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One of the more interesting things that came out of left field while writing Legends of Windemere was the Luke/Nyx relationship.  Normally, when someone says relationship, you think romance.  I’ll say now that it never happens.  The moment Nyx blurted out ‘little brother’ to Luke, I knew where it was going.  They’re friends who have a brother/sister relationship and the same goes for Nyx and Sari.  In fact, I’ve found that Nyx is a character trying to build a family since she lost her’s parents as a child.  This got me thinking how families aren’t always blood or traditional in the real world.  So, they shouldn’t be in fiction too.

I think many writers don’t go into these families as deeply as blood relations or even call them families.  In my own life, I’ve been told by people that friends are not family and can never take the place of family.  I think this is misleading since I’ve found friends more supportive than family at times.  There’s a shared amount of interests and understanding and acceptance, which can create a powerful bond.  You might see these bonds more often in stories that involve battles because something about these tales require heroes to be loyal and depend on each other.  Still, I don’t see a reason you can’t call these characters family and have them use the terms.

Something to think about when making characters who are friends act like family is that this does not mean they always get along.  People seem to assume that true family never fight and once they fight in a story, the drama has to have great repercussions.  The truth is that family, even friends as family, get into spats.  Have them argue over things or call each other names.  It appears as a healthy relationship if you write it without malice.  This is stubbornness and a level of comfort with each other that they can get into such arguments.  Never be afraid to have a character apologize to another for being a jerk or dropping their issues in the face of adversity.

Tips to help with these kinds of family:

• Don’t make it immediate.  Have the characters naturally grow into a bond through experiences and interactions.
• Don’t be afraid to have them use family terms for each other.
• Fighting and arguing is allowed.  Even a brief physical encounter if the tension rises.
• This kind of thing can be a character building subplot, so have conversations that include this.  It might not be enough for the reader to connect that these friends are like family, but the characters themselves should realize it.
• Never be afraid to have these characters cry together.  It’s easy to have them laugh and pal around together, but tears will have more impact.