Or: On love triangles.
This post is semi-rant, semi-discussion post, so... you've been warned. Anyways.
Sometimes, when you say a book has a love triangle these days, people roll their eyes or talk about how sick of them they are. They're over, been there done that, there's too many, they're all the same.
I'll tell you a secret.
My books have love triangles. And I'm not going to apologize for them because they mean something.
In one book, one character is terrified of losing the person she sees as her only anchor, the only person who she thinks won't leave her. (She has issues. Long story. 80 thousand words long, to be exact.) So she shuts down any sort of feelings she has for that person until she can't anymore. And it means something.
I have another book where a character goes out with somebody who is not the "love interest" in the book. It's not truly a love triangle, in my opinion, but it does mean something. This is a character who has been depressed and numb for a year, and her going out on a date with somebody and enjoying herself, is a sign she's healing. It's important.
I would tell you about my latest WIP, but my crit partners would kill me because they don't know as much about it...
Anyways. I won't disagree that love triangles are used a lot in YA books these days, and that sometimes they can be used just for the "hook" of it, but I also won't apologize for having ones in mine, not as long they're important to the book and true to it, and I don't think I - or my books - should be judged for having them. Thoughts?
Peace and cookies,
Laina
*I totally wrote geography when I first typed this. I hate that, too. I'm bad with directions... I get lost if you spin me around three times in a circle.
