Does anyone else do this? Multiple Love Interests

Here's an idea. Stop writing love triangles! They're in every single YA I read and I hate them. But if you do have to choose, I'd stick with the guy she liked first. I can never respect a girl who suddenly "un-loves" one guy to "love" another without good reason.

The point it that it's not intended to be a love triangle, it's just that the first love interest turns out to have less chemistry with the heroine than another character who enters. The question becomes do you railroad the girl, or do you change your story to reflect the other love interest being the main one?

I don't really have this problem, but that's because 1) I haven't gotten very far and 2) I like giving my characters unresolved love lives, so even if they do want to settle down, that's okay since I don't have any big plans later.

If you're stuck between loving two people, always go for the second one. Because if you truly loved the first one, you wouldn't have found someone else. I don't know how logical this saying is, but I think you should let your heart decide and go for the second one. You should never have to force your story it, or it will sound fake.

Becca_H said:

The thing is, I don't actually want to write love triangles. There's always one dedicated guy, then all these others turn up and want her as well.

She doesn't actually realise she likes the first guy until further on in the story - this is my problem. She'd have to hold off on the other two for a long time for the original one to develop as intended.

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How about you don't make all the male characters fall for her? I've gone through life, and not every guy I meet likes me. I personally hate the whole "dedicated" friend type in these types of stories, because he always gets passed over. Perhaps have them just be friends and neither of them likes each other in that way.

Annmarie09 said:

If you're stuck between loving two people, always go for the second one. Because if you truly loved the first one, you wouldn't have found someone else. I don't know how logical this saying is, but I think you should let your heart decide and go for the second one. You should never have to force your story it, or it will sound fake.

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This is very true. My partner and I talked about this in the beginning of our relationship and came to an understanding that if either of us became involved enough to cheat, every sexually or romantically, it meant that we didn't really work together.

Go for the second guy. Something isn't working with the first if the second could turn her head.

I find I have more respect for the MC if she stays "loyal," so if you do the love triangle I'd suggest you not include cheating in it.

You have to go in and see who she has more chemistry with. Is there more spark with a certain character?

The only reason I said go with the first guy is because the girl ALWAYS chooses the second guy, and it would be nice to see that change, but again you have to go with whoever you feel she has the stronger connection with.

It hasn't happened to me, as I don't generally write romance. But where I've seen it happen to others, it's usually down to two main issues:

1) The intended love interest is as interesting as a bucket of mud. Therefore, the far more interesting secondary character ends up taking over. If you want to get rid of love trianglitis, you could increase the interest of the main love interest and give them some more chemistry with the MC. Look at what makes the secondary character more appealing as a love interest and use some of the that for the main love interest. Or just ditch your intended love interest from the manuscript and replace them with the more interesting secondary character.

2) The main character is the only boy/girl in the universe. Romance-focused series often have side romances, but this is tricky if there really isn't anyone among the secondary character population for the other secondary characters to date. If your character collection is looking a bit sparse, it might be you need to add characters. Or you may need to throw some of your existing secondary characters together more often, so there's a chance for some sparks.

Since I don't outline, either, this kind of thing tends to happen to me, too. When I stand at the very beginning of a WIP, I can never make accurate predictions as to what will happen. Never. Because I don't know the characters yet. I don't know who will like whom, who will hate whom, and who will end up being the villain. It takes me all of Draft 1 to find this stuff out. Character A doesn't end up with Character B like I originally intended because there's so much stuff I didn't know about them at the beginning, but as I wrote I learned they were completely incompatible. If your characters and their relationships evolve and change, and A and B don't fit together like you originally wanted, leave it be. Don't force your manuscript and characters to be what they aren't. They took on a life of their own -- that's awesome.

Here's a thought: how come there's never any love triangles with a GUY at the center? The only one I know of is Simon in City of Fallen Angels, and even then, he's treated like a total asshole for dating two girls at once. It's a-okay when Clary basically does the exact same thing, though.

Chazemataz said:

Here's a thought: how come there's never any love triangles with a GUY at the center? The only one I know of is Simon in City of Fallen Angels, and even then, he's treated like a total asshole for dating two girls at once. It's a-okay when Clary basically does the exact same thing, though.

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I realize this isn't what the OP is talking about, but YES.

While I'm not too fond of love triangles in general, I wouldn't mind some with a guy at the center. Especially if it's from the PoV of one of the girls. Personally, I believe there's a lot more inherent conflict when you don't know whether the love interest loves you back than when you have to choose between two guys who profess their undying love for you.

Regardless of the shape of the triangle, though, I have much more respect for the girl who breaks off/comes clean with one guy before pursuing the other.

I think what the OP is talking about is when you have one person picked out for your character but as the story evolves the person you thought was going to be the LI turns out to be someone completely different. Case in point, in my own WIP Jillian was supposed to fall for Aries but now she wants Leopold. As it happens what we outline or have planned never seems to come to furution.

Write what the character wants. If you don't, you can be damn sure the reader will know. The best characters/stories are the ones that write themselves. Well, that's my two cents anyway.

I have four love interests for my male MC. Their importance changes as I write the novel. At first, it was supposed to be entirely about him and the best friend of his ex-girlfriend. Now, it's morphing into a love square between him, his ex-girlfriend, the best friend of his ex, and his best friend. As you can probably tell, I like harem anime.

I'm not fond of badly written love triangles -- especially when there's an indecisive idiot in the middle who doesn't realize that she's having an affair and that she is indeed hurting other people.

thebloodfiend said:

I have four love interests for my male MC. Their importance changes as I write the novel. At first, it was supposed to be entirely about him and the best friend of his ex-girlfriend. Now, it's morphing into a love square between him, his ex-girlfriend, the best friend of his ex, and his best friend. As you can probably tell, I like harem anime.

I'm not fond of badly written love triangles -- especially when there's an indecisive idiot in the middle who doesn't realize that she's having an affair and that she is indeed hurting other people.

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Oh, I love funny love shapes, especially when they have lots of points. I find them to be entertaining in a sexy trainwreck sorta way. My MC is in a love square between a female psychic vampyre, a jittery male demon, a green-skinned witch, and a vampyre mob-boss (but in a creepy sexual way). It's played mostly for laughs, though, because the MC is so awkward and has no clue why they like him so much. But they're not all unwarrented crushes. He's done great things for all four of those potential suitors and I tried my hardest to make him loveable.

They have to be believeable. Why does plain, mopey Bella attract the attention of two supernatural hunks? Who knows?

I say go where the story's taking you. And stop introducing new characters.

Chazemataz said:

It's played mostly for laughs, though, because the MC is so awkward and has no clue why they like him so much. But they're not all unwarrented crushes. He's done great things for all four of those potential suitors and I tried my hardest to make him loveable.

They have to be believeable. Why does plain, mopey Bella attract the attention of two supernatural hunks? Who knows?

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You hit on the other point I wanted to make. The center of the love triangle/square/pentagon, has to be believable. Why do two hot guys (and Mike, and Tyler, and Erik) throw themselves at Bella, who has absolutely no interesting qualities? She's not even hot.

My MC is a metrosexual. And he's got charisma in an Adrian Ivashkov sort of way. He knows why girls want him and he uses this to his advantage, especially since he used to be a humorous, slightly dorky dweeb. And even then, you have to have reasons as why the girls (or guys) would fall for someone who's involved with someone else.

His current girlfriend is trying to change him into someone else, and she dates him because he shares her common interests (they're both vegetarians and into astrology).

He's still kind of hung over on his ex who tried to commit suicide a few years back. She wants to make it up to him because she feels guilty for putting him through that.

He used to have a crush on his ex's best friend, and now that she's admitted that she used to like him, he's interested, even if she has a boyfriend.

And he's attracted to his best friend, who kind of likes him back in a sort of unhealthy way. But she's with his brother.

It's complicated, and the more points you add on, the worse it gets. But there always has to be a reason as to why that person is there. They must have chemistry. Without chemistry, you have failed. I hate the obvious love triangles that make me want to smack the girl (or boy) who can't make up their mind when the choice is so obvious.

I like a good love triangle, but they are getting a bit played out. I like variety in my relationship angst.

Frankly, I've always found a relationship with just one person drama enough, so I write a lot of that in my own stories. My finished YA mystery has one LI and then the ex-BF my MC isn't *completely* over, but it doesn't take more than a few conversations with ex-BF for her to realize no, it's time to move on. Definitely not a love triangle!

My WIP has only one LI, but there are a lot of obstacles to being together. And they're fighting for their lives anyway, so you know, romance is not such a big priority.

Why don't you ask your MC what she wants? And definitely don't try to "force" a relationship on her that isn't working, because that won't work for readers either.

You don't need a love triangle to make this happen. If she winds up with the second guy, you can easily write the first "intended" love interest out of the story if it comes to that.

I'd say choose the direction where the biggest amount of drama can be found. That's why I always found the "childhood buddy" choice kind of plain--it doesn't (usually) involve heart-rending passion and other exciting stuff.

Adapt, definitely. Outlining is good for planning, but to me, it's not as creative. If something comes out naturally in your writing without planning it, then that's creativity. (Not knocking outlining - just think there needs to be a balance.)

I wouldn't knock love triangles either. They're in a lot of books for a reason - they're interesting, and if done well, cause a good amount of psychological conflict. Most of the popular books we see today have love triangles and conflicting love interests. Not such a bad thing.

@chazemataz: LOVE, LOVE your Avi!!

I've never had a completely new character show up that was "better" than my planned partner for the MC, that I recall—but I have had a story where the person I'd planned for the MC to not end up with someone… and that someone ended up being very well suited for the MC.

I changed my plans for the story to reflect that suitability.

Don't force the MC to end up with someone for no apparent reason. There's a reason these other characters are showing up with better "chemistry" than the intended love interest.

What keeps the MC and that character from "clicking"?

Can you change that thing without damaging the story? Can you swap the personalities of the intended love interest and the person who's best suited for the MC? Is everyone in love with the MC b/c she's an extension of you (Mary Sue)?

If the answers to those 3 questions are all "No", then adapt your story. Your subconscious is trying to tell you something.

As a side note, I don't think I've ever seen a true love triangle in real life. Maybe that's why I don't write 'em.

I have a WIP with a male MC who starts off dating the girl that his new best friend is in love with. Then he starts dating her best friend... and then his ex-boyfriend tries to kill them all. But I don't think of it as a love triangle. Isn't that pretty natural... to like someone and then stop liking them and start liking someone else and date someone that someone else dated last year? That's what we did when I was in high school.

In another WIP, I set up a love triangle, ala Bella. Two supernatural boys were fighting over this one girl. And then I brought in a very minor character as a foil, and one of the supernatural characters immediately fell for her... and that totally devastated my triangle. I had to go back and redo all the triangle stuff and elevate the minor character to fleshed-out status because what I had just seemed so wrong after the revelation. And now they're all very devoted to their pairings.