The Love Interest and The Love Rival

Lady Ice · May 6, 2012

I always find this a hard character to write. When I'm reading books, I never really go for the love interest. I always want the love rival, or even someone off the love-radar.

How do you deal with writing love interests, or indeed, love rivals? A love rival has to be likeable enough for the MC to have a conflict but not so likeable that we feel cheated when she ends up with the love interest.

gothicangel · May 6, 2012

Interesting question.

I haven't quite started writing my love rival into the WIP yet, but in the one scene he's appeared in so far, there was a lot of antagonistic sparks flying/male ego abounding.

But I'm writing a star-cross'd lovers tale, and my MC loses out to his rival. And it's a thriller, not romance. But I'll be interested in the progression of the thread.

Aerial · May 6, 2012

In my WIP there really isn't a love rival. There is a second man who is interested in the FMC but he's a subordinate of the MMC and has his own reasons for not pursuing her. However, he and the FMC have a friendship that is closer than most. He's more of the "what could have been"-- a different path but not necessarily a better or worse one.

Aerial

ETA: I just realized I didn't answer the original question. I don't like love triangle stories for the most part (or at least the ones where the MC is attracted to two different people and has trouble making up their mind and so strings both along). I'd much rather read the story that's about the relationship growing rather than the "who will he/she end up with" variety.

So, not very helpful, I guess. I'm not sure how I would handle the likability issue since I wouldn't approach the love triangle that way.

MAP · May 6, 2012

Different characters appeal to different readers. So unless you make the rival secretly evil or kind of a jerk that hides it well at first, some people are going to prefer him/her to the LI.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. Write the characters as you see them.

Jamesaritchie · May 6, 2012

I don't think of characters in those terms, or, really, in any categorical terms. Whatever a character's role, my goal is to make him or her a real person, with real emotions, real actions, real motivations, etc.

One doesn't have to be wonderful and the other a jerk. They're just two people who want the same thing. Coke isn't wonderful and Pepsi awful, or Pepsi wonderful and Coke awful, but we have to choose between them based on our personal likes and dislikes.

Making one person wonderful and the other a jerk means the choosing process is easy, and if the character choose wrong, readers think she's stupid unless you give her a strong and reasonable motivation for making the decision she does.

There's really nothing wrong with the old formula of woman slowly learns that the man she love sis an evil jerk, while the man she just met slowly reveals himself as the kind of man she thought her lover was, but I think it's kind of tired.

I'd also say it isn't who or what the writer or reader would choose that matters, but what the character wants and would choose, were she real. And in real life, men and women both choose love interests that are, to say the least, horrible choices.

Anyway, I just try to make every character real, which means complicated, and not all of a piece.

HoneyBadger · May 6, 2012

I agree with JAR; if each character thinks the story is theirs, thinks he/she is the main character, and is fully fleshed-out, it'll be a lot more compelling than introducing a cardboard Mr. Plot Contrivance.

Buffysquirrel · May 6, 2012

The love rivalry in my WIP arose organically rather than being planned, so I didn't really 'set out' to make the characters anything in that regard. It's a bit complicated anyway as the love interest thought he was falling in love with the MC but in fact it was someone else. It takes them three books to sort it all out.

Kelsey · May 6, 2012

As has been said above, if the two love interests are fleshed out and appear real, it will work out. Think of the fuel that has been added to the Hunger Games and Twilight franchises because of the never-ending Team Gale/Team Peeta and Team Edward/Team Jacob debate. My term paper for a philosophy class I have just finished was on the Team Gale/Team Peeta debate, and after reading for that paper, I would argue that that was a love triangle well done. At least from a philosophical perspective.

TheaBlowsKisses · May 6, 2012

I put everyone involved in a threesome at the end.

I understand how that may not work for every situation....

muravyets · May 6, 2012

I tend to have a problem with love triangle stories as well. I don't like characters who waffle about or string others along and thus toy with the emotions of others, so I find it hard to care about an MC that does that or is in that situation. So I find such stories irritating most of the time. Alternatively, if they are very well written, they tend to be real downers because at least some of the characters will end up miserable or doubting, and love will be forever tainted by sadness if it survives at all. Spoiler: I just the other day reminded myself of Henry James' The Wings of the Dove by watching the Helena Bonham Carter movie. Great story, but the ending is as depressing as hell./Spoiler

For myself, I admit I'm not good with angst, and that's probably something I should work on as a novelist. My WIP has no love rival, and I'm not sure at this point in the writing if the main love subplot will reach fruition in the course of the present adventure. But the seed will be planted, at least, and the angstiness of that will be in trust between FMC and MMC. I guess I agree with Aerial. I'm also more into watching relationships grow than in romantic competition. If romantic competition is part of the growth process of the main relationship, that works better for me.

buz · May 6, 2012

I put everyone involved in a threesome at the end.

I understand how that may not work for every situation....

That only doesn't work if there are four people or one of them is a Nazi panda cyborg. (Cyborg Nazi panda? Pirate ghosts? Ghost pirates?)

Otherwise, this plan is FLAWLESS

Lhipenwhe · May 6, 2012

I try (or will try) to make the two love interests offer the MC two very different things; stability or fantasy, strength or comfort, ect ect. I can't stand characters who put off making/agonizing over who to choose. Sometimes it's a sign of indecisiveness, and I can't imagine the love interests putting up with it for long.

contrariwise · May 7, 2012

Fans will be shipping your main character with both. They will also be shipping your main character with the villain, the supporting character, the postman who delivered a package and spoke one line of dialogue, and the waiter who served them coffee in that one café scene. Just enjoy it.

Lady Ice · May 7, 2012

muravyets said:
Alternatively, if they are very well written, they tend to be real downers because at least some of the characters will end up miserable or doubting, and love will be forever tainted by sadness if it survives at all. Spoiler: I just the other day reminded myself of Henry James' The Wings of the Dove by watching the Helena Bonham Carter movie. Great story, but the ending is as depressing as hell./Spoiler

Spoiler is still legible- sorry. Just don't read it

I love the novel/film you've spoilered, although the novel spells doom from the start. It was a believable triangle, I thought.

Buffysquirrel · May 7, 2012

My MC would never go for the threesome. If he so much as suspected the love interest was *thinking* about someone else....

Lady Ice · May 7, 2012

Lhipenwhe said:
I try (or will try) to make the two love interests offer the MC two very different things; stability or fantasy, strength or comfort, ect ect. I can't stand characters who put off making/agonizing over who to choose. Sometimes it's a sign of indecisiveness, and I can't imagine the love interests putting up with it for long.

This is what I try to do. That way it's more about the character choosing what they want from life rather than purely picking man A or B.

I must confess, I love love triangles. Actually, one of my favourite books has a sort of love square, as she has three men to choose from.

WriteMinded · May 7, 2012

Lady Ice said:
I always find this a hard character to write. When I'm reading books, I never really go for the love interest. I always want the love rival, or even someone off the love-radar.

How do you deal with writing love interests, or indeed, love rivals? A love rival has to be likeable enough for the MC to have a conflict but not so likeable that we feel cheated when she ends up with the love interest.

Good question. In my yet-to-be-written novel, the love interest is a great guy and he's loved the MC since they were children. She means to marry him . . . any day now . . . soon . . . as soon as . . . Then the rival, the love interest's best friend, Mr. Nono Allwrong, appears. It's difficult for all of them. I worry that readers would be too fond of the original love interest. It will be tricky.

Reading, I always go for wild ones, too.

flapperphilosopher · May 7, 2012

Lady Ice said:
This is what I try to do. That way it's more about the character choosing what they want from life rather than purely picking man A or B.

I agree-- so much more interesting when it's about the character who is choosing, not about the choices.

I love love triangles tooo, the messier the better. So much can be done with them, how they transpire and how they progress and what all of it reveals. There's always so much tension and (ideally) heaps of subtext. I think most of my favourite books and plays involve love triangles of some kind.

Lady Ice · May 8, 2012

flapperphilosopher said:
I love love triangles tooo, the messier the better. So much can be done with them, how they transpire and how they progress and what all of it reveals. There's always so much tension and (ideally) heaps of subtext. I think most of my favourite books and plays involve love triangles of some kind.

Same here. What I love is seeing two men who appear to be totally different- one is the "right choice" and the other is the "bad choice"- and yet they both prove to be failures in the end. An example would be Vronsky and Karenin in Anna Karenina, or a more contentious example, Alec and Angel in Tess of The D'Ubervilles.

TNTales · May 8, 2012

The thing is to be careful not to make the rival too sympathetic (think THE BEST FRIEND WHO REALLY LOVES THE MC) or you'll leave people feeling like the MC is callous or flighty. I never cared for conventional love triangles myself, so my advice should be read with that in mind.

Lady Ice · May 27, 2012

TNTales said:
The thing is to be careful not to make the rival too sympathetic (think THE BEST FRIEND WHO REALLY LOVES THE MC) or you'll leave people feeling like the MC is callous or flighty. I never cared for conventional love triangles myself, so my advice should be read with that in mind.

I think that's the problem John Hughes had with Pretty in Pink.

TomLysander · May 27, 2012

I tend to prefer the David Copperfield approach to the Twilight approach.

e.g. David Copperfield crushes on Dora; later, he realizes that Agnes was in love with him all along -- and he returns it, etc. falls in love with Agnes.

The hero/heroine is caught between two choices, but there isn't a direct competition at first. There are multiple love interests at the same time, but the hero(ine)'s perception of them evolves.

v. Bella being chased by BOTH Edward and Jacob all at once, over and over, with no resolution. Ugh ugh ugh.

The lack of realism here for me is that both are competing, and for a LONG time. Either Bella is superawesome, or E/J are supercompetitive jerks, or... plot contrivance. In real life, jealousy tends to pull these apart rather fast.

I prefer the hero/heroine's perception of things to evolve, for them to outgrow one character and to grow towards another. To have them in stasis, caught between two choices for (two/three) books, comes off forced for me. (oh, and you usually have to torpedo one of the love interests to break the stalemate)

lambauman · May 28, 2012

I grew up reading shoujo manga. For those who don't know, shoujo manga tradition is mutiple love polygons. Both the hero and heroine command troves of admirers. That makes love triangle simple by comparison.

Now those are comics for YA, so the heroines are innocent teenage girls and cannot appeared...eh...slutty (for lack of a better word). How do they do it? First of all, they make sure readers know from page 1 who the main couples will be. The main guy is whom the girl really pinning for (of course he has to be awesome). But for some reason or another they cannot be together. Then the third, forth, fifth wheel come in. They all have to be different, but still awesome in their own ways. Some of them can put up serious competition to the main guy. But the point is, even when the heroine wavers between her...eh...options, there is never any doubt whom she loves the most. Its never a question of who she'll will end up with, just a matter of how.

There will be a love triangle in my WIP. The two guys will be totally different, and the heroine loves them both, but in different ways. She WILL make a clear decision somewhere halfway in the book, which is a major turning point of the story.

I cannot stand characters who are wishy-washy either.

Vicorva · May 28, 2012

I dislike love triangles as they are usually portrayed. The main character always seems like such a jerk in these situations, selfishly leading on the love interests. They should just make a choice and have done with it, or ask for space from everyone involved to evaluate, or one of the love rivals gets fed-up of having no answer.

As long as they haven't had a relationship with both characters, I don't see why it has to be so melodramatic.

As for making the main love interest as interesting as the rival - they just have to offer very different things. Not, like, one offers fun and one offers love or something lame like that, where there's an obvious winner. Maybe the MCs life would be very different depending on who they choose, and they consider this.

Mharvey · May 28, 2012

Lady Ice said:
I always find this a hard character to write. When I'm reading books, I never really go for the love interest. I always want the love rival, or even someone off the love-radar.

How do you deal with writing love interests, or indeed, love rivals? A love rival has to be likeable enough for the MC to have a conflict but not so likeable that we feel cheated when she ends up with the love interest.

In my current WIP, I'm experimenting with my first ever love triangle.

The way I plan to handle it is that while the main character and the love interest are like best friends from the start, his feelings for her don't really kick into overdrive until she starts opening up and being with the second person, one who is sorta more naturally sexy and appealing to the reader, if I did my job right. He's the snarky, confident hot one (read: fangirl bait) while the MC is kinda the shy, calm "boy next door."

The MC's logic for never pursuing a relationship is that, if he doesn't get what he wants from the story, he's dead before he turns 18 and he didn't want to put her through that. But as the book develops, he starts having hope that he may yet live and, when he sees the other two together, it's a painful reminder of what he might have had. I'm hoping that's enough to get him on the reader's side... but TBH, I'm not sweating it if it isn't. As long as the reader feels the love interest should be with one or the other, I've got them sufficiently invested in the conflict.

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