People used the think my brother and I were twins and they always said we looked exactly alike and I never knew whether or not to be offended. Like, were they saying I looked really manly or that he was really effeminate? Who knows. Maybe both! Gasp.

Anyway, for once my intro had something to do with my chapter, because today, we will be talking about, you guessed it: Siblings!

I wanted to discuss this, because I only see one kind of sibling on Wattpad: the enemy. Maybe it's just the stories I've read or something, but it seems to me that siblings are always in the midst of hating each other and that makes me sad. So I thought I'd make a list of three different kinds of siblings I'd like to see more in stories. Here you go:

1. Best Friends

Not long ago my brother asked if he could be promoted to my best friend in the event that my best friend gets promoted to husband. I said yes. It was exciting.

But seriously, I don't think you guys understand how close we are. He told me he wants me to be his best man if he gets married and he wasn't kidding. I talk to him every day. I've never gone 24 hours without at least texting him. We plan weekends around getting to see each other. We plan lunch dates sometimes. You could say we're pretty tight.

I always see siblings in Wattpad stories that absolutely hate each other, but I want to see some that are best friends! Siblings are the best people to make friends with because very few people will be able to understand you in the way a sibling does.

Sometimes I see people defend their choice to have the siblings in their stories hate each other by saying it's unrealistic to have siblings be close. But in my life, and all the people I've known, they've at least somewhat liked their siblings. I've only met two people that absolutely hated their siblings (one of them, I didn't know she was a twin until she showed me a picture and I asked why she never told me she had a sister and her exact words were "Because I hate that bitch". That made me sad but I also found it kind of funny, because they're twins. Identical twins.)

I couldn't imagine hating my brother. My brother and I hung out together on weekends when we were in high school. His friends were my friends. My friends were his friends. Hell, I dated his best friend and he was totally cool with it. He dated a girl that was my friend and I was cool with it. He didn't party, but he'd pick me up if I needed a ride home from one. He didn't go to ball games, but he'd give me rides to and from them when I couldn't drive.

He was the coolest, because he'd take me out when I was fourteen and fifteen and let me drive his truck on back roads when no one else was around. We'd drive through fields and shit. It was awesome. And he'd always take me out for midnight snacks and pay. I had an awesome older brother.

He was always on my side no matter what. He would be mad at the same people I was mad at. He hated the guy that I had the really complicated relationship with. And I did the same for him! We always supported each other.

Of course, that's not to say we didn't have our differences. I mean, I get it, you don't always have to get along all day every day. Siblings, like friends, parents, teachers, acquaintances, etc. have moments when they can irritate you. Everyone does. That's okay. I'm not saying your characters have to like their siblings all the time, but for once, I'd like to see them actually like their siblings. That's my suggestion. Stop the hate. Spread the love.

2. Opposites/Competition

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of using siblings for conflict. You have to have a reason to have a character, right? And conflict is essential to a story. My point is that I don't want their hatred for each other to be the only conflict. I'm tired of that one.

I'm not necessarily tired of the sibling rivalries and competitions, though. Who says competition always has to be a bad thing. If you know me, you know I'm the most competitive person ever (to the point where I just don't even play board games anymore). And even though my brother and I were opposites in a lot of aspects, we were still competitive.

I was more into sports and art and I used to tease him that I was the son our dad never had. He was into math and computer programming stuff and he is always telling me I'm pretty much ninety because he has to tell me how to do things with my phone, because I just moved into the world of smartphones and this thing is beyond me. I just need to be able to text. I don't need all these fancy apps and gadgets. Who the fuck even has time for games anyway?

However, we were both fairly smart for our schools and we had a competition to see who could finish highest in their class. We were both in the top, which was cool, because we actually did push ourselves to get up higher in order to win. We were both business majors in our high school. We're both nature enthusiasts. We both love dogs (specifically labs). And we're both infatuated with watching gas prices (don't ask). We spring up a lot of competitions with our similarities, but even more through our differences.

We do stupid competitions (who can drink this bottle of water the fastest? Who can hold their breath the longest? Who can recite the most lines of this Will Ferrell movie?) but we also challenge each other to do things we would never push ourselves to do.

He told me I couldn't run a marathon in under three hours, so I did. I told him he couldn't design the mobile app for the company he works for and he did. He told me I couldn't get into the art school in New York, so I put together a kick ass portfolio and resume and did. I told him he couldn't flip a house for a profit in six months and he has just listed one in less than a month after doing a little remodeling.

Competition can be good. It can make you do things you never thought you could. It can make you push yourself to succeed. And I love that. I love when a character has a challenge and they push themselves to succeed. Why not get there with a little help from the character's siblings?

3. "Parents"

Since most Wattpad parents are nonexistent I just thought I'd bring up this fun point: usually older siblings step up when parents are not involved. I've seen it multiple times. I can go through my contacts right now and find at least five people that looked out for their younger siblings because their parents were at least fairly uninvolved. And I think that's a really cool dynamic to explore. Everyone wants to throw in a teen pregnancy, but some kids already have young siblings as a responsibility.

My best friend raised his little brother. They had a weird living situation when they were younger and spent some time apart, but by the time he was thirteen, my best friend was raising his little brother.

My best friend made sure his brother was up and ready for school. He made sure he had lunch money. He checked his homework. He drove him to his practices. He picked him up from friend's houses. He bought him his first car. He's paying for his college. He did everything for his brother.

They were only three years apart, but my best friend grew up in a pretty rough situation and he was determined to give his little brother a childhood, so he took it upon himself to make sure his little brother had every opportunity to lead a good life. He didn't let him get into drugs. He didn't let him get into fights. He didn't let him use girls. He didn't let him disrespect teachers and elders.

He got his brother a job. He moved his own schedule around so he could take his brother to practices and go to his games. He made sure all the bills were paid so the lights were always on. By the time we were in high school, my best stopped calling him "The kid" and started calling him "My kid." Some guys on the basketball bought him a "World's Greatest Dad" t-shirt as a joke, but it was totally true. My best friend raised that kid and he did a hell of a job.

Every time his brother had a problem, I can remember my best friend always tell him to just be a good person and to do good things.

Sometimes the people that make the biggest impact on us aren't the ones that know everything and are the wise old sage. Sometimes they're the one that pushes you to do good. To be good. To try your hardest. To not give up. To believe you can do something on your own.

I think that's why my best friend was such a good parent.

And that took a lot of his own time. He went without a lot of sleep. He had to put his own problems aside to take care of his brother.

That's the kind of conflict I want to see in stories. I don't care about these woe-is-me characters. I don't care for the self-pitying ones. I don't like the ones that have a million and one excuses for everything. I care about the ones that have more responsibility than someone should have to handle, but they make it work. That's what I want.

If you don't want parents in the story you have to think: who is taking care of this kid? Who's feeding them? Who's paying rent? Who's paying the bills? How are these kids surviving?

I want to see characters stand up and take charge in situations where they shouldn't have to be responsible, yet they are. I just said I thought using siblings as a kind of conflict was cool, and I'd say giving up your own youth in order to make sure your siblings had a good one is a pretty big conflict. Just a thought.

That's my rant. I'd be really interested to hear about the siblings you have in your stories. Or your lives. Either or. Maybe both! How exciting.

Funny story? Um, well, I'm trying to think of one that goes with the rant. I have a cute one! When I was first born, apparently instead of getting jealous, my brother was really possessive of me. And he always introduced me to people as "his baby" and would say "Do you want to see my baby?" But he didn't like other people holding me. He'd have to sit by them and keep his hand on me and he always told people to watch his baby's head (I guess my parents told him that a lot. He was two and a half).

He also used to feed me potato chips, ice cream, and Mountain Dew before I even had teeth. And apparently my parents had no problem with that, because this was before everything was child proof. And by the second kid parents don't care what happens. That's my cute story.

No wait, I thought of a funny one! Once my best friend's little brother had to have a parent teacher conference, and his dad went, but the teacher thought it was my best friend, because they look so much alike. And they got in an argument and actually had to have my best friend come to prove that it was their dad. He's a young dad and my best friend has looked like he was in his mid-twenties since he was twelve and she was a new teacher, so she came by it honest. But those were good times. The teacher was threatening to give his dad detention because she thought they were lying.

She was so embarrassed when she found out it actually was their dad. Then she started hitting on him. It still makes me laugh.