I choose to focus on: 'friend moments'. Making it clear that two people with distinct personalities and different interests have at least one core interest to bond over.

Maybe one likes hockey and the other likes basketball...but they both love sports. Maybe one is a theater nerd and the other is a regular otaku...but they both have a passion for storytelling. Maybe one is a hyper-competitive misanthropist with anger issues that they resolve through wanton destruction, and the other is a peaceful angel who has zero aspirations beyond taking care of their houseplants and reading edgy manga...but they both enjoy talking about life while watching the sunset and eating ice cream, and that's enough for them...

...Anyway, there's got to be something. Even if it's as simple as each one wanting what's best for the other, that's a common goal. It may get conflicty every once in a while, but hey, you need a plot, right?

Another thing I try to avoid are friendships that are actually just thinly-veiled parent-child relationships, and bad ones at that. They work great in comedic contexts, but outside of that, they look dicey to me and sometimes even abusive. If your friend's only interactions with you consist of begging you for help/money, ignoring your advice, and dragging you into half-baked impulse activities against your will, that's...not a friend. Likewise, if your friend is always lecturing you, condescending to you, and making decisions for you...you may want to step back and take a long, hard look at your situation. =/

I dunno, I just like friendships that feel realistic! Like, maybe 50% arguing and 50% actually being friends, rather than 90% arguing and 10% warm fuzzy moments that don't actually constitute a full relationship...

[trace]

Make them have similar goals in life. Yep, it's as simple as that, but it's so effective. Watch the anime Bakuman and you'll see what I mean.

[Darkstrong]

You know what, I really hate the "best friend since diapers" concept. It just doesn't make sense to me, and I never met such a couple in real life. That is why I liked the Midoriya-Bakugo relationship from MHA. As much as I hated the way the author did Bakugo's character (my god the boy has issues...), his dynamic with Midoriya sounds realistic to me. They don't have much in common nowadays, Bakugo hates Midoriya's guts, and the only thing that actually keeps them together is mutual learning facilities. But they still can be called friends and the share a lot of history together and have some king of a bond to each other because of that. This kind of story a can believe. But the story of two people who met because they were neighbors, and still have so much in common after all those years to be besties. Those are either as lucky as two chosen ones, or are simply very basic.

[Darkstrong]

Those are not childhood friends. Those are adult friends.

[trace]

OP said they could just be BFFs. Besides, you could still use what I said for making them childhood friends.

[Darkstrong]

"A childhood friend, a BFF, a soulmate, even." I thought that this is "a and b and c", not "a or b or c" =)

[DokiDokiTsuna]

It's 'or'. I was just saying things; I'm a writer. ^^;

[trace]

Well, making them have similar goals still works. Imagine two kids just racing on foot, or playing tag, 'cause they like running a lot, then one day the one who loses a lot says, "I'm so totally gonna beat you someday! I'll be the fastest runner in the whole world!!" , or some other scenario like that.

[Darkstrong]

That is what I said in my main post. Its highly unlikely that two people a single goal would meet each other so long and that it would keep them together through the years. More likely scenario is that they would abandon the goal as they grow up. If it is two older individuals that chose the same goal (usually in their late teens) that would certainly work. But that is an easy way out =)

[trace]

Ahh, I see. Well, it really depends, but I think it'd still work. If you wanna make a story focused on the goal itself, you can totally go with that. But if it's more on their dynamic (or a character-driven story), you could still do it, but you'd have to create and thoughtfully design more concepts to fully flesh it - some drama here, some conflict there. You could even make the "abandoning the goal" part its own contained arc. Either way, it'd be pretty effective making them share the same goal. After all, when we were all little sh*ts playing outside with other little sh*ts our age, the main reason why we played with them was because they liked the things we liked, and did the things we did (in my experience anyway).

[Shanny8]

I went with the best friends "while possibly could be relationship" material- though life took a number of wrong turns. The MC has had "daddy issues" for the longest while currently looking at his mother through a "I'm suspicious of you" lens; the best friend lost her father in a tragic incident- she feels helpless until an opportunity falls in her lap to allow her do something to not only become stronger, but make a difference as well. They lean on each other throughout the story at various times; him, because she's honest with him and allows him to show his feelings- and she leans on him because he lends her his [inner] strength and he accepts her for who she is.

They enjoy each other's company- while there are things out there that suggest their feelings for each other could be more, I'm exploring what makes them "them" at the current moment. I'm good with this journey coz it allows me to "let the characters grow" into what their future can/will be through a process that feels natural.

[Darkstrong]

I like the definition of a best friend as "someone who will help you move (to another house)". Basically, a person who will help you out in a time consuming and taxing endeavor without apparent gain for themselves =) All the others are pals or just friends =) And people usually do stuff like this not, because you have the same goal, but because they simply like you. The goal might be the inciting point of the friendship, but after that friendship usually becomes pretty irrational.
You can always go with "continued bond". That's what I went with in Hexameron for Gil and Summer. The summer camp incident not only became the inciting moment of their friendship, but also, kind of, forced them together after that. Gil doesn't feel like anyone would really believe him except Summer, and Summer sees Gil as her personal ticket to the world of supernatural. They enjoy each other's company of course, but I don't think they would've ever be friends if not for those six days in the camp.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

(checks on my main character) he doesn't have his best friend or someone who is close to him and reciprocate the feeling! At least not for now.

I also personally don't believe in the concept of that ultimate "Best friend," especially for life. One of the background story of my main character is the harsh falling out with a person he considered to be his best friend.

I try to make close friend of characters rather of how they find comfort in each others rather than interest, understanding someone else doesn't need to be doing what they do. In another way, that interest might be something not commonly shared so they have to stick together.

The type of friendship in my series ranges from two people who eat out regularly to some gamer buddies plotting to steal corpses. For the former it's because they genuinely understand each other's hidden struggle and decide to do things together to dampen it, for the latter it's just two individuals with brain damage mingling with each others.

[elyss]

I like to write friends by circumstance relationships. They make more sense to me personally and can spin some interesting interactions.

[trace]

Well, I guess it really boils down to how each of us define what a 'best friend' is. I really like the impact and weight of a goal or dream on two people who share the same ones and grow attached to each other because of it, but based on what you said, I think I want to do something with my story regarding two people simply liking each other because it might go a long way in fleshing out each of their characteristics, exploring each of their personalities, traits, etc.

I suddenly had a good idea from this. Thanks!

[vothnthorvaldson]

I choose for my comic what has been working in my life: friends who have in common, their principles.

MC is a pretty rich, overprotected teenage guy; best friend is a girl beggar who has only herself to count on; but they have similar principles and mutually understandable (although slighly different) life philosophies.

[ble]

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

[Reign]

My main character’s best friends are two kids he grew up with. After his father disappeared and his mother was killed, he was taken in by a close family friend. They’re both older than he is, so they tease him quite a bit. So they’re more like brothers and sister. They’ve grown to be protective of one another. I know that the girl in the dynamic has always been a pushy, independent strong type in the relationship. But I haven’t fleshed the relationship out yet. I think the kinds of relationships I want to avoid, especially with the girl, are the ones where it’s like Sakura and Naruto. I can’t stand that dynamic! The always angry girl, treating the main character like an idiot, (and the main character does act like an idiot and an occasional pervert). I LOATHE that relationship.

[sarrowsmith10]

My characters Nodin and Hawk from my comic Goblins of Razard are best friends and their friendship is important to the plot. There is hardly a scene where they aren't together.

I think at the beginning it seems a bit like a hero/sidekick personality, but that quickly fades, especially when you find that Hawk depends on Nodin a lot. Their origin together is not fully investigated (there just wasn't time in the comic to touch on it super deeply), but you get hints about how Nodin's herd was slaughtered by the King and you see flashbacks about the King hunting down the order of wizards that Hawk belongs to. So they have a common enemy that brings them together. As time goes on in the comic I think its clear that they regard each other more as family than friends. They counsel with each other and look after each other.

I really like stories where the friends are really close, but not in a weird romantic way. For example, I really like the relationship in the TV show Transformers Prime between Arcee and Bumblebee. They treat each other like equals and trust each other. Or Aang and Sokka in Last Airbender. They don't see eye to eye right away, but soon become fast friends and comrades. I love those moments!

[Maps]

Oddly enough I have two best friends at the ole’ age of 29... one who is 1.5 years younger that I’ve known since she was born (our parents were friends as kids so we grew up with them) and one since preschool when I was three. But I’ve always been one to bond with friends and keep them stuck to me like glue .
I suppose this is a rarity.