March 29, 2024
AND THE LOVE TRIANGLE  BEGINS …

AND THE LOVE TRIANGLE BEGINS …

In one of my earlier post   I  told you  I was going to talk about  different rivalries   in fiction.  I  went over unused  and uncommon   rivalry   which is sibling rivalry.   Another   type of rivalry  , a common  rivalry  that   is used in almost all  genres of fiction today is the love triangle .  And it   has  finally begun in my novel. Well… Sort of … How  is this a rivalry?   Let me  explain  further .

WHAT IS A LOVE TRIANGLE  IN FICTION ?

A love triangle  is a  story trope  that  involves  a rivalry  between two characters  competing for  the love of a  third character. In a love triangle the third character usually  has  to choose between the two characters that have fallen in love with them. It is usually between two  guys and girl. These  characters usually have to be well  rounded  to be believable.

 A love triangle could either be the main plot  in a story  or a subplot to  the overall story.   From what I gathered over the years  there is a  50/50   opinion about  love    triangles  where people either hate them or love them.  And the  love triangle is mostly  sometimes thought of as  cliché .   They are seen everywhere in every movie and  in every book  .  Mostly common YA  fiction   where  most books  use  it as the main plot .

Some well know book  that have the love triangle rivalry  is:

 The Raven Cycle, by  Maggie Stiefvater( a paranormal  fantasy that concentrates  mostly on a  treasure hunt  while slowly revealing the love  triangle.)

Dumas’s classics The Count of Monte Cristo(  features a love triangle strong enough to seek revenge and start a war)

The Vampire Diaries, by L.J. Smith(  two  vampire brothers  rival for the love of one girl )

These books that I mentioned above mostly have the love triangle as subplot except for maybe  the last  one.

This leads me in talking about my work in progress  werewolf  novel  During The Blue Hour.  I chose  to go with a subplot  for all the love  triangles in m novels 

Here is all my characters that have love triangles:

  1. ADRIAN-SIRENA- CRISTEN(1st book During the Blue Hour- subplot but  the main  love  triangle subplot)
  2. GABBY- ELI-HELENE ( 1st book During the Blue Hour-  lesser love triangle  subplot , subtly mentioned )
  3. BASTIAN-IMANI-ROLLO (2ND BOOK – lesser love  triangle  subplot )
  4. IMANI – BASTIAN-MERCEDES -ROLLO-(2ND+4TH BOOK – lesser love  triangle  subplot )
  5. CRISTEN-SIRENA- CHEMSEN (2ND +4TH BOOK – main   love  triangle subplot)
  6. ELI-AMARANTHA- MARCUS – (3RD  BOOK STANDALONE MAYBE / main love triangle   subplot )

I’m going to narrow it down and just talk a little about  the main love triangle subplot  from my first and current novel  I’m currently  working on.

The love triangle  subplot  in this first novel actually  will  begin on the 12th  chapter of my 2nd draft.  Even though there  are small hints throughout  the story  already  . It won’t be apparent  until this chapter.

The two love  interest Adrian and Cristen  won’t actually realize  they have  feeling for Sirena  until  after  they find out  she is  a werewolf. Based  on how they are  raised  they  don’t  really have any interest   n romancing  and mating  with a human girl and I don’t explore that  until  maybe my 3rd  book , in which case Eli will be the human that a new werewolf  character named Amarantha  falls  in love with.

But  anyways there will be sparks between them  all that they will ignore up until chapter   12.  Not only  because  they think  she is human but because they also have their own goals .

Cristen wants help from the earth diver to  get off the mountain but in order to do that he has to  help Sirena.   

Adrian wants to become the alpha and so  he  thinks  he can use  his new found knowledge  about Sirena to  do that.

This love triangle between the three will  consist of a lot of jealously , betrayals and secrets .

The main Character Sirena  will  be interested in both of them and she will have a reason to be interested in both of them.  They will be her first ever love  interest. 

She is interested  in Adrian  because  he seems to understand her in a way. They  seem to get along  and she likes Adrian  because he never seems to be afraid to tell her the  truth  of things no matter how harshly  he delivers  it.  And she respects him for that.  And also he ends  up saving her most of the time. 

With her falling for Cristen, he  is reasonable, compassionate, and kind to her.  He seems to understand  her differently  because he can easily read  her emotions and  see through  her insecurities  because  of his powers and abilities.  He connects her with his emotions and  calms her  emerging  werewolf  rage.  And  she is able to do the same , calming him of his  werewolf rage  since his powers are not fully developed as  well.

I  don’t have Sirena really going back and forth  over them like a drag out decision . Time is of the essence and she really has no time to  play  teenage  love games with the two werewolf boys .  Because she is about to become a  werewolf  herself .

I  only put in a little section within the novel where  both Adrian and Cristen will  give her an ultimatum   to choose between them  but  she is like , ‘wait hold  the phone’  .  She is new  to the  whole boyfriend   experience and feelings  thing  especially  with them both being werewolves  where they date differently.  They don’t date  . They mate  and become pair bonds. (pair bonds is a real thing  in the real world  in wolf society. Check this article out about  pair bonds) But in my novel they can’t officially mate until they get  to the  werewolf community anyway.  

Another reason why they are rushing her to make a choice is because  they have never seen another  werewolf girl besides  Imani. And Imani  is Adrian’s sister who is  the future  pair bond to  Bastian.  Cristan  always  also saw imani as a  sister  so yeah . Sirena  is basically the only werewolf  girl  right now they can choose from. 

Sirena basically  tells them they are both  crazy and she is not going to mate with them .

This particular scene  in my first draft that will soon be in my 2nd draft  doesn’t  mean Sirena doesn’t  choose  one of them . She does . I don’t want to really tell  you who but  there is a kissing  scene between Sirena and one of the  two boys.  And the other  boy is  greatly devastated by Sirena’s  choice.

This choice  that Sirena makes will bring a lot of conflict  between both Adrian  and Cristen   even though they  already hate  each other  over the whole  alpha   situation( I talk about that  type of rivalry  in a different post)  Her  decision  doesn’t  make anything better   in the story. 

Even other characters hate her for  what she decides.  Let  me just  give you a little (spoiler). Her decision comes to a tragic  buildup .  She is never selfish  about  her decision and she doesn’t  string them along but  it’s  just that the reveal  of  secrets  and lies  get in the way and makes her choice  worse  for everybody  at  the end .

This   love triangle  subplot   is  basically  scattered   mostly toward  the middle and end of my novel.  I can’t say  that  the three character actually fall  in love  perse .   All three of these characters  just have these  new found feelings . They are all teenagers in this first novel  .   And they don’t  know what their  feelings are  yet. But they will continue on to the next book.  

The  only  two characters  I  can say that  know exactly   what their feelings are  with each other are Bastian and Imani. But their true love will  be tested  in my later  books  and  I  don’t  know  where those particular  love triangle  storylines will go yet .  

Did I  need a love triangle in this  first novel?  No . I mean I could  have done without  one.  I didn’t have one in my pre-draft screenplay version . But I just thought  it would be fun to add more conflict to the  story.  I kind of  like  reading love triangles in other novels and thought I’d give  it a try writing  about one  myself.  

If you liked this blog post and you want to  see more content involving my work in progress During the Blue Hour Follow , Like , share  . But first  LET’S START A DIALOGUE

DO YOU HAVE A LOVE TRIANGLE SUBPLOT  IN YOUR NOVEL?

 I  want to know so let me know in the comments  below.

 You can also interact with the podcast on Gab @duringthebluehour

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