Why is triad romance fic written so differently to couple romance fic?

[alias_sqbr]

It seems to me that the trends for romance arcs in fanfic are different in romances about two people, and those about three or more.

Specifically, while counterexamples exist, the kind of "everyone pines and doubts themselves" romance that is ubiquitous in romances about two people is almost entirely absent in romances about three people.

And I'm curious to know if other people (a) agree that this difference is real and if so (b) have any idea why it exists.

First: I'm talking about stories which focus on the formation of a new, happy romantic relationships between two or three people. In what I'm calling "couple romance", it's about two people. In what I'm calling "triad romance", three people form a relationship with each other and noone else. There's lots of other kinds of polyamourous romance, but this is the sort I read the most of, and while I think these trends apply more broadly it's simpler to keep the question narrow.

I'm not talking about established relationship stories, porn/erotica which focusses on sex/sexiness, or dramatic stories which involve romantic relationships but don't really fit the romance genre. I think the relative prevalence of these is also an interesting question, though.

Second: the kind of romantic story I am looking at the prevalences of involves characters who have certain kinds of tropey emotional issues interfering with their ability to form the romantic relationship the story is about: they doubt that anyone could love them, they are oblivious to the other character's interest etc, and generally end up pining for most of the story. And then in the happy ending they find out they were wrong and that they are loved. The kind of thing that drives the conflict in a lot of conventional couple romance, especially the mutual pining type. I know this is an ambiguous description, and that pining, being self doubting, being oblivious etc are all different things which may show up separately. But I am having articulating exactly what I mean, so hopefully you get the general idea.

My observation is that couple romances very frequently have everyone in the couple be this kind of character/have this kind of arc, but triad romances almost never do.

I've seen a moderate amount of triad stories which kinda mimic couple romances: A/B pine for each other while C is a happy well-adjusted matchmaker with no self doubt, or A pines for the couple B/C and they pine for A as a couple but have no conflict or doubt between themselves within the A/B couple.

But the most common situation I've seen is that everyone is well adjusted and self confident about the relationship, or the protagonist self-doubtingly pines for two well-adjusted, happy people.

And what I almost never see is A, B, and C all having feelings for each other and ALL feeling self doubt about how to act on it, whether the others are interested, etc only to have everyone realise they're loved in the end.

And I don't know why!

The reason I care about this is that I love stories about pining dumbasses of the sort I've described, and I also love polyfic, and I find it surprising and frustrating that there's lots of both of these things but almost nothing in the intersection. BUT I am not saying this is an objectively bad situation, or something that can be "fixed". Obviously people have different tastes to me, and that's ok. But having noticed the difference, I got curious as to why things are this way!

Now, here's the possible explanations I can think of, some or all of which may apply simultaneously:
1) The people who like couple romance are generally not the same as the ones who like triad romance, and have different tastes.
2) Even people who like both are looking for different things from each type.
3) The two genres have very different histories, which has led to different genre expectations.
4) These tropes are easier to fit into a couple romance, and difficult to write for a triad.

Now (1) and (2) definitely don't apply to me, as someone who likes both couple and triad fic and likes the same kinda of story either way. But we're talking about broad trends not any one individual's preference. And I can imagine that for a lot of people, if they're seeking out conventional romantic tropes such as mutual pining, they'll look in couple fic, even if they seek out triad fic for other kinds of stories. Triad fic is somewhat unconventional by it's nature, and so, relatively speaking, invites more unconventional plots and more readers with unconventional tastes.

Also, polyfic tends to be more popular with polyamorous people. Are we, as a group, inclined towards different tropes due to our different preferences and experiences with romance? I haven't noticed any trend amongst the people I know into romance beyond polyamorous people being more often into polyamnourous romance and also maybe more into kinky erotica?

Or are polyfic trends driven more by monogamous people? They might still be the majority. Like, making something up of the top of my head...maybe fans of triad romance enjoy it as a sort of romantic fantasy of Being Loved By More People, disconnected from their actual romantic preferences and experiences. All kinds of stuff could be going on.

As for 3, I'm a bit fuzzy on the specific history of polyamorous romance in fic and in general, but obviously couple romance is the more established and conventional genre. Here's some unsupported theorising: From what I can see, published polyamourous romance is mostly erotica, which tends to gloss over the messy parts of romance to get to the sex. Polyfic is more varied, but looking up the fanlore page the earliest examples only go back to 1980 and were, again, mostly porn for a long time. I guess growing out of porn might make the genre lean towards everyone working through their issues quickly, even when people are writing G rated stuff? There's also the strand of polyfic which is written by polyamorous people wanting Positive Representation, which afaict leans towards everyone being well adjusted and happy.

In the other direction of course is the question: why do writers of couple fic write so many pining self hating dumbasses? Is it less that the nature of triad romance discourages that kind of fic, and more that couple fic encourages it? Is it the simplicity of two people finding acceptance and love in each other? It because Mutual Pining Couple is such an established trope?

From me, at least, 4 is absolutely true. It's way more complex wrangling the messy feelings of A/B, A/C, B/C and A/B/C and having them all come together in a satisfying way than it is to just have to worry about A/B. I mean personally I also enjoy how much more scope for romantic angst there is when, like, A and B realise they're in love but then worry they'll hurt C's feelings so say nothing, meanwhile C is pining over them both and thinks A/B is already established so they've lost their chance, etc. But I totally understand writers who like pining deciding it's all too hard and sticking to the tried and true couple tropes, or writers of triads deciding to just have some of the characters not be dumbasses about it to keep things moving.

So.

Some questions for anyone reading this:

• If you've read both triad and couple fic, have you noticed this trend too?
  
• If you're someone who prefers couple romance to triad romance, or vice versa, how do you feel about the sort of pining/self doubting character/arc I've described?
  
• If you like both couple and triad fics, do you have the same sorts of preferences for both when it comes to romantic arcs etc, or different? If different, why do you think that is?
  
• Do you think I'm right that polyfic as a genre has been heavily influenced by the tropes of porn and fluffy representation? Are there other influences I'm missing?
  
• Have you tried writing polyfic with this kind of dynamic and found it harder? Does the difficulty put you off, even if you like the idea in principle? Does something about couple fic make you feel more likely to write these kinds of tropes?
  
• Do you agree with my analysis? Any other explanations for this trend that you can think of that I missed?
  
• Any other thoughts on how polyfic differs (or doesn't) from fic about two person relationships?
  

Having personal preferences is fine but please try not to put down other people's tastes. There's nothing inherently better or worse about any of these genres and tropes.

Also! If you are another of the apparently rare people who also likes ot3 fic where everyone is a pining dumbass who eventually realises they are loved, check out my ot3 recs and my multi fic, which aren't all this trope but certainly lean that way more than the average. I even tried writing an ot6 fic where everyone is a pining dumbass, which was maybe a bit too ambitious, but it was certainly an interesting challenge, and I'm determined to finish that fic one of these days.

And I am VERY OPEN TO RECS. Including fic which doesn't quite fit my description but is in the general vicinity.

Comments

[inametaphor]

I wonder if it's not because when there are three people involved, one of them can always be "less invested" in any particular relationship, and thus a sounding board. For example: A is pining over B, but can talk to C about it and get a reality check that yes, B really likes them too. Even if C is pining after A and/or B, the other can still provide a "yeah, they're into you too" outside opinion.

[skygiants]

Hmm, I'm trying to figure out where Aster Glenn Gray's The Threefold Tie falls on the pining dumbass scale -- it's definitely one self-hating dumbass pining for two apparently-better-adjusted members of a couple, but both members of the couple are also pining for him separately and eventually have to work through that fact and what it means for their relationship between each other as well as with him.

I've written three OT3 fics for Yuletide, but only one as a getting-together story, and I did find it significantly harder than writing a more straightforward two-person romance! But part of the challenge for me was that the two people were already in an established relationship as per canon, and so keeping everything emotionally balanced to build the individual A/C and B/C threads without sliding into infidelity or feeling like anybody was going behind anybody else's back was really difficult. I think it would honestly be easier to write one where everybody was pining equally, so all the arcs had the same amount of room to grow, but I say that without having tried it ...

[shadaras]

I think that for me, the main reason I haven't done much with polyamory in fic is because it is hard to keep track of all the people involved. I think I've only written it where everyone's on more-or-less the same page but that page is either "I have no idea what my feelings are but I sure do have some" or "We're already together so that's not the point".

I also don't read it as much, mostly because there's so much less of it—and what there is tends to be established relationship fic, as you say (either all three together or couple+new person).

One fic I've got bookmarked that might fit your criteria is Home Out in the Wind - post-TFA, Rey/Finn/Poe, series is 300k+. Long! Lots of feelings! Complicated interrelations of characters slowly realising their feelings for each other and how to express them! (this author also has a Witcher (TV) series (that's also 200k+) that involves a Geralt/Jaskier/Yennefer triad being formed, where despite how Geralt/Yennefer was a thing previously they're still basically needing to re-figure out that part of the relationship from scratch.)

I wrote one fic right after The Force Awakens that's Rey/Finn/Poe, though, and which is a lot of people figuring out how the fuck to have feelings. Wind Beneath Our Wings (26k) hit that particular fandom zeitgeist straight on, at least.

[alias_sqbr]

That book sounds interesting!

The problem I've found with rotationally symmetrical A/B/C is that it feels balanced as a relationship but can be hard to make interesting as a story: by the time A/B and B/C have realised their feelings are mutual it's hard to make A/C figuring it out not feel repetitive without making the dynamic so different you're back to things maybe feeling unbalanced.

[alias_sqbr]

Sometimes, depends on the dynamic and the characters. I think a lot of characters would be much less likely to talk about their feelings with someone they have a crush on, even if the feelings aren't about them. And a lot of characters in couple fic have close friends they can and do talk to about their feelings.

[lea_hazel]

When I think about triad fic, the first and biggest thing I think about is the fanfic dynamic involving the hero, the (same-gender) sidekick and the (other gender) love interest. Basically, the dynamic that springs up when the fandom is divided between het shippers who ship the main canon pairing, and slash shippers who ship the two most prominent male characters (who are usually canonically platonic male friends). There are lots of other dynamics, but this one springs directly from some basic story structure things, of the kind that show up in screenplay writing books, or blog posts called "what all best selling books have in common".

And I think this dynamic affects the quality of fic produced. The fic tends to emphasize friendship dynamics on top of romantic ones, because one of the sides of the triad start out as best friends, and also, the canon het love interest is often framed in a best friend light in slash fic. That is, the triad ship fic is fusing two dynamics where the pining dumbass (protag) is crying on the shoulder of their best friend about whether or not the love interest (also a pining dumbass) loves them back. When there is a best friend involved, there's someone to provide a reality check or self-esteem boost, or whatever type of encouragement the specific insecurity calls for.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I feel like the dynamic might unfold differently if it were a four-way stable poly arrangement, that springs from two sets of best friends.

[alias_sqbr]

Oh that's an angle I didn't think of: Who triad fic gets written about versus who couple fic gets written about, and how that affects the dynamic. And the fusing of the friendship halves of A/B&C and A&B/C. Hmm! I'm still deciding if I entirely agree, but it's an interesting point of view I hadn't considered. ponders

[anghraine]

I don't know how typical it is, but my experience of polyshipping is often (not always, but often) combining a ship I find interesting with a hardcore OTP. And I've definitely read plenty of fic where the OT3 is basically OTP+1. So I wonder if something that sometimes happens is authors being primarily invested in a couple within the OT3, and either writing them as the pining dumbasses for the trope or, alternately, as an established couple—but rarely all three on a par. (I especially see this with F/M/M, with the m/m ship often given priority.)

I think the other thing that happens is that fic tends to follow familiar tropes and patterns, and the dumbass pining couple is super familiar, while the pining OT3 has left a less clearly-defined path to follow. And is more complicated, as you say.

[scytale]

The point about difficulty reminded me of one of the things they teach new improvisors for managing scenes with a large cast: we're supposed to try to have only two main viewpoints. So after the two main viewpoints are established, everyone else in the scene just bandwagons. Otherwise, there are too many moving parts and it's just harder for the audience and the players to keep track. There are definitely lots of significant differences with writing (which makes it much easier to handle that kind of complexity!), but I think it is more complex.

I don't triad ship often, but it usually tends to be "but I don't want my favorite to be left out! D:" fixit for me.

I also don't know how common this is, but I think one fantasy that triad fic enables for me (as a monogamous person) is the fantasy of Not Feeling Left Out When Your Friends Get In a Relationship (because B and C love A just as much, everything stays the same as before or improves for the better!). And the setup of B/C pining for A enables that, with angst and pining and irony and then all the comfort.

[izzet_bedtime_yet]

My only OT3s that I read stuff for are the Leverage OT3 and more recently in Miraculous Ladybug. So I see couple + third person both members of that couple already know and love in some fashion, and that probably skews things.

In the Leverage case, all three people pining isn't going to happen because two of them are fully established as a couple, and the third is established as being in a loving and committed relationship with them even if the sexual/romantic element is left ambiguous. So fans double down on that bit of uncertainty and we either get the couple not being sure if the third is interested in that, or the third being convinced that he doesn't deserve to be a part of their relationship, or rarely both – the only example of that I can think of is where there's a miscommunication early on. But the canon doesn't really leave a lot of room for full-on mutual pining, so I'm not surprised to not encounter that.

There's definitely some mutual pining in the Miraculous Ladybug multiship fandom, because the actual premise of the show is mutual pining two-person love square. But also, since many fans are kind of tired of that, there's a lot of the third member (or third and fourth members) basically forcing the two who have been pining in canon to actually talk to each other so that they can finally stop moping about.

So basically, my experience in terms of polyshipping is skewed by the kinds of ships I read, so I'm not sure I can generalize from it.

It does occur to me that polyamorous people, in general, are likely to have the view that healthy relationships are built on clear communication, since negotiating boundaries and checking in is a big part of actual polyamorous life, and since establishing a triad often means an established couple inviting a third person to join them, that means that some of the characters will talk things over and worked out the sorts of issues usually involved in pining scenarios fairly soon after those issues arise. Because if they're really insecure or doubting their value, they're probably not ready to add another partner to the mix.

[winterbird]

Ooooo questions

If you've read both triad and couple fic, have you noticed this trend too?

I have! I tend to avoid writing it myself (I've written triad fics a few times now, probably the most significant is The Wildness Within (Gwyn/Augus/Ash) which is 250k of crunchy difficult 'what if we fuck this up, also I don't want to be in a relationship with you because everything's complicated' feelings (that fits your definition of A/B have all the mutual pining, and C is generally pretty happy to flow with things, though definitely *not* the matchmaker). I've also written loose triads a few times (i.e. couples who have a relationship with a third and no one else, but that relationship is a secondary relationship and all three don't live in the same house - in the first case, Gwyn/Jack/Pitch, that involved HUGE angst on behalf of all parties. In the second case Luuk/Connor/Hank, that worked along BDSM lines, where tbh people are a lot more casual about relationships and Luuk was just someone they see once a month for dinner and sometimes for scenes and it's not angsty at all re: Luuk, but is for Connor/Hank. Oh shit and then there was The Golden Age that Never Was which is full polyamory and not just a triad, so Jack/Pitch-Anton/Alois-Eva, I forgot, lol).

(Just a note, I know I describe myself as an erotica writer, but I don't consider a 250k fic with 5 sex scenes to be 'porn', given that's less than what's found in averaged out standard romance novels. So while those fics do involve explicit sex/BDSM scenes (and plenty of non-sexual BDSM, and then gen intimacy as bonding), they are very balanced out in stories where the relationship is the focal point even if drama is happening around that relationship).

Generally I avoid triad fics when I've seen them because they don't often give me the kind of angst I'm looking for. Exceptions were sometimes in the Thorki fandom when there was a third party, and in Detroit Become Human with Hank/Reed/800/900 or any triad permutation of those four. They're all so angsty by default that unless the fic is outright porn, those dynamics tend to have angst by default.

If you're someone who prefers couple romance to triad romance, or vice versa, how do you feel about the sort of pining/self doubting character/arc I've described?

I do like both, but I do have a preference for couple romance arcs (partly because triads are, as you say, dominated by fluff and not the crunchiness I'm looking for). But I think I fit more in the second question rather than the former.

If you like both couple and triad fics, do you have the same sorts of preferences for both when it comes to romantic arcs etc, or different? If different, why do you think that is?

I don't generally have the same preferences. And I don't often write them the same way. Some of it for me was purely functional. I don't enjoy writing three POVs while writing a fic, and it felt 'unwieldy' to me to deviate from pair-romance norms. Like, I would generally feel like to do justice to three characters, the story would need to be at least a third longer, or even twice as long, to make it work properly. Given my pair romances are around 150-250k on AO3 in the first place, it's hard to justify (personally in my head) 300-450k to make sure each character is pining in similar ways. On like a functional level, I will sometimes handwave the third character into an easier role so I don't have to deal with that.

But then on top of that, it was also a lot more fun to introduce new elements you don't often have in romances, in that I could have A/B angsting and pining away, but C could facilitate and help them because that genuinely matches his personality. So triad pairings offer the chance to do things I can't do in the same way in pair romances.

And then *on top of that* I think the rate of all people kind of homogenised into the same or similar emotional scenario is less and less likely, the more and more people are in the relationship. Obviously everyone's mileage may vary, but it's my experience in the polyamorous community that there really are people out there who are very happy-go-lucky, supportive, cheerleading re: helping their partners hook up, and are then just pretty happy to go with the flow if they're invited to be a part of that.

I'm clearly only really referring to triad fics that still have some elements of angst between at least two parties. I *cannot read* fluffy triads and don't even try. But I do think there are other influences going on, such as:

Monogamous culture romanticises tropes that can be pretty toxic irl, but some of those tropes are more likely to have been addressed irl in polyamory - because communication about jealousy, possessiveness and more is heavily encouraged, you do sometimes end up with polyamorous people who are more 'literate' about certain aspects of relationship culture (particularly monogamous relationship culture) in the same way that people who practice BDSM have often had way more talks about consent, the nature of consent and how to practice consent than two vanilla/non-BDSM people have ever had. It's just expected by the culture and it's expected when doing something non-normative.

As a result of that, I feel like you by default then start to get different patterns of tropes presenting in fics. The fluffiness annoys me, I don't read those so I can't speak about those. But even in fics where two folks in the triad are pining and one is like...idk happy cheerleader, it feels like there's less of a need to work monogamous relationship tropes directly into triad pairings. That's not necessarily great. Because it implies that polyamory fics somehow have to be more aware, or more fluffy, etc.

Have you tried writing polyfic with this kind of dynamic and found it harder?

Yep, absolutely. But mostly for the reasons listed above. For functional writing reasons, it just doesn't work the same way for me. I *cannot* do the same amount of literal characterisation for three characters in the *same amount of words* that I can do for two. Therefore either the story gets hugely long, or I cut a corner with the third character. If I could condense character growth that easily I'd write shorter stories lol. So there's a functional element as an author of 'three characters means a story that has another third of work and writing on top of it *at least.*' (More, even, if you're exploring every permutation in the triad thoroughly). On a functional level, exploring every permutation - A/B, B/C, C/A, A/B/C is like exploring *four different relationships with four often slightly different dynamics* and I am laaaaaazy. Also frankly, often in fanfiction, chances are high I just won't care about one of the characters as much, and so therefore might be less invested in everyone getting equal 'air-time' on the page.

Does something about couple fic make you feel more likely to write these kinds of tropes?

Imho what's normalised in pair romance vs. poly romance is pretty different, which leads to a different exploration for tropes, at least for me. If I go in to write a polyamorous fic, I know I'm writing a *polyamorous fic* and my mindset changes, and I will not use some monogamous-romance tropes and I will look at what polyamory frees me up to use instead. (i.e. one character angsting because they come from a background of being monogamous and feel that they can't like a third person, and then second person having lived polyamory all their life realising what is going on and having to reassure them but then also fearing that first character might not be able to handle that after all and then leave them to go back to monogamy or worse, expect them to be monogamous etc. Like you literally *can't* have that in a monogamous fic in the same way).

I've just realised that nearly all of my longfics have polyamory in them somehow, even if not all are triads. Bull is polyamorous in his relationship with Cullen. Eversion has poly in it and ends in a triad where there's a primary couple with a secondary partner. The Wind that Cuts the Night is open to it. Every Rise of the Guardians fic I've ever written either has it after the fact (Shadows and Light has a Gwyn/Jack/Pitch exploration) or has it within the story (The Golden Age that Never Was). Fae Tales has it throughout the AUs, and Augus in the canon is polyamorous and though Gwyn isn't, he gives permission for Augus to continue re: seeing other people if he wants to. The Wildness Within was envisaged as a triad fic from the outset. I'm way way more likely to write polyamorous fics rather than monogamous fics BUT, I don't think many fit the descriptions here, and all have angst and pining lol. It's more just 'huh I write that way more than I think I do.' Some of these are definitely OTP+1, some are OTP+secondary partner who is allowed to have and express valid emotional concerns about the relationship and help it grow (Eversion), and some of them are OT3 (Gwyn/Augus/Ash in particular).

I'm definitely going to go away and think more about this, and some of my thoughts here may change as a result!

Additional: Sometimes with polyamory fics, I will focus down on the core couple a lot of the time mostly because I know my readers won't be as receptive to a triad genuinely balanced between three characters, and that...does influence what I write.

[brownbetty]

As someone who reads both, but can very easily find that the self-doubt storylines are "too much" for me, I think you're right, and maybe this is a reason why I enjoy triad-fic so much?

I do think that for pining dumbass to work, a key feature is that they don't check in with anyone, so the pool of people they have to avoid checking in with in triad fic is bigger, so it's a bit trickier to manage.

[alias_sqbr]

That makes sense!

[alias_sqbr]

Interesting, I don't remember learning that way back when I did improv during highschool drama classes but that was a VERY long time ago.

And that's interesting, I can see the appeal of that.

[alias_sqbr]

Yes that is definitely a thing in a lot of ot3 fic. I don't mind it in principle, unless I am more invested in the couples/character that get less focus.

And yeah, the lack of established tropes definitely affects things.

[scytale]

Hmm, it might have been a thing with my particular school, then. :)

And that's interesting, I can see the appeal of that.

Yeah, I totally didn't realize that was part of the appeal for me until I sat there and thought about it. Thanks for starting the discussion; it's been really fascinating reading your responses and everyone else's.

[lea_hazel]

Either way, it's an interesting question and made for an interesting discussion.

[shati]

This is...not a very cerebral (or fast) answer, but I feel like I grew up reading books where any group of 3+ friends would have to represent different personality types, but two-person friendships usually used more of a compare/contrast framework, and I think I personally carry at least a little of that over into my expectations for romance. And for me I think it's definitely based on the focus more than the relationship itself -- like I'd have similar expectations for any story focused on the relationship between two people, whether they have other partners or not.

[shati]

Uh, the connective tissue there is I think of "pining" as a similarity ... so a story focused on two people, pining is the thing they have in common. With focus on three people, it's more familiar when, like, one person is pining, one person is amused, and one person is oblivious.

[alias_sqbr]

Oh! That's a really interesting idea. I think other people suggested stuff along those lines but it didn't click for me before now.

[alias_sqbr]

Thanks! 300K is maybe more than I can get through, but I know from personal experience that giving messy poly relationships room to breathe can take a lot of words.

I liked the subtlety of Wind Beneath Our Wings https://archiveofourown.org/series/392674, and the way everyone is having confused feelings in different ways. A lot of Poe/Rey/Finn I've read has Poe a bit too much in control for my tastes, I liked how he's still older and more self aware but this just causes it's own flavour of confused feelings.

[shadaras]

That is completely valid! I love longfic like that, but I'm also pretty sure I originally read it as it was being posted, so it didn't feel as long. :)

Thank you! <3 I'm glad you enjoyed it. And yeah, Poe might have more experience but that doesn't need to mean he's more confident than anyone else in this circumstance. :)

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah it's been really interesting hearing everyone's different POVs!

[alias_sqbr]

nods Yeah, I think a lot of poly is canon couple + close mutual friend, which can lead to pining but doesn't lend itself as easily as some other setups.

[alias_sqbr]

I don't consider a 250k fic with 5 sex scenes to be 'porn'

Yeah, that's fair. Hmm! Would you say 'erotica' is used both for works which focus on the porn above all (crossing over with porn) and those which are designed to be sexy but also focus a lot on feelings/plot/etc (crossing over with romance/drama)? The reason I brought up the distinction in my post is that every published polyamorous 'erotica' story I've tried was very focussed on being sexy and didn't seem very interested in the usual romantic buildup etc. But that's 'erotica' as a publishing category, which I think gets affected by how many people are uncomfortable buying anything labelled 'porn'. As does published 'romance', which itself is often more sex-focussed than suits my shmoopy romance-focussed tastes (I like sex scenes, but sometimes it feels like the romance just exists as a framing for the sex, which is not what I want from a romance novel)

most existing triad fics not being what we want fistbump

Like, I would generally feel like to do justice to three characters, the story would need to be at least a third longer, or even twice as long, to make it work properly.

Yeah, that has definitely been a problem for me, and I can see how that would be a dealbreaker for you since your works are already very long.

But then on top of that, it was also a lot more fun to introduce new elements you don't often have in romances, in that I could have A/B angsting and pining away, but C could facilitate and help them because that genuinely matches his personality. So triad pairings offer the chance to do things I can't do in the same way in pair romances.

nods Someone else brought up that two mirrored characters with similar feelings works better than three similar characters/arcs, which is a good point. I mean you can do different kinds of pining, but you have to really like pining (which I do, lol, but I can see why people would find it a bit much)

You've got me thinking about ways of doing triads etc in ways which still have all the crunchy angst I like without being 3-way pining.

That's interesting about how polyamory comes up in so much of your writing. I focussed on triads in this post because otherwise the questions would get too mushy, but there's a lot of other ways of having polyamory (and polyamorous angst!) in stories, and interesting questions about how those stories play out.

And now I'm going to go think about all the interesting responses I got to this post for a while :)