Thread: I need the GUYS help, girls to if you can

I'm to a part in my story where the main charactor is trying to figure out how to ask out this girl. He knows she is the one. His two brothers are trying to help him come up with ideas and there is a lot of joking and teasing going on. What are some things that would be said, like locker room stuff, that would not sound to crass but realistic? Just some back and forth banter you know. Any ideas welcome.

You didn't mention their ages, but if it's puberty and up there probably won't be any locker room talk that's not too tasteless and crass. We're talking about males in one of their most hallowed and primal environments, after all.

Joking aside, however, you may want to read over some of the relationship advice columns on popular mens' websites, like menshealth.com. There may even be relationship advice sites that have forums, allowing you to get a glimpse into other people's real-life relationship woes. A 'Dear Abby' type of site with reader feedback could be a goldmine for relationship dont's (with a few do's here and there).

If the brothers have a solid relationship and one or more are already in successful dating situations, the advice could be more heartfelt and genuine, helping to bypass the crass locker room dialog you're trying to avoid. If, on the other hand, they're all newbies to the dating scene, the advice would probably be more crude and ridiculous by nature.

I suppose, ideally, you could have two brothers who don't have girlfriends, and never have, and one who is a bit older with a steady, healthy relationship in progress. The younger of the three is asking for relationship advice from the other two, but mainly from the oldest. The oldest tries to help in a genuine manner, while the other brother tries to jump in with crass remarks. With a few strategic dialog interruptions you could allude to the crudeness but not actually write out the offending words.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply and it's all good info. I guess I do need to add a few more details. This (if it works out) will be the first book in a nine book series. Oh yeah, I aim high. It really just happened that way. This one though is like the laying of all the ground work. I want it to be a book that can be read by 13 and up and a lot of people that are helping me with research would not like it if I had it too...crude or sexual. But I still want it to have a nice edge. Does that make since? None of them have ever had a girlfriend and they are all between 21-26ish. Very sheltered life so far, as far as the oppisit sex goes. He does have a few female cousins that I was thinking of having him consult after the brothers come up empty. Hope that helps with the gaps.

If the brothers are from a "sheltered" environment, there could be some humor inherent in such a discussion--for example, one brother might have read a book or seen a video which he regards as being authoritative, from which he keeps quoting; the other brother might be heavy on the "abstinence" thing, and have all sorts of absurd recommendations based on his basic ignorance of females and relationships. If one of the brothers is heavily into sports, he might have a perspective of dating based on his misperceptions of his teammates' banter.

Perhaps all three are completely in the dark about social interactions of any kind except for what they have learned from watching this or that TV program--each of them has his favorite program to which he refers as a resource for info about human interactions, ex.--

"But on Frazier, Daphne and Niles waited YEARS before they got together, or even kissed--and it only increased their passion for each other!"

"I feel the best approach is a direct one, like Dr. Robert Mixx on 'Exhalations of the Heart'! You need to study how that guy picks up on the ladies, dude!" (NOTE: I made that character and show up, since I never watch daytime TV.)

"No, listen to me! You need to come off semi-stalker-ish, like Angel on Buffy. Girls can't resist a guy who seems to know a lot about them!"

(etc)

That's all I can think of for now, but I hope it helps a little. Good luck!