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!