Let’s talk a little about character relationships. If we take a look at our personal friendship circles, you can often be surprised to realise that some of your closest, most intimate friends do not actually know each other. Close friends may know a little about your other friends, from what you tell them, a peripheral awareness, and not much else. They may know each other from years ago but have no current knowledge or interaction. This leads to an interesting puzzle of who knows what, when and why.
This is a great puzzle to lay over the characters in your stories as well. Not every character is going to know what the others know. Sometimes what they know doesn’t matter, and at other times it can complicate their lives, even putting them in deathly danger.
A while back I discovered https://ladywritersleague.com/ “Character Relationship Matrix” and fell in love with it. I’ve since adapted it a little and applied the Matrix to the beginning and ending of my scenes as a quick reference point to see where I’ve left my characters and what secrets are still unfolding.
To show you how it works, let’s take Lucy and her brother Edmund, from C. S. Lewis’s, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (1950) as an example.
FYI – I had ChatGPT spit out a quick summary for us:
Lucy is frustrated and heartbroken because no one believes her story about Narnia. She’s especially upset with Edmund, who she knows has been to Narnia too but is lying about it. Lucy feels betrayed and hurt by his actions, and she becomes the subject of teasing from her siblings. Despite this, Lucy holds firm in the truth of what she experienced. When they speak with Professor Kirke, she finds a small glimmer of hope as he suggests that her story could be true. This support gives her a little comfort, but the tension with her siblings remains, especially with Edmund’s continued dishonesty.
Edmund has met the White Queen and is keeping her a secret. He is feeling smug and sly after returning from Narnia but chooses to lie and deny ever being there, just to mess with Lucy. He finds pleasure in making her look silly and enjoys the attention it brings him. However, there’s also a part of him that feels guilty, especially when the Professor starts taking Lucy’s side. Edmund is conflicted, but his desire to keep teasing Lucy and keep his secret outweighs his guilt. He continues to fuel the sibling tension, feeling a mix of enjoyment and anxiety about whether the truth will come out.
Let’s create The Character Relationship Matrix for the start and end of Chapter 05 in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.
You can see that at the start of the scene Lucy is feeling pretty alone. She knows Edmund is lying about going to Narnia, and that her eldest siblings don’t believe her. Edmund is enjoying having this power over Lucy and having a secret from the eldest two.
By the end of the scene Professor Kirke has weighed in on Lucy’s side, sewing seeds of doubt in the minds of Peter and Susan.
Using this Matrix means I don’t have to reread previous scenes to see who knows what and when, I can skim the relevant Matrix and pick up where I left of. It also gives me a sort of checklist to ensure I don’t leave plot points a lion could trip over.
Below I have included links to the original source of the Matrix, so please go check out her website, she has some fantastic resources for new writers. I’ve also included a blank copy of the Character Relationship Matrix and a Google Sheet version.
Let me know if this Matrix helps you as much as it has me.
Tracey Lee Writes 
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