is it a love square or something else?

[KarlaErikaCal]

Okay, so my novel includes four teens that are involved in this "love square."

Boy 1 is afraid of love.
Girl 1 likes Boy 1 except she has a boyfriend, Boy 2
Boy 2 is madly in love with Girl 1
Girl 2 is best friends with Girl 1, but is in love with Boy 2

After finding out the "love square" idea wasn't really original, I've begun doubting if mine is really a square. In the other book, Love at First Flight by Marie Force, her hero and heroine fall in love with each other when both have their own partners. Mine is obviously different than that, especially because it's in a multiple-person POV (is that even the term for multiple narrators? I have their names titled for their separate sections, and their voices are distinct enough), but I figured since there are four teens, it would be a square. I even titled it The Love Square seeing that the title wasn't used.

I feel like it's more of a "line," but that word means many different things, so it wouldn't be great for a title at all lol. I could always come up with a totally different title than, The Love Square. That is, if this isn't considered a love square. If it is, I'll leave it at that, but if it isn't, I wouldn't mind changing it.

Any thoughts or ideas will be greatly appreciated :)

[kaitlin008]

I don't see why you can't title your book The Love Square, if you like the title. I don't think there's really a technical term for it, nor do I think it really matters what you call it, tbh.

[Saltier]

I think you've got kind of an open triangle. Now, if boy 1 liked girl 2, then that seems like it'd be a square.

[Sage]

Love Square sounds fine to me. One of the most famous, btw, is in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I described the original version of Love Sucks as having a love trapezoid (because two characters were much closer to getting the girl than two others. Technically it should have been a pentagon, but I liked the idea of the shape surrounding the girl in the center of it all)

[KarlaErikaCal]

Oh yeah, if I were to write a pitch it would mention A Midsummer Night's Dream actually. I'm not sure what other book(s) it would "meet." LOL Probably some young adult book with tons and tons of drama. Especially "love drama."

[Maprilynne]

Go ahead and call it what you want right now! Seriously! It's so fun to be in that stage where the publisher hasn't changed your title and you can call it what you wish.;)

It sounds about as close to a love square as you can get to me.:)

[KarlaErikaCal]

Hehe! That's true, Maprilynne!

[Wark]

It's a line of love.

Girl2 -> Boy2 <-> Girl1 -> Boy1

But Love Square sounds better. Or "Broken Love Triangle Plus One."

[Sage]

Anyway, with regards to the "Is it a square?" question, it's as much a square as most love triangles are triangles. Usually they are open-ended so you get more of a love V. But that doesn't stop us from calling them triangles ;)

[Ken]

... if you don't end up using it, save it for your query/cover letter. It's a good way to summarize the plot in two quick words, if it is indeed a love square that you've got going on. G'luck.

[Wark]

Anyway, with regards to the "Is it a square?" question, it's as much a square as most love triangles are triangles. Usually they are open-ended so you get more of a love V. But that doesn't stop us from calling them triangles ;)

Yeah, you're right. Under my definition, which granted I admit is wrong, to be a true love triangle with all sides connected, well, someone's gotta be gay. And then you're in a different genre.

[MattW]

Love rhombus.

[Mr Moe]

Hmm, I'd always considered the violent, roiling, (at times, perhaps homoerotic) tension between the two competetors to be the closing loop in every love triange. Ties of passion are all well and good, but I do love a good source of conflict.

Now here's a kicker--are all of the best love triangles isolateral (all relationships equal), right (infatuation beats competition), or isosceles (one relationship is paramount)?

Sincerely,
Mr. Moe