I... wasn't quite sure how to answer these, because the videos keep talking about having a "hero" and "heroine", but I'm writing a story where the romance is between three male characters, so... I tried.  

Evindr, 29 years old, is the heir apparent to the throne of Calanthe, but as it was never made official, he has decided that it cannot be him, and he searches for the "true" heir. 

He was brought to the royal capital in his late teens (in this world, inheritances pass from teacher to student, so neither he nor the other princes were born into their roles). When he arrived, Ruzha was one of the first people he befriended. Ruzha is a popular entertainer in the city. His performing does involve sex, but there is nothing shameful about that in the world of this story. 

Evindr had always been isolated from others due to his advanced abilities with magic, and his high intelligence, but when he is chosen to become a prince, he becomes even more isolated, and Ruzha is the only person he can open up to. But during the period since the previous king retired (essentially, died), Evindr has become more withdrawn and won't open up to Ruzha anymore. He is incredibly stressed, and Ruzha is worried about him. Ruzha wants Evindr to just take the throne, and he also has his own past issues with one off the people threatening Evindr's claim, which is why he is one of the many people bothered that Evindr brought Julien there.  

Julien is the alternate prince that Evindr finds. He is laid back and easygoing, and Evindr quickly becomes annoyed with him. Moreover, Julien can tell that there are many layers of conflict, uncertainty, suspicion, and concern between all the people he is being introduced to in the royal court. He is, essentially, locked out of the conversation. But Ruzha sees Julien as an opportunity to break Evindr out of his shell, and make him realize what he needs to do to solve the kingdom's problems - to help him gain the confidence to take the throne. 

 

I'm... not sure if this is enough information... a lot of the categories on that worksheet didn't seem to apply to these characters in this world...

 

Conflict:

 

- What does each character look like to the outside world at the start of the story?

Evindr: The prince who should take the throne, but he doesn't, and no one knows why. People do consider that he's insecure, but that doesn't seem to fit for something of this magnitude, and for someone as amazing as he is. Evindr has always seemed perfect and flawless, to the point where it's scary, to most people (that is, everyone but Ruzha and Irenaeus - and Irenaeus is one of the people who might be in contention to take the throne for himself).  The fact that he knows he's intimidating is part of why he's nervous to take the throne - he could easily cause a diplomatic incident by being too blunt at the wrong time, and in fact, he has, though it has always been smoothed over in the past.

 

Ruzha: A successful, beautiful, admirable, brilliant artist, whose attachment to a certain mopey prince used to be admired, but is now sort of seen as sad.

Julien: An outsider to the palace, clueless about the environment he's been brought into. Something of a country bumpkin, really.

Their fears, past pain:

Evindr: On top of everything else, the real reason he feels he can't take the throne is that he has been losing control of his magic ever since an incident that happened during an undercover mission 12 years ago. The incident altered his connections with magic, and only the previous king, Ruzha, and very few others, know the full extent. Evindr himself doesn't quite know or understand it, and part of the reason the king retired and designated Julien is because of Julien's connection to all of this. It isn't something Evindr can be told, it's something he has to discover for himself. The king didn't know Ruzha knew anything about it. Ruzha's magical knowledge, and past with a similar incident, is something no one knows about, not even Evindr. Evindr does get the sense that Ruzha's magic is a lot deeper than he claims, but he chalks it up to wishful thinking. 

Ruzha: Knows that Evindr's power issue is worse than he knows, and that there will be disaster if it isn't fixed; knows that there has only been one similar issue in recent memory, and that the other person involved in that similar issue is, seemingly, working against Evindr. If that person knows about Evindr, and Evindr finds out (or suspects) that he knows, or if any of the hundreds of magical emergencies that could occur were to, and Evindr were to try to respond, Evindr could really lose control and cause damage past what anyone knows. 

Julien: Julien has no idea about Evindr's power issue, has no idea about why Evindr really is hesitant about the throne, he just knows what happened to him 12 years ago. He always thought he'd be in trouble if someone were to find out, and now that he's been dragged to the palace, as the prince (?!?) he thinks he's even more in trouble. 

 

 

Why falling in love/sex would be the worst thing for them:

(Evindr and Ruzha do already have an established relationship on one hand, but on the other, they have been distant from each other, and Ruzha is under pressure to abandon Evindr and back someone else for the throne)

Ruzha to Evindr: Evindr is a sinking ship, Ruzha should get out while he still can.

Evindr to Julien: Evindr wants to extract himself from the whole royal system, and since Julien is the person he's brought in to replace him, letting himself fall in love with Julien would be 

Julien to Evindr: 

Julien to Ruzha: He doesn't quite understand that having multiple partners is normal here, and he thinks that if he sleeps with Ruzha, Evindr will be incredibly angry at him.

Evindr to Ruzha: Ruzha's love is a distraction, he's wasting time with things like that while he has important problems to deal with (doesn't prioritize self-care)

Why it would be the best thing: 

Julien is what Evindr needs to settle his magic. They settle it for each other, and Ruzha can guide them. 

That's too supernatural though.

Psychologically/character-wise, they balance each other out in a way similar to that. The magic issue is sort of a symbol, I guess? Julien's gentleness, that does annoy Evindr, makes him perfect to stand between Evindr and the sort of interpersonal issue he's afraid of. 

I'm worried that I might have Ruzha too much as an accessory to EviJuli... to be honest, I originally had EviJuli as the main pairing, and Ruzha as just Evindr's friend, but as I was writing it, I felt more of a connection between Ruzha and Evindr than that, and I didn't want to have them break up, Julien wouldn't want or demand that. Evindr does need both of them, and Julien and Ruzha do love each other aside from Evindr. They are sort of both too sugary to go without Evindr's coffee, though. Though they do have their bitter sides as well. 

 

 

And thank you so much for writing this course. I'm looking forward to finishing it.