4 min read
Making one for a friend, not a partner
Almost nobody makes one of these for a friend. That is the entire advantage: there is no expectation to clear, so anything lands.
Lean on the archive
Friendship pages live on the worst photographs you own. Do not curate for flattery — curate for evidence. The one where everyone looks terrible is the one that will get sent back to you immediately.
Earn the sincere bit
Twenty jokes and then one straight paragraph works far better than sincerity throughout. If your entire friendship runs on mild abuse, do not abandon that register — use it, then break it once.
The break is what makes it land. Sincerity everywhere just reads as someone else writing.
Inside jokes need no translation
This page has an audience of one. If a line makes no sense to anyone else, that is usually the best line on there.
Say the thing you have never said sober
There is almost always something important that has gone unsaid for years, precisely because the register never allowed it. Write it once, plainly, and then tell them you never have to mention it again.
The same thing, written badly and written well
You are the best friend anyone could ask for.
You turn up. Without a plan, and without mentioning that you came.
Thanks for always being there.
You drove four hours and did not ask what had happened until we were nearly back.
If you are stuck
Answer one of these honestly and you will have the sentence the page needs.
- 01What is the story you both tell wrong, on purpose?
- 02What did they get you through without making it a big thing?
- 03What would be different if you had never met?
- 04What have you never actually said to them sober?
