"The Best Friend"

Stereotypes aren't necessary bad, you know.

However, the reverse of the "nerdy" best friend would be the popular best friend - the one that let's you tag along everywhere, and stands up for you, and often comes off as incredibly patronising (that's my opinion, though).

And ideas for a best friend? Dunno. Might be the best to make them their own separate character, just like your MC. If the best friend was the focus of the story, what would she be like? Make them believable, well-defined characters, rather than a name with one defining feature.

That helps...thinking of her as her own person not just as "the best friend"...thanks.

You may want to explore deeply this "best friend", yes. Even if you start writing about a nerdy best friend or so, that doesn't mean he/she can't be original on his/her expressions and acting. For example, your main character has a best friend who's into computers and advanced programming. However, he may be very popular in school as a result of hiding these interests of his.

(Poor example, but I hope you can understand what I mean.)

Think about your own best friends, too. Do you usually label them? Do you have, say, a popular friend, a geek friend, a girly friend? Labels aren't necessarily bad, but they don't allow the character to "breathe" on its entirety. So my advice is that you could write about a gay best friend but don't stick by that. Don't make this character like the one that comes to your mind immediately, as it'll likely be a stereotype. Go deeper into his persona and you'll come up with a new identity. Consider his evolution and treat him as a realistic human being :)

Want a writing buddy? This is my first NaNoWriMo but I'm happy to be one! Just message me introducing yourself and I'll be happy to add you. We'll talk almost everyday, sharing our muses and fighting our inner editors ^^

Stereotypes are sometimes stereotypes because they're true. When I was in school, my best friends were often quirky enough to make _me_ look normal in comparison. (Not, mind you, that I looked normal by any stretch of the word, but still.) They were often obsessed with one book or TV series or another, sometimes to the point of sounding a little ridiculous at times. They were often way more into things like D&D and LARP etc than I was. Don't fear the stereotypes... remember that _real people_ are like that too. Stereotypes are only bad when they're a character's only defining characteristic with no depth beyond that. (And even then, flat characters work just fine for minor characters who aren't going to actually be important to the plot. Not everyone can have a 20-page backstory.)

Title: Breaking Light
Goal: Finishing this novel. (Probably be 100k-120k at this rate.)
Sanity level: Do you even need to ask?

D: What's wrong with a gay best friend?!

LOL, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm considered a "gay best friend", but I guess that doesn't help answer your question..

I'd say give her a best friend who will be of help and comfort to her. Look at her likes, dislikes, personality, qualities, and flaws. It's best to have someone who is opposite, but who helps keep her balanced as well as vice versa.

For example w/me & my best friend:

She is a video gamer. She's a leader. She is very independent. She is better friends with guys than girls. She is rarely sensitive, she has a short temper, and she can be unemotional at times. She likes to be alone a lot. She has a soft spot for animals, nature, and things that are not human. She has a poor outlook on society, and she is a little too judgamental at times.

Me? I'm a gamer as well, but I love writing and the internet more. I am both a leader and follower. I am slightly dependent, but I'm working on being independent. I am better friends with girls than guys, but not because I am more girly (like others assume most gays are). To me, girls are more fun to talk to. :) I am a little sensitive. I am usually the calm one in a heated situation where she screams and I soft-talk her. I tend to be emotional at times, but I always try to look on the bright side. I don't like being alone, unless I am happy and focused on something productive. I also have a soft spot for nature, animals, and other things. I see society as a negative thing, BUT I do not hate people or judge them as quickly as she does. I am trying to fix up those wounds in her heart that people have given her.

We work with each other and patch things up easily. We are completely opposite, but it's like gravitation between us.. We just can't be apart.

I'm sorry for the excessive example. I'm just trying to make some pointers. :D

So, what exactly is your girl like? Maybe I can give you a feedback with a character that might interest her as a best friend.

- ~ -

'07 :: Even Without Kingdom Hearts (14k)
'08 :: Rock Rock Crushes Roses; One Breath Away; [Untitled]; When a Writer Goes Crazy... ((and a few other variations or short stories))

In my novel this year, the three main characters (all in college) used to have best friends of the opposite sex when in high school and younger. The girl had a friend who was really just a friend and had other love interests, never her. The guys: One of them had been in love with his best friend ever since first meeting her but she never realized and they didn't end up together, having a fight and growing apart. The other boy and his best friend fell in love and became the adorable couple everone else hopes to be.

Now, however, the dynamics have changed a bit. The boy who is still dating his best friend sees her as his best friend and openly admits that he doesn't have many friends besides her, so I have the complication of her being his everything.

The girl, whose best male friend moved away now has several new friends at college but the two people she is closest to are her twin brother and her younger brother's girlfriend who is still in high school at that point but almost lives with the FMC and her brother. She also tends to befriend every girlfriend of her twin brother which upsets him a bit because he always thinks they are talking about him behind his back. But basically, the twins and their brother's girlfriend are very close because I didn't want each of them to have a separate best friend as they have been in this group of friends for so long.

2006 - Whodunnit?! -- won!
2007 - Ich sehe -- won!
2008 - Letting Go

If this is supposed to be realistic, then who can you realistically see your MC being friends with? You can definitely rule out a lot of people from that. If your MC is kind-hearted, chances are she isn't friends with someone who is rude. If she is popular and a snob, she wouldn't be friends with someone who is a dork. I think your MC will find her own best friend.

Thanks so much for your help guys. I think that my best friend character will run away from any stereotype I assign him/her anyway so I'm not too worried anymore.

And just to clarify, I have no problem with gay best friends or anything, it just seems like in every romance these days the girl has a gay best friend. One of my best friends is gay though so maybe there is basis for that stereotype because gay guys tend to be great friends. :D So no offense intended, I've just seen that character a lot.

Awwww. If you're referring partially to me, don't sweat it. :) I was just kidding. I had a gay best friend (uh, gays can have gay best friends, too!) a while back.. but he never e-mails me anymore, which sucks... Anyways! I understand how the stereotypes can fit.. and how you'd want to stray away from them. I might be doing a vampire novel this year, and godforbid those stereotypes.. it will be completely different than the ones I've heard of.. and I have not read Twilight/want to read it, so I don't have any ideas subconsciously to fall into. <3 Yay for originality!

CROWcatalyst, once "Vexensboy" @ NaNoWriMo...

NaNoWriMo '07 :: Even Without Kingdom Hearts (14k)
NaNoWriMo '08 :: [ n / a ]

- ~ -

'07 :: Even Without Kingdom Hearts (14k)
'08 :: Rock Rock Crushes Roses; One Breath Away; [Untitled]; When a Writer Goes Crazy... ((and a few other variations or short stories))

The best friend may be somebody who gets taken advantage of -- not that (s)he's a doormat, but tending toward that side, possibly too supportive for his/her own good. Maybe (s)he's just more substantial than a doormat. A doorstop, if you will.

I swear, I had a friend in college who would call me in the middle of the night and ask if I could come down and take a walk with her around campus because she needed to talk... so I'd get there, and we'd walk, usually in the moonlight, down the deserted pathways around campus, while she tried to get me to smalltalk and finally opened up with all her little problems -- including her unrequited crushes on other boys.

Which would have been excruciating had I actually been interested in that way. I wasn't -- she's very much the overly saccharine passive-agressive type. But I do have to wonder why I went for those stupid walks night after night after night, and I keep thinking it's just because I'd known her freshman year and I wanted to support my friends. I'm overly chivalrous, I suppose. I'm the guy who holds the door for a friend and ends up holding it for 100 people.

Now, it gets complicated because there was apparently an on-again-off-again crush coming from the other direction. The fact that it had once been there was painfully obvious (even though she liked to consider herself difficult to read, she was wholly transparent), but you never knew when the confession was coming that "I used to kinda like you like that, but now it's the furthest thing from my mind." Then she'd decide that if she was going to pursue this other guy, she couldn't hang around me anymore. Then it'd all happen again a month later.

Depending on who your character is, I could be the best friend.

As one guy once said to me as he entered a building: "Cheers, doorstop."

Oh my gosh, you sound like the sweetest guy! I may just have to put "you" in my book <3

[IMG]http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o396/kawaii_keela/banner-1.jpg[/IMG]

Hmm, I might just try to describe my best friend because he's the best thing that ever happened to me and our friendship is special.

He is very popular knows lots of people (so do I but he tops it) he has always new girlfriends or affairs but still believes in true love, there are many people who talk shit about him because of that and I always defend him (and so does he when it comes to me) because I am just sad for everyone who can't see the sweet person he really is.
He knows I'm not a person who talks about feelings or opens up when she's depressed so he just holds me when he feels I'm not good. When my mom was sick and he was on vacation the first thing he did when he returned was calling me and ask how we are, indeed he has a wonderful relationship with my mom.

Apart from that he always takes me to the best parties and lets me afterward sleep in his bed, he jokes that we share a brain because we always know what the other is thinking.
I can go shopping with him and he would chose clothes for me, we make random roadtrips to whatever place it is, we visit concerts etc.
But on the other hand he cries in front of me and we talk about our problems (the trivial ones like boys and girls and crushes but also the big ones i.e. depression, family problems and such)
We can watch tv all night long just because we need to be in the others presence.
I could go on like this forever ^^
So he really is one of those hard on the outside with a soft core kind of people who would do everything for me.

I know this sounds like it's too good to be true, and I am amazed as well but the perfect best friend exists.

I have another best friend who's gay but since they are best friends as well it's like the same thing and you have no clichee with bff1 =)