How to craft the perfect love triangle with author Cameron Lund!

Author Spotlight

We asked Cameron Lund, author of Heartbreakers and Fakers, for her top tips of crafting the PERFECT love triangle. So, if this trope is your jam, scroll down to see how she does it!

How to craft the perfect love triangle with author Cameron Lund

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if your book contains a love triangle somebody somewhere will insist on telling you how much they hate love triangles. But as a love triangle enthusiast, I think they get a bad rap. Why only have one love interest when you could have two love interests? Or three? Or four? (side note: if you’re looking for a love flow chart of doom, make sure to check out Jennifer Iacopelli’s upcoming Finding her Edge…I’ve seen the diagram).

I like love triangles because they add tension and conflict (and all the drama!). And when it comes to my romcoms, I’m always drawn to a high concept story–like say a character who asks love interest A for help wooing love interest B (see The Best Laid Plans). My book Heartbreakers and Fakers is told in two alternating timelines: THEN (fall of junior year) and NOW (summer before senior year), and I played with the concept of a love triangle through this format. In the THEN sections we see Penny falling for Jordan, and in the NOW sections we see Penny falling for Kai. Did I mention I like drama?

If you’re into love triangles as much as I am and want to write one of your own–here are my key ingredients:

Key Ingredient 1- A protagonist with a fatal flaw

I think the best romantic stories start with a character who has a flaw that needs fixing and that the love interest can help them to overcome (even better if the love interest has a fatal flaw the protagonist can fix too!). At the start of Heartbreakers and Fakers, Penny cares so much about being popular that she’s scared to be herself. She needs to learn to let go and take a risk.

Key Ingredient 2 – A love interest who mirrors her flaw back to her

In a love triangle, each of the love interests represents a different version of the protagonist. One is usually a mirror of how she starts the story (they represent the broken version of her–can only love her with her fatal flaw still intact). In Heartbreakers and Fakers, Penny spends the whole THEN timeline pining after Jordan even though she doesn’t know him and she’s too nervous at first to actually talk to him. And as they grow closer, she’s unable to let him know who she actually is. Penny can’t talk to Jordan about her family or her insecurities.

Key Ingredient 3 – A love interest who mirrors her true self back to her

The other love interest in a triangle represents who the protagonist is meant to be. They show her what life could be like if she fixes her fatal flaw–and through the exploration of the two love interests, the protagonist can figure out who she is and what she wants, can become the best version of herself. In Heartbreakers and Fakers, Penny has always hated Kai because she’s hung up on something he did in elementary school. But because she doesn’t care what he thinks, she’s able to be herself. Penny sends Kai silly pictures, she talks to him about her family issues, lets him see all the melty parts under her hard candy shell.

Key Ingredient 4 – The inciting incident

Something has to get this ball rolling! In Heartbreakers and Fakers, Penny wakes up on the lawn the morning after her boyfriend Jordan’s first day of summer party and is horrified to realize she kissed her best friend Olivia’s boyfriend Kai the night before. She’s devastated and sets off on a path to accomplish a goal that will reinstate the status quo: get her friends to forgive her mistake and win Jordan back.

Key Ingredient 5: The Set-up

Penny and Kai’s friends assume they must be in love with each other, because cheating on your partner for no reason is pretty low, even for them. And when Olivia and Jordan get together, Penny is too ashamed to be alone–she wants to fake feelings for Kai so that she has something to show for her mistake. But this is putting a bandaid on the problem. What Penny wants is for Jordan to fall back in love with her, but what she needs is to become a better person and learn to be herself and own up to her mistakes. And maybe Kai is the one who can help guide her.

As for the rest of the ingredients? You’ll have to find out for yourself! I don’t want to spoil the ending. 😉

Click here to get your copy of Heartbreakers and Fakers!