Hey there! I'm planning to start writing a roommate!au but I'm running out of fresh ideas so do you have any tips? Thanks a million!! 😊 (PS: love your prompts)
first of all, thank you so much! i’m glad you like my prompts.
ah yes, the roommate au. that is a timeless classic can i tell you, i’m sure i can give you a hand! i’ve read my fair share of roommate aus so i’ll see what i can do. :)
1. check your surroundings!
the first thing you should do with this type of au is determine the space this au will take place in. a large majority of the characters’ development will presumably take part in the flat/apartment/house etc. that they share.
ask yourself the following questions:
- is the living space small or big? if it’s small, how small? if it’s big, how big? try and think of a rough plan of the living space. perhaps they share a bathroom?
- is the space sparsely decorated or is it cramped to the brim with boxes of stuff that one of the main characters own?
- do your characters have a communal living space? do your characters enjoy talking to one another in this said space or are they more resigned and spend a majority of their time in their rooms? if the later is true, think carefully about how your characters will come across each other and how they will interact when they do.
2. what do you do in your own home?
day-to-day activities may seem simple and boring but this is vital! your characters will probably interact during these normal activities, as stated above, is there something peculiar that a character does in these activities which could captivate the reader?
if you can, try and change it up a bit! perhaps this action can trigger a conversation between your two characters? for instance, maybe one of your characters eats cereal without milk? weird i know! but that’s precisely the point!
this doesn’t necessarily have something to do with roommate aus themselves, but just general advice for writing. once you’ve established each of your characters, think about how they may interact with each other.
perhaps there are personality clashes. for instance, is one of them really messy and the other a neat freak? does one want to party all night whilst the other just wants to sit in the quiet and read a book? does this create tension between them or could them come to a compromise? this is just an example but it’s a good thing to keep in mind!
let’s say that your characters are forced to talk to each other. ignore all potential awkwardness or tension between them, think about a normal conversation they would have; like, who needs to buy the groceries and who’s turn it is to do the dishes? maybe not even something about the house they live it but instead something about the weather or a tv show they both really like.
speech patterns are vital in this exercise, do they interrupt each other? do they pause after each sentence? do they nod in agreement as the other person speaks or do they begin to get bored once the other has spoken for too long?
Person B having to wait for Person A to finish using the coffee machine/microwave/etc. Impatience and forced awkward conversation ensues.
A mistake was made with the lease on an apartment and now Person A and Person B are temporary roommates until one of them can find a new place to live.
However, not only are they beginning to fall in love with the apartment but they don’t mind the new company either...
“I’ve been looking for a new roommate for ages and honestly, I don’t care who responds to the ad next, they’re my new roommate.”
“God, my new roommate is driving me insane!”“How come?”“Well, they have all these annoying habits that I just can’t stand! I mean, who eats spaghetti with a knife and fork???”
“Well, it’s not like you’re perfect either! Would it kill you to clean your dishes once in a while!”
Our long-time feud over who’s turn it is to take the rubbish out is so bad that we’ve had to divide our trash into two so we’re only responsible for discarding our own garbage.
And now, its Thursday morning and the rubbish is collected in an hour and we’re arguing over who ate a whole packet of Doritos yesterday, because it sure as HELL wasn’t me!
...We forgot that we invite people over sometimes and they brought over their own food.
I came home last night to find my roommate on the kitchen counter screaming at something in the corner and claiming it was a mouse and that we ‘needed to get rid of it right away’... It was a ball of lint.
