When writing poly romance, how much scene-time is typically devoted to developing each relationship?

[caesura]

So, in traditional romance there’s the two love interests and they have a bunch of experiences/scene time pushing them together, and ultimately end up in a happily ever after/for now.

With poly romances, how much scene time is typically devoted to developing the relationships between the different individuals?

I’m working on a project and it’s getting pretty obvious to me that the three characters all have developing feelings for each other and will most likely all three end up together by the end. I’m just unsure how this works out in scene time.

Also, this is a multi-book project. So it’s totally possible for me to shift some of certain couples into a later book if it makes narrative sense.

Otherwise, does the main POV character get equal-ish scene time bonding with both love interests? And then the love interests get an equal number of scenes bonding with just each other? Then a certain number of scenes where they are all three together? It’s written in close 3rd and I do have some scenes from each person’s POV, but also there’s one main POV character who is the primary protagonist.

My brain is melting. If anyone knows of any blogs or resources or published books where this has been done well please throw them at me. Any input on what to do or pitfalls to avoid are very much appreciated too.

 

[cutelilcryptid]

Mostly poking my head in this thread because I'd like to see what replies you get as well (as someone writing a love triangle actually shaped like a triangle)

A quick google search reveals there have been quite a few posts made about this to various Tumblr blogs (which doesn't surprise me). Including this post, which goes into a lot more detail and has some useful diagrams, along with this sentiment, which I think speaks somewhat to what you're asking:

Do focus just as much on the individual relationships in a polycule as you focus on the polycule itself. If I’m reading your story, I should be able to figure out what each person sees in every person they’re involved with. I want to know that these relationships are organic, not manufactured for the sake of the plot.

How much "screen time" (in the form of scenes) each leg of your polycule gets I would say is up to your discretion and what your story can accommodate, especially if the romance is a subplot and you've got another main plot going on.

 

[caesura]

Mostly poking my head in this thread because I'd like to see what replies you get as well (as someone writing a love triangle actually shaped like a triangle)

A quick google search reveals there have been quite a few posts made about this to various Tumblr blogs (which doesn't surprise me). Including this post, which goes into a lot more detail and has some useful diagrams, along with this sentiment, which I think speaks somewhat to what you're asking:



How much "screen time" (in the form of scenes) each leg of your polycule gets I would say is up to your discretion and what your story can accommodate, especially if the romance is a subplot and you've got another main plot going on.

Thank you! This actually helps a lot. I’m going to check out that post and try to absorb as much as I can.

 

[caesura]

Okay I’m just going to update this with some research I did that might hopefully help someone else out.

I did the Aug 2024 Writing Romance Mastery Summit, and took tons of notes. There wasn’t a lot about poly romances, but one thing that was said stuck out to me in that regard.

Basically, if there are multiple love interests, then each pairing/relationship needs to fulfill a different need and teach the protagonist a different lesson.

So, if the protagonist is afraid of abandonment, their poly love interests shouldn’t all be about helping them overcome their fear of abandonment. Like one could be about overcoming abandonment, maybe another helps them learn to be more emotionally vulnerable, etc.

One thing that was brought up was Sophie Pembroke’s emotional conflict square. She has a blog, I’m not sure what the rules are on linking stuff but it comes up pretty early on google search. I put each pairing in my poly story through the emotional conflict square as described on her blog and gosh dang did that ever help a ton. So, I highly recommend it. Mine was like:

Character 1 + Character 2

Character 1 + Character 3

Character 2 + Character 3

And that helped me solidify three separate emotional relationship arcs. So, yay. I don’t know if this helps anyone else but just wanted to update. If anyone has questions I am happy to try and answer. I’m still trying to work out how much scene time is devoted to each leg of the polycule but feel a lot more grounded in where things are going at least.

 

[Maryn]

Um, can I say that while each partner fulfilling a different need for one individual can work, it doesn't have to be that way, either in fiction or real life?

Maryn, with a poly family member and several poly novels under her belt

 

[Silenia]

Um, can I say that while each partner fulfilling a different need for one individual can work, it doesn't have to be that way, either in fiction or real life?

Maryn, with a poly family member and several poly novels under her belt

Yup. I would recommend there be something differentiating the different partners (and resultingly, legs of the polycule), but that can as easily be "different personality", "different interests", "different circumstances" and/or what have ye. Doesn't have to be "fulfilling different relationship needs".

(And I'd recommend that not on grounds of any romance-specific factor, but because writing multiple perfectly-substitutable-for-one-another main characters tends to make it hard for readers to connect to or care about any of them regardless of genre.)