by Terri Wagner
Picking up on a former post here, I find myself in a bit of a pickle regarding love triangles. See I just don't like them. It means someone has to turn out bad, or goofy or someone has to get hurt. And sometimes I was the one who hurt and sometimes I was the one that got hurt. Neither was a very good option.
So I much prefer stories where the "couple" meet, don't like each other and then finally fall in love. Forget Edward/Bella/Jasper, I'll take Heronime and Ron and Harry and Ginny any day. You KNEW what was coming there.
How do the rest of you feel about that?
With you 100%. I prefer a book's conflict to center on the plot and outside conflicts, not on a love struggle between three people.
ReplyDeleteI like the love triangles but not to the extent where someone is hurt in the end. I don't think I've ever been in a love triangle but they interest me because I want to see how they resolve.
ReplyDeleteI think the love triangle adds tension and I think it is better for a teen audience than adult audience usually. I like how the Bella triangle ended with everyone kowing they would all be with the love of their life eventually. For my own reading I like it to be happy ending for one or two couples with no unhappy unmatched cornor of a triangle. So I like my triangle to morph or grow into rectangles.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, there is another author (not mentioned in the blog) that uses this technique so well that now I am no longer in a rush to read her books. Because the adult character doesn't appear to grow up and decide on which guy and a future. I think I am in a minority in decreasing interest.
But the ones mentioned use the technique well and appropriately. In my opinion as a reader.
I agree with you. I HATE LOVE TRIANGLES. Even in situationw with three friends, someone is always odd man out.
ReplyDeleteIn life, we don't want anyone to get hurt. That's quite natural. In fiction, we need to write tension into our plots. We need our characters up in a thorny tree with crocodiles at the base, snapping at them. Then we need to cut the tree down.
ReplyDeleteYep, it's pretty heartless being an author. Part of the plot of my first novel, The Man from Shenandoah, centers around the conflict between two brothers over a girl. We all cheer at the end when one of them gets the girl, because SHE LOVES HIM.
Then the second novel, Ride to Raton, comes around and reminds us that someone was hurt by the resolution at the end of TMFS. It takes a third novel, Trail of Storms, to get James Owen to a truly good place, and he was hurtin' mighty fierce along the way. However, he grew up because he fought resolutely through his adversities, and he changed into a worthy man that many of us--given different circumstances like, oh, if we weren't committed otherwhere and if he were an actual person--would marry in a heartbeat.
Love triangles have their place in fiction, if not in life.
Marsha, I love your analogy with the crocodiles and chopping the tree down. I like the illustration of how the love triangle brought growth to your characters.
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