Welcome to a new edition of how to write a novel.
Bringing an entire story together without any relationships would be difficult, even if the relationship isn’t a romance. Consider Neo and Trinity, Martin Riggs and Lorna Cole, Bella Swan and Jacob Black, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes, to name a few.
Here are a few questions often raised in my writing group: What is enough and when is it too much? If you write for young adults, should there be sex? Young people have sex, use drugs, and drink alcohol, but should I write about these things?
This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2009.