Mary-Sue: Who is She?

She Banged the Love Shebang - Part 1: The Scenarios

Forbidden Fruits

Best Friends/Roommates

The first on my Forbidden Fruits category are the Best Friends, or Roommates.  Why is this considered 'Forbidden Fruit'?  It's simply because in most mindsets of the stories I've read, the character cannot fall in love with his or her best friend or roommate.  It isn't supposed to happen, or is wrong to have these feelings for this person, opposite gender or not.  Moreover, when they do accept these feelings, they are afraid of telling the person because they don't want to ruin what they already have a close, or at least a mutual in trusting, friendship.  

This has been written many times, and it has been written so many times that I've seen people claim that it doesn't happen.  Let me clear that up right now: all of these love stories, with all of these different pairings of people, have happened before, and will continue to happen.  It's not just the Best Friends plot, it's all of the plots I will be talking about, plus more.  So if you say that it's unrealistic, or that it's never happened happily, it's most likely because you haven't experienced that kind of love before or seen it (whether due to personal experience, friends, or in the media).

I have fallen in love with my best friend (not to mention that she's also a woman, but I digress), and I was in high school.  Just because teenagers are young, doesn't mean that they can't feel actual love.  What makes teenagers so different from adults is that teenagers sometimes set too high of an expectation, and when they are let down, they don't know how to handle an emotional pain.  Therefore, a rejection can feel like a death sentence to some, especially if they've never actually been hurt before.  After the first few hurts, they'll learn how to deal with pain in some way, from starting a new hobby to trying drugs and alcohol.

There isn't much advice I can give you for this kind of story; the only complaint is that it's over-used, but you don't have to worry about it.  If the characters are teenagers, make them go through major emotional pains, and if the characters are adults with jobs, and college, along with other stress factors, nothing beats some sexual tension.  Even if you don't plan on writing any sex scenes, it would probably be helpful to read the section about how to write sex scenes below, but, for now, let's move on to the next pairing.

Adultery

It's strange that the only complaint I've found on this scenario is that people somehow believe that spouses can't fall in love with another person besides who they are married to.  Well, guess what?  It happens.  Whether the spouse is a cheater or not, it happens, but it's usually when there is something wrong or missing from the marriage.  If I came home to frequent arguments, I would be looking for someone else too, to talk with.  

For those that say that people, shouldn't be going after married men or women, well they shouldn't, but if the marriage is having problems, is that really going to be a topic of discussion?  It's easy to miss the wedding band even if someone wears it at it's appropriate place, but what if during doubt, the spouse takes off the ring and puts it in their pocket?  There's no way a person would be able to tell if the person is already married.

Of those that do find out, has the third wheel already fallen in love so much that they would be willing to fight for the one who's married?  It shouldn't be too hard especially if the marriage is already starting to have holes.  There are a few ways how this could end, and that's for you to find out through reading stories, but if you do plan on writing this scenario there is a few things to think about.

Decide if you want the marriage to have problems, whether it's major or minor.  I've already described what could happen when there is a problem, but it can happen when there isn't a clear problem either.  The husband and wife could be very happy, but one of them is unsatisfied because they just simply like having more than one partner, so either because they're too afraid to ask, or they know their spouse wouldn't agree to it, so goes exploring on their own to have sex, thoroughly cheating in secret.  The person still loves his or her spouse with a full heart, but likes having flings on the side.  Eventually the other spouse could suspect what's been going on, and either refuse to believe it and secretly feel depressed, or confront their spouse about it, probably arousing arguments.  If the spouse ends up feeling depressed, they could also be subject to cheating if they found someone they begin to like.