So I hear love triangles in YA fiction are becoming a trend. Which saddens me, really, because I adore love triangles. I’ll readily admit I’ve used them in pretty much every book I’ve written. They’re just so fun to read and to write.
On further deliberation, I decided that I disagree with this. Love triangles aren’t a trend; they’re an element of plot. This isn’t some new thing recently dreamed up by an author. Triangles have been used in novels for generations, haven’t they? Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens. On and on. If we’re going to call the love triangle a trend, we’re saying that the greats used them too, right?
I’d like to think that a triangle can be unique. Maybe what we find trendy is the way they’re unfolding and the characters that are involved. Some strong, beautiful girl and two opposite, beautiful boys. Okay, it’s easy enough to shake things up! Consider making it a boy being fought over by two hideous, weak girls! (Maybe not, but you get the point.) We’re writers. We can defy the trends. Even after all this vampire hype, people are still coming up with new angles for them. Even after it’s been said that werewolves are on the outs, new werewolves are entering the scene.
Trends are silly things, especially when we can find ways around them.
