How to Write A Love Triangle That Doesn’t Make Readers Cringe

Fun fact: there’s a love triangle in my manuscript and I hated it for the longest time. Not because I hate romance as a genre but because of how some love triangles are written. 

Of course, it’s a classic in terms of tropes. You probably know the setup too: your protagonist must choose between love interest A, who usually represents the safe, stable option, and love interest B, who represents something dangerous, exciting, or forbidden.

Cue three hundred pages of indecision, jealousy, and readers wanting to throw the book directly across the room.

However, love triangles have a notorious reputation for being cliché, predictable, and downright exhausting. But here’s a little secret: readers aren’t actually tired of love triangles. They’re just tired of the shallow, predictable ones that exist purely for cheap drama rather than genuine character development.

When executed properly, love triangles are wonderful plot devices that can yield beautiful, moving, and emotionally devastating results. They tap into the complexity of human desire, the agony of choice, and the thrilling fantasy of possibility.

So how do you write a love triangle that keeps readers hooked instead of rolling their eyes? How do you craft something so compelling that it leaves your audience debating their allegiances long after the final chapter?

In this post, we’re looking deeper into exactly how to write a love triangle that even the biggest haters will adore. You’ll discover how to create three-dimensional characters, make both suitors a viable choice, use the triangle to explore identity and growth, avoid the most common mistakes, and stick the landing with an ending that hurts in all the right ways.

So, let’s begin.

Create Fully Fleshed-Out Three-Dimensional Characters

The foundation of any great story is its characters, and a love triangle is entirely dependent on the strength of the three people involved. If you don’t do the work to flesh out everyone involved, the triangle will feel incredibly random and flat.

Your Protagonist Cannot Be Cardboard

Okay, first up: your protagonist cannot be a passive cardboard cutout whose only defining trait is that two attractive people are fighting over them.

Give your main character goals, passions, flaws, and struggles that have absolutely nothing to do with romance. If they don’t have a distinct personality, your readers will be left wondering why these two suitors even like them in the first place.

Take the television show Jane the Virgin, for instance. The love triangle works brilliantly because Jane has her own distinct personality, career ambitions, and personal morals that drive her forward. The romance is an addition to her life rather than her entire reason for existing.

Your protagonist should be a fully realized person who would still be interesting even if you removed the romance entirely. They need their own arc, their own internal conflict, their own reason for being the main character. The love triangle should complicate their life, not define it.

To understand how to write a better protagonist, check out my blog post: On Writing Protagonists: How to Write Great Main Characters.

Develop the Suitors Beyond Archetypes

Next, you have to develop the suitors. Don’t reduce them to simple, two-dimensional archetypes like the “brooding bad boy” versus the “nice guy.”

You need to give each love interest their own hopes, fears, values, comfort zones, and unique worldviews. What makes them tick? What are their internal secrets? D they offer the protagonist anything emotionally?

When you put in the effort to make all three characters fully realized, you create a push-pull dynamic that feels deeply believable. The triangle stops being a plot device and starts being an authentic emotional dilemma.

Make Both Suitors a Viable Choice

If there’s one cardinal sin of writing love triangles, it’s making one choice painfully obvious from page one.

Don’t Make One Suitor the “Wrong Choice”

If one suitor is painted as the absolute “perfect person” and the other is glaringly the “wrong choice,” there will never be an ounce of suspense in your narrative.

In order for a love triangle to actually be a triangle—and not just a romance with a temporary, annoying obstacle—both suitors must bring something immensely valuable to the table.

Your protagonist must have legitimate, compelling reasons for loving both people, and equally legitimate reasons for not being able to choose between them right away. Make the battle fair.

A fantastic example of this can be found in the Korean drama Boys Over Flowers. Even though the story features a classic “bad boy” and “good guy” setup, both love interests develop such unique, engaging relationships with the main character that the audience is genuinely torn over who to root for.

Create Emotional Whiplash

You want to make your readers agonize over this decision just as much as your protagonist.

Let the audience flip flop. Every time one love interest does something incredibly charming to win the reader over, have the other do something so unexpectedly kind or irresistible that the reader immediately switches sides.

Emotional whiplash is exactly what you’re aiming for. If your readers can close the book at the 40% mark and confidently predict who the protagonist will choose, you’ve failed. Both options need to feel equally compelling, equally dangerous, and equally right for entirely different reasons.

For more on building romantic tension between your protagonist and each love interest, check out: How to Write Slow Burn Romance: A Guide for Struggling Writers (Like Me!).

Use the Triangle to Explore Identity and Growth

A brilliantly written love triangle is never truly about which person is better looking or who is the better kisser.

It’s About Identity

At its core, a compelling love triangle is about identity. The most meaningful love triangles are external manifestations of the protagonist’s internal conflict. Don’t just ask yourself who the character will choose. Ask yourself who the character becomes when they are with each person.

When the protagonist finally makes their ultimate choice, it should feel like the culmination of their personal growth. The decision resolves their internal dilemma and firmly establishes what kind of person they want to be.

Examples of Identity-Driven Triangles

Look at The Hunger Games. Katniss Everdeen’s choice between Gale and Peeta isn’t just a high school popularity contest. Gale represents the girl she used to be, her past, and a fight for freedom. Peeta represents the person she has become, hope, and healing after unspeakable trauma.

In Andrea Max’s The Art of Exile, the protagonist is torn between a mentor who shares her ideals but lacks boundaries, and a former enemy who is cruel but shares a magical chemistry that erodes her walls. Neither choice is perfect, but their contrasting natures force the protagonist to examine her own instincts and morals.

The best love triangles ask: Who do you want to be? What kind of life do you want to live? What values matter most to you? The romantic choice becomes a referendum on the protagonist’s entire worldview.

Stagger the Romance and Avoid Waffling

You absolutely do not have to start both relationships at the exact same time.

Don’t Juggle Both Romances Simultaneously

While having your protagonist juggle two romances simultaneously might seem like the easiest way to generate drama, there are far more subtle and effective ways to build tension.

Consider staggering the protagonist’s feelings. You can have them fall for one person first, invest deeply in that relationship, and then have the second person enter the picture and complicate everything.

Play with Timing and Dynamics

In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet has intense feelings for Mr. Wickham first, believing him to be the right man for her, before slowly coming to realize that he is deeply flawed and that Mr. Darcy—the man she initially despised—is actually the one she cares for.

Alternatively, you can play around with the dynamic of long-term familiarity versus instant, undeniable chemistry. In Gilmore Girls, Rory Gilmore finds herself torn between Dean, her reliable, long-time boyfriend, and Jess, the new boy in town with whom she shares an immediate, electric connection.

Both approaches create tension without requiring the protagonist to actively date two people at once, which can make them look indecisive or, worse, like they’re leading people on.

Avoid Waffling

Whatever structure you choose, there is one major pitfall you must avoid: waffling. There’s no quicker way to stall the forward momentum of your plot and completely annoy your readers than having your protagonist endlessly bounce back and forth between two love interests.

Yes, the choice should be agonizing, but if you drag the indecision out for too long without any real development, your readers will lose interest. Imagine if Elizabeth Bennet had spent the entirety of her story changing her mind about Darcy and Wickham every other chapter. The story would have become incredibly tedious.

Keep the plot moving forward. Each interaction with a love interest should reveal something new about the protagonist, shift the dynamic, or escalate the stakes. Don’t just spin your wheels.

Focus on Conflict Over Chemistry

Chemistry is undeniably important in romance, but conflict matters even more.

A Triangle Isn’t Real Without Friction

A triangle isn’t a true triangle unless every connection offers some level of friction. If your characters are just staring longingly into each other’s eyes without ever challenging one another, the dynamic will fall flat.

Chemistry gets readers invested initially, but conflict keeps them hooked. Tension comes from disagreement, from opposing values, from moments where the protagonist and a love interest clash over something that actually matters.

Use the Suitors as Foils

The two love interests should ideally serve as foils to one another. If one is charming and sociable, make the other cutting and mysterious. Let each option offer a completely different kind of vulnerability.

More importantly, let each love interest actively challenge the protagonist’s worldview and push them out of their comfort zone.

The push and pull between opposing forces is what cracks open the protagonist’s soul and forces them to confront their deepest fears. One love interest might challenge the protagonist’s assumptions about family, while the other challenges their assumptions about ambition. One makes them feel safe, the other makes them grow.

When both love interests are pushing the protagonist in different directions—emotionally, morally, philosophically—that’s when the triangle becomes truly compelling. The choice isn’t just about feelings. It’s about which direction the protagonist wants their life to go.

For more on creating compelling conflict and chemistry through dialogue, check out: On Writing Dialogue: How to Write Better & Believable Lines.

Raise the Stakes & Make It a Catch-22

To prevent your love triangle from feeling stale or petty, you have to establish massive stakes.

What’s at Risk?

What is there to gain or lose when this romance finally blooms? What will happen if the protagonist chooses Character B over Character C? A phenomenal love triangle operates as a Catch-22 for the protagonist. They simply cannot have it both ways, no matter how much they might desperately want to.

The choice cannot just be about who they want to kiss. It must be tied to a life-altering consequence.

Twilight’s World-Shattering Stakes

In Twilight, if Bella wants to spend eternity with Edward, the stakes are astronomically high. She has to undergo a brutally painful physical transformation, sacrifice her human soul, distance herself from everyone she loves, and eventually watch her friends and family grow old and die.

Those are world-shattering consequences that make the romantic choice feel incredibly urgent. It’s not “which boy do I like more?” It’s “which version of myself am I willing to become, and what am I willing to lose to get there?”

Ask the Hard Questions

When you’re building your love triangle, ask yourself:

• Will the protagonist’s decision hurt someone they love? 
• Will choosing one partner mean giving up a lifelong dream or ambition? 
• Will it mean betraying a friend, abandoning a cause, or compromising their values?

The higher the stakes, the more emotionally wrecked your readers will be as they follow along. And that emotional devastation is exactly what makes a love triangle unforgettable.

Don’t Neglect the Rest of the Story

Your love triangle is a plot device, not the entire plot itself.

Even Romance Novels Need More

Even in a dedicated romance novel where the relationship takes center stage, you cannot completely ignore the world building, the supporting cast, and the external narrative.

If your protagonist spends every waking moment obsessing over their love life and nothing else, the story will feel shallow and one-dimensional. Real people have jobs, hobbies, friendships, family drama, and personal goals that exist completely independent of their romantic prospects.

Weight Varies by Genre

Depending on your genre, the romantic relationship will carry a different “weight.” If you’re writing a thriller, a fantasy, or a dystopian epic, the love triangle should bloom naturally alongside the external action. 

In The Hunger Games, the primary driving force of the narrative is Katniss fighting for her literal survival against a tyrannical government. The love triangle between her, Peeta, and Gale is an intricately woven subplot that highlights her inner turmoil, but it never completely derails the revolution.

Even in a romantically focused story like Twilight, Bella still has a life outside of choosing between a vampire and a werewolf. She’s dealing with moving to a new town, trying to fit in at a new high school, navigating her relationship with her father, missing her mother, and trying to avoid being murdered by tracker vampires named James and Victoria.

Keep your protagonist busy. If the only thing they have to think about is their love life, the story will quickly lose its depth. Give them external conflicts, personal ambitions, and challenges that force them to grow as individuals—not just as romantic prospects.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Love triangles are notoriously easy to mess up. Here are the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Develop the Third Side of the Triangle

One of the most common mistakes writers make is treating a love triangle like a “V” shape rather than an actual triangle.

They focus entirely on the protagonist’s relationship with Suitor A and Suitor B, while completely ignoring the dynamic between the two suitors themselves. If you want your story to feel fresh and nuanced, develop the relationship between the two love interests. This connection can go far beyond simple jealousy or petty rivalry.

What if the two suitors share a complicated history? What if they are business partners, old school friends, or even brothers?

In V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic series, the complex triangle features a brotherly bond between Kell and Rhy that is just as significant and emotionally weighty as their romantic feelings involving Lila. Exploring how the suitors’ connection changes when the protagonist enters the picture adds an entirely new layer of delicious conflict and tension to your story.

Avoid the “Evil Rival” Trope

We’ve all seen it happen: a writer realizes they have made the love triangle a little too difficult to resolve, so they panic. Suddenly, out of nowhere, one of the love interests does something wildly out of character. They cheat, they lie, they become abusive, or they randomly turn into the story’s villain.

Please do not bend your characters to your will just to manufacture an easy exit. Making a perfectly nice character suddenly transform into a controlling jerk just because you want the protagonist to choose the other person is incredibly lazy writing. 

Readers despise this Deus Ex Machina approach. It makes them feel cheated out of a genuine emotional resolution. Both love interests should remain wonderfully, complexly flawed, but they should also remain true to the personalities you spent hundreds of pages building. The protagonist must make an active, difficult choice between two good options, rather than being handed an easy default.

Don’t Introduce Random New Love Interests

Finally, resist the urge to throw extra love interests into the mix halfway through the story just to artificially inflate the drama. Two competing love interests are more than enough for one protagonist to handle.

Readers only have a finite amount of emotional energy to invest in your characters. If you spend half a novel meticulously developing two suitors, only to randomly introduce a third romantic prospect out of nowhere, your audience will feel their emotional investment has been stretched far too thin.

It feels incredibly cheap. Stick to the core triangle you have built and mine it for all the internal and external conflict it is worth.

Subvert Expectations and Tropes

If you want your love triangle to stand out in a crowded market, take familiar tropes and twist them on their head.

Flip the Script on Familiar Setups

Instead of relying on the standard “childhood best friend versus exciting new stranger” or the “wealthy heartthrob versus the struggling artist,” flip the script.

What if the mysterious bad boy is actually terrible at flirting but incredibly emotionally vulnerable? What if the safe, reliable best friend harbors a massive secret that completely shifts the dynamic of the story?

The more you can surprise your readers while still staying true to your characters, the more memorable your triangle will be.

Use the Triangle to Deconstruct Power Dynamics

You can also use the triangle to deconstruct societal power dynamics and explore deeper themes. In Sally Rooney’s Normal People, the shifting relationships between characters are used as a vehicle to explore class, power, and identity, elevating the story far beyond simple romantic tension.

In Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue, traditional triangle dynamics are subverted to explore how societal expectations complicate romance. When your love triangle does more than just create romantic tension—when it explores identity, class, power, or societal pressure—it becomes something richer and more meaningful.

Reimagine How Choice Functions

Don’t be afraid to reimagine how choice functions in your story entirely. Perhaps the protagonist realizes that choosing neither option is the best path for their personal growth. Or perhaps the choice itself becomes less important than the incredible emotional growth that the triangle catalyzed.

Maybe the protagonist chooses one person, but the story makes it clear that the “losing” suitor was essential to their journey even if they weren’t the final choice. The triangle doesn’t have to end with one person being discarded and forgotten. All three characters can grow from the experience.

Make the “Wrong” Choice Hurt, But Make It Make Sense

When the climax of your romance finally hits and the protagonist makes their choice, a portion of your readership is going to be devastated.

Some Readers Will Never Get Over It

Some readers will never get over the fact that their favorite character lost out—and that is perfectly okay. You can’t please everyone. If you’ve done your job right and made both love interests genuinely compelling, you’ve guaranteed that roughly half your audience will be heartbroken by the ending. 

The Secret to a Satisfying Ending

The secret to delivering a satisfying ending, even a heartbreaking one, is making sure the “wrong” choice still feels like it was a completely real, viable option. Perhaps the runner-up was absolutely perfect in every single way, except for the one specific thing that mattered most to the protagonist’s core values. 

Perhaps the unchosen suitor loved the main character deeply, but their dynamic ultimately would have stifled the protagonist’s personal growth. The losing love interest doesn’t have to be a bad person or a bad match. They just have to be the wrong match for this specific protagonist at this specific moment in their life.

The Emotional Wreckage Is the Point

Your readers should close the book thinking, “I completely understand why they made that choice, but wow, my heart is absolutely shattered.”

That emotional wreckage is the entire point. Readers dive into love triangles because they actively want to feel the tension, the intense longing, and the profound agony of an impossible decision.

Let them feel it. Don’t soften the blow by making the unchosen suitor suddenly terrible or by having them conveniently fall in love with someone else five pages after being rejected. Let the choice hurt.

For more on writing emotionally resonant scenes that land with impact, check out: On Writing Emotions: A Writer’s Guide to Mastering Feelings in Fiction.

Bringing It Home

Love triangles aren’t inherently bad. They’re just incredibly easy to execute poorly. But when you approach them with intention, they can transform a standard romance into an unforgettable, high-stakes journey of self-discovery.

By focusing on creating three-dimensional characters, staggering the romantic tension, elevating the stakes, and ensuring the final choice reflects the protagonist’s internal growth, you can create a love triangle that feels fiercely original. Don’t be afraid to let things get messy. Let your characters make painful choices. Let your readers argue over the outcome. The best love triangles spark debates that last for years after the book is closed.

Ultimately, a great love triangle is a mirror reflecting a universal human truth: we are all frequently torn between the safe path and the thrilling one. Capture that essence, and you will write a story that even the most stubborn love-triangle haters simply cannot put down.