narrative essay about love triangle

How To Write A Love Triangle (Without Being Crucified By Your Readers)

Ah, the love triangle. Otherwise known as a highly overused plot device for romantic fiction that pretty much every reader is fed up with. But is there a way to write a love triangle without being crucified by your readers?

I believe there is a way. And in honor of Valentine’s Day, that’s what today’s post is going to be all about: WRITING AN (ACTUALLY GOOD) LOVE TRIANGLE. We’ve talked about other romance tropes in the past, like insta-love and hate-to-love , but now it’s time to tackle the big one.

The reason why most love triangles are annoying and boring is because they don’t dig into the characters’ internal conflict . Everything’s so surface-level and stagnant, we can predict what will happen from page 1. Who wants to read a book like that? Not me, bro.

So is there a way to make this plot device actually…interesting? Is there a way to revolutionize the idea of the love triangle and bring fresh life to it? YES. I believe there is. And it starts with first knowing what not to do with a love triangle.

Don’t make your love triangle simple

This pretty much applies to any type of storytelling. If the external event in your story isn’t going to challenge the characters, make them confront their fears, and ultimately upend their entire lives, it isn’t going to hold the reader’s attention for very long. Note: I don’t mean that some EPIC CRAZY THING needs to happen to your protagonist. On the contrary! Even a seemingly small thing can drastically push a person outside their comfort zone.

The reason why we hate most love triangles is because they’re just so…shallow. 99% of the time, the “conflict” begins and ends with: “which one will I choose?” (Not to mention the fact that the reader knows from page 1 which one she will choose.)

Not only is this highly overdone, it’s completely void of that electricity that lights up a story — the internal conflict. AKA: the protagonist being forced to confront their greatest fear, crush their misbelief about the world, and achieve the thing that will ultimately make them happy — all while developing as a character and delivering a powerful message to the reader.

So, in light of that…

Let your love triangle bring out the internal conflict of your characters

Ultimately, every single external thing in your book should be doing this. If something happens, the reader has to know why it matters to the characters. If I can’t see why it matters to the characters, I won’t see why it matters to me.

Here’s the thing: you can use ANY plot device (no matter how cliché it is) in your story if it directly engages with your protagonist’s inner conflict and contributes in bringing them to the depths of despair they will find themselves in before their “aha” moment (the moment that brings their character development full-circle.)

That’s right — any plot device. If the external events in your story are constantly forcing your protagonist closer to their internal issue, they are doing their job and doing it well. And don’t stop at the protagonist! Bring every character’s inner conflict  into this mess. How does this love triangle force all three people to either confront or run from their fears?

Make the love triangle a catch-22 for your protagonist

Let’s face it: the only intriguing thing about a love triangle is that it’s a sticky situation for anyone to deal with. If any reader gets even a little bit of enjoyment out of this trope, it’s because we can put ourselves in the shoes of the protagonist and experience a situation that will likely never happen to us in real life.

A good love triangle is a catch-22 situation for the protagonist. They can’t have it both ways, however much they might like to. They have to make a choice, and hopefully the right one. But the choice can’t be as lifeless and dull as “what girl/guy do I want more??” NO NO NO. It goes much deeper than that. It goes all the way to your protagonist’s deepest fear — which, consequentially, is most likely what got them into this “love triangle” situation in the first place.

That means your protagonist’s fear is going to be the only thing standing between them and True Happiness™. The love triangle has created conflict in Protagonist’s life — or rather, brought to light the real conflict that’s been boiling below the surface for a long time now.

OTHER HELPFUL ARTICLES ON WRITING:

• Video Series: How To Craft Relatable And Addictive Characters
• How to Write a Hate To Love Romance that Feels Natural, Believable, and Brilliant
• How to Include All That BACKSTORY in Your Novel (Without Boring Your Readers to Sleep)

Questions you should ask yourself before you write a love triangle

If you’re going to write a good love triangle, you need to ask yourself these questions and really think about the answers. It might take some time to come up with the answers — but trust me, it will be worth it. Not only will you have more clarity and confidence going into your story, but your readers will be so engrossed in the drama, they won’t even notice that you just revolutionized a highly-hated trope.

THE QUESTIONS:

• What is my protagonist’s inner conflict ? And how did it lead them into this love triangle?
• If they were being honest with themselves, the real reason they are stuck in this love triangle is because…
• How does this love triangle force all three people to face their fears?
• What would it take for the protagonist to overcome their fear and make the right choice?

ALL THIS TO SAY…yes. There is a “right way” to do love triangles, in my humble opinion. When you’re constantly drawing on the inner conflict of your protagonist, it’s impossible to not engage the reader.

I know I didn’t use a story example today, as I typically do — that’s because I haven’t seen many love triangles done well. SERIOUSLY. I can think of, like, two.* But that doesn’t mean you can’t write a good love triangle. I believe you can. I believe I can (and have lol…hopefully you like it when you read the book someday — even if you’re a professed love-triangle-hater.)

*the Ross/Elizabeth/Demelza triangle in Poldark and the Laura/Fisher/Daniel triangle in Lark Rise to Candleford. but since I don’t know many people who obsessively watch BBC Masterpiece, I’ll keep my fangirling to myself. :”)

Do you hate love triangles with a fiery passion? Has this post changed your mind about them, even just a little? Would you ever try writing a love triangle someday? Or have you already written one? What is a good example of a well done LT in fiction or film?

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Abbie Emmons

I teach writers how to make their stories matter by harnessing the power and psychology of storytelling, transforming their ideas into a masterpiece, and creating a lifestyle that makes their author dreams come true.

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How To Write a Captivating Love Triangle: The ULTIMATE Guide

How To Write a Love Triangle

This article will offer some key pointers on that most time-trodden (and wildly successful) cinematic device – the love triangle – and hopefully assist those looking to craft an original and effective one.

• Using a few films which incorporate love triangles into their narratives, we will discuss the key aspects to a successful and interesting love triangle.
• We will highlight how love triangles are typically a plot device for romance films. Many of these are romantic-comedies, but not exclusively.
• As we will discover, this plot device is also often employed in other genres, such as Action and Musicals. 

We will look to some of the following films for examples:

Famous Film Love Triangles…

 1.  Bridget, Mark and Daniel ( Bridget Jones Diary )

 2.  Bella, Jacob and Edward ( Twilight )

 3.  Katniss, Peeta and Gale ( The Hunger Games )

 4.  Carrie, Charles and Hamish ( Four Weddings and a Funeral )

 5.  Iris, Jasper and Ethan ( The Holiday )

 6. Satine, Christian and the Duke ( Moulin Rouge! )

 7. Rose, Jack and Cal ( Titanic )

These are just a few characters part of famous love triangles.

What Is A Love Triangle?

As the name suggests, love triangles centre on love and conflict .

“ A love triangle (also called a romantic love triangle or a romance triangle or an eternal triangle) is usually a romantic relationship involving three or more people.”

Love triangles typically centre on a protagonist and their two love interests.

• However, all three characters are fully developed.
• The love interests must both have equal development and be equally suitable for the protagonist. They must make the ‘decision’ for the protagonist very difficult.

Despite both being suitable, they tend to be very different. Stereotypically, there is the good guy vs the bad guy. This is most evident in a film such as Bridget Jones Diary .

The plot device hooks the audience and adds drama to the seemingly perfect, smooth narrative. Love Triangles throw the protagonist off their path and help make them appear layered, relatable and real.

Love triangles feature in other genres: dramas, musicals and action, but the underlying common theme is romance despite love not always being felt by all parties. Moulin Rouge!, Leap Year, The Great Gatsby  and Titanic  illustrate this.

For Example…

• In Moulin Rouge! , the love triangle is between Satine, Christian and the Duke. The romance is between Satine and Christian. However, the Duke is offering Satine freedom, success and fame.
• In Leap Year , the love triangle is between Anna, Declan and Jeremy. As with Moulin Rouge! a romance develops between Anna and Declan. However security, status, and wealth are what Jeremy is offering her.
• In Titanic , the love triangle is between Rose, Jack and Cal. The ‘Love Triangle’ occurs due to Rose’s engagement to Cal- someone who is offering her financial stability and status. However, Rose loves Jack, a working-class man who is not ‘suitable’ for her.
• In The Great Gatsby , the love triangle occurs between Daisy, Gatsby and Tom. As with the previous example, Daisy is married to Tom for status, wealth and security, however she loves Gatsby .

With all three of the love triangles above, the main concepts to focus on are the protagonists’ NEED VS their WANT .

This is a key aspect to character development and creating an arc in general. And it’s an important factor to consider when writing a love triangle.

What’s The Point In Writing Love Triangles?

Typically, people who enjoy romance films tend to favour love triangles in the narratives as it adds a layer of drama and conflict for the protagonist .

But why write a love triangle?

• A plot device to add drama to the narrative.
• To engage the audience by adding new characters/ altering the seemingly simple narrative.
• Making the protagonist more interesting and layered – revealing their inner conflicts.
• Show the protagonist’s true nature/ personality.
• Involve the viewer- they themselves taking a side on which love interest is most suitable.

The Romance-Comedy Genre In Writing A Love Triangle:

As we have already discussed, the rom-com tends to lean on the love triangle plot device. So, we wanted to briefly outline a few aspects of the rom-com narrative structure with regards to love triangles.

Elements Of A Rom-Com Love Triangle…

• The Set-up: The protagonist (character 1) is introduced as being ‘out of love’ and desiring a partner who is not interested/available (an obstacle). The protagonist has an unfulfilled desire.
• Meet Cute 1: There is a catalyst/inciting incident in the narrative. Character 1 meets their first love interest (or is already seeing/fantasising about them (i.e. Bridget Jones) and develops feelings for them. OR in some cases, there is an obstacle – the other person already has someone.
• An Incident/Event…occurs bringing the characters together: There is a development in the narrative. They happen to meet again. Typically followed by a hook in which the sexual tension is confronted.
• Turning point 1: Characters are together/dating. Romance and the narrative appear smooth.
• Conflict…which leads to a dark moment : A conflict between character 1 and the first love interest (want different things etc). Character 1 is back to the beginning and is feeling ‘out of love’.
• Meet Cute 2 : Character 1 meets the second love interest and starts seeing them – typically underlying sexual tension when they first meet. This can be introduced earlier on in the narrative (i.e. Bridget Jones Diary).
• Turning point 2 : Character 1 seems content with their new relationship.
• Dark moment 2 : A conflict occurs between character 1 and the second love interest. This makes character 1 face their inner fears (love interest needs to leave, becomes ill etc.)
• Confrontation : Character 1 must confront their want vs need and either choose the first or second love interest (or in some instances, neither).
• Resolution : typically, in rom-coms there is a joyful resolution.

This formula is not exhaustive, but these are the stages which typically appear within the ‘love triangle’ structure.

Let’s Dive into the Detail of the Different Aspects and Key Components Required To Write a ‘Love Triangle’.

1. the set-up of the protagonist:.

Make sure you set-up your protagonist effectively and fully-develop them throughout the film.

First, you must establish the following aspects:

• Where is your protagonist in their life?
• Are they content with their job/life? (typically not)
• What is the state of their love life? Are they dating? Do they like someone?
• Why are they single (if they are)?
• What is their WANT and what is their NEED?
• You need to know your character inside and out
• Make them likeable and relatable
• What’s their biggest fear? ( internal conflict – this will play a key part later on in the film)

Effective Character Set-ups Include:     

• In The Holiday , the narrative follows joint protagonists Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz) who are both unhappy with their lives. However, the love triangle primarily revolves around the character of Iris.
• Iris is set-up as a hopeless romantic and a woman desiring the unrequited love of Jasper (and as a viewer we’re meant to empathise with her).
• In Bridget Jones Diary , we are introduced to the protagonist, Bridget, in one of the most iconic and amusing film openings: Bridget in her pyjamas singing ‘All By Myself’. This set-up encompasses the idea of an alone protagonist desiring a love interest (the desire and want is clear).

Love Triangle Exceptions…

• In Four Weddings and a Funeral the protagonist is Charles. The love triangle surrounds his interest in Carrie, who marries Hamish.
• We are still introduced to Charles as a person unhappy with his life and desiring love. This is most humorously conveyed through the emphasis on his lack of a partner at the wedding.
• Twilight  and The Hunger Games  are not Romantic-Comedies, however they do fall into the teenage Romance- Action genres. 
• In Twilight , Bella is an outsider. She is the new girl in school and lacks friends.
• Despite there being to imminent WANT for a love interest, in the opening scene there is a meet-cute between her and Jacob hinting at an underlying love interest.
• Likewise, in The Hunger Games , the is no immediate nod towards Katniss desiring love. She is introduced in a maternal way, caring for her younger sister, Primrose.

In ALL of the above cases, we are introduced to characters who are lacking love. They all, to a degree, share a desire and want for a relationship.

Katniss is an exception in that she is an extremely strong-willed and independent character from the offset.

2. The First Love Interest And The ‘Meet Cute’:

Like with your protagonist , make sure you fully-develop the first love interest to make them a layered, real character AND a viable, suitable choice for the protagonist .

Questions to consider:

• Their Meet-Cute. Is the protagonist already with the first love interest?
• Are they likeable? Do they have an interesting personality?
• Do they have a flaw?
• Has the protagonist liked the person for awhile?
• Is the love interest unavailable?
• What is the main conflict/challenge the protagonist faces?
• How is the love interest(s) appealing?
• What is the love interests NEED and WANT?

Examples To Consider…

• In The Holiday , we witness Iris’ devotion and love for Jasper. Her clear affection for him is shown through her Christmas present for him. Here, we see Jasper’s manipulation as he falsely leads her on, only to then announce his engagement to another woman.
• In Bridget Jones Diary the ‘Meet-Cute’ between Bridget and Mark Darcey is when Bridget attends a Christmas party at her parent’s house.
• The interaction between the two is extremely awkward and there is NO hint of romance. But, the relationship and dynamic between the two is established.
• In Four Weddings and a Funeral  Charles meets Carrie early-on at the first wedding and they ‘hit it off’ immediately.  Later that night we see the two sleep together, solidifying their mutual interest in one another.
• In Twilight , as mentioned, Bella meets Jacob early on in the opening scene. However, much like in Bridget Jones Diary , there is no love element hinted at- they are presented as being friends.
• In The Hunger Games , it is hinted at that Katniss and Peta have a history (we see through flashbacks). However, their first interactions come after being selected to go into the games. There is a lack of ‘love’, seemingly being represented as just friends.

We can assess that for the majority of these first love interest interactions, the characters do not directly convey their attractions to one another. They function effectively at foreshadowing their future relationships and later interest in one another.

The Main Take Away: 

• Characters must meet and express some opinion on the other person (in these instances either hatred or attraction).
• The groundwork has been laid for future interactions.

3. Conflict With The First Love Interest (Protagonist’s Inner Fears Are Hinted At)

• What does the conflict/crisis reveal about your protagonist?
• Does it reveal a flaw?
• How are they being tested?
• How does this conflict impact the rest of the plot?

As we’ve emphasised, there is no set narrative structure for how to write a love triangle. However, a common-thread amongst films which feature this dynamic is that there is frequently a conflict that soon arises between the lovers.

Typically, after the initial relationship develops between the protagonist and the first love interest, there tends to be a conflict. This impacts their relationship, putting a halt or temporary end to their relationship/storyline.

• In The Holiday , as we’ve discussed, Iris is initially rejected by Jasper. Therefore, the first conflict is his engagement to another woman, leaving her alone and depressed. So with regards to the stages outlined earlier, this is the moment in which ‘the individuals want different things’.
• In Bridget Jones Diary , Bridget did not ‘hit it off’ with Mark Darcy, and throughout the film there are several awkward situations/conversations between the two.
• To pin-point an exact moment is difficult as Bridget sees her second love interest Daniel throughout.  However, the first ‘conflict’ between her and Darcy is when he and Daniel fight in the street, resulting in her rejecting them both.
• In Four Weddings and a Funeral , the first lovers conflict, is when Charles wants to pursue a relationship with Carrie after sleeping with her and developing feelings. However, Carrie soon becomes engaged to Hamish, reflecting the ‘individuals wanting different thing’ stage.

However, there is not always a set ‘moment’ that a conflict between the characters occurs. In the cases of Twilight and The Hunger Games the Love Triangle develops and lasts throughout the film trilogies.

• In Twilight , throughout the trilogy Bella’s romantic interest goes between Edward and Jacob. The main conflict between Bella and Jacob occurs in the second and third films, when Bella denies having any feelings for Jacob.
• As with the  Twilight saga,  The Hunger Games trilogy’s ‘love triangle’ is prolonged throughout the films.
• However, in the first film the initial conflict between Katniss and Peeta is her belief that his love and admiration for her is fake and was only expressed as a means of getting sponsors. This adheres to the ‘stage’ of the lovers ‘wanting different things’.

As highlighted earlier, a central part and cause of a love triangle is the result of the protagonist ‘s inner fears. What do they fear? How is this brought out? What’s the flaw with the love interest?

This stage should be introduced to test the protagonist and their relationship with the first love interest. Will this ‘crisis’ be resolved with the introduction of the second love interest?

4. The Second Love Interest’s Introduction And Their Character Development:

• Why introduce them now?
• What do they add to the plot?
• How are they different to the first love interest?
• What’s their desire?
• What do you want them to bring out in the protagonist?

This relationship can start at ANY POINT. They can be introduced at the same time as the other love interest, however perhaps it is more interesting to have them introduced slightly later to have a solid character development and comparison to the first love interest.

As with the first love interest, make sure you fully-develop the second love interest to make them a layered, real character AND a viable, suitable choice for the protagonist .

The meet-cute typically occurs after the protagonist is again out of love and is desiring love again. They are in the same position where they began the film- back to square one. This is when the meet the second love interest, who seemingly fills the void of loneliness.

However, they may also be introduced (as in The Hunger Games  and Twilight ) as another individual interested in the protagonist who is offering something the first love interest isn’t (a desired physical appearance, more affection etc), thus is a rival with a vested interest in stealing the protagonist away.

• In The Holiday, it is when Iris has travelled to Los Angeles she meets her second love interest, Miles.
• The ‘meet cute’ occurs when Miles arrives at the house Iris is staying at with his girlfriend. He is a ‘good guy’ in a relationship.

Character Development:

However, as the narrative develops Iris and Miles’ relationship develops (they go on dates etc.) and spend more ‘couples’ time together. He is the ideal match for her. But Jasper arrives in Los Angeles attempting to seduce Iris back.

• In  Bridget Jones Diary, from the offset Bridget’s romantic interest in Daniel is evident through their flirtation at the office. Daniel is a ‘bad boy’ type.

As the narrative develops the two date and it becomes obvious that Daniel is not overly suitable for her. She witnesses him cheating and decides to leave.

• In Four Weddings and a Funeral, as already discussed, early on in the narrative the Love Triangle primarily centres around Charles, Carrie and  Hamish. In this instance, the new ‘love interest’ is Hamish.

As the narrative progresses, Charles remains alone and still interested in Carrie despite Fiona’s confession of love for him.

Whereas…

• In Twilight, the second love interest is Edward.
• The ‘meet cute’ is during a science class. The first interaction is awkward and cold- there is no hint at their future storyline but it effectively lays the groundwork for the development of their relationship.
• In The Hunger Games, Gale is the second love interest. He starts as Katniss’ friend. Throughout the film and during the course of the film their relationship develops romantically.

The Main Take Away And Questions To Ponder…

• What does this love interest offer?
• The second love interest needs time to DEVELOP and to show how they are suitable for the protagonist
• What is the main difference to the first love interest?
• Is there a vested interest?
• What’s the motivation of the love interest?

5. Conflict With The Second Love Interest:

• How will this conflict affect the protagonist?
• What will the protagonist have to confront as a result?
• What is their flaw?

After significant character development of the second love interest, there needs to be a conflict/challenge that throws the protagonist off their path. It needs to shake their new relationship and make them question what they need and what they want.

Additionally, the first love interest tends to make another appearance and shake the narrative up.

• In The Holiday , the conflict/crisis between Iris and Miles occurs when Maggie begs Miles for forgiveness. Also, Jasper arrives in Los Angeles and asks Iris to be his secret lover again.
• In Bridget Jones Diary , the conflict with Bridget and Daniel occurs when she finds out that he has been cheating on her. She ends their relationship.
• Meanwhile, Bridget’s relationship with Mark begins and the two begin to date. Conflict arrises when Mark and Daniel fight over her and she kicks them both out.
• In Four Weddings and a Funeral , the love interest aspect is not that significant.
• In Twilight , the love triangle develops throughout the course of the film trilogy. However, in the first film the conflict arises due to Edward being a vampire. He does not want to endanger Bella.
• In The Hunger Games , the love triangle develops over the course of four films. However, the main conflict between Katniss and Gale is Gale’s involvement in Primrose’s death. This ends their relationship and plays a significant role in Katniss ending up with Peeta.

This stage is important when writing a love triangle. There needs to be an instance in which the suitability of the second love interest is tested. This stage should force the protagonist to face what they really need vs their want.

6. Protagonist Must Be Active And Confront Their Inner Conflict:

• What is the protagonist’s inner fear?
• What do you want the outcome to be? Who do you want them to end up with?
• Protagonist is now alone again- they need to reflect.

Following on from their relationship with the second love interest and the conflict/crisis/new challenge, the protagonist must be active and motivated .

The protagonist is at a low point (similar to at the beginning) and needs to decide what to do/who to choose.

• In The Holiday , Iris has the realisation that she likes Miles and wants to pursue their relationship. We see the two share a kiss during Arthur’s speech (Iris’ greatest fear not finding love).
• In Bridget Jones Diary , Bridget comes to the realisation that she loves Mark and wants to pursue their relationship further. The last scene shows Bridget running and kissing Mark In the street (Bridget’s greatest fear being alone).
• In Four Weddings and a Funeral , It isn’t the protagonist, that has the realisation, it is Carrie. She arrives at his doorstep and the two promise to stay together for life (Charles’ greatest fear not being with Carrie)
• In Twilight , after claiming to love both Jacob and Edward (and kissing Jacob in New Moon ), she chooses Edward (believing him to be the love of her life). Her greatest fear is losing Edward.
• In The Hunger Games , Katniss’ love for Peeta is depicted when she cares for and kisses him. Katniss’ inner fear is losing her family and by the end of the trilogy, her greatest fear is losing him.

The Main Take Away And Questions To Consider…

• What is your protagonists inner fear?
• What has the love triangle brought out in the protagonist?
• How do you want the love triangle to be resolved?

7. Decide Who You Want The Protagonist To End Up With:

At this stage the protagonist should have undergone an Arc. They should have changed as a result of the love triangle. It is up to you whether there is a happy ending.

Ultimately, the protagonist will have either decided to be with…

Love interest one,

Love interest two

      Neither!

The ending of the love triangle can have occurred for many reasons. However, this typically is due to the protagonist having undergone a change (an Arc) and come to a realisation and acceptance of what they need .

• The Holiday:  Iris starts a relationship with Miles.
• Bridget Jones Diary: Bridget accepts her feelings for Mr Darcey and the ending implies that they are now a couple.
• Four Weddings and a Funeral: Carrie visits Charles and informs him of her separation from Hamish. They will start to see one another.
• Twilight: Bella and Edward become a couple and despite Jacob’s attempts at stealing her affections throughout the trilogy, Bella and Edward end up together.
• The Hunger Games: at the end of the trilogy Katniss and Peeta are a couple.
• This occurs towards the end of the narrative. It is important to know who you want your protagonist to end up with. However, when outlining your narrative, you should have an idea already on the outcome of the triangle at the beginning of your writing process.

You Should Ask Yourself…

• Why is X more suitable for the protagonist than Y?
• How do you want your protagonist to progress? What will happen to them once the film is over?
• How will the love triangle end?

8. Final Questions To Ask Yourself And To Bare In Mind When You Write A Love Triangle:

• What are the internal and external conflicts as a result of the love triangle?
• Have you made sure to write a love triangle with fully developed, engaging and active characters?
• Have you developed all 3 characters equally? Are they flawed?
• Is your protagonist interesting and relatable?
• Have you made both love interests equally as suitable so the decision for the protagonist is harder?
• Does your love triangle serve a purpose?
• What is the love triangle’s narrative significance?
• Does the character need to grow and learn something about themselves that they will only achieve through the love triangle?
• Have you avoided cliche and predictability to keep the audience engaged?

And Remember…

Do not make the narrative suffer for the sake of the love triangle. You need to have a solid plot outside of the love triangle.

The knack of a love triangle is how it adds to the narrative. It’s a complication, a challenge and another bump in the road for the protagonist . Make sure that you’re not resting the story solely on the love triangle and instead using it to escalate the stakes, protagonist ‘s goals and dramatic tension . 

To write a successful love triangle you must make sure that the triangle fits neatly in the shape of the narrative as a whole, as well as making each end of the triangle as sharp as possible. 

• What did you think of this article?  Share It ,  Like It , give it a rating, and let us know your thoughts in the comments box further down…
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This article was written by Milly Perrin and edited by IS Staff.

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WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

Planning the Perfect Love Triangle

April 11, 2017 by Writing Coach

It’s spring. The sap is rising. Let us talk of love triangles.

These are potent story devices, even if the triangle isn’t the story’s main concern. When I work with authors, one of the most common issues is underdeveloped plot situations, and love triangles definitely fall into this category. So here are some questions for you to think about, to make sure you don’t miss an angle.

For linguistic clarity, I’ll assume the simplest configuration: an established couple and one outsider – the lover. Of course, you might have several nested triangles, but the principles are still the same.

Why does it happen?

Consider why the lovers are attracted. For the cheating character, it’s usually something missing or unsatisfied. What does the lover add? It might be a dash of excitement or danger in a life that’s become too routine, but it might be the other way round. Perhaps the lover represents security and safety – like a gangster’s wife seeking refuge with a protection officer or a police investigator.

Is this the first time the cheating character has strayed, or do they make a habit of it? Again, what are they seeking?

They might be a philandering scumbag or a normally faithful innocent who let a situation get out of control. Whatever the details, there will be a push-pull between two opposing forces, and this might open a crack to the bottom of their soul. Will they be forced to make a difficult choice and confront their own duality?

And turn the telescope around – what is the lover looking for?

Will they try to resist?

Decide if your cheating character is going to fall in eagerly or if they’ll resist. Fans of the Hero’s Journey approach will refer to this as ‘refusal of the call’. Whether your character resists or not, what makes them want to continue? What makes them want to stop? How might this change over the course of the story?

What dilemmas does the affair present?

In most kinds of fiction (i.e., not erotica), the most gripping story situations are dilemmas. Look for all possible complications where the affair will present difficult choices, especially in other important areas of the plot. An affair isn’t just satin sheets and snatched embraces. It can upset the rest of the characters’ lives too.

Do all the characters care equally as much?

Most triangles are not equilateral. Are all three characters equally committed to their relationships? Does one character care far more, while for another it’s just a game?

Three’s a crowd

What jealousies could arise? Is the interloper jealous of the cheating character’s official partner? Does the cheating character have a reason to be jealous or suspicious of the lover? Lies beget lies. The need to deceive can become corrosive. And remember the fundamental dynamic of the situation: we have two people embroiled with a third. In this case we might consider that the shape is not a triangle, but an arrowhead.

Do they all know each other in other contexts?

Much delicious conflict can be gained if the interloping lover already has a close connection with the other member of the couple. They might be business partners, or king and adviser, or members of a band, or old school friends.

Who must never find out?

Secrets are great currency. Which other characters might find out about the affair and what trouble might that cause? Do any of the characters have children who could be affected? Are the lovers teenagers in school, and what would happen if everything came out?

And what might the principal characters have to do to keep the secret? Could somebody be blackmailed?

Dormant parts of the triangle

Are all members active in the triangle at once? One might be dormant – perhaps a former lover who is estranged but still harbours powerful feelings. Broken couples can make for poignant stories of sacrifice or self-understanding, or even tragedy or revenge. A former lover who is cast out might become a significant antagonist.

Is part of the triangle invisible?

This may be stretching the definition of triangle, but a character might have an admirer they’re not aware of. If this attachment is sufficiently strong or obsessive, it might cause the ‘lover’ to act in drastic or extreme ways. As a variation, two characters may be competing for a third, who might be completely unaware he or she is inspiring such feelings.

Who is in control, and might this change?

Perhaps at first, the person who is cheating is most in control. After all, they decide to bend the rules of their existing relationship and take a new lover. But stories are more interesting if the balance of power shifts. Look for ways to do this. Could the lover become more influential? What about the original partner?

Push-pull – who will win?

What should the end be? Story endings always depend on your genre, and love triangles are no exception. Triangles are intrinsically unfair to some characters, and involve betrayals and selfish behaviour. Does your genre have a particular moral climate? Will cheating on a partner be tolerable to your readers? Certain kinds of romance would definitely disapprove. Certain kinds of thriller or noir tale would say affairs are par for the course. Who will be left unhappy or disappointed?

Does your story world require a sense of punishment, a setting to rights? Or is the affair just part of the rich and warped tapestry of life?

The end of the affair ?

If the affair ends a long time before the final pages, it’s not necessarily the last word. If the original partners get back together, there will have been a change. If the affair was discovered, trust will have to be re-earned, or perhaps the faithful partner will be shaken into doing new things. If the affair is not discovered, it might be a time-bomb throughout the rest of the story.

Develop all three characters thoroughly

Because the love triangle situation challenges characters so fundamentally, all three participants must be developed as rounded people. You need to understand their inner workings, life hopes, world views, role models, and comfort zones. Questionnaires might be particularly useful because if you fill in the same questions for all three characters it will encourage you to compare them directly and discover new areas for them to bond or clash. (Psst: I’ve got questionnaires in my book Writing Characters Who’ll Keep Readers Captivated: Nail Your Novel 2. )

Roz published nearly a dozen novels and achieved sales of more than 4 million copies – and nobody saw her name because she was a ghostwriter. A writing coach, editor, and mentor for more than 20 years with award-winning authors among her clients, she has a book series for writers, Nail Your Novel, a blog , and teaches creative writing masterclasses for The Guardian newspaper in London. Find out more about Roz here and catch up with her on social media.

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Reader Interactions

April 14, 2017 at 5:06 pm

That’s a great post Roz and I will feel emboldened about development of the love triangle when I start working on my next novel – I see the possibilities for investigating the cracks that might open to the bottom of a character’s soul! I’m bookmarking this one. And thanks btw for showing me the way to this website. I love the idea of writers helping writers. More to investigate!

April 16, 2017 at 3:56 pm

HI Maria! Great to see you here. Enjoy quarrying those cracks.

April 12, 2017 at 8:14 pm

Fantastic post Roz. Indeed, triangles are tricky and all elements of the character’s motives for entering should be brought to light to give the reader insight into the characters in the triangle. Readers need to know if they should be angry at the characters or sympathize because of how the situations came about. 🙂 Sharing!

April 13, 2017 at 8:15 pm

Hi Debby! What an excellent point you raise – about whether the reader should be angry or sympathetic. Yes, we always want to think careflly about what we want the reader to feel. Thanks for a great comment.

April 11, 2017 at 7:22 pm

Thanks, Roz.

I chuckled at your exclusion of erotica. I haven’t read much in the genre, but it usually doesn’t include much conflict or plot or motivation except for lust and desire and … well, you get the picture.

A novel sitting on my hard drive involves a love triangle. When I get to the edits, I’ll read this post again.

April 12, 2017 at 6:32 pm

Hi Kathy! I chuckled as I wrote it. There I was, sanctimoniously typing ‘what the reader really wants is dilemmas’, and a little voice reminded me that there was a rather significant exception. Thanks for stopping by!

April 11, 2017 at 3:30 pm

My pleasure, Angela – thanks for inviting me!

April 11, 2017 at 12:44 pm

Such a TERRIFIC post, Roz! Triangles shouldn’t be easy to overcome, and this is best brought about by each partner supplying something that is missing from the main character’s life, a need that isn’t being satisfied. We’ve all see triangles where one choice is clearly not ideal and the main character simply has to become aware of it, but this can be an “easy out.” What does a protagonist do when their love is pulling them in two directions, and the paths are each worth exploring? That’s a tough one…and makes great reading. Thanks so much for posting on this. 🙂

[…] Planning the Perfect Love Triangle – WRITERS HELPING WRITERS® […]

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Writing a Love Triangle: Really Useful Links by Lucy O’Callaghan

Lucy O’Callaghan

• 7 April 2022

A love triangle story plot has everything needed for an engrossing story. There are characters, conflict, and resolution; the three things that will hook your readers in. However, love triangles can very easily become predictable and cliched. I have put together some articles, podcasts, and YouTube videos that share some great tips and advice to take on board when writing love triangles.

• https://www.savannahgilbo.com/blog/love-triangles

Love triangles are wonderful plot devices and can have beautiful, moving results when done effectively. Savannah shares some famous love triangles from well-known literature and gives the writer ten tips to consider when writing a love triangle. These include making both suitors a viable choice for the protagonist, fully developing all three characters involved, and establishing what’s at stake with either outcome. She also tells us that it is important not to neglect the rest of your story for the sake of your love triangle.

• https://storygrid.com/love-triangles/

Story Grid tells us that while fans of the romance genre appreciate well-written love triangles, it is important to avoid being labelled as ‘predictable’ or ‘cliched’. This article shares tips such as you don’t have to start both relationships at the same time, exploring the different types of conflict within the love triangle, and knowing where your love triangle fits in with your story. Each love triangle will carry a certain weight to the story, and there has to be a reason for including it in your novel.

• https://www.standoutbooks.com/love-triangles/

Readers love conflict and resolution and love triangles provide the perfect frame for these. Love triangles are timeless and fit into most genres. This article advises the writer to focus on the conflict, believability, resolution, unpredictability, novelty and depth, as these are the building blocks for any great love triangle.

• https://www.abbiee.com/2019/02/writing-love-triangles/

The reason why most love triangles are annoying and boring is because they don’t dig into the character’s internal conflict. Don’t make your love triangle simple; challenge your characters, make them confront their fears and upend their entire lives. Abbie says that you should make your love triangle a catch 22 for your protagonist. It should go all the way to your protagonist’s deepest fear, which consequently is most likely what got them into this love triangle situation in the first place. The love triangle should bring to light the real conflict that’s been boiling below the surface for a long time.

• https://www.wonderforest.net/blog-feed/how-to-write-love-triangles-the-right-way

Wonder Forest tells the writer not to make your love triangle simple, allow it to bring out the internal conflict. Ask yourself 5 questions including what is the protagonist’s inner conflict and how did it lead them into this love triangle, how high are the stakes and how hot is the fire beneath the protagonist’s feet to make a decision, and how does this love triangle cause all 3 characters to face their fears?

• https://goteenwriters.com/2014/04/11/10-ways-to-deal-with-the-love-triangle-in-your-book/

This article gives you some ideas to do something different with your love triangle. Shooting someone, having the liar lose, someone giving up, or the hero picking neither are all suggested.

https://writingrootspodcast.com/2020/02/s7e4-love-triangles/

Love triangles are one of the most common tropes across all genres. They are often central to many YA and romance books but are also found in subplots of fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, and action novels. This podcast talks about how to use a love triangle effectively and leave your reader satisfied with the resolution.

In this video from Writer’s Block, they discuss different types of love triangles: the equilateral, the decoy, imaginary love triangle, real love triangle, and the two-person love triangle.

Phoebe talks you through 4 tips for writing an interesting and compelling love triangle.

Love triangles are great plot devices and by using these tips and advice you have the opportunity to create a compelling, swoon-worthy love triangle that readers will adore. I hope this week’s column has been useful for you. If you have any topics you would like me to cover then please get in touch.

(c) Lucy O’Callaghan

Instagram: lucy.ocallaghan.31.

Facebook: @LucyCOCallaghan

Twitter: @LucyCOCallaghan

About the author

Writing since she was a child, Lucy penned her first story with her father called Arthur’s Arm, at the ripe old age of eight. She has been writing ever since. Inspired by her father’s love of the written word and her mother’s encouragement through a constant supply of wonderful stationary, she wrote short stories for her young children, which they subsequently illustrated. A self-confessed people watcher, stories that happen to real people have always fascinated her and this motivated her move to writing contemporary women’s fiction. Her writing has been described as pacy, human, moving and very real. Lucy has been part of a local writing group for over ten years and has taken creative writing classes with Paul McVeigh, Jamie O’Connell and Curtis Brown Creative. She truly found her tribe when she joined Writer’s Ink in May 2020. Experienced in beta reading and critiquing, she is currently editing and polishing her debut novel. Follow her on Instagram: lucy.ocallaghan.31. Facebook and Twitter: @LucyCOCallaghan

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How to Write Love Triangles from an Omniscient Perspective

by Liz Bureman | 6 comments

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Ahhh, the love triangle . Stephenie Meyer's favorite plot device. When you're writing a love triangle from a first person or third person limited perspective, it's hard to write a lot of multi-directional triangles. However, writing from a third-person omniscient perspective gives you the freedom to explore the other two prongs of the love triangle.

Photo by Jin

Classic Love Triangles

Say you've got a classic love triangle where one character (I'll call her Leslie) is interested in two other people (who I'll call Charlie and Ted).

In a first person or third person limited story, you would get to know Leslie and her particular quirks and how she views each of these gentlemen, and the pros and cons of her developing a relationship with either of them.

Omniscient Love Triangles

However, with an omniscient narrator, you also get to see how Charlie and Ted each view Leslie, and, if they are acquainted with each other, how they feel about her.

You could have an alternative love triangle where Leslie is interested in Charlie, but Charlie is interested in Leslie's friend Gwen. Maybe Gwen doesn't want to compromise her friendship with Leslie, but she still really likes Charlie, and then all of a sudden they get together and now have to keep this blossoming relationship (or one-night stand) a secret from Leslie.

Or maybe Leslie is interested in both Charlie and Ted, and decides to have flings with both of them in order to determine which one she likes better. Maybe Charlie and Ted know about this, or maybe they're both oblivious. Maybe only Charlie knows, and he's ok with it. Maybe Ted is the only one who knows, and it's eating away at his conscience.

Two may be company, but three is where things get interesting, especially if your reader knows more than each of the individual characters do.

Do you like love triangles in books and films or do they drive you nuts?

Write a love triangle scenario with an omniscient viewpoint. Post your practice in the comments when you're finished.

Liz Bureman

Liz Bureman has a more-than-healthy interest in proper grammatical structure, accurate spelling, and the underappreciated semicolon. When she's not diagramming sentences and reading blogs about how terribly written the Twilight series is, she edits for the Write Practice, causes trouble in Denver, and plays guitar very slowly and poorly. You can follow her on Twitter (@epbure), where she tweets more about music of the mid-90s than writing.

I haven’t fleshed out the narrative — yet. But I’d be interested in knowing how much you can get from the story by just listening to the dialogue. Basically, that’s all there is, right now.

SHEILA’s RETURN (707 words or so…)

She’s going to kill us.

No. she won’t kill us. She’ll nag us to death. She will never get over it –

She needs to keep us alive so she can nag us to death about it.

I could say I was drunk.

Won’t work.

Too much of a cliché?

I don’t drink.

That’s the point. If you say you were drunk then she’s going to kill me for taking advantage of you.

You did take advantage of me.

I thought you wanted to.

I did. I just mean…

I wouldn’t have raped you, and you definitely weren’t drunk. Beat. We can’t tell her.

I tell her everything.

No you don’t.

You didn’t tell her about this. Beat. Did you? She would have told me if you did…

Damn. What does she tell you? Everything?

Within reason. But this is a little bigger than dishing about your choice of underwear.

What if I didn’t know, myself?

[no response]

What if I… I just figured it out…?

Is that possible in this day and age? Is that even possible?

I didn’t know. I swear. I had no idea. I just thought…

So you had your suspicions.

Yeah. I just thought it was… I dunno…

Something you ate?

Yeah, really. It was the pastrami. Pause. But I didn’t’ know…

What didn’t you know? That you’re gay, that you wanted to get naked with boys…

I’m not gay.

That you maybe had some feelings for me…

I do have feelings for you. We’ve been friends for a long time. But I’m not gay. Not entirely. I love her.

I… love her too. But that doesn’t make me want to sleep with her. So you’re going to go with bi…

I don’t know. This is the first time – [whisper] this is the first time –

Friend nods.

I’ve been with anyone…

Since you’ve been together.

Yeah. And it’s been good. Being with…

So is this a mistake?

[Long pause.]

I… I liked being with you… that way…

[Longer pause.]

I… I liked being with you too. But I never suspected…

So you’ve felt that way about me, too?

Since we met. [laugh]

I thought you hated me.

I did hate you.

No. when I first met you, I was completely in lust over you and insanely jealous.

I got to be glad that she had you as a friend.

As a boyfriend.

[sigh] I had my suspicions, but after –

Wait. You thought I was gay?

I didn’t know what your story was. Looks like my first impression… wasn’t very far off.

I guess not. Why didn’t you ever tell me? Did you tell Sheila?

What did she say?

She said “[I don’t care. ]Stay away from him; he’s mine.”

I’m still hers, you know.

I know. [moves toward the other side of the bed.]

[smiles] But you are pretty hot in bed.

Don’t you forget it. [Pause] Actually, you’d better forget about it.

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.

They lie there together for a while.

Please don’t ask.

No. really… Can I kiss you?

Why… would you want to do that?

We’ve done everything else.

No. No we haven’t. [Stares] at Doug. Oh, why the hell not?

Doug rolls on top of Cary. They share a deep kiss. Doug feels himself swelling.

Really? Cary quipped. Again?

You do that to me.

So dopes a stiff breeze. Why the hell are you so horny?

Doug smiled and went in for a kiss again. He leans down near Cary’s ear. You know I love you too.

Uh, let’s go back to kissing.

Sure thing, Doug said. As they kiss, he grinds on top of Shawn. God this feels good…

The light comes on. She drops the shopping bag and something breaks: something like a vase. (I think these guys are in the living room. They think she is gone shopping and won’t be back for hours.

She says “You got that right.” She says. “Fuck!”

End of story. 12.46-14.24. Written at the farm.

Yes, I think you got the story across with just dialogue. Well done. It’s quite hard to read so much dialogue, though, and some narrative helps reduce the need for so much dialogue. Good use of humour in the 4th line and later with the “pastrami” reply. I’m not sure about the word “nag.” Nag is what you do when you want someone to pick up their clothes, or take out the rubbish, but I don’t think it applies to finding out your boyfriend is sleeping with his gay friend. It works to throw the reader off the scent, but makes less sense when you know the story.

Thank you so much for making the effort to read and decipher the story in my script. I think you’re right about the “nag” word. Many things need to happen with Sheila emotionally well before she gets to “nag”. But I am not clear on what her reaction is likely to be — to the extent that Shawn knows her well enough to predict her response. I’m open to suggestion, and your feedback is welcome on this. Thanks again!

Katrina barely knew them. Both Bennet and Devyn entered her life at the same time, yet they had already known each other for years. Katrina connected with Bennet right away. His laid-back nature, love of laughter and accidental flirting mirrored her own characteristics so exactly that they got along like old friends after meeting only a week ago. Devyn came like a quiet storm. He crept on her, bringing rain which, wasn’t really a problem since she always danced in the rain. It was the lightning he brought which made them clash. His words though few and far between were sharp, witty and laced-with secrecy. Altogether alluring. Yet still, his childish stunts ruffled her feathers and they did not reconcile to become friends until they had endured much at each other’s hands. Bennet assured Katrina that Devyn was a good man. And when Katrina wondered if Bennet was falling for her, it was Devyn’s honest input that gave her cause to evaluate Bennet, and to trust Devyn’s word. Bennet remained unaware that Katrina recognized his feelings. As Devyn and Katrina continued to become better acquainted…something happened. The cards turned. One moment, Devyn was still convincing Katrina that she and Bennet should be together. And the next, he seemed to be obtaining information for his sake. Katrina was less fickle. She knew she was falling for the quiet and mysterious boy. Yet would she risk admitting her feelings when Bennet had been nothing but a faithful friend?

This sounds like a base for a romance novel. Have you considered turning this into something larger?

I love your intro into Bennet and Devyn. It propelled me right into the story.

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The Perfect All Enthralling Love Triangle in Literature

Love triangle's are the perfect plot twist that most readers never see coming. However, in order for the reader to be completely blindsided, the writer needs to know what they are doing! With that comes understanding what an actual love triangle is, how you can keep the triangle interesting, and most importantly, how to avoid all of the cliches!

A love triangle is a scenario where a central character is romantically involved with two other characters at the same time, and they need to decide who they ultimately want to be with. It creates tension, conflict, and can keep your readers invested in your story.

The Perfect All Enthralling Love Triangle in Literature 

Two people fall in love, but in walks a third party which has one of the initial two smitten. Or, are both of them smitten? That's the plot that can occur when you include a love triangle in your novel! A love triangle story arc has the potential to add a bit of spice to an overall story's plot. Better yet, it could expose the true intentions of a certain character.

But, where do you even start? How do you go about writing a love triangle? Better yet, if you don't know where to start, where can you go to let someone write a love triangle for you? These are just a few of the many questions that are going to be answered in this post!

Your Love Triangle Writing Tips

When writing a love triangle you need to think about a bit more than just the characters and the relationships they are building with each other. Showing attraction, creating tension, as well as making the entire situation realistic are a few of the artistic elements that are included in writing a love triangle.

Let's go through everything up until the resolution. You want there to be a resolution to remember, so that requires an entirely different discussion on its own. But, let's not get too ahead of ourselves! Here are the different domains that you need to think of when writing your first love triangle:

• Develop your characters: The first step in writing a love triangle is to create fully developed characters. This means that you need to understand their personalities, motivations, and goals. You should also think about their strengths and weaknesses, as well as any flaws or insecurities they may have. Will their insecurities be exploited so they fall out of love within the triangle? Or will their strengths secure victory? This part is up to you!
• Set up the situation: Once you have your characters in place, you need to create the situation that will lead to the love triangle. This could be as simple as having two people fall in love with the same person, or it could be more complicated, such as having one person torn between two lovers. Alternatively, all three of them could be in love with each other. After all, many authors do prefer a hit of polygamy!
• Show the attraction: It's important to show the attraction between the characters. This could be through physical gestures, such as touching or flirting, or through verbal communication, such as compliments or teasing. Why not there be a public proclamation of love followed by a big gift! Will it go down well? We'll let you decide!
• Create tension: As the love triangle develops, there should be tension between the characters. This tension could come from jealousy, misunderstandings, conflicting emotion, or the input from parents or other royal figures. Naturally, this will depend on the overall plot and type of story you have written!
• Make it realistic: While a love triangle can be exciting and dramatic, it's important to make it realistic. Consider the consequences of the characters' actions and how they would realistically react to the situation. The more realistic, the more relatable. The more relatable the more you can guarantee your reader will be trapped, gripped, and probably not going to bed until the epic conclusion of the love triangle!
• Explore the emotions: A love triangle can be emotionally charged, so it's important to explore the emotions of each character. This could include their feelings of love, jealousy, betrayal, and heartbreak. It could even be an element of each but towards the other occupants of the love triangle.

These elements are some of the main points you should think about when creating your love triangle. It is important that we mention that your entire book need not be entirely centred around a single love triangle. There could be more than one triangle with overlapping members. Yes, this may make it more complex, but with thorough explanation you can literally include anything!

The Love Triangle Resolution

Let's tackle the resolution of a love triangle. Now, it doesn't have to be rainbows and butterflies. It could be a messy ending too. As we said, it depends on the overall narrative of your story. One thing we will caution you on though, is the love triangle trope!

If you are not familiar with this term it is basically a generic end. In this case it is a generic and expected ending or resolution to the love triangle! Don't leave your reader gripped and then resolve everything with a simple choice that spans across three sentences. There needs to be progression, thought, and depth to a character's decisions!

So, how do you actually resolve a love triangle? Well, there are a few choices, some more obvious than others. For once, one character can make a choice and then voila love triangle resolved. But, where is the fun in that? Your choice should be a more complicated resolution where the unexpected become prominent and even an element of betrayl surface.

However, we do understand if your niche is a happy ending. Maybe the characters themselves will agree on who should be dating who, coming to a completely new understanding. But, the resolution should be able to be acceptable by the reader, especially if they have grown attached to specific characters.

Character Development in Your Love Triangle Story Arc

A love triangle can be the changing point for any of the characters involved. Falling in love with one, or both, of the characters could awaken their own spirit and show character development that they never would have been able to have shown prior!

There are so many different ways that your characters can develop throughout youir love triangle story arc. Let's jump through a few of them and see how some characters can change, for the good and for the bad!

Love Triangle Conflicts

Just think what happened in high school when you found out that somebody else liked your crush. Or worse, your crush liked them back. Well, that is a love triangle. Chances are, you wanted to use some sort of love potion to magically have your crush fall in love with you, or conveniently push your competition down a flight or stairs.

Now this sounds rather drastic, but it shows that some characters, depending on their personality and values, will change their morals and actions all for the want of someone loving them back. Your character could be so pure prior to the love triangle plot, but afterwards becomes a completely different character, one that is completely unhinged!

The way that you choose your characters to develop is completely up to you. There could even be a confrontation between members of the love triangle that results in a completely deranged character collecting all of their marbles and finally starting to think sensibly and coherently.

Or the conflict could just split everyone apart! You could even choose the resolution avenue where nobody ends up together. The choice however needs to make sense, just remember that!

What If You Struggle Writing Love Triangles?

Not everyone can write the perfect love triangle. In actual fact, there are only a very small group of writers that can really capture the essence of a pure and true love triangle. That is, with all its different elements included! Luckily for you, a good portion of these writers can be found at The Urban Writers (TUW)!

We have a dedicated group of writers that specializes in romance novels and love triangles! To include a love triangle takes quite a lot of strategy, as well as a good overarching view of the entire novel's progression. Our freelancers at TUW are able to take this holistic overview, pick out the perfect area for your love triangle, and execute it with immense tact, accuracy, and with a certain romantic flair!

What are you waiting for? Get in touch with us to add the perfect romantic add on to your novel!

In Summary 

Writing a love triangle is an art. It can be the part of your novel where all the character's true desires come to live, or it could mean the emotional change that leads to one or more of their demise. It really is a versatile approach to both romance, betrayal, and even a platform for character growth and development.

We've provided you with some of the key elements that you should include in your love triangle, some of the different resolutions you could follow, how you can use conflict in your love triangle story arc to promote character development, and where to go if you are struggling.

We at TUW are always open to helping any prospective author! Get in touch today and see how we can transform your book into the perfect romantic novel loved by all!

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10 Tips for Writing Love Triangles (That Aren’t Cliché)

By Savannah Gilbo

Download the Math of Storytelling Infographic

Fans of the romance genre appreciate a well-written love triangle. And it’s no secret that certain love triangles have shaped some of the most enjoyable stories in all of literature. 

But how do you write a love triangle that will satisfy readers? How do you avoid your love triangle being labeled as “predictable” or even worse, “cliche?”

In today’s post, I’m sharing my top 10 tips to help you write better, more realistic, swoon-worthy love triangles that readers will adore. 

But first, let’s make sure that we’re all on the same page about what makes a love triangle. 

Access our In-depth Guide to the Love Genre

This 535-page books walks you scene-by-scene through Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, showing you exactly how to write a masterwork love story.

What is a love triangle?

A love triangle takes place between three (or more) characters. We’ll call them character A (the protagonist), character B (one suitor), and character C (the other suitor).

Characters B and C both love character A and compete for character A’s attention and affection. Character A loves both suitors (B and C), but can only choose one to b with.

Here are some examples of note-worthy love triangles:

• Elizabeth Bennet has to choose between Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham ( Pride and Prejudice )
• Bella Swan has to choose between Edward Cullen and Jacob Black ( Twilight )
• Katniss Everdeen has to choose between Peeta and Gale ( The Hunger Games )
• Rory Gilmore has to choose between Jess and Dean ( Gilmore Girls )
• Bridget Jones has to choose between Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver ( Bridget Jones’ Diary )

Usually, there’s no relationship between the two suitors (character B and C), but sometimes they are friends, coworkers, or relatives.

Now that we’re on the same page about what a love triangle is, let’s talk about how to write one in your story. Here are my top 10 tips for writing better, more compelling love triangles that readers will adore and talk about for years to come.  

10 Tips for Writing Better Love Triangles:

1. fully develop each character involved in the triangle..

Your love triangle will be much more engaging to the reader when they know and care about each of the characters involved. In order for that to happen, you need to create three (or more) well-rounded characters . Each character needs to have their own goals, motivations, hopes, fears, values, comfort zones, and unique worldviews. All of these things are what help you create a push-pull dynamic that results in a compelling, and believable, love triangle. 

When you don’t do this work for each of the characters involved in the love triangle, one of two things will happen. The reader will either end up rooting for only one of the suitors to win your protagonist’s heart, or they won’t really care about the outcome either way. Not ideal, right?

2. Make both suitors a viable choice for the protagonist.

Your protagonist should have legitimate reasons for loving both suitors and for not being able to choose one over the other right away. If one suitor is the “perfect person” for your protagonist and the other is the “wrong choice”, it’s not a hard decision. There will never be any doubt or suspense in the reader’s mind over who your protagonist will choose. In other words, your love triangle will be predictable. Your reader will probably feel less invested in the character who is painted as the “wrong choice,” and more invested in the “perfect person.”

So, do the work to develop both of the suitors as if they are each a viable romantic interest for your protagonist and not part of a larger love triangle. What kind of people would the suitors be? How would they complement and clash with your protagonist? What could your protagonist’s future look like with either person?

3. Don’t drag out the decision or go back and forth too much.

There’s no quicker way to bore the reader than to have your protagonist waffle back and forth between two love interests for too long. Yes, your character should have a hard time choosing between both suitors, but drag this indecision on too long, and you’ll likely annoy the reader. 

Imagine if Elizabeth Bennet kept going back and forth between Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy over and over and over again. Would you be AS interested in the outcome? Probably not. 

Plus, this unending indecision could lead the reader to feel like your story is going nowhere. Readers need that sense of forward momentum to keep them engaged in your story and turning the page to see what will happen next. If you keep repeating the same conflict, the story will become boring and predictable. 

4. Have your protagonist actively choose someone to be with.

At some point, your protagonist will have to choose who they want to be with. If you make this decision too easy—for example, if one suitor dies or turns evil, leaving only one obvious choice—your reader will be disappointed. 

People read stories to see how a particular character deals with things. When you don’t let your character make an active choice, you’re not delivering the experience readers are hoping for. There’s no quicker way to squash the reader’s interest than by having some kind of Deus Ex Machina swoop in and make the decision easy for your protagonist.

5. Show your protagonist’s character through their choice.

In a well-written romance, the climax of the story is more than just a decision that determines whether or not two characters get together. It’s also an opportunity for your character to resolve his or her internal dilemma and decide what kind of person he or she wants to be.

For example, in The Hunger Games , Katniss has to choose between Gale, representing who she was, and Peeta, representing who she’s become. In Twilight , Bella has to choose between a relationship with Jacob and a relationship with Edward. Jacob represents a normal, human life, while Edward represents a more difficult, immortal one. In both cases, Bella and Katniss have to choose what kind of person she wants to be. And choosing the kind of person your protagonist wants to be is far more interesting than simply choosing which guy is better looking, right?

6. You don’t have to start both relationships at the same time.

Not all stories will need to have a protagonist who is involved with both love interests at the same time. This is completely dependent on the story you want to tell and how you want to structure it. Although it may seem more dramatic to have both relationships happening at the same time, there are other ways to build tension in your story.

For example, your protagonist might only have feelings for one suitor at a time, like in Pride and Prejudice . Or, both suitors might have feelings for your protagonist at the same time, like in Bridget Jones’ Diary . You can even play around with the idea of familiarity vs. instant chemistry like in Gilmore Girls . These options each provide fertile ground for some good conflict to arise.

7. Establish what’s at stake with the decision.

To keep your love triangle from becoming stale, make sure there’s something at stake for your protagonist. Ask questions like–what is there to gain or lose when this love triangle blooms? What will happen if your protagonist chooses one suitor over the other? Will there be any regrets that he or she has to deal with following the decision? How will this decision impact your overall story?

Believe it or not, all of these questions do matter when it comes to creating a love triangle! For example, in Twilight , if Bella wants to be with Edward for the rest of his immortal life, she needs to become a vampire, too. That decision comes with a lot of consequences. She’ll have to go through a painful transformation, distance herself from her loved ones, and watch her friends and family grow old and die. Talk about major stakes!

8. Explore the different types of conflict within the triangle.

In your love triangle (and in your global story), you should be able to use all three types of conflict to keep your readers guessing right up until the end. Your protagonist will experience internal conflict as they choose between suitors. They’ll also experience external conflict as the love triangle impacts other people in their lives. 

So, while you’re developing your love triangle, ask questions like–how does this affect my protagonist? How does this affect each of his or her suitors? How does this affect my protagonist’s friends and family? And how does this affect my protagonist’s world? If the effects of your love triangle can be felt throughout your story, then that adds unending value to its existence in your story.

9. Know where your love triangle fits in the story.

Before you start writing, it’s important to figure out whether you’re writing a romance novel or a story with a romantic subplot. This will determine the “weight” that the romantic relationship will carry in your story.

For example, in a romance novel, the relationship will be the main focus of the story. But that doesn’t mean that you get to ignore everything else that’s happening. In Twilight , Bella’s relationship with Edward takes center stage, but there’s still a lot going on around them. Bella is becoming better friends with Jacob, trying to fit in at her new school, dealing with life at her dad’s, and missing her mom, etc. There’s also the whole situation with James and Victoria who want to kill her (no big deal, right?). 

Compare that to The Hunger Games where Katniss’ romantic relationships are subplots. The main story in The Hunger Games does not revolve around the conflict of Katniss trying to decide whether she loves Peeta or Gale best. Instead, the driving force of the story is Katniss’ fight for survival. 

As you can see, both of these stories have much more going on than just the romantic relationships between characters. Each relationship carries a different “weight” in the overall story. As a result, each love triangle will carry a different weight, too.

10. Have a reason for including a love triangle in your story.

To write a love triangle that your reader will appreciate, it needs to exist for a reason beyond merely adding in drama. While it doesn’t have to be the sole focus of your story (as we determined in tip #9), it should have a solid purpose for existing. The less petty the purpose behind your love triangle, the more your readers will be invested in what happens. 

So, ask yourself—why do you feel it must be in your story? What’s the reason for its existence? Why does it matter to your characters? Does the existence or the outcome of your love triangle support your theme? Why should your reader care about the outcome of your love triangle?

Final Thoughts

Love triangles are wonderful plot devices that can have beautiful, moving results. If you keep these 10 tips in mind, you’ll be more than prepared to create a compelling, swoon-worthy love triangle that readers adore! Happy writing!

For more tips on writing fiction, check out the archive of articles on Savannah’s website . You can also subscribe to her free newsletter to get writing and editing tips delivered straight to your inbox each week. If you’d like to work with Savannah on your story, you can learn more or get started by booking a FREE 30-minute strategy call here.

How do you feel about love triangles in fiction? Do you have a favorite fictional love triangle? Do you have any additional tips or tricks for writing a great love triangle? Let us know in the comments below!

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Untangling Taylor Swift’s ‘Teenage Love Triangle’ Trilogy

When I was in college, back in two-thousand- *cough,* I fell down a rabbit hole of internet romance fic. I would spend hours reading plaintext HTML pages detailing the love lives of fictional teenagers in minute, melodramatic detail. If I had to guess, I’d say I was escaping a drab, uneventful life chapter by immersing myself in a fantasy of a past that I’d never experienced. So I understand completely where Taylor Swift is coming from. Folklore , the album she secretly recorded during quarantine, then dropped with 24 hours of notice on July 24, finds Swift expanding her storytelling skills with a trio of songs that collectively form what she calls her “Teenage Love Triangle” trilogy. It seems to have been the A-list pop-star equivalent of firing up AO3 . “I created character arcs and recurring themes that map out who is singing about whom,” Swift explained in a YouTube Q&A celebrating the album’s release. “These three songs explore a love triangle from all three people’s perspectives at different times in their lives.”

Swift has stayed mum about exactly which tracks form the triptych, but her lyrical Easter eggs have not been too hard to decipher. As many fans have noticed, the trio of “cardigan,” “august,” and “betty” fits the bill. Let’s run down the three songs, figure out how they work together, and see if we can untangle this time-jumping teenage entanglement.

We begin with the album’s lead single, which comes first on the track list but seems to be occurring last on the timeline. “ Cardigan ” is narrated by a woman we’ll later learn is named Betty, looking back with hindsight on an intense relationship from her youth. (Swift says she was inspired by the image of “a cardigan that still bears the scent of loss 20 years later.”) Betty remembers being lost and insecure, and she says her ex, James, made her feel held: “When I felt like I was an old cardigan under someone’s bed / You put me on and said I was your favorite.” In her telling, they had a passionate romance that ended when James cheated on her. “Chase two girls, lose the one / When you are young, they assume you know nothing.”

But Betty says, “I knew everything when I was young.” She knew she’d wear the scars from the betrayal for years, that James “would haunt all of my what-ifs.” And she knew too that James would “miss me once the thrill expired.” That appears to be exactly what happened as Betty recalls the night James tried to win her back by showing up at her front door unannounced. We don’t find out what came next: The song fades out as Betty repeats the wistful refrain “I knew you’d come back to me.”

Now it’s time for James’s paramour to tell her side of the story. “August” is a bit like “Another Suitcase in Another Hall,” from Evita , in that it’s an “other woman” singing about the end of an affair, her relative unimportance in her lover’s life underlined by the fact that she doesn’t even get a name. (Fans have taken to calling her August, but since we’ve already got one song/name overlap, I prefer “Unnamed Narrator of ‘august,’” or “Una” for short.) She barely gets mentioned in the other two songs, but “august” is her chance to assert her own narrative of the summer fling. She was young and inexperienced, and if it wasn’t love, it was at least infatuation. She sings in languid, late-summer imagery: “Your back beneath the sun / Wishing I could write my name on it.”

Una remembers her younger self as mostly unassertive, recalling the times she “canceled my plans just in case you’d call,” and how, though she wanted her and James to be a real couple, deep down it was enough “to live for the hope of it all.” (There’s also a flash of a scene of Una pulling up next to James in a car, a hint she wasn’t entirely passive.) Eventually, the romance ended when the summer did, as “August slipped away into a moment in time,” and Una is left with a bittersweet revelation: “You weren’t mine to lose.”

Finally, it’s James’s turn. While the narrators of “cardigan” and “august” both look back on the love triangle with hindsight, “ betty ” takes place in the present tense, sung from the perspective of 17-year-old James. (In a sly twist, the acoustic arrangement and Swift’s miraculously revived southern accent call back to the music she released when she was 17.) The backstory too is very Taylor Swift –era Taylor Swift: The whole thing started after a school dance, where James ditched Betty, then, after seeing her dance with some dude, stormed out in a huff. As James was walking home, Una pulled up in a car “like a figment of my worst intentions,” and things went from there. Meanwhile, Betty found out what happened through a gossip named Inez, who will be important later. Betty was so upset that she switched homerooms!

As the song goes on, a contrite James mulls how to get Betty back: “The only thing I wanna do / Is make it up to you.” Swift pulls from her familiar bag of tricks here, giving us a rousing sing-along chorus and an exhilarating key change, and it’s easy to get caught up in the thrill of teenage romance. But she also throws in subtle signs that James is a bit too immature for the sentiment to stick. First, minimization: “Would you trust me if I told you it was just a summer thing?” Then, shrugging off responsibility: “I’m only 17, I don’t know anything.” Throw in some deflection: “Slept next to her, but I dreamt of you all summer long.” Finally, add in residual bitterness: “Will you kiss me on the porch in front of all your stupid friends?” The song ends on the same cliffhanger that “cardigan” does: James shows up on Betty’s doorstep, dreaming of a big dramatic reunion, as Swift rhymes “standing in your cardigan” with “kissing in my car again.”

So, that’s the basic plot — a love triangle worthy of Degrassi: The Next Generation . But there are still more questions to explore.

Why Are People Saying the Story Is ‘Queer Canon’?

This one’s easy to explain. Due to a conspicuous lack of male pronouns in the lyrics, plus the fact that Swift’s friend Blake Lively has daughters named James, Betty, and Inez, many fans have speculated that the James here is actually a girl, thus making these three songs the story of a lesbian love triangle . However, if you want to believe James is a guy, there’s evidence for that too: In “cardigan,” Betty remembers James “leaving like a father” and compares their breakup to “Peter losing Wendy” in Peter Pan . Ultimately, it works either way .

What Happened After James Showed Up at Betty’s Door?

Both “cardigan” and “betty” end with one big question unresolved: Did Betty take James back? I’m inclined to say no. There’s a small hint in the lyrics — Betty says that James “tried to change the ending,” tried being the operative word. It didn’t work; the ending was what it was. The music also points in that direction. Listen to the two songs casually, and you would not think they had much to do with each other, in tune or in tone. “Cardigan” is somber, contemplative, melancholy; “Betty” is a propulsive, major-chord jam. The gap is duplicated in the narrators’ worldviews: Betty is someone who notices everything, even unpleasant truths; James is someone who’s so good at lying that they can’t pick up that they’re lying to themselves. Consider too that our narrators are speaking to us from two different time periods. In everything that matters, these people are very far apart from each other. And there’s something about the way Swift sings “I knew you’d come back to me” in “cardigan” that pricks at my ears. It’s not triumphant; it’s a little sad, like she’s disappointed James lived up to her worst estimations.

When and Where Is All This Supposed to Be Taking Place?

Oddly enough, “cardigan” seems to be taking place in a slightly different universe from the other two. In “betty” and “august,” everyone’s in high school. There’s a homeroom, a school dance, and James is canonically 17 years old. The location feels suburban: James skateboards past Betty’s house, Una dreams of meeting behind a mall, and a lot of the action centers around cars. The first line of “august” mentions “salt air,” so we’re probably by the beach . But in “cardigan,” everyone feels slightly older. Betty reminisces about kissing in “downtown bars,” and the lyrics reference tattoos, the smell of cigarette smoke, and feminist literature. (Not that high-schoolers never do that kind of stuff, but collectively the tropes feel more early-20s.) And we seem to have moved to New York City : Besides the bars, there are “high heels on cobblestones,” and the High Line gets a shout-out.

How do we square this? If you’re the literal type, you can imagine these are three very advanced teenagers who live in Connecticut or New Jersey and take frequent trips into Manhattan. You could also take it as a sign that Betty and James did get back together, their tumultuous relationship spanning past high school and into early adulthood. I prefer to think that Swift’s employing a more impressionistic approach. “August” and “betty” are mentally caught up in that teenage moment, so their stories are set in the suburbs, where Swift grew up. “Cardigan” is a grown woman looking back on her younger self, so it takes place in the city that, for its author, symbolizes independence and maturity. (Fans have noticed that the succession of images in the track’s opening stanza mirrors Swift’s own aesthetics in her earlier album eras.) It’s her fantasy — she can write what she wants to.

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Love Triangles Explained: Decoding the Drama of Love Triangles in Romance Novels

Updated: Jun 7

Ah, the love triangle—the ultimate rollercoaster of emotions in the realm of romance literature. Is there any trope more tantalizing, more tumultuous, and more talked about?

In the vast tapestry of romance literature, few tropes elicit as much fervent discussion and passionate debate as the love triangle. It's a narrative device that has captured the imaginations of readers for generations, weaving a web of intrigue, emotion, and desire that keeps us eagerly turning pages late into the night.

But why is it that love triangles hold such a powerful allure? Is it the magnetic pull of forbidden love? The tantalizing uncertainty of who will ultimately win the protagonist's heart? Or perhaps it's the opportunity to explore the depths of human emotion and desire through the lens of fictional characters.

In this blog post, we're diving headfirst into the heart of this beloved (and sometimes controversial) storytelling device. From exploring the inner workings of love triangles to dissecting their popularity and real-life parallels, we'll unravel the complexities of this timeless trope that has left an indelible mark on romance literature.

So, grab your favorite romance novel, settle into a cozy spot, and join us as we embark on a journey to decode the drama of love triangles in romance novels.

What is the love triangle trope?

Imagine a delicate dance of affection, where not one, but two suitors vie for the affections of our protagonist. The love triangle trope, as the name suggests, revolves around a romantic entanglement between three characters, often leading to a tumultuous journey of self-discovery, heartache, and, of course, passion.

Are love triangles bad?

Some readers adore the delicious tension and emotional depth that love triangles bring to a story, while others find them frustrating or predictable. However, whether love triangles are "bad" ultimately depends on personal preference and how skillfully they are executed within the narrative.

How do love triangles work?

Love triangles typically unfold as the protagonist finds herself torn between two equally compelling love interests. Each suitor offers different qualities, sparking intense chemistry and emotional conflicts. The tension mounts as the protagonist must navigate her feelings and make a choice that will ultimately shape her romantic destiny.

Why are love triangles so popular?

Love triangles tap into a primal aspect of human nature—the desire for connection and the complexity of romantic relationships. They offer a compelling mix of passion, uncertainty, and emotional stakes that keep readers eagerly turning pages. Additionally, love triangles allow for exploration of character dynamics and growth as the protagonist navigates her romantic dilemma.

Do love triangles happen in real life?

They certainly do! While love triangles may seem like a product of fiction, the complexities of romantic relationships in real life can sometimes mirror these dramatic entanglements. Human emotions are messy and unpredictable, and love triangles, albeit perhaps less dramatic, can indeed occur.

How do love triangles end?

In the world of romance novels, love triangles often culminate in a resolution where the protagonist makes a definitive choice between her suitors. This decision can lead to heartbreak for one character and fulfillment for another, ultimately paving the way for a satisfying conclusion.

Love Triangles in Popular New Adult Romantasy and Young Adult Romance Books

Now, let's explore some captivating examples of New Adult Fantasy and Young Adult Fantasy books that skillfully weave the love triangle trope into their narratives. Each of these books masterfully weaves the love triangle trope into the story, adding layers of tension, emotion, and depth to the storylines and characters. Whether you're drawn to epic fantasy battles, dystopian romance, or Victorian-era intrigue, these captivating tales are sure to keep you spellbound until the very last page.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

First up is Throne of Glass .  In this epic fantasy series, readers are introduced to Celaena Sardothien, an infamous assassin with a complicated past. As Celaena navigates a dangerous world of politics, magic, and intrigue, she finds herself entangled in a gripping love triangle.

On one hand, there's the dashing Captain of the Guard, Chaol Westfall, whose loyalty and strength captivate her. On the other, there's the enigmatic Fae Prince, Dorian Havilliard, whose charm and hidden depths draw her in. As Celaena's feelings for both men deepen, she must confront her own desires and make a choice that will shape not only her destiny but the fate of the kingdom.

"I claim you, too, Aelin Galathynius," he whispered. "I claim you as my friend."

Inception by Bianca Scardoni

Inception follows Jemma Blackburn in an urban a spellbinding paranormal romance series. She's just your average high school kid until she's thrust into a world of vampires, magic, and danger. As Jemma navigates the treacherous politics of this new dark world she's discovered, she finds herself caught in a mesmerizing love triangle.

On one side, there's Tracy, the brooding good guy who's supposed be her guardian (long story here) but is fighting his duty every step of the way. On the other, there's Dominic, the seductive older guy that every girl wants but has eyes only for Jemma. As tensions rise, secrets unveiled, and loyalties are tested, Jemma must confront herself and decide where her heart truly lies.

" The butterflies began waltzing in my belly again, this time to the sweet melody of his words. Words that were meant for me. "

The Selection by Kiera Cass

The Selection is a YA romance set in a dystopian society where a lottery determines who will compete for the heart of a prince. The book follows America Singer as she navigates a whirlwind of romance, intrigue, and betrayal. Caught between her duty to her family and her growing feelings for two very different suitors, America finds herself in the midst of a captivating love triangle.

On one side, there's Prince Maxon, whose genuine kindness and dedication to his kingdom stir unexpected emotions in America. On the other, there's Aspen, America's childhood sweetheart and a member of the lower caste, whose presence ignites long-buried passions. As America grapples with her conflicting emotions, she must navigate the complexities of love and duty in a world on the brink of revolution.

"Break my heart. Break it a thousand times if you like. It was only ever yours to break anyway."

The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare

Set in Victorian London, this captivating series follows Tessa Gray as she discovers a world of demons, Shadowhunters, and dark magic. Amidst the danger and intrigue, Tessa finds herself torn between two Shadowhunters, Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs, in a heart-wrenching love triangle. On one side, there's Will, whose sharp wit and brooding demeanor conceal a painful past and a fierce loyalty to those he loves. On the other, there's Jem, whose kindness and compassion offer Tessa solace in a world of darkness. As Tessa's feelings for both men deepen, she must confront the secrets of her own identity and the truth about her heart's desires.

"I am catastrophically in love with you."

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

In this mesmerizing fantasy series, readers are transported to the magical world of Ravka, where darkness threatens to consume everything in its path. Amidst the chaos, we follow Alina Starkov, a young soldier with a hidden power that could save her country from destruction. As Alina navigates the dangers of her newfound abilities, she finds herself torn between two men who represent different paths and possibilities. On one side, there's Mal, her childhood friend and fellow soldier, whose unwavering loyalty and deep connection to Alina offer comfort and stability. On the other, there's the Darkling, a powerful Grisha whose seductive charm and promises of power tempt Alina to embrace a darker path. As Alina grapples with her own destiny and the choices before her, she must confront the truth about love, sacrifice, and the darkness that lies within us all.

"I've been waiting for you a long time, Alina. You and I are going to change the world."

Dissent by Josephine Lamont

Set in a dystopian future of the USA, this pulse-pounding series follows Mara de la Puente as she discovers the world she thought to be true is nothing but a lie. Kidnapped by Dissenters, Mara is thrown into danger and intrigue, finding herself torn between two rebels vying for her heart. On one side, there's Wes Calvernon, whose tough exterior and brooding demeanor conceals a painful past and a fiercely loyalty to those he loves. On the other, there's Matias Alvarez, whose kindness and compassion offer Mara a sense of safety in a world of lies and deceit. As Mara's feelings for both men deepen, she must confront the secrets of her own identity and the truth about her family.

"I will always come back for you."

There's No Debate— You Gotta Love a Love Triangle

Love triangles may provoke heated debates among readers, but there's no denying their

enduring allure in the world of romance literature. So, whether you're team #TeamA , #TeamB , or rooting for a surprise contender, one thing's for certain—love triangles are here to stay, keeping us captivated and craving more with each turn of the page.

Did you like this article? Are you ready to embark on an enchanting journey through captivating worlds filled with romance, magic, and thrilling adventures? Look no further! Join my exclusive newsletter community and unlock a treasure trove of fantastical tales that will sweep you off your feet and leave you longing for more.

As a subscriber, you'll gain behind-the-scenes access to exclusive content, including author interviews, sneak peeks, and special giveaways that you won't find anywhere else. Plus, receive personalized recommendations based on your favorite tropes and genres, ensuring that every book you read is a magical adventure waiting to unfold.

So, what are you waiting for? Don't miss out on the chance to join a community of fellow book lovers who share your passion for romance, adventure, and the endless possibilities of the imagination. Sign up for my newsletter today and let the journey begin!

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The International Journal of Young Adult Literature

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Special Section: Let's Talk About Sex in YA

Challenging the love triangle in twenty-first-century fantastic young adult literature.

• Stephanie Lyttle

From Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight (2005-2008) to Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games (2008-2010), the love triangle is a controversial but pervasive feature of 21st-century fantastic YA literature. The setup and outcome rarely vary: a female protagonist must risk souring friendships to make a final choice between two eligible boys, inevitably disappointing the alternative suitor and the readers who favoured him. Drawing on theories of triangular desire and reader-response theory, this article considers the factors governing fantastic YA’s continuing use of the love triangle, its adherence to the final choice, and the barriers to alternative polyamorous outcomes which can offer continuity to friendships. Considering YA’s readers, writers, and market, this article argues that this resistance results from general anxiety about polyamory’s effect on the characters’ desirability from the reader’s perspective, and society’s particular aversion to male bisexuality. Meanwhile, constraints on writers include the logistical effort and page space required to develop a satisfying polyamorous relationship. Facilitated through a discussion of two of the few polyamorous triangles in mainstream YA fantasy and science fiction, found in Malinda Lo’s Adaptation series (2012-2013) and Tessa Gratton’s Strange Grace (2018), this article proposes that if popular negative perceptions of polyamory can be overcome, its inclusion can provide freeing possibilities for both readers and the genre itself.

• Science Fiction
• YA Love Triangle
• Bisexuality.

Introduction

The notion of ‘true’ romantic love, and the lifelong pursuit of it, is so ingrained in Western societies that most people cannot remember the first love story they heard. Perhaps it was a childhood viewing of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991), wherein heroine Belle snubs chauvinistic Gaston’s advances in favour of the Beast’s affections, or bedtime stories about King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot. Love-story literacy begins early in our monogamous society, and as we can see, intertwined with that comes love-triangle literacy. Although use of the love triangle as a literary motif predates the recognition of YA as a genre by thousands of years, early 21st-century Anglophone fantastic YA novels made it their hallmark, encouraged primarily by the phenomenal success of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series (2005-2008) and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy (2008-2010).

In spite of its ubiquity over the last 17 years or so, I propose that the love triangle in fantastic YA is at a significant crossroads. Its power has waned far from its peak, with many fewer love triangle titles seeing publication in the last few years. Fantastic YA’s readership is increasingly aware of the general format and accepted ending: a heterosexual, cisgender girl must choose between two heterosexual, cisgender boys. Choosing between two romantic options is a fundamental feature of literary love triangles regardless of publication date or genre, and therefore not unique to these fantastic YA novels, but I argue that the context of YA fiction’s readership gives particular impetus to challenge it.

My analysis draws on examples from three fantastic YA series whose love triangles end in a choice (Meyer’s Twilight series, Collins’ The Hunger Games series, Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle series [2012-2016]), and one duology and one novel whose triangles do not, (Malinda Lo’s Adaptation [2012] and Inheritance [2013], and Tessa Gratton’s Strange Grace [ 2018]). Viewing the texts primarily through a lens incorporating reader-response theory and theories of desire, I suggest that there is a complex, interconnected confluence of factors driving both fantastic YA novels’ employment of love triangles and their general adherence to monogamous outcomes. This article considers the influence of the commercial publishing market, the reader’s personal fantasy of power and desire through their identification with these novels’ protagonists, and wider societal bias against (male) bisexuality. It also considers concerns for fantastic YA writers, such as the difficulty of dividing page space between the work of establishing a new parallel world and the work of constructing a convincing polyamorous relationship.

Beyond offering an alternative to the love triangle’s binary choice and therefore another option for the writer, the case for polyamory as a valuable outcome in YA hinges on how this alternative philosophy of relationship organisation allows friendships to be as deeply felt as romantic relationships (Klesse, The Spectre of Promiscuity 104). Adolescence is a time when “close friendships” are of “increased importance” (La Greca and Harrison 49). In support of this centrality of friendship in adolescence, YA texts can harness polyamory’s ability “to challenge the mutually exclusive categories of ‘friend’ and ‘lover’” (Barker 81), and confront the idea that romantic relationships must supersede or replace the state of friendship, which is “generally seen as less important than love” (82). Most scholarship on love triangles does not consider the possibility of polyamory as an outcome, and it is here that I propose my own organising model – a circle of relationships, imagined as a node situated within a broader network of friends.

The Rise of the Love Triangle in Fantastic YA

Before I consider the centrality of the love triangle to fantastic YA, it is helpful to first discuss the multiple genres included in my primary corpus, beginning with a clarification of ‘fantastic’. The boundary between fantasy and science fiction is contested and difficult to navigate; for the purposes of this discussion, I am defining fantastic YA novels as those taking place in a world that is fundamentally different in some way to our own, telling stories that would not be possible outside of this altered or invented world. I have chosen to use the term ‘fantastic’ as it allows science fiction and fantasy texts to be considered simultaneously.

The second genre question to consider is the interaction between romance and YA. Michael Cart highlights romance’s significance to the germination of YA fiction, writing that the 1942 publication of Maureen Daly’s Seventeenth Summer , a novel of “sweet summer love” (12), was the “signal occasion” (11) heralding the dawn of YA. Cart also notes a “trickling down” (42) of publishing trends from romance novels for adults to YA fiction in the 1980s. The intertwining of romance and YA then continued into the next century with the “runaway success” (Cart 120) of Twilight . This goes some way to explaining the general significance of the romance genre to YA’s development, but not specifically the prominence of the love triangle in fantastic YA. To account for this, I believe we can look to the marketing surrounding Twilight , a series in which vampire Edward and werewolf Jacob vie for the affections of human protagonist Bella. This was not fantastic YA’s first love triangle, but the fervour it inspired attracted intense media attention. Despite it being unclear whether the ‘Team Edward versus Team Jacob’ phenomenon came organically from Twilight’s readership itself or was “invented purely by business strategists” (Doty n.p.), many readers of the novels and viewers of the subsequent wildly successful film adaptations (2008-2012) eagerly divided themselves based on which boy they endorsed as Bella’s partner. As of 2020, 10 million copies of the novels had been sold in the UK alone (Comerford n.p.). The ‘Team Edward versus Team Jacob’ phenomenon does not solely account for this, but the rivalry was a core component of the franchise’s marketing.

The position of the love triangle in fantastic YA was then cemented by its appearance in The Hunger Games . In this dystopian series where teenagers compete in televised fights to the death, an uneven triangle is drawn between protagonist Katniss, her best friend Gale, and her fellow competitor and eventual romantic partner, Peeta. Like Twilight , it has spawned several wildly successful film adaptations and its own direct echo of the ‘Team’ phenomenon: ‘Team Gale versus Team Peeta’. Marketing, however, does not by itself explain fantastic YA’s fondness for the love triangle. Rather, the interaction between the love triangle and the reader, and specifically what is ignited in the reader in response to the desire contained within the triangle, is crucial.

Him, or Him? Love Triangles, the Reader, and the Attraction of Binary Choice

In René Girard’s influential model of triangular desire, the triangle consists of the “subject” who enacts the desire, the “object” who receives the desire, and the “mediator” who influences the desire (2). The mediator directly encourages, or perhaps even originates, the subject’s desire for the object, whose “‘nature’ […] is not sufficient to account for the desire” (2). It is thus primarily the mediator of the triangle who is in control of the flow of desire (3), and the mediator and subject may be rivals for the object (9). Girard’s model engages with a broad conception of desire, simply the act of wanting to possess something: as well as people, this can be an object or an intangible token of status (3). ‘Desire’ in the context of this article refers specifically to the desire for a romantic relationship, and the triangles are all ones in which the mediator and subject are rivals for the object. However, unlike in Girard’s model, the success of these fantastic YA love triangles depends – crucially – on the reader believing each protagonist to be loved and desired by her two suitors on her own merits.

Wayne C. Booth writes that “every book carves out from mankind those readers for which its peculiar effects were designed” (136); this imaginary reader has been referred to as the “implied” (Iser) or “intended” (Wolff, qtd. in Wilson 849) reader of a text. 1 We can conjure an image of the reader that these selected love triangle novels are primarily marketed towards – female-identifying, aged from approximately 13 to 18, cisgender, and heterosexual. The protagonists of the love triangle novels under discussion – Bella of the Twilight series, Katniss of The Hunger Games series, and Blue of The Raven Cycle series – also fit these characteristics (as far as can be ascertained from the texts), and therefore reflect this reader. This monolithic reader obviously does not represent every possible reader of fantastic YA – or even most readers, considering the fact that a 2012 Bowker Market Research study found that the majority of people who buy YA novels are over 18 (“New Study: 55% of YA Books Bought by Adults” n.p.) – but I propose that it is this small subset of readers that the market identifies and specifically sets out to court. Norman Holland suggests that the reader of any literary text “use[s] the literary work to symbolize and […] replicate [them]selves” (816), and more specifically, that the reader seeks “from [the text] the particular kind of fantasy and gratification he responds to” (818); I venture that the love triangle protagonist functions as a vessel for the reader to do this self-replication work, being simultaneously familiar and aspirational. On the theme of reader gratification and engagement, Louise Rosenblatt states that if “the text offers little or no linkage with the […] interests, anxieties, and hopes of the reader” (305), then it will not resonate with that reader. Situating the protagonist within a love triangle presents the reader with a twofold fantasy: being desired by two boys and having the power to choose between them. Girard’s conception of the triangle model is driven by masculine desire and “eclipses the role of women” (Dee 392), but in fantastic YA’s iteration of the triangle, the protagonist enacts the final choice. That said, other YA critics have disputed this idea of free choice, particularly in Katniss’s case. Katherine R. Broad claims that “there is no moment of decision, no expression of desire, and no evidence of Katniss exhibiting agency or control over her life” (124): but I would argue that Katniss does in fact make a final romantic decision, even if that decision is to accept Peeta’s love rather than refuse him and seek out Gale, or indeed refuse him in favour of living alone. 2

Broad comments further on the “centrality” of The Hunger Games ’ love triangle to the series’ reception, discussing its potent effect on “readers [who] are as much on the edge of their seats asking ‘Peeta or Gale?’ as they are wondering how the trio will outrun, outsmart and outlast the enemy at their heels” (118). Publishers have a vested interest in converting first-time readers into engaged readers who drive book sales, buy tickets to movie adaptations, and purchase merchandise; and as it is near impossible to read about a love triangle without forming an opinion over the outcome, the triangle is a straightforward way to create these engaged readers. The triangle is particularly effective at provoking this conversion, not only due to the nostalgic familiarity stemming from its long literary lineage, but also the way a love triangle remains in the mind after reading is concluded. The triangle becomes a problem or debate with two possible outcomes for the mind to chew over – Jacob or Edward, Peeta or Gale. This act of “reducing complex phenomena or choices to a binary set of alternatives is part of human nature”, and these binaries “quickly [acquire] an emotional tone when we begin struggling to decide which option is ‘right’ and which is ‘wrong’” (Wood and Petriglieri 32). In this case, the overwhelming, difficult-to-define concept of first love and its attendant emotions are simplified into a binary choice between two suitors, and, powerfully, the reader vicariously experiences making this emotional choice for herself. Another possible reason for the triangle’s ubiquity in fantastic YA is that it is highly replicable and translatable; it can easily become a component of novels across disparate genres, times, and places. The dystopian Panem of The Hunger Games may have little in common with Twilight ’s Forks, for example, but the love triangle can easily appear in both novels due to the consistency of human nature. That is not to say that YA novels that make use of the device are necessarily formulaic, or even that their portrayals of love triangles are in themselves always formulaic – rather that over the last decade and a half, the love triangle has become a fundamental component in the fantastic YA writer’s toolbox.

The love triangle in Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle series, for example, marks a departure from the triangles of Twilight and The Hunger Games , despite using the same binary ‘him or him?’ setup. In the novels, protagonist Blue finds out via a vision that Gansey is almost certainly her one true love near the beginning of the first volume in this four-book series, and readers are thus aware that even though she dates Adam for the majority of the first two novels, there is no future in it. A similar script is in fact activated near the beginning of The Hunger Games : Katniss reflects that “[Gale] could be [her] brother” (Collins 8) within the first few pages of the trilogy’s opening novel. When Gale suggests the two of them could “run off” together and “live in the woods” (9), Katniss is troubled and confused by the romantic overtones of this suggestion. In the second novel, Catching Fire , she reconsiders this rejected plan to run away, but is stunned and dismayed by the profession of love Gale makes in return. Her emotions seem less surprising when one remembers her early casting of Gale as her brother. At the same time, the fact that he is presented as a viable romantic rival for a significant portion of the series confusingly undercuts this. Even though government-ordered wedding planning (for a sham marriage between Katniss and Peeta) is a prominent feature of Catching Fire , Gale and Peeta have a discussion in the final novel over whom they think Katniss will choose. At least in the characters’ minds, some doubt remains over the outcome almost until the end, regardless of the imagery evoked by even a false wedding.

By including the information about Gansey as Blue’s likely one true love at such a preliminary stage in The Raven Cycle , and then dissolving Blue and Adam’s romantic relationship relatively quickly, Stiefvater pushes this script raised by The Hunger Games further. The psychic prophecy functions as an emotional safety mechanism for readers about to invest their time, emotion, and money in the triangle’s outcome, assuring them that a wise investment in Gansey will likely see a return. However, this highlights a key pitfall with the love triangle: the engaged reader has a shadow, and it is the disappointed reader. Deliberately attempting to present two romantic possibilities as equally viable candidates requires an author to decide to knowingly disappoint approximately 50 per cent of their readership by the series’ end, thwarting their fantasy. The alternative to this is to make one boy into the obviously unsuccessful suitor from the beginning and avoid inviting reader investment in the wrong candidate, as Stiefvater does with Adam, but the reduced stakes result in a love triangle that is more underwhelming for the reader to experience. Complicating matters, the lure of binary choice itself also only extends so far; as this same choice between suitors has been enacted across many YA novels, for a significant subset of readers the choice mechanism itself is losing its appeal.

What if there were an alternative for writers to either disappointing their readership, or setting up an intentionally underwhelming “erotic rivalry” (Kosofsky Sedgwick 21) between the suitors, one which additionally satisfies the significant subset of readers who have tired of the protagonist having to choose between her suitors at all?

Circling the Triangle: Polyamory and the Friendship-Love Hierarchy in Fantastic YA Literature

The solution may lie in the reconfiguring of the love triangle model into an alternative structure. This is achievable through polyamory, a term denoting a relationship style which refuses monogamistic relationship organisation (Klesse, “Notions of Love in Polyamory” 14). Elisabeth Sheff provides a succinct definition, writing that “polyamorous people openly engage in romantic, sexual, and/or affective relationships with multiple people simultaneously” (“Polyamorous Women, Sexual Subjectivity and Power” 252), while Christian Klesse points out that the term “literally translates as ‘many loves’” (“Notions of Love in Polyamory” 4). Polyamory comes in many different configurations; featured in the case study novels are one triad (a relationship involving three people who are all partners) and one V-formation (where one person has two partners who are not partners to each other). As the effect that the fantastic YA love triangle has on friendship is an urgent but overlooked issue, it is significant that polyamory can also confront dominant western ideas of friendship’s subordinate position to love. As Klesse explains, “within polyamory, friendships are taken seriously and can demand as much affection, attention and consideration as sexual relationships” ( The Spectre of Promiscuity 104). 3 In addition to eliminating the requirement to choose between two suitors, polyamory can therefore afford friendship the same status as romance in these novels, honouring and reflecting the fact that “friendships become more important and complex during adolescence” (Jones et al. 65) and therefore are equally worthy of page space.

How, then, do friendship and love interact in triangle novels that persist with the final choice between suitors, and do not interrupt the established friendship-love hierarchy through polyamory? In those cases, writers must figure out how to convincingly remove the unsuccessful suitor from contention in a way that is both adequately final and satisfies readers, and this can result in the breaking or diminishing of the friendship bond between the protagonist and the unsuccessful suitor. Gale, for example, virtually disappears from The Hunger Games ’ narrative after the event that irrevocably makes him an unviable romantic candidate. As Broad also notes (124), towards the series’ close Katniss finds out that Gale has left for a different district, a revelation that makes Katniss feel no “longing” (Collins, Mockingjay 448), and he does not appear again. Problems in their friendship surface repeatedly throughout this final novel, giving a clear foundation for their relationship to break down regardless of Katniss’ romantic choices, but several of these problems are directly related to monogamistic conceptions of romance. For instance, Katniss suspects Gale of being jealous of her platonic contact with Finnick:

I catch Gale watching me and Finnick unhappily. What now? Does he actually think something’s going on between us? Maybe he saw me go to Finnick’s last night.  [...] I guess that probably rubbed him the wrong way. Me seeking out Finnick’s company instead of his. (Collins, Mockingjay 185).

Katniss herself also engages in this jealous behaviour. When Haymitch obliquely implies that Katniss’ friend Madge’s gift of painkillers to Gale may mean she has romantic feelings for him, Katniss reflects that “the implication that there’s something going on between Gale and Madge” very much “nettles” her (Collins, Catching Fire 116).

The erosion of their friendship gathers pace in the final novel. Katniss overhears Gale and Peeta discussing who they believe she will choose for her partner and is upset by how “cold and calculating” (Collins, Mockingjay 386) Gale believes her to be. She does not refer to him using the term ‘friend’ again after this point, despite previously repeatedly calling him her best friend. That said, the key motivating factor for the final implosion of their friendship is Gale’s contribution to Katniss’ sister’s tragic death, rather than Katniss’ choice to be with Peeta. However, as Gale’s involvement was relatively marginal, his position as the epicentre of Katniss’ grief and his subsequent timely exit feels inevitably tied to his position as the unsuccessful suitor.

Due to Stiefvater’s focus on building an effective secondary friendship network, The Raven Cycle does manage to end its love triangle without employing polyamory or terminating friendships. Unusually, Blue is an addition to a pre-established friendship group rather than the lynchpin; her potential romantic partners have a prior friendship that significantly predates their knowledge of her. In contrast, Twilight ’s Jacob and Edward are set up as enemies thanks to their status as vampire and wolf shapeshifter (though they do eventually reach an accord towards the end of the series), and Peeta and Gale’s relationship is neutral at best; both sets of boys interact only because of the protagonist’s presence. The Raven Cycle prioritises platonic bonds to the extent that it actually provides an additional layer of friendship fantasy for the reader alongside the fantasies of desirability and power: Blue initiates herself into the boys’ world and experiences a friendship surpassing any other, describing it as “all-encompassing [...] blinding, deafening, maddening, quickening” (Stiefvater, Blue Lily, Lily Blue 103). The love triangle between Blue, Adam, and Gansey has the most satisfying resolution of the triangles discussed so far, as this intense friendship is preserved. Adam is eventually assigned a partner from elsewhere in the established friendship network (another boy named Ronan). The reader has developed an emotional attachment to Ronan as part of this network, and therefore he is a more suitable romantic replacement than a new character, or even a character who was not previously part of this network. As Ronan does not present an external threat to the characters’ group bond, his romance with Adam does not disrupt the reader’s fantasy of friendship.

Stiefvater’s resolution is inaccessible for the many love triangle novels which do not prioritise this network building. Where there is no suitable candidate for the unsuccessful suitor to direct his affections towards, it is more likely that it will instead be his exit from the narrative which lends finality to the romantic outcome. Polyamorous novels tackle this problem by making both suitors successful. Like The Raven Cycle , these novels examine friendship and romance in thoughtful ways. In Lo’s Adaptation and Inheritance , protagonist Reese and her friend David are experimented on by aliens after an accident. Reese has romantic feelings for David before the narrative begins, but struggles with the idea of a romance with him as she has been badly affected by her parents’ relationship breakdown:

For months [...] her feelings for David had been building up. She had tried to ignore them, because they scared the living daylights out of her [...]. She had promised herself a long time ago, after overhearing one too many fights between her parents, that she wasn’t going to get involved in anything romantic. (Lo, Adaptation 49-50).

Given her vehemence, it is strange that she then meets and successfully begins a romantic relationship with an alien named Amber. 4 This is despite the new relationship requiring her to not only look past the trauma of her parents’ divorce (just as a relationship with David would), but also re-evaluate her perception of her own sexuality. The idea of ruining her friendship with David causes more distress than either of these things: Reese views the move from friends to a romantic relationship as a permanent loss, an irrevocable move from one absolute state to another, rather than an extension or development of the friendship. After she dates Amber, she does eventually move on to dating David, though with considerable trepidation. She then breaks up with both as she cannot choose between them. When she later confides in David that she has struggled with the idea of being “friends again” post-breakup, he simply replies that they “never stopped being friends” (Lo, Inheritance 350). Unlike Reese, David understands friendship as continuous, regardless of romance. At the end of the series, Reese is in a V-shaped polyamorous relationship where David and Amber are romantically involved with her, but not with each other. The polyamorous relationship offers Reese an alternative to the monogamous romantic structure she has seen to fail (her parents’ marriage), therefore alleviating the anxiety over repeating the cycle with David and losing him.

Gratton’s fantasy Strange Grace also features characters who struggle with the sometimes fragile nature of friendship. Set in an undefined past, the novel tells the story of Mair, Rhun, and Arthur, 5 who live in a magical village where illness does not exist. All three experience attraction towards one another, but Mair and Arthur’s relationship is strained as Mair has embarked on a romantic relationship with Rhun. Although Mair describes herself as “both glad and annoyed to see [Arthur]”, her attraction to him is clear; it is only “because of Rhun [that she] refuses to love him” (Gratton 65). It is thus Rhun, not protagonist Mair, who initially plays the part of the doubly desired member of this love triangle. The term polyamory is never explicitly used, but it is implied that the three characters are in a triadic relationship at the end of the novel. The text suggests that the concept of monogamous romance is preventing Mair and Arthur from being friends with each other the way they are with Rhun, who longs for “them [to] be better friends” (Gratton 65). The eventual integration of friendship and romance through polyamory improves relationships between the three characters in general, breaking down these barriers and reconfiguring their relationship into a more circular structure.

That said, polyamory is not a miracle cure for all relationship ill-harmony. Whilst David and Reese’s friendship is preserved in Adaptation and Inheritance , the relationship between Amber and David is decidedly unfriendly. Polyamory is not the sole method of protecting friendships amid a love triangle, either; The Raven Cycle is an example of achieving this through other means. However, as this section has demonstrated, polyamory’s unique offering is threefold. It permits authors to develop both of a triangle’s romantic candidates to their fullest extent, it avoids the author having to find a convincing way to remove the unsuccessful suitor from consideration, and it does these things while also challenging the idea that friendship and romantic love are incompatible. Lo and Gratton can consistently present their protagonists’ romantic candidates as being equally thrilling and attractive because both will succeed in the end.

A final useful function of polyamory in young adult fiction is how it challenges what Sara K. Day terms YA’s “rhetoric of the permanence of first love” (157). Both Katniss and Bella marry and have children with the victors of their teenage love triangles, despite this being patently at odds with reality as “few adolescents expect to remain with their ‘high school sweetheart’ much beyond high school” (Arnett 473). Although adolescent loves can, and do, lead to lifelong partnerships (the frequency of which often depends heavily on cultural, social, and geographic contexts), adolescence for many people in a US/UK context is a time for gathering information about how to communicate with and love others. Allowing YA protagonists to engage in more than one relationship within the same text (and make mistakes in these relationships) requires them to negotiate with more than one romantic partner simultaneously. This maximises the amount of information on relationship practices and pitfalls that is available to readers, and reduces the emphasis on perfect, charmed first love – something useful even for monogamous readers.

The Problems with Polyamory in Fantastic YA: The Reader and the Potential Romantic Interests

The main issue with implementing polyamory is that it interrupts two of the imagined reader’s fantasies: it requires the protagonist to be romantically involved with two partners at once, and it alters the desirability of the potential romantic interests. Although the state of being wanted by two boys is favourable for the protagonist and the reader who identifies with her, the polyamorous protagonist’s decision to engage romantically with both suitors intrudes on the fantasy, implicating the reader as also possibly being ‘that sort of girl’. There is a fundamental misunderstanding at a societal level over what sort of girl a polyamorous girl is. Polyamorous people, according to a 2016 study by Kevin T. Hutzler et al., are perceived to be “higher in promiscuity” and “lower in trustworthiness and morality” (74) despite the fact that “polyamory endorses commitment” (Klesse, “Notions of Love in Polyamory” 15). Exemplifying this anxiety, Adaptation and Inheritance pre-empt and directly address the misgivings that readers may have about their bisexual, polyamorous protagonist. Reese grapples with internalised biphobia, and even once she has accepted her identity, says: “‘I know what people think about bisexuals. That we can’t make up our minds or that we’re nymphomaniacs [...] I can’t like two people at once. […] Talk about stereotypes’” (Lo, Inheritance 234-235).

The complex intersection of biphobia and resistance to polyamory affects not only the female protagonists, but their potential partners. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick draws an intriguing aspect of Girard’s original triangle model to prominence, declaring that for Girard, “the bond that links the two rivals is as intense and potent as the bond that links either of the rivals to the beloved” (21). The move from a love triangle to a polyamorous relationship, even a V-formation, draws attention to this bond between the two male suitors, disrupting the plausible deniability of masculine rivalry by suggesting, at the very least, some degree of co-operation and compromise. I venture that it is primarily this implication of male bisexuality that makes polyamory an unattractive solution for these novels, as Western society’s prejudice against bisexual men has been well-documented. Megan R. Yost and Genéa D. Thomas’ 2011 study evaluating bi-negativity in heterosexual people found that “participants described male bisexuals negatively” (691); they also doubted the men’s status as bisexual and labelled them as “‘really gay’” (691). Considering this, it is intriguing that the love triangle in Adaptation and Inheritance avoids having two male rivals; it is protagonist Reese’s bisexuality that is instead confirmed, and therefore David’s desirability is unaffected. The text supports this by frequently asserting his unquestionable appeal, highlighting his good looks, intelligence, and affability, referring to him as “an all-around golden boy” (Lo, Adaptation 20).

Compounding this, one of the issues surrounding the portrayal of even monogamous bisexual boys as romantic candidates in YA is the existence of a possible threatening ‘other’. If a suitor identifies as bisexual, they are attracted to multiple genders, and thus there is the implication that they have desired someone of a different gender to the protagonist at some point. A heterosexual suitor lacks this inevitable shadowy other, and the protagonist has a greater sense of being the sole recipient of their desire. 6 If the female protagonist represents the reader’s fantasy self, the male suitors represent perfect fantasy objects for this heterosexual reader to consume. They should be perfect repositories for her desires, not have alternative, conflicting desires of their own. The bisexuality of the male suitors interrupts their image as perfect fantasy objects, as saleable commodities, as abstract vessels of boys ready to receive the reader’s projections – boys who, crucially, could possibly sell the next ‘Team Edward vs Team Jacob’ phenomenon. Complicating this further, if the most satisfying polyromantic solution to the love triangle is the triad, which not only produces maximum narrative pay-off by avoiding the romantic exclusion of one suitor but is also the most “idealized, iconic” (Sheff, “Poly-Hegemonic Masculinities” 626) polyamorous relationship type, then this lurking spectre of male bisexuality is no longer a spectre, but definite. This form of polyamory forces the direct confrontation of this shadowy other.

Final Stumbling Blocks: Issues for the Writer

So far, this article has utilised fantastic YA as an umbrella term, one which does not differentiate between fantasy and science fiction. However, this broad genre is no longer sufficient when discussing exactly how the two polyamorous case study texts – the science fiction Adaptation series and fantasy Strange Grace – construct their polyamorous relationships, and then speculating on how other writers may do the same.

Science fiction seems, in many ways, a natural ‘home’ for explorations of polyamory – Meg Barker explains that the word itself was coined “to refer to the type of responsible nonmonogamy advocated in Robert Heinlein’s (1961) novel Stranger in a Strange Land ” (75), which is a work of science fiction. The alien society in Adaptation and Inheritance , for example, has normalised polyamorous relationships, providing a vehicle to introduce this concept to readers. Reese acts as the readers’ mouthpiece, asking questions and voicing doubts that they may also have, such as in this conversation with Amber:

‘ I can’t be with you if I still want to be with him,’ [Reese] said miserably. ‘I can’t be with either one of you.’

‘ That’s a really limited way to think about it.’

Reese groaned. ‘It’s reality. Why don’t you get that?’

Amber’s expression hardened. ‘I do get that you think that way. I’m saying you don’t have to.’

‘ What do you mean?’

‘ I mean you could date both of us.’

Reese stared at her in astonishment. ‘At the same time?’ (Lo, Inheritance 340-341)

Amber later informs Reese that she herself comes from a family of “three parents”, and that her people have developed the necessary technology to produce children using “genes from all parents” (Lo, Inheritance 442). Alien biology also supplies a solution to what the series regards as the biggest barrier to practising polyamory: jealousy.  When Reese says that polyamorous relationships are “pretty unusual for humans”, Amber explains this is “because humans are jealous all the time” (Lo 341). She concludes that the jealousy arises as “they don’t have any idea what their partners are thinking because they can’t do susum’urda ” (Lo 341). As Reese and David are made into alien-human hybrids by an experimental medical procedure, they too develop this alien emotion-reading ability. The series therefore unfortunately positions polyamory as extremely difficult for humans. Still, it does not frame polyamory as an entirely alien phenomenon: Reese’s best friend is aware of human polyamory practitioners, and Reese mentions receiving “support from the tiny polyamorous community” (Lo 464-465). Thus, although Amber is a primary source of polyamory knowledge within the text, the practice is not unheard of in the novel’s version of San Francisco in 2014, just as it was not in our San Francisco of the same year. Reese reaps the benefits of being a science fiction protagonist, as the genre gives her enhanced tools to aid her practice of polyamory and a vision of an alternate society which truly embraces it, while the novels’ 2014-2015 setting gives her the language to define it. It is significant that the Imria do not have a specific word for their practice of polyamory, and that Reese does not need to be supplied with one.

Strange Grace , on the other hand, lacks the intervention of mind-reading science fiction powers to aid the practice of polyamory, and its setting in an undefined past means that the text does not use the term. Ursula K. Le Guin has contrasted science fiction’s and fantasy’s unique relationships to time; the work of the science fiction writer often involves projecting the concerns of now into a future world, primarily to better illuminate our current reality (“Introduction to the Left Hand of Darkness” n.p.). Le Guin likens this process to the concept of a “thought experiment”, concluding that the genre is “not predictive; but descriptive” (“Introduction to the Left Hand of Darkness” n.p.). Science fiction is therefore often simultaneously futuristic and intensely of its time, as Adaptation and Inheritance are. For Le Guin, fantasy novels in which “there is no borrowed reality of history, or current events” instead embrace a “timelessness” of language (“From Elfland to Poughkeepsie” n.p.). Use of the term polyamory in Strange Grace may therefore be deemed too anachronistic, as the OED records 1992 as its year of first use (“Polyamory” n.p.). 7 Strange Grace is unmoored in time, situated in its own bubble; although it explores many of the same contemporary issues as Adaptation and Inheritance do, including gender identity and sexuality, it must do so differently. There are ways to overcome these barriers: the fantasy writer can invent another culture within the fantasy world that practices polyamory, and then invent a word for the practice, while a mind-reading spell could substitute for Adaptation and Inheritance ’s alien ability. However, fantasy’s and science fiction’s fundamentally different approaches to time means that the fantasy writer arguably has a larger hill to climb to fulfil readers’ expectations. Readers may expect to see direct commentary on social concerns in science fiction, but stumble over them in fantasy novels set in worlds far removed in time from our own society.

That said, both the fantasy writer and the science-fiction writer must indicate their work’s individual relationship to time, considering time’s intense effect on cultural perceptions of relationships. Adaptation and Inheritance make clear their relationship to our contemporary time and draw on this period’s popular understanding of polyamory. They also make their geographical and cultural context clear; Reese is obviously in San Francisco as we understand it, simply with the addition of aliens. Fantasy can do this, too. The Raven Cycle novels are situated in time through their references to technology such as mobile phones, and their US setting is meticulously rendered. Again, it is recognisably our world, but with additional magic. On the other hand, The Hunger Games series is set in a fundamentally altered future US, but one which readers are supposed to assume still upholds its preferred monogamistic relationship structures. Indeed, Broad notes that Katniss’ marriage to Peeta reflects “the social and sexual status quo of our own world” (125). As polyamorous texts deviate from this norm, space within the text must be devoted to establishing the new society’s attitude to polyamory. Adaptation and Inheritance are able to draw on the novels’ proximity to our own time and society, but facilitating this is more complex in those polyamorous novels that are set in an invented location and culture, and more difficult again when the invented culture is a remote fantasy past. This is not entirely negative; the freedom to create completely new social rules can in fact make the task of portraying polyamory even more creatively stimulating. However, finding room in the narrative to establish all this is difficult when page space is automatically at a premium for novels involving polyamory, especially those including reciprocal triads.

The work of constructing the central triad in Strange Grace – the only case study text that attempts this – must also be balanced alongside plot construction and general world-building, which already occupies a greater page space in fantastic YA than other YA subgenres, such as contemporary realism. Reviewers have noted these difficulties: the Kirkus review of the novel notes its “relatively thin plot” and criticises the “generic setting” (Kirkus Reviews n.p.). The task of producing a satisfying triadic relationship automatically entails more work for the author. As equal reciprocal relationships must be established between all three characters, the romantic portion of the book inevitably then expands, vying for more page time. Gratton has eschewed a fixed narrative voice to mitigate this and build relationships between the characters more quickly. Each of the three characters is given sections of the novel from their point of view, but this creative act of artistic management cannot erase the burden of the extra work required. There is also the question of how this extra labour is perceived by readers, who have come to expect their heroine to make a choice. Readers may perceive a polyamorous outcome as writers realising that they have failed to make a reasonable case for the protagonist’s selection of one suitor over another, and so instead opt to have their protagonist not choose between them. Polyamory, an outcome that seems designed to satisfy all possible readers, may in fact dissatisfy more of them than a monogamous choice would. When this is coupled with the fact that there are so few polyamorous YA novels available that it is hard to ascertain the market for them, the lack of YA with polyamorous outcomes becomes less surprising.

“‘ I love you [...] Both of you, and all of you.’” (Gratton 373)

Klesse writes that “in polyamory love is construed as an active agent which has a potential to grow eternally”; it is “unlimited and overabundant” (“Notions of Love in Polyamory” 14). There is an undeniable joy to the concept of boundless, unrestricted love. The feeling is well demonstrated by the final scene of Inheritance , in which Reese stands with her two romantic partners on a departing alien ship, looking with rapture upon the expansiveness of the universe, with its “masses and masses of stars” (Lo 470). To Reese, “[Earth] seemed lit from within, as if every life on the planet gave off a luminescence that together created an ethereal lantern in the dark” (Lo 470). These lines convey a fantasy of community, of having an assured place within a branching network that never ends. It is a paradisiacal conception of polyamory, but this feeling of acceptance and idea of being part of a wider branching network of relationships is not beyond what polyamory can provide at its most optimistic. Fantastic novels should, in fact, be a place where the most optimistic of outcomes can be achieved, and for YA novels this is even more vital.

However, readers, writers, and publishers are ultimately involved in a tug-of-love of their own: another triangle, perhaps, if you will permit revisiting that shape for a final time. Writers must weigh up the exciting possibilities of polyamory with its logistical challenges. Publishers must decide whether imbuing the tried and tested formula with something new and widely misunderstood is worth the risk. Readers must decide what it is that they truly seek in a protagonist and love interests, and what, to them, makes the most satisfying story. This article has proposed a very specific reader, but this monolithic reader is an unreal construction. The many real readers of YA have their own perspectives, feelings, desires, and experiences, and the genre should live to serve them. To close, I argue that if there were a better general understanding of polyamory and its practitioners in our society, more fantastic YA would adopt it. Considering the genre’s construction of fundamentally altered or even entirely new worlds, it presents a unique environment for challenging these stereotypes. Ultimately, polyamory’s emphasis on loving relationships, elevating of friendship, and porous boundaries between platonic and romantic connections could crack the oppressive restrictions on love and friendship for the classic love triangle protagonist, ultimately offering her – and all of her readers – an alternative, unfamiliar, but perhaps freer fate.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge that her PhD research is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the Northern Bridge Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership.

Primary Texts

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic, 2008.

---. Catching Fire . Scholastic, 2009.

---. Mockingjay. Scholastic, 2010.

Gratton, Tessa. Strange Grace . Margaret K. McElderberry, 2018.

Lo, Malinda. Adaptation . Hachette, 2012.

---. Inheritance . Hachette, 2013.

Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight . Little, Brown and Company, 2005.

---. New Moon . Little, Brown and Company, 2006.

---. Eclipse . Little, Brown and Company, 2007.

---. Breaking Dawn . Little, Brown and Company, 2008.

Stiefvater, Maggie. The Raven Boys. Scholastic, 2012.

---. The Dream Thieves. Scholastic, 2013.

---. Blue Lily, Lily Blue. Scholastic, 2014.

---. The Raven King . Scholastic, 2016.

Secondary Texts

Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. “Emerging Adulthood: A Theory of Development from the Late Teens Through the Twenties.” American Psychologist , vol. 55, no. 5, 2000, pp. 469-480, http://www.jeffreyarnett.com/ARNETT_Emerging_Adulthood_theory.pdf. Accessed 14 September 2021.

Barker, Meg. “This is My Partner, and This Is My… Partner’s Partner: Constructing a Polyamorous Identity in a Monogamous World.” Journal of Constructivist Psychology , vol. 18, no. 1, 2005, pp. 75-88.

Beauty and the Beast . Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.

Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction . University of Chicago Press, 1961.

Broad, Katherine R. “‘The Dandelion in the Spring’: Utopia as Romance in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games Trilogy.” Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers , edited by Balaka Basu et al., Routledge, 2013, pp. 117-130.

Cart, Michael. Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism . Third Edition, American Library Association, 2016.

Comerford, Ruth. “Stephenie Meyer confirms new Twilight title.” The Bookseller , 4 May 2020, www.thebookseller.com/news/stephenie-meyer-confirms-new-twilight-title-1201905. Accessed 12 September 2021.

Day, Sara K. “Reimagining Forever. . . The Marriage Plot in Recent Young Adult Literature.” Beyond the Blockbusters: Themes and Trends in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction , edited by Rebekah Fitzsimmons and Casey Alane Wilson, University Press of Mississippi, 2020, pp. 156-170.

Dee, Phyllis Susan. “Female Sexuality and Triangular Desire in Vanity Fair and The Mill on the Floss .” Papers on Language and Literature , vol. 35, no. 4, 1999, pp 391-416.

Doty, Meriah. “Robert Pattinson confirms Team Edward vs Team Jacob was a marketing ploy.” Yahoo! Entertainment , 15 November 2012, www.yahoo.com/entertainment/blogs/movie-talk/twilight-hunks-robert-pattinson-taylor-lautner-discuss-team-214742394.html. Accessed 12 September 2021.

Girard, René. Deceit, Desire and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure . Translated by Yvonne Freccero, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.

Holland, Norman N. “Unity Identity Text Self”. PMLA , vol. 90, no. 5, 1975, pp. 813-822.

Hruschka, Daniel J. Friendship: Development, Ecology, and Evolution of a Relationship. University of California Press, 2010.

Hutzler, Kevin T. et al. “Three’s a Crowd: Public Awareness and (Mis)Perceptions of Polyamory.” Psychology & Sexuality , vol. 7, no. 2, 2016, pp. 69-87.

Jones, Randall M. et al. “Friendship Characteristics, Psychosocial Development, and Adolescent Identity Formation.” Personal Relationships, vol. 21, 2014, pp. 51-67.

Iser, Wolfgang. The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974.

Kirkus Reviews. “REVIEW: Strange Grace.” Kirkus Reviews, vol. 86, no. 14, 2018.

Klesse, Christian. “Notions of Love in Polyamory – Elements in a Discourse on Multiple Loving.” Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research , vol. 3, no. 2, 2011, pp. 4-25.

---. The Spectre of Promiscuity: Gay Male and Bisexual Non-monogamies and Polyamories. Ashgate, 2007.

Kosofsky Sedgwick, Eve. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire . Colombia University Press, 1985.

La Greca, Annette M. and Hannah Moore Harrison. “Adolescent Peer Relations, Friendship and Romantic Relationships: Do They Predict Social Anxiety and Depression?” Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology , vol. 34, no. 1, 2005, pp. 49-61.

Le Guin, Ursula K. “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie.” Dreams Must Explain Themselves: The Selected Non-Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin. Gollancz, 2018.

---. “Introduction to the Left Hand of Darkness.” Dreams Must Explain Themselves: The Selected Non-Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin. Gollancz, 2018.

“New Study: 55% of YA Books Bought by Adults.” Publishers Weekly , 13 September 2012, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/53937-new-study-55-of-ya-books-bought-by-adults.html. Accessed 12 September 2021.

“Polyamory.” Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, December 2020, https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/252745?redirectedFrom=polyamory&. Accessed 12 September 2021.

Rosenblatt, Louise M. “Literature: The Reader’s Role”. The English Journal, vol. 49, no. 5, 1960, pp. 304-310.

Sheff, Elisabeth. “Polyamorous Women, Sexual Subjectivity and Power.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, vol. 34, no. 3, 2005, pp. 251-283.

---. “Poly-Hegemonic Masculinities.” Sexualities , vol. 9, no. 5, 2006, pp. 621-642.

Wilson, W. Daniel. “Readers in Texts.” PMLA , vol. 96, no. 5, 1981, pp. 848-863.

Wood, Jack D. and Gianpiero Petriglieri. “Transcending Polarization: Beyond Binary Thinking.” Transactional Analysis Journal, vol. 35, no. 1, 2005, pp. 31-39.

Yost, Megan R. and Genéa D. Thomas. “Gender and Binegativity: Men’s and Women’s Attitudes Towards Male and Female Bisexuals.” Archives of Sexual Behaviour , vol. 41, no. 3, 2012, pp. 691-702.

1 Throughout this article, when I use the singular ‘reader’ I am referring to this imagined and extrapolated figure, who does not exist in reality. The plural ‘readers’ acts as a synonym for ‘readership’ or ‘general audience’ – connoting a collective of real, unknowable, flesh-and-blood readers.

2 This example does draw attention to the fact that the option of challenging the love triangle through refusing all suitors is a vastly underutilised one in fantastic YA; this is likely because this option would frustrate the reader’s fantasy. Having the protagonist at least acknowledge this as an option could, however, lend a greater sense of agency to whatever decision she finally makes.

3 Friendship’s position relative to romantic love is, of course, culture specific. Daniel J. Hruschka writes that, for example, “among Pashtun herders in northern Pakistan, the love felt for close friends is extolled in poetry and compared with the feelings of lovers” (63). Hruschka notes that a wedding-like “formal and elaborate cementing of a close friendship before an audience (and sometimes with signed contracts) is documented in hundreds of cultures around the world” (72).

4 Amber’s gender is complex. Though the text uses she/her pronouns to refer to her, her alien species does not use gendered pronouns, and she tells Reese that they “don’t have a similar concept of gender” (Lo, Inheritance 126).

5 Arthur appears to identify outside the gender binary, though he/him pronouns are used to refer to him throughout the text. Mair identifies as female, and Rhun as male. Interestingly, this means that both of the polyamorous trios discussed in this article involve characters who identify outside the gender binary. Detailed analysis of this is beyond the scope of this article, but the intersection of polyamory and gender identity in YA is fertile ground for further research.

6 It is worth noting that Adam of The Raven Cycle series is bisexual, but he only realises his bisexuality after he and Blue have broken up and he is freed from the confines of the love triangle. Therefore, at the time that he is a suitor to Blue, from the reader’s perspective he lacks bisexuality’s shadowy ‘other’. Stiefvater portrays Adam as handsome, hard-working, and desirable, but the example demonstrates the incompatibility of bisexual boys with the traditional fantastic YA love triangle. As the text positions Blue’s victorious suitor as her fated one true love, this lends weight to the idea that it is Adam’s ‘other’ which specifically causes this conflict with the triangle structure.

7 Though, as stated previously, Barker traces the term to the sixties (75).

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Shakespeare’s Love-Triangle Poems

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Craig Eklund, Shakespeare’s Love-Triangle Poems, Essays in Criticism , Volume 71, Issue 3, July 2021, Pages 269–282, https://doi.org/10.1093/escrit/cgab014

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THE CHARM AND AUDACITY of Pierre de Ronsard’s ‘Quand vous serez bien vieille’ (‘When you are truly old’) turns on the speaking of the poet’s own name when, in a glimpse into the future, he has his aged beloved look back upon her youth and lament, ‘Ronsard me célébrait du temps que j’étais belle’ (‘Ronsard celebrated me in the days when I was beautiful’). The beloved’s name regularly graces the Renaissance sonnet, but there is something novel in the poet’s emergence out of the pronominal – ‘je’ – into the nominal. It is, however, a limited brand of novelty. The elegiac regret it occasions and the carpe florem counsel (‘Cueillez dès aujourd’hui les roses de la vie’ – ‘Pluck starting today the roses of life’) are classical, while the actual voicing of the name finds justification in the age-old notion of undying literary fame. ‘Ronsard’ is more a bid for poetic posterity than a proper name designating the lyric speaker as the source of the sonnet. Accordingly, the poem assumes as a matter of course not only the perfect clarity of ‘Ronsard’s’ identity, but also its coherence for years to come.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Romeo and Juliet — Narrative Essay About Love

Narrative Essay About Love

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To live for the hope of it all: the folklore love-triangle

Taylor’s surprise eighth studio album, folklore , dropped in July of 2020. That summer, her music gave us the imagery of cobblestones in the garden, clandestine meetings, sweet tea, ivy, and far off lands. She also used this album to present a number of both fictitious and biographical stories, including the one that touched the masses; that of a teenage love-triangle, the emotion and passion of adolescent feelings and forbidden romance.

This is that story, as pieced together from lyrics and the narrative provided from Taylor herself.

“betty” – written by Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn

We begin on the doorstep of a girl named Betty, where a 17 year old boy, James, begs for her forgiveness after making what has so far been the worst mistake of his life. Summer has ended, and at Betty’s back to school party, James shows up to explain what happened when he cheated on her with a mystery girl. This song is James’ final plea, using his immaturity as an excuse for what he did.

I was walking home on broken cobblestones Just thinking of you when she pulled up like A figment of my worst intentions She said “James, get in, let’s drive” Those days turned into nights Slept next to her, but I dreamt of you all summer long

Taylor performs “betty” at the ACMs

James and Betty went the school dance together, but he left early by himself. That’s when “she” pulled up right next to him. He spent the summer with this girl, and the rumors flew as they do in high school. Betty eventually hears from her friend Inez, and proceeds to react as anyone would after finding out they got cheated on.

In this song, James confirms it was true. He asks her if she’ll ever forgive him, or if she’ll ever believe him when he tells her it was just a summer thing. He tries to convince her that despite all the time he spent with this other girl, he dreamt of Betty the whole time. His point, “I’m only 17, I don’t know anything, But I know I miss you”.

Taylor went into detail on country radio, “[James] has lost the love of his life, basically, and doesn’t understand how to get it back.” She said using one of the songs to tell it from the teenage boy’s point of view was a way connect to everyone’s individual perspective. “I think we all have these situations in our lives where we learn to really, really give a heartfelt apology for the first time. Everybody makes mistakes, everybody really messes up sometimes..”

This song means a lot to me. To hear something from the person who is at fault in the situation is a game changer in terms of storytelling. The song swells with pure confession and romantic country twang, it seems genuine. However, we don’t get to hear Betty’s response.. or so we thought.

cardigan – written by Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner

Taylor explains in Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions that “‘cardigan’ is Betty’s perspective from 20 to 30 years later looking back on this love that was this tumultuous thing.” This reveals that the most heart-wrenching and well written song on this album, about lessons learned and longing sadness, is Betty’s reflection on her relationship.

“cardigan” music video

We learn that James’ efforts worked, and that night he stood on her doorstep begging for forgiveness, she forgave him. “In my head, I think Betty and James ended up together, right? In my head, she ends up with him, but he really put her through it.”, Taylor said. However, although she forgave James, she clearly never forgave herself, nor did she forget.

I could go on for hours, reflecting on each and every lyric of this song and what it means to this character and to myself, but I’ll just choose a few of my favorites.

This is my favorite part. Everyone knows what it’s like to sit beside your phone, constantly checking for the phone call or text. For that ounce of attention from the person you like. And when you finally get that halfhearted acknowledgement, it’s somehow enough to keep you going. To cancel plans in hopes of having others. SHE LOVED HIM!!! This poor girl cared for James and simply wished he cared for her too.

Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions on Disney+

Although “cardigan” is probably the most well written and poetic song from folklore , “august” did the most for me. It showed me to look at the bigger picture in every situation, to look at it from everyone’s point of view.

This is the kind of music analysis I could spend hours reading! You did an amazing job of going in-depth and relating it to your own personal thoughts and emotions. This trio of songs also reminded me that everyone sees things differently, and the same situation could conjure different feelings.

I really loved your analysis and how you see these connected songs. Your retelling was really engaging!

Hello! This was a beautifully written blog post of the analysis of the Folklore Love Triangle. I have only been a fan of Taylor Swift for a little over a year now, so I’m a tad bit late to knowing and understanding all of the stories within her songwriting. As for the Folklore Love Triangle, I have heard bits and pieces of the songs connected, but I never understood or heard how there were intertwined. Your deep dive analysis of the Folklore Love Triangle is simple to understand and made my perspective of those three songs change. Originally, I I saw James as the “good guy” who just wanted forgiveness over a mistake he had made and how the thought and intentions behind his actions mean more than what he had done. After reading your analysis on Cardigan and August, I’ve realized that regardless of his intention or thought process after the fact, he had hurt more than one person. The hurt that Betty and Augusta/Augustine were feeling is beyond comparable to the hurt James must have felt. I think it is important to make note of the fact that both girls believed that he had loved them, and how James was never clear with either girls until the end of who he “truly loved.” Overall, the Folklore Love Triangle is a triad of beautiful and poetically written songs that thousands of fans can relate to or emotionally understand in some way, and for that it is some of Taylor Swift’s best written pieces of music.

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• Episodic Analysis

Love Triangle in ‘Maati Se Bandhi Dor’; Are the makers encouraging it?

Star Plus’s show Maati Se Bandhi Dor quickly became a fan favorite, earning praise for its unique storyline when it first aired. The narrative centers on a young woman named Vaijanati, affectionately known as Vaiju, who harbors a deep love for her village. Circumstances lead her to marry Rana, a man who is in love with her younger sister, Jaya. Due to a complicated situation involving Jaya, Rana and Vaiju find themselves stuck in the village, compelling the villagers to arrange their marriage. Despite the secretive nature of their union, Rana and Vaiju begin to accept their relationship, even if it remains hidden from the public.

The plot soon evolved into a tale of intricate relationships and hidden truths. One of the most intriguing aspects is Rana’s dual marriages—he is married to both Vaiju and Jaya, creating a web of complex emotions and secrets. Viewers have been captivated by the twists and turns as the storyline delves into Rana’s attempt to juggle relationships with two wives, while the show keeps the details of these marriages shrouded in mystery.

Even after marrying Vaiju, Rana goes on to marry Jaya, adding layers to the suspenseful narrative. Maati Se Bandhi Dor has kept audiences on the edge of their seats with the ongoing secrecy surrounding Rana and Vaiju’s concealed marriage. From the Teej episode, where Vaiju discreetly wore sindoor, to a close call on a bike ride where family members nearly discovered the truth, the show has maintained a steady stream of tension. A recent dramatic turn during the Kanha ji aarti, where Rana’s kurta caught fire, led to a revealing moment—Vaiju’s quick action to save him, followed by Jaya’s embrace and Rana’s subtle gesture of holding Vaiju’s hand, hinted at his conflicted desire to uphold both relationships.

The latest promo for the upcoming episode has sparked significant interest. It features a gripping scene where Rana, mistakenly thinking Vaiju is Jaya, makes a heartfelt confession about finding comfort in her embrace, only to realize the truth when Jaya’s voice interrupts the moment. This revelation adds a new layer of complexity to the already tangled relationships.

The moral dilemmas presented in Maati Se Bandhi Dor prompt viewers to question the ethics of Rana’s dual marriages and how the show portrays such a situation. The audience’s engagement reflects their interest in storylines that resonate on a personal level, sparking both emotions and discussions.

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