Love Triangles

I am finally going to attempt to work on my very first love triangle story. I have tried it before, but haven't treated this as much detail as I am going to.

In my previous stories, the focus was always on the characters who were endgame. The third wheel was never a prominent figure in my stories. In Awakened One Night, I did touch on the protagonist being in love with a guy with whom her sister too was interested in. But Kara (the protagonist) and Alex were never given any detailed scenes, since the focus was more on the mystery rather than the romantic angle.

Now I am trying to study what makes love triangles in popular stories, so…well popular.

First of all, I think the three characters need a backstory before they come into contact with each other. The readers should be able to relate with them even when their backstory is revealed later on in the story. Also, like in any character building task, they should seem human to the reader.

The second part is vital. The characters, when they come into contact with their love interest, should have chemistry. Their scenes should be sizzling.

Okay, this has got to be the hardest part, since two very different romantic scenes need to be thought of and written. In my story (not even written yet), the girl has to fall in love with one guy, but then have amorous feelings for the other guy as well.

Writing the same scene for both guys will not only be monotonous to read for the reader, but also put to question the girl character's virtue. Would readers like to read about a girl who will fall in love with anyone if they performed the same gesture?

I think having her fall for the other guy should not only be unique, but make sense as well. She should meet not the opposite of the first guy, but someone who challenges her to look at things with a different perspective. He should make her question what she knows and her emotions for the first hero.

She should develop feelings for the second one that should be far from a careless infatuation. The second hero mustn't only be charming, but someone that brings out another side of her that she wasn't aware of and make her fall in love with that adventure.

What I hope to accomplish is to write a plausible romantic story where the girl is torn between two heroes that have similar attributes and love her with as much passion as she does.

This all seems tricky, but also a task I want to take on that would result in success. Let's see how it goes…