essay on my friends fictional life

• Privacy Policy
• Publications & Accolades
• Flash Fiction

My fictional friend

Books and I go a long way back . Starting from the age of 4 where I read fairy tales and moving on to Enid Blyton from when I was 6, books have always been a part of my life. So it’s not surprising I have dreamt of being best friends with characters I’ve read. After all, they do become a part of your life.

During my teenage years, Darrell Rivers and her friends from Malory Towers were my best friends too. Not being your typical girly-girl, I found I identified a lot more with Darrell and the gang compared to some friends in real life. Yes, I was cool like that. Even though I read a lot of Nancy Drew and later, The Babysitters Club, I never saw myself as being friends with any of them!

When I was about 18, I read my very first Harry Potter book. And I fell in love with the series and the characters. My favourite character to start with was Ron Weasley. I remember thinking what an awesome mate he’d be. I fell in love with his dry sense of humour, his wit, his loyalty. But as the series went on, I also began to get the shits with Ron. Some of his behaviour was very childish — like when Hermione was asked out by Viktor Krum or when the three were struggling to find the Horcruxes. Needless to say, if Ron had been my mate, I would have most certainly told him off.

From all the books and series I’ve read in my 30 years, I reckon I could easily be best friends with Hermione Granger .

Hermione is a fellow-nerd and loyal to the core. She’s intelligent and fights for equality. Being a Mudblood, she understands discrimination; being a girl, she understands how girls are treated differently to boys. She fights for her rights and stands up for her values in spite of being laughed at. Sure, her know-it-all nature would annoy me at times, but imagine how great she’d be when it came to group assignments? Or even if you just needed to find out something and were too lazy to do so? Yup, Hermione and I would get along just fine!

So what about you? 

Which fictional character would be your friend?

***Linking with Kirsty for I Must Confess and Alicia for Open Slather***

Until next time,

Like it? Share the love:

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Sanch @ Sanch Writes

Writer | Psychologist | Feminist | Imperfect | Bibliophile | Rock chick | Thalassophile | Powerlifting enthusiast | Coffee Snob | Craft beer lover | Red wine drinker | Owned by 2 cats

You Might Also Like

Memorable Memories

The girl on the bus.

Great choice!!!!!

I struggled with my decision but ended up going with Tonks.

Raychael Case

I struggled with this week’s prompt but then I don’t watch a whole lot of TV and my reading of late is reserved for study.

Natalie @ Our Parallel Connection

Mithila Menezes @Fabulus1710

I can totally understand why Hermione would be a perfect friend. In my friend circle, I’m often teased by her name, because I’m the one who’s always bouncing out of the chair when the teacher asks the class a question. Of course, they do stop teasing me when it’s exam time and assignment submission time! 😀

I would love to be friends with Luna Lovegood though. It’s good to have a weird friend by your side, as that friend can always crack some joke and lighten up any situation.

fodder for thought.. have to think about who can be my friend from the books…

Pinky Poinker

Erica Yurken from Alison Ashley. She is a complete dag and exactly what I was like as a kid. Great idea for a blog post 🙂 I think Hermione would be too bossy for me.

Kirsty @ My Home Truths

How to write fictional friendships

Related courses, relationships in fiction – the deep dive, character development – the deep dive, by anna davis, 23rd jan 2024.

Friendship is a powerful force in fiction – and its potential to help writers bring protagonists fully to life on the page – and indeed to be a driver of story, is often underestimated. Lots of novels feature loners with no friends or even acquaintances, but most of us do have someone we check in with from time to time, however glancingly. And I’d suggest that if you choose to write about a character who’s completely isolated from others for no very tangible reason, you may be missing out on opportunities to enrich your story.

Two questions you might usefully ask yourself, when starting a novel and getting to know your protagonist, are:

• What role does friendship play in my character’s life?
• What role do my character’s friends play in my story?

Is your character a social butterfly who surrounds themselves with people but only relates to them on a peripheral level? Does your protagonist have just one or two integral friends with whom they share their highs and lows? Is your character embroiled in a toxic friendship rife with jealousy and betrayal? Here are some of the ways in which your character’s friendships can help you move your story forward:

• The confidante: If your character tells their secrets to one friend, this can help you to communicate important information to the reader. And if the friend is not trustworthy, this provides a means for secrets to leak out and cause trouble for your character.
• Conveying backstory: If your character is getting to know a new friend, that’ll give you a reason for them to talk about their personal stories and experiences – which also lets you share them with the reader.
• A proxy for the reader : If your central character is behaving badly or oddly, you can use their friend to voice all the questions and concerns that the reader has, putting your protagonist usefully on the spot. The best friend becomes a proxy for the reader in this dynamic.
• Friendship = character = story : Think about how your character goes about choosing who to be friends with and why. What does your character get from this friendship, and what role do they play in it? What are they, potentially, acting out through this relationship? The answers to these questions could show a lot about your protagonist.

And here are a couple of cautionary notes about writing your protagonist’s friendships:

• Don’t let friendship get in the way – I’ve been talking about the usefulness of fictional friendships, but sometimes they can take you down unhelpful side alleys. If that happens, rein it back.
• Too many friends? – If your protagonist has a wide social circle, don’t give equal time and attention to all. Focus on just one or two and keep others in the background so they don’t clutter up your story. Remember, the reader is only interested in those characters who have a real role to play in the narrative.

Looking for a burst of creative energy, and more advice from Anna Davis? Join our 30-Day Writing Bootcamp – Vol 2, for 30 days of writing lessons and tasks.

Learn more about our £35 bootcamps

For an in-depth exploration of the different types of relationships you can include in fiction and how you can bring them to life on the page... Join our new four-week online course: Relationships in Fiction – The Deep Dive. With insights from bestselling author Laura Barnett.

Or discover the different ways you can flesh out your protagonist on our four-week online Character Development – The Deep Dive course.

RELATED ARTICLES

We're hiring a marketing assistant, #writecbc tip and task from ciara finan.

Photo by Patrick Zachman/Magnum

My friend, my self

Female friendship is central to much recent fiction and film. what can it say about the role of relationships in identity.

by Susan Bright   + BIO

A few years ago, a curator I know professionally invited me to Arizona to give a lecture. The talk would be in Phoenix and we would stay at her house in Tucson. The invitation made me nervous – not due to the public speaking, or the fact I was travelling to a part of the United States that I had not been to before, but because it would involve several two-hour car journeys with somebody I didn’t know well.

Living my whole adult life in major cities – London, New York, and now Paris – I rarely get into a car, apart from short cab rides. Moreover, I hardly ever spend two hours in the company of someone without being able to leave. My fellow curator’s professional interests are quite different – she is a scholar of American mid-20th-century photography, and my specialism leans more toward contemporary art. So, as harsh as this sounds, I inwardly sighed with relief when she told me that she was recently divorced. Love, kids, hurt, rejection, self-preservation and future desires are universal subjects I can talk about with anyone.

I think about those two-hour drives now, and consider how lucky we were to have that time together. I can’t recall exactly what we talked about but – to paraphrase Carol Shields in her novel Unless (2002) – when we talked, we never thought about the aboutness of talk; we just talked. In that confined space, driving along a completely unmemorable highway, a friendship was formed.

This ease is something I share with most of my female friends. I would say it’s different from the way I connect to my male friends. The talking is what makes it different. Again, Shields’s novels are excellent on the importance of female friends, without making them the centre story or narrative arc. In Unless, the protagonist’s husband asks her what she talks about during a regular friends’ meet-up. She replies: ‘It’s too rich to describe, and too uneven. Chit-chat, some people call it.’ The term ‘chit-chat’ reduces the talking between female friends to something superficial and unimportant, and sometimes it can be, but other times it is deeply profound and essential. It’s hard to put into words a process of sharing that can meander between desires, vanities, failures and destinies.

Aristotle claimed that friends are central to a life that is fulfilled, happy and well lived. He dedicated Books VIII and IX of his Ethics to the subject of friendship, although it’s pretty certain that he wasn’t considering female friendships when he was writing. He situates three different types of friendships based around the moral virtues of goodness, pleasure and advantage. It is only when all three are in operation that ‘good will’ is achieved and a proper, deep friendship is formed.

‘Good will’ is a reciprocal feeling of wanting what is good for one another through shared values. But Aristotle’s writing makes two quite sweeping statements. First, he claims, if there is an imbalance in this desire of goodness for one another, then the friendship is unsustainable. Yet it is this imbalance that seems to dominate representations of female friendships – especially in film – where one is led to believe that women find it impossible to be friends on a foundation of mutual respect. Second, Aristotle claims that the number of people with whom one can sustain a perfectly balanced friendship based on the identified three values is quite small.

Examples of this imbalance and of bad friendships between women are seemingly endless, and confrontation and pitting women against one another is a plot device that rarely occurs in ‘bromances’ between male friends. In her autobiographical book Testament of Friendship (1940), Vera Brittain wrote: ‘From the days of Homer the friendships of men have enjoyed glory and acclamation, but the friendships of women … have usually been not merely unsung but mocked, belittled and falsely interpreted.’ Perhaps Brittain was referring to 1930s films where women fought each other over the returning soldier. Indeed, films such as The Road to Glory (1936) and A Farewell to Arms (1932) suggest a widespread belief that women are unable to have friendships.

In any case, screen representations of women have long been unrealistic, even if subject of great interest, fear and attraction. In response, the 1980s saw the appearance of what is now known as the Bechdel test, which asks how often two women in a film talk of subjects other than men. Yet women fighting one another continues as a staple of film and TV – witness the confrontations, petty jealousies and fall-outs (and then making-ups) in the TV series Girls (2012-17) or Big Little Lies (2017-). Films such as Beaches (1988) , Mean Girls (2004) and Clueless (1995) also rely on this filmic device.

In addition to these familiar storylines of fighting friends, there are also representations where the friendship turns to love and moves into something completely different, as in Heavenly Creatures (1994) , Wild Things (1998), Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013) and The Favourite (2018). There are phoney views of ‘sisterhood’, as in Thelma and Louise (1991). There are others that use this treacle ‘girlfriend’ motif, but still rely on a rift in their storylines, as in 9 to 5 (1980), The First Wives Club (1996), Sex and the City (1998-2004), Pitch Perfect (2012), Bridesmaids (2011) and Girls Trip (2017). It is perhaps only in the fantasyland of the US sitcom Friends (1994-2004) that the women rarely fall out with one another or compare and compete. All in all, film and TV is a pretty strange landscape in which to find realistic representations of female friendships.

I lived in New York for nearly eight years; recently, a good friend said he would throw me a party for my upcoming 50th birthday. With Aristotle’s ideas on friendship in mind, I thought I couldn’t possibly have enough real friends to invite, and certainly none of the sitcom variety: I have never been one for tribal gatherings or the herd mentality, and am more comfortable one-to-one or in a small group. So I was amazed how quickly my invite list filled to include 30 people (the maximum for my friend’s apartment). Aristotle held that the number of people who can sustain his perfect sort of friendship is small. It certainly makes demands on both sides; as William Rawlins, professor of interpersonal communication at Ohio University, said: ‘How do you do that in a way that respects the contingencies of each other’s lives while also trying to build in, if not a regular practice, the expectation that we’re going to see each other? It can be a challenging needle to thread.’

Others have similarly claimed that friendship comes in small numbers. The British anthropologist Robin Dunbar even put a figure to it – 150, aka Dunbar’s number, or the total number of stable social relationships a person can have (for his purposes, these are ‘people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar’; he put the number of intimate friends at only around five). With mobility becoming easier and friends living all over the world, psychological studies have looked at how the concept of friendship has changed, with social networking affecting the intensity of writing between friends and the superficiality of online friendships.

In the wake of #MeToo and on the shifting sands that led to it, there has been increased representation of female friendship in both film and literature. In The Atlantic magazine, Julie Beck writes: ‘As people get married later, and the ranks of single women rise, more and more books and television shows have been exploring friendship dynamics.’ So we see a few more genuine friendships portrayed that don’t rely on a sense of continued obligation, or controlled caretaking and withholding, and while that might not make for very dramatic plotlines, these female friendships show a mutual respect and liking, without any confrontation. Such representations are noticeably rarer but an early example is Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987). More recently, the film The Help (2011), the TV series Broad City (2014-19) and the teen film Booksmart (2019) – which does feature one major argument – all have healthy, low-key, respectful, considerate female friendships at the core of their narratives.

In literature, the female friendships in Shields’s novels stand out as consistently showing women being supportive and kind to one another. In Unless , she writes:

It’s curious how friends get let out of novels, but I can see how it happens. Blame it on Hemingway, blame it on Conrad, blame even Edith Wharton, but the modernist tradition has set the individual, the conflicted self, up against the world. Parents (loving or negligent) are admitted to fiction, and siblings (weak, envious, self-destructive) have a role. But the non-presence of friends is almost a convention – there seems no room for friends in a narrative already cluttered with event and the tortuous vibrations of the inner person.

So while misrepresented friends feature heavily in film, they are indeed rarer in novels. But Shields’s view of them being left out of narratives in favour of self-study can lead us back to Aristotle. He argues that the triumph of the values of mutual reciprocation that he identifies as needed for friendship depends on the idea that a friend is ‘another self’, someone whom you love and like, as you love and like yourself. Here is where it gets interesting. Self-loathing and insecurity (as opposed to self-love) are key to two of the most popular stories of friendship in recent years: the Neapolitan Novels quartet (2012-15) by Elena Ferrante and the TV comedy drama Fleabag (2016-19) by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. As ever, it’s the darker sides of friendships that tend to dominate and in turn have a higher level of popularity.

Obsession, in the case of Ferrante, and transgression, in Waller-Bridge, are no grounds for a genuine friendship

These two authors show the fallibility of humans and what effects female friendships can have on the self. The friendships in these stories are in fact a device through which to explore the deeper recesses of the female psyche and show how they affect intimate, interior and inward emotions, or what Shields calls the ‘tortuous vibrations of the inner person’. In both Ferrante’s novels and Waller-Bridge’s drama, based on her earlier one-woman stage show, obsession and transgression within female friendships illustrate not togetherness but loneliness. It is this twist of using the friendship for self-examination that makes both stories so successful and relatable, as the emotions they stress are those many of us have felt at some point in our lives.

In both stories, we get only one side of the story, and what both authors do so brilliantly is to question whether these relationships are really friendships. After all, obsession, in the case of the Ferrante novels, and transgression, in Waller-Bridge, are no grounds for a genuine friendship.

The four Neapolitan Novels orbit the relationship between Elena and Lila, with Elena narrating. This literary device allows direct insight into one woman’s inner world, whereas that of the other remains opaque. The reader can only speculate on the intent behind Lila’s actions, which are violently cruel and manipulative from the outset, born of an almost incontrollable jealously that Elena has the opportunity to continue her studies while Lila is denied it. Elena is obsessed with the unfathomable Lila whom she worships and detests in equal measure as their relationship shifts from childhood to old age. Lila is her shadow and she looms over Elena’s life with a constant menace, needling away at Elena’s insecurities (Lila seems to have almost paranormal power to know exactly what they are). Elena’s relentless pursuit for acceptance from a woman who appears to have no likeable traits verges on the psychotic. This is in no way a friendship by Aristotle’s measure: ‘Those who wish good things to their friends for the sake of the latter are friends most of all, because they do so because of their friends themselves, and not coincidentally.’

Lila is a bully who uses Elena for her own purposes throughout. The jealousies – intellectual and sexual – on both sides are insidious and self-destructive. There seems to be nothing in their relationship that verges on respect for one another, nor do they even seem to like each other. At 17, Lila sleeps with Nino – a local boy who has moved away due to his father’s philandering – while the girls are on holiday together. She does so knowing that Elena is in love with Nino, even if this has never been voiced. At this point, Lila is also unhappily married. This action has huge ramifications on both women’s lives, and indeed Nino’s presence, at a crucial time later in the story, leads to the loss of Lila’s daughter and the inevitable disintegration of any kind of relationship between the two women. Throughout these novels, the reader is left wondering why Elena doesn’t break away completely and free herself from such a toxic relationship if it makes her feel so bad about herself.

It is only in the fourth novel, when both women are pregnant at the same time, that there are rare moments that resemble what could be considered a friendship: visits to the doctor together, and laughter. However, this doesn’t last long, and Lila soon reverts to her ruthless self, her looming presence threatening once more. Key to this book is loneliness – Elena observes Lila’s, and has to deal with her own when she is often left trapped with men who feel hard done by, seemingly unaware (or, more accurately, conditioned not to care) about her personal and professional agency. Although married once, a mistress to Nino for many years and the mother of three children, Elena’s loneliness reverberates throughout, and is perhaps why she clings to the idea of a friendship with Lila as a salve for it. Unlike the many mainstream examples mentioned previously, there is nothing formulaic about this relationship, and no happy ending.

F emale-on-female obsession is not new, of course – just think of Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca (1938). And while Elena’s obsession with Lila might be extreme, the theme has had a recent on-screen resurgence, for example in Killing Eve (2018-), the series based on the Villanelle novels (2014-16) by Luke Jennings and, like Fleabag , created for TV by Waller-Bridge.

Fleabag ’s eponymous protagonist and narrator is driven by loneliness after the sudden death of her best friend, Boo. Yet this friendship seems more of a background subplot, while in most episodes Fleabag’s relationships with her stepmother and her sister take centre-stage. By the close of the series, however, viewers realise that the friendship is everything – and its tragic end holds the key to Fleabag’s insecurity, sexual availability, erratic behaviour and inclination to hurt those around her and herself. Her friendship with Boo had been so believable, so genuinely warm, respectful and fun, that Fleabag’s betrayal, once revealed, is appalling.

Kindness – where both characters are equally devoted to one another – is so rarely represented in female friendships that Fleabag’s transgression cuts deep. She messed up – big time – and can never make amends. Fleabag wears her emotions and her flaws on her sleeve, and shows that we truly hurt the ones we love. Perhaps many of us have done something like this, to some degree, to someone close. We are all Fleabags. The device of the friendship is a route into the character, a way of revealing Fleabag’s fragile sense of self as she bumbles through life, barely in control of her emotions.

There can be competitiveness and jealousy, transgression and guilt, but also genuine love

The series’ popularity shows the deep need for fully formed female characters to take centre-stage, and reveals the importance of female friendship to women. Fleabag’s other relationships, for example with her family, are so tortured but her friendship with Boo seems (initially, at least) so pure. If you don’t have that with somebody, then you certainly strive for it, as the fear of loneliness is acute. Fleabag and Boo were friends because it made them both feel good, about each other and about themselves. This friendship seemed like the complete opposite of Elena and Lila’s, with their plotting, double-guessing and insecurities (even if Fleabag and Elena have similarly low self-esteem). In contrast, Boo and Fleabag nourished and complimented one another, and it’s hard to remember when we last saw that on primetime TV.

There is nothing ‘minor’ about these two stories of female friendship: they are sweeping, epic, and a welcome tonic in a digital age when ‘likes’ and online comments can be confused with intimacy. It is the theme of Kate Leaver’s book The Friendship Cure (2018) and Sherry Turkle’s work as the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. They tell us that friendship seems to be in something of a crisis. What the Neapolitan novels and Fleabag do is flip this pessimism to illustrate how precious female friendships are, how messy, complicated and vulnerable people can be, and how we must nurture and attend to our friends and ourselves, and indeed disregard those who don’t give the same back.

What makes both these examples of friendship resonate is their intimacy and vulnerability, not only between the two women, but within the main characters themselves. These women are flawed but honest. Their fallibility, loneliness and insecurity might not make them likeable, but they are totally relatable. In short, seeing ourselves reflected in fiction makes us feel less alone. And so it seems that the most compelling stories are not really about friendship at all, but about self-awareness, self-deception, loneliness and self-confidence (or its lack). These stories focus on female friendship to show that there can be competitiveness and jealousy, transgression and guilt, but also genuine love; the relationships between women can be acutely observant and thought-provoking guides to deep emotions of the self.

I am drawn to such narratives because, moving countries so much, I have to make new friends each time. Moving makes me reassess myself – it’s not a reinvention necessarily but it’s certainly a recalibration. I have to look inwards, and it is my friends who help me do that. Moving highlights my insecurities and inadequacies, and my friends all have these things too: I don’t always have ‘self-love’ and nor do my friends. Aristotle’s demand for the virtues of goodness in a person and his friends seems totally unachievable to me, but I think what we can strive for is his notion of ‘good will’ towards each other, even if we don’t always view ourselves in the same high regard.

Subcultures

An undulating thrill

Once lauded as a wonder of the age, cocaine soon became the object of profound anxieties. What happened?

Douglas Small

Main character syndrome

Why romanticising your own life is philosophically dubious, setting up toxic narratives and an inability to truly love

Anna Gotlib

Food and drink

The joy of foraging

Offering an escape from industrial foods, foraging nourishes the soul and body, but it needs democratic access to the land

Design and fashion

When luxury is good

The waste and exploitation of fast fashion shouldn’t blind us to the joys of making beautiful clothing with care

Roger Tredre

Rituals and celebrations

Tender, yet creepy

Dolls help children create wonderfully vivid and imaginative worlds, while also serving as unsettling reminders of the abyss

Tishani Doshi

Film and visual culture

The risk of beauty

W Eugene Smith’s photos of the Minamata disaster are both exquisite and horrifying. How might we now look at them?

Joanna Pocock

• Entertainment
• Environment
• Information Science and Technology
• Social Issues

Home Essay Samples Life Friends

Narrating How I Met My Best Friend

Table of contents, a chance meeting, shared interests and common ground, bonding through shared experiences, a friend who transforms, embracing individuality.

*minimum deadline

Cite this Essay

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below

Related Essays

Need writing help?

You can always rely on us no matter what type of paper you need

*No hidden charges

100% Unique Essays

Absolutely Confidential

Money Back Guarantee

By clicking “Send Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails

You can also get a UNIQUE essay on this or any other topic

Thank you! We’ll contact you as soon as possible.

11 Literary Characters You'd Love To Be BFFs With

If I had a nickel for every time someone said to me, "You know that fictional character isn't real, right?", I would use the riches to buy more books. Maybe my favorite book characters are "too real" to me (is that even a thing?), but what lit-lover hasn't felt a kinship with the characters on the pages of their favorite series? Sometimes, I want to be the characters — mostly because I want to go on their awesome adventures. But other times, I just really want these literary characters to be my BFFs.

I think a lot of book characters would fit well into my friend group. If you're a fellow book-lover, you know what I'm talking about: imagine being able to text characters from books to see if they wanted to hang out with everyone. Now imagine that they can text you back . And then, when you arrive at the hangout place... there are BOOK CHARACTERS THERE. Epic, right?

Sadly, since I can't actually bring book characters to life, I can only reread their stories again and again when I miss them. But if by some magic I could bring them to life to hang out with me.... here are some amazing characters who would make the best BFFs.

1. Anne Shirley From Anne Of Green Gables

She's spirited and hilarious and would probably get you drunk on accident. Anne Shirley is a stellar best friend, because you just KNOW she would always find something fun and adventurous for you to do when hanging out. Life would never be boring with this redhead as your BFF.

2. Elizabeth Bennet From Pride And Prejudice

Maybe you also want to BE Elizabeth a little bit, but you have to admit that she'd make an awesome BFF. First of all, she has an extremely witty sense of humor, so you know she would always make you laugh. Secondly, she's a great wing woman. If she senses that you have a crush and he seems to like you back, she'll never let any weirdness stop you two from being together.

Click here to buy.

3. Fred And George Weasley From Harry Potter

These two would be the best friends someone could ask for. They might get you into a little ~too~ much trouble from time to time, but chances are they know how to get you out of trouble, as well. Fred and George are hilarious, adventurous, and always know how to cheer someone up when they're feeling down. Best friend material right here.

4. Jo March From Little Women

Jo would write plays for the two of you to star in, and would always be fiercely loyal. She's so amazingly creative that you'd never run out of things to talk about if Jo were your best friend.

5. Beatrice From Much Ado About Nothing

Imagine the kind of word play you could achieve if you hit the town with Beatrice. She's a master of banter, but she also protects those she loves (remember when she told Benedick to kill Claudio for what he did to Hero?? That's serious loyalty right there). Beatrice is the literary character you'd always want on your side.

6. Park From Eleanor & Park

He'll let you borrow his comics, invite you over to dinner, and will (maybe begrudgingly) let you sit next to him on the bus when you have nowhere else to sit. Park would be a great BFF.

7. Aech From Ready Player One

Even though this BFF is a virtual one, that doesn't have to stand in the way of your friendship. Aech is loyal and will always help you on your quests — the perfect best friend.

8. Boo Radley From To Kill A Mockingbird

Maybe Boo is a little scary, but in the end you realize that he just wants to help. Sometimes the best friends are the ones who are misunderstood by everyone else, and you just have to take some time to see how great they really are. This might be a weird BFF... but who doesn't have a couple unlikely friends now and again?

9. Inigo Montoya From The Princess Bride

Once he's done with his vengeance plot, I imagine Inigo would make a pretty awesome BFF. He's obviously fiercely loyal, and he's got a lot of great skills (fencing, hunting people down, storming the castle...). You could have a lot of fun as Inigo's partner in adventure.

10. Dickon From The Secret Garden

Literally every character in The Secret Garden is obsessed with Dickon. Even animals follow him around. He's so kind and enchanting and magnetic, that if he were real, you'd definitely become instant best friends.

11. Samwise Gamgee From Lord Of The Rings

This guy sets the bar pretty high for BFFs.

Images: New Line Cinema (1), Warner Bros Family Entertainment (1), 20th Century Fox (1), Universal Pictures (1), The Samuel Goldwyn Company (1), Warner Bros (2), Focus (1), Columbia Pictures (1), CBC (1)

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Writing Tips Oasis - A website dedicated to helping writers to write and publish books.

20 Friendship Fiction Writing Prompts

By Rebecca Parpworth-Reynolds

Are you writing a novel that centers around a group of friends? Do you need some friendship fiction writing prompts? Check out the 20 below!

1. Friend or Fiction?

A little girl grows up alone most of the time, and so ends up creating an imaginary friend in order to get up to all sorts of adventures together. By the time she reaches high school, she has long forgotten about them, until she meets someone who has the same characteristics and personality as her fictional friend from long ago.

2. An Educational Dilemma

Two childhood friends grow up alongside each other for most of their lives, until their parents decide to send them to different schools. One is a posh boarding school, and the other is a run-of-the-mill public school. Will the two still be able to have a close connection?

3. Friends to the Rescue

A young woman has just come out of a bad relationship and is a broken shell of her former self. Enter her friends to step in to remind her that she is not alone and set up a series of events to cheer her up. Chaos ensues.

4. The Grand Tour

A group of friends go on a road trip across the country, determined to see as many things as possible and tick off items on their bucket lists. Their journey will take them through many challenges, and lead to some brand new perspectives on life. However, can their ties of friendship survive the trip?

5. Taking Sides

Two friends find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict, forced to choose between their loyalty to each other and their individual beliefs. What sorts of obstacles will they need to combat in order to maintain their friendship and also save face amongst the people on their side of the war?

6. Long Time No See

Two childhood friends grow up and end up not seeing much of each other. That is until one of them is getting married, and wants the other to be their maid of honor/best man. Despite the years that they have been apart, will the pair’s bonds still be as strong as ever?

7. Not so Different

Two people from differing social classes strike up an unusual friendship. How do they navigate this in a world filled with prejudice, and fight against the odds to support each other and bring about harmony?

8. Man and Machine

A boy in a futuristic world finds a robot. After looking after it and fixing it, he starts to build a friendship with the machine. How does a friendship between a human and a robot play out in a society where they are just seen as tools?

Two people strike up a close friendship online, talking every single day. Despite both being on opposite sides of the world they both appear to be kindred spirits. One day, one friend tells the other that they will be going on vacation to the country that they live in. When they meet up, will reality meet with online expectations?

10. Budding Friendships

In a small town that is going into decline, two friends start a community garden and inspire their neighbors to come together. How do they start to tackle other challenges within the town, while still dealing with their everyday responsibilities?

11. One Coffee to Go

A barista working in a cafe ends up having a conversation with one of the regulars. How does this build from them just taking their order into a strong bond that lasts while still keeping up with running the shop?

12. A Friendly Muse

A famous artist befriends a struggling musician. Explore the dynamics of their friendship as they navigate the challenges of fame, jealousy, creativity, and the pressures of the industry. What happens when the musician’s fame eclipses the artist’s?

13. The Book Club

A group of friends form a book club and become deeply connected through their shared love for literature. Explore how the books they read influence their lives and relationships, and how they solve their problems together.

14. The Show Must Go On

Two friends both enter the same TV talent competition. They both get through the first audition round but then have to cope with the fact that the competition has become much fiercer. Will they be able to keep their friendship, or will they want to win at all costs?

15. Cooking up a Storm

Two friends are passionate about cooking. They decide to open a restaurant together, facing culinary challenges, rivalries, and the pressures of running a business while maintaining their friendship.

16. Unlikely Allies

A group of teens each from a different clique and social group end up, for different reasons, being put in detention until the end of term. How do they start to build common ground, and will their friendships carry over outside of the detention hall?

17. My Best Roommate

Two friends who have both just come out of relationships find themselves in need of somewhere to live. Despite not being exceptionally close friends to start, they decide to move in together as roommates. How does their relationship grow from here, and can they handle being around each other 24/7?

18. Someone to Lean On

A group of people meets at a support group each week. How do they start to open up to each other about their troubled pasts, and build lifelong friendships to help guide them through challenges they might face in the real world?

19. Against All Odds

A group of friends finds themselves stranded in the wilderness. How will they survive and cope with the hardships they find out there? As the days start to pass by with no hope of rescue, how do their friendships fare?

20. Cops and Robbers

Two childhood friends have very different occupations now they are all grown up. One is an esteemed detective , and the other is a notorious thief. How does the thief keep their identity hidden from their old friend, and what happens when the detective finds out about their crimes?

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

Get this FREE poster mailed to your school! ✨

15 Inspiring Personal Narrative Examples for Writers

Reveal a part of yourself in your essay.

Students start writing personal narratives at a young age, learning to use descriptive language to tell a story about their own experiences. Try sharing these personal narrative examples for elementary, middle, and high school to help them understand this essay form.

What is a personal narrative?

Think of a narrative essay like telling a story. Use descriptive language, and be sure you have a beginning, middle, and end. The essay should recount your personal experiences, including your thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Learn more about personal narrative essays here:

• What Is Narrative Writing, and How Do I Teach It in the Classroom?
• Engaging Personal Narrative Ideas for Kids and Teens
• Best Mentor Texts for Narrative Writing in Elementary School

Elementary School Personal Narrative Examples

In elementary school, personal narratives might be quite short, just a paragraph or two. The key is to encourage kids to embrace a personal style of writing, one that speaks in their own voice. Take a look at these elementary school personal narrative essay examples for inspiration.

The Horrible Day

“next i fell asleep in my cereal and my brother stole my toast”—anonymous student.

In this short personal narrative written by a 2nd grader, the author describes a bad day with lots of details and an informal tone. It’s a great model for your youngest writers.

Read the full essay: The Horrible Day at Thoughtful Learning

Keep an Eye on the Sky!

“as we made our way out to the field, my stomach slowly turned into a giant knot of fear.” —anonymous student.

Any student who dreads gym class will connect with this essay, which turns a challenge into a triumph. This narrative from Time for Kids is annotated, with highlighted details and tips to help kids write their own essay.

Read the full essay: Keep an Eye on the Sky! at Time for Kids

Grandpa, Chaz, and Me

“i really miss grandpa, and so does my brother, even though he never met him.” —cody, 4th grade student.

Written by a 4th grader, this essay relates the author’s loss of a grandfather at a very young age. Using simple, personal language, they tell a compelling story in a few short paragraphs.

Read the full essay: Grandpa, Chaz, and Me at Thoughtful Learning ADVERTISEMENT

Surviving an Embarrassing Situation

“i had made the shot in the wrong basket, giving the green shirts the win” —anonymous student.

Personal narratives tell a story, with a beginning, middle, and end. This annotated essay outlines those parts, making it easier for young writers to do the same in their own writing.

Read the full essay: Surviving an Embarrassing Situation at Sopris West Educational Services

“Do you have a friend who loves you?” —Kendra, 4th grade student

Writing about friends gives writers the chance to describe someone’s physical characteristics and personality. This 4th grade essay uses personal details to bring a beloved friend to life.

Read the full essay: Ann at Thoughtful Learning

Middle School Personal Narrative Examples

By middle school, personal narratives are longer and more involved, telling more detailed stories and experiences. These middle school personal narrative essay examples model strong writing skills for this age group.

“As thoughts of certain death run through my mind, the world appears a precious, treasured place.” —Amy, student

Describing an opportunity to overcome your worst fears makes an excellent personal narrative topic. The vivid descriptions of the landscape and the author’s feelings help the reader make a strong connection to the author.

Read the full essay: The Climb at Thoughtful Learning

The Best Friend Question

“i’ve often wondered, does not having a best friend make me defective” —blanche li, age 13, diablo vista middle school, danville, california.

When her Spanish teacher asked students for an essay describing their best friend, 13-year-old Blanche Li fell back on her standard story: that of a made-up person. Here, she explains why she made up “Haley” and wonders what having an imaginary best friend says about her.

Read the full essay: The Best Friend Question at The New York Times

The Racist Warehouse

“i didn’t know racism was still around; i thought that situation had died along with dr. king.” —alicia, 8th grade student.

Strong personal narratives often relate the way the author learned an important life lesson. Here, an 8th grader describes her first experience with racism, in an essay that will sadly ring true with many readers.

Read the full essay: The Racist Warehouse at Thoughtful Teaching

“For the first time, we realized that we didn’t know how to express our voice, and we always suppressed it.” —Jocelyn C., 7th grade student, Texas

Seventh-grader Jocelyn C. describes the unique experience of spending two years living in an RV with her family, traveling the country. She relates the ups and downs of their trip, illustrating the way her family learned to live together in close quarters and embrace the adventure.

Read the full essay: RV Journey at Write From the Heart

An Eight Pound Rival

“i’m trying to accept that he didn’t mean to dominate the center stage all the time, that’s just one of the many lovable assets of his personality.”.

A new sibling can change everything in a family, especially when you’ve always been the baby. This middle schooler explains her challenging relationship with a little brother that she loves, even when he drives her a bit crazy. (Find this essay on page 42 at the link.)

Read the full essay: An Eight Pound Rival at Teaching That Makes Sense

High School Personal Narrative Examples

High school students have more complex stories to tell, though they’re sometimes reluctant to do so. Reading personal narrative essay examples like these can encourage them to open up and get their thoughts, feelings, and ideas down on the page.

Sorry, Wrong Number

“when i received the first text, i was a playful sixth grader, always finding sly ways to be subversive in school and with friends.” —michelle ahn, high school student.

When Michelle Ahn was 11, she started getting texts for a wrong number, a man named Jared. Rather than correcting the error, she spends the next few years occasionally engaging with his texters as “Jared,” learning more about him. Though she finally comes clean, her time as “Jared” exposes her to a way of life very different from her own, and opens her eyes to the inner lives of others.

Read the full essay: Sorry, Wrong Number at The New York Times

Caught in the Net

“little does everyone else know how often i’m not doing school research or paper writing; instead i’m aimlessly writing emails or chatting with internet friends and family hundreds of miles away.” —kim, college student.

Even before social media and smartphones swept the world, internet addiction had become a problem. Here, a student shares her experiences in AOL chat rooms, meeting people from around the globe. Eventually, she realizes she’s sacrificing life in the real world for her digital friends and experiences, and works to find the right balance.

Read the full essay: Caught in the Net at Thoughtful Learning

Nothing Extraordinary

“an uneasy feeling started to settle in my chest. i tried to push it out, but once it took root it refused to be yanked up and tossed away.” —jeniffer kim, high school student.

During an ordinary shopping trip, high schooler Jenniffer Kim suddenly realizes she’s ashamed of her mother. At the same time, she recognizes all the sacrifices her mom has made for her, and gladly takes the chance to make a tiny sacrifice of her own.

Read the full essay: Nothing Extraordinary at The New York Times

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

“at this point in life, i had not yet learned to be gentle with myself, or others.” —anonymous student.

A teen who lives with bipolar disorder recounts a difficult conversation with her parents, in which her mother dismisses her as “crazy.” A few years later, this same teen finds herself in the emergency room, where her mother has just tried to die by suicide. “Crazy!” the daughter thinks. After her mother also receives a bipolar disorder diagnosis, the author concludes, “‘Crazy’ is a term devised to dismiss people.”

Read the full essay: The Pot Calling the Kettle Black at Pressbooks

What a Black Woman Wishes Her Adoptive White Parents Knew

“i know that i am different, but do not have the words to understand how.” —mariama lockington.

Though not written by a high schooler, this essay by Mariama Lockington makes an excellent mentor text for this age group. Lockington dives deep into her feelings about being adopted by parents of a different race, and shares her challenges in poignant language that speaks directly to the reader.

Read the full essay: What a Black Woman Wishes Her Adoptive White Parents Knew at Buzzfeed News

Do you use personal narrative examples as mentor texts in your classroom? Come share your experiences and ask for advice in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook !

Plus, strong persuasive writing examples (essays, speeches, ads, and more) ..

You Might Also Like

65 Engaging Personal Narrative Ideas for Kids and Teens

Tell a story to engage the reader. Continue Reading

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256

• Writing Essay on Friendship: 3 Samples to Get Inspired

When in school or college, you won’t escape the task of writing an essay on friendship. It’s a paper revealing the power of having friends and reflecting on the corresponding values.

It seems easy to write. You craft a narrative about your mates, explaining what they mean to you. And yet, it’s an academic paper. So, some rules are still here on how to structure and format it.

In this article, you’ll find three samples of different essays on friendship. Feel free to use them to get inspired and better understand this paper’s nature and purpose.

Let’s answer all the questions related to friendship essays together!

What Is an Essay on Friendship?

First, the definition:

An essay on friendship is a short academic paper students write to express their thoughts and reflections on the topic.

The purpose is to:

• explore the phenomenon;
• understand what it means to you;
• realize the significance of having close people nearby;
• reveal the pros and cons of committing to a friendship;
• reflect on how friendship can help our wellness.

Friendship essays aren’t about “my friends and I” topics only. You can write about the role of friendship for mental health, craft an expository essay explaining the topic, or build a reflective essay on what friendship means to you.

Friendship Essay Structure

Friendship essays have a standard structure of academic papers. They are short and consist of three parts:

• Introduction about friendship
• Paragraph about friendship
• Friendship essay conclusion

In the intro, you start with an attention grabber. Feel free to use a quote, a surprising fact, or an anecdote. Introduce the topic and finish with thesis statements about friendship.

In a friendship paragraph, you support a thesis with facts, evidence, personal stories, etc. As a rule, essay bodies have three paragraphs minimum. So you can devote each paragraph to one aspect :

• Definition of this concept 
• Why having friends is essential
• What a friend can give you
• Types of friendship  
• Challenges mates meet on their way  
• Characteristics of a good friend  
• How to strengthen a friendship, etc. 

In the essay body, you can use stories and examples from your life to illustrate points. Tell about your friends and share personal thoughts — it will make your paper more compelling to read.

In the concluding paragraph, sum up the points and restate your thesis. Finish on a positive note, leaving readers with the food for thought.

Easier said than done, huh?

Below are three samples of friendship essays for you to see what they look like and how they sound.

3 Samples to Help You Write an Essay About Friendship

While Ralph Waldo Emerson friendship essay (1) is the top example of the paper on this topic, we’ll go further and provide several NEW samples.

Please check:

Short Essay on Friendship

This sample is perfect for high school students. As a rule, teachers ask them to write 150-200-word essays. The task is to describe concepts or things the way they understand them.

Narrative Essay on Friendship

Narrative essays are more about personal stories. Here, you can tell about your friends, include dialogues , and sound less academic.

500 Words Essay Sample on Importance of Friendship

Over to You

Now, you have three samples and know how to structure this paper. Ready to write yours?

Let’s begin with the “Why is friendship important?” essay — and you’ll see that it’s not super challenging to craft. Be honest, share your thoughts, and don’t hesitate to write personal reflections on the topic.

Still don’t know how to start your essay on friendship? Our writers are here to help. 

References:

• https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/friendship.html
• Essay samples
• Essay writing
• Writing tips

Recent Posts

• Writing the “Why Should Abortion Be Made Legal” Essay: Sample and Tips
• 3 Examples of Enduring Issue Essays to Write Yours Like a Pro
• How to Structure a Leadership Essay (Samples to Consider)
• What Is Nursing Essay, and How to Write It Like a Pro