relationships in novels

Short answer: No. Unless you had told me you were writing a romance in which case, um...good luck achieving the required Happily Ever After?

But seriously, no you do not. There are plenty of satisfying stories that do not involve a love interest. Write what you want to write and make it a darn good story with characters we will want to follow. That's my two cents.

No, a love interest isn’t necessary.

They are certainly not necessary, but relationships - or even the lack of one - are terrific ways to develop a well-rounded character.

For example, the fact that your character has no time for a relationship and his or her reaction to that situation might be used for character development, pacing and a sub-plot. I find in writing that everything, including something that isn't there, can be valuable

No. & I'm in the camp of "I would love to see more stories without love relationships in the plot". fwiw

Relationships are not necessary but they do help fill a few extra pages

No, but I can see why you'd ask, going back over all my recent reads, only one had no relationship storyline (MC was looking back at an event in his childhood so that would be why).

That said, I hear more and more requests for non love interest/sex relationships, so if you're ticking the friend box, I'd say it's good timing for that kind of story.

Not only are romantic relationships unnecessary, if you put one in when it doesn't naturally flow from the story it's almost always going to read as forced and uncomfortable.

People/other things your character(s) care about = good.
Romantic entanglements = good IF THE STORY CALLS FOR THEM.

What did your character tell you? Did they say they are in one or want to be in one?

Lack of a relationship is worth looking into. Why doesn't this character have a significant other? What's wrong with him or her? If they're too busy for a relationship, that is something worth delving into, since it's not a healthy way to live.

Lack of a close relationship often causes inner turmoil, which is fodder for character development. Or, the character might have just come out of a bad relationship and would rather be absorbed in his or her work than go through that again, at least in this point in their life. So the character has a history that might be interesting.

Or maybe the character is impotent or frigid, depending on the gender, which would explain a lack of relationship. Yeah, that's it! The character is an incel who is mad at the world! He just seems like he's immersed in his work, but in reality, he's planning a mass murder! Better check to see if he's posting on 4chan or 8chan.

If I may: In addition to the fact that some stories don't lend themselves structurally to the inclusion or mention of romantic relationships, ace and aromantic are completely normal (and relatively common) sexualities. There's absolutely no reason to exclude such characters from storytelling.

Auteur said:

Lack of a relationship is worth looking into. Why doesn't this character have a significant other? What's wrong with him or her? If they're too busy for a relationship, that is something worth delving into, since it's not a healthy way to live.

Lack of a close relationship often causes inner turmoil, which is fodder for character development. Or, the character might have just come out of a bad relationship and would rather be absorbed in his or her work than go through that again, at least in this point in their life. So the character has a history that might be interesting.

Or maybe the character is impotent or frigid, depending on the gender, which would explain a lack of relationship. Yeah, that's it! The character is an incel who is mad at the world! He just seems like he's immersed in his work, but in reality, he's planning a mass murder! Better check to see if he's posting on 4chan or 8chan.

Click to expand...

Or, you know, they're just not interested in a relationship.

Auteur said:

Lack of a relationship is worth looking into. Why doesn't this character have a significant other? What's wrong with him or her? If they're too busy for a relationship, that is something worth delving into, since it's not a healthy way to live.

Lack of a close relationship often causes inner turmoil, which is fodder for character development. Or, the character might have just come out of a bad relationship and would rather be absorbed in his or her work than go through that again, at least in this point in their life. So the character has a history that might be interesting.

Or maybe the character is impotent or frigid, depending on the gender, which would explain a lack of relationship.

Click to expand...

Yanno, I've spent the morning browsing politics on Twitter, yet this post is possibly the most ill-informed thing I've read today.

Just FYI.

Auteur said:

Lack of a relationship is worth looking into. Why doesn't this character have a significant other? What's wrong with him or her? If they're too busy for a relationship, that is something worth delving into, since it's not a healthy way to live.

Click to expand...

Eh, I suppose if you mean the character deeply desires to be in a relationship, but is working themselves to death and has no time to invest in one, that would be unhealthy. I doubt you meant 'not being in an intimate relationship is inherently unhealthy', but in case you did, it might be worth googling 'amatonormativity'. Not having a significant other isn't any grounds to assume there's something wrong with a person.

Lack of a close relationship often causes inner turmoil, which is fodder for character development. Or, the character might have just come out of a bad relationship and would rather be absorbed in his or her work than go through that again, at least in this point in their life. So the character has a history that might be interesting.

Or maybe the character is impotent or frigid, depending on the gender, which would explain a lack of relationship. Yeah, that's it! The character is an incel who is mad at the world! He just seems like he's immersed in his work, but in reality, he's planning a mass murder! Better check to see if he's posting on 4chan or 8chan.

Click to expand...

The bolded are troublesome terms related to desire. Impotence is a medical term with tangential connection to sexual desire. 'Frigid' is pretty much just offensive (as is the assumption impotent men can't have relationships. You're ruling out a lot of loving marriages, for a start. Impotence, particularly in older men, is probably much more common than you realise.) Women slurred for 'frigidity' might be suffering from hypoactive sexual desire disorder, they might be on the asexual spectrum, they might be gay, they might even just be uninterested. (Shocking!) The word means nothing.

Auteur said:

Or maybe the character is impotent or frigid, depending on the gender, which would explain a lack of relationship.

Click to expand...

Okay, now I kinda want to write a story about an ice elemental who was once quite passionate and romantic. Unfortunately, her hugs and kisses always got a frosty reception, and she just wasn't cool about being given the cold shoulder and eventually grew bitter about the idea of love.

I don't snow why that came to mind.

Random_Coffee said:

Hi all,

Does a novel need to have a relationship/love interest in the plot?

So far, my MC doesn't have the time for relationships, except those with friends.

My plot is adventure/thriller for info.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Romantic relationships in an adventure - thriller? No, you don't have to have them - but they can amp up the stakes for your MC.

There are other kinds of relationships though - we have a relationship with everyone we meet - parents, siblings, relatives, friends, enemies, people who irritate you and those that don't, some that you respect and others not so much, and others that you really don't care about... just people you know.

I like to read and write stories that are primary character driven - and I write with quite a lot of (non erotic) action. I have to care about the characters in order to be invested in how the action turns out.

A love interest is only one kind of human relationship. People are so much more complex than that. The world is so much more complex than that.

If characters in books only had love relationships books would get very dull.

But to make characters interesting they need more than action. There has to be conflict. It doesn't need to be conflict between lovers.

Auteur said:

Lack of a relationship is worth looking into. Why doesn't this character have a significant other? What's wrong with him or her? If they're too busy for a relationship, that is something worth delving into, since it's not a healthy way to live.

Click to expand...

Excuse me?

mccardey said:

Excuse me?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree. Kind of an antiquated belief.
Women don’t need a man to take care of them.
Men don’t need to be married to be complete.
Couples don’t need children to be fulfilled.

lilyWhite said:

Okay, now I kinda want to write a story about an ice elemental who was once quite passionate and romantic. Unfortunately, her hugs and kisses always got a frosty reception, and she just wasn't cool about being given the cold shoulder and eventually grew bitter about the idea of love.

I don't snow why that came to mind.

Click to expand...

I think, you really should write this story and with humour.

I like a good romance, but I prefer no romance to a bad one or one that is forced into the narrative. The romance at the end of the Davonci Code came out of nowhere, and should not have been there. I think the Harry Potter series would have been better if it had only focused on friendship. I didn't like the forced romance in the series.

Don't add romance to a story just to have one.

No character does well in a vacuum, so while I don't think all MCs need romantic or intimate relationships I do believe they all require human relationships.

In my own work I have major characters with absolutely no interest in romantic relationships, and major characters who find themselves in romantic relationships without intending them. My first novel had absolutely no romance between the MMC and FMC because that wasn't the story I was telling. I wanted a relationship more like Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser than lovers and that's what I got.

As long as you can give us a character the reader wants to build a relationship with, it really doesn't matter what kind of relationships that character has with other characters in the work.

I can think of plenty of great novels that don't feature a romance or a love interest.

In some of them, the "love story" is platonic love instead of romantic. Off the top of my head, Blackwing by Ed McDonald has a big romantic arc, but it also has an arc with the main character's oldest friend. She's mortally injured in one of the early battles, and the MC makes awful deals and sells part of his soul to save her, only to have her open up to him later about how she's never really felt like his equal. After everything he did for her, they end the book on uneven footing. It's one of my favorite friend-relationship arcs I've read recently. It's messy, like an actual friendship.

I think if you're concerned about not having a romance arc, have a full and complicated friendship arc instead. Explore why these characters are friends and how their friendship changes over the course of the book as the characters grow. Have them save each other, rely on each other, and at times disappoint each other.

Short answer: no, you don't need one. Longer answer: Make your friendship arc as full and dynamic as a good romance arc.