forum Help with my character's toxic relationships

Started June 03, 2020 by @stolenbrocoli group

tune

Most of my character relationships are extremely toxic and I can't tell if that would be a problem in the story later on. What are your opinions on toxic relationships in books?

What are your opinions on toxic relationships in books?

They're a big no for me. I'm already not a very big fan of romance in book, but having a healthy relationship where there's mutual love and respect coming from both sides makes it so much more palatable. Having abusive relationships being glorified is already such a big problem in a lot of YA fiction, I think we really need to see healthy relationships being portrayed more.
I would say unless it's a very big part of your plot you should reconsider it, but it's hard to give any advice beyond that since you haven't given much details. Hope that helps, somewhat?

It's totally up to you what you put in your stories, but
1: Consider the audience you're writing for and don't show them something that they're too inexperienced/mature to handle or understand.
2: Make sure that if a relationship is toxic, the toxicity is made very clear and not glorified. Showing the direct negative consequences of the relationship is a good way to avoid making it seem "cool".
3: If you feel you need to, rate your work as mature or give it a trigger warning, so that people who are mature enough but still easily upset by these topics aren't hit with an ugly surprise.
Those are my main tips. Not sure if that answered your question, but I hope so! Good luck with your story!

Also if you're going to write about unhealthy relationships, for goodness's sake give them a happy ending. Those kinds of things need closure, I think.

closure doesn't have to be happy.
a lot of toxic relationships don't end happily.

Thank you so much ! To clear some things up, most of the relationships aren't romantic relationships, most of it is toxicity within families, but one of the big ones is romantic but i wouldn't neccessarliy consider it a relationship. It's totally one-sided. And they are directly related to the plot. And there are healthy relationships in there too but i was just thinking about how much the toxic ones outweigh the healthy ones. But thank you guys so much for your feedback. I really appreciate it. :)

Glad to help! ^^