It is a rare thing to find your last love in your first. No one told me the same applies to writing fiction.
As I mentioned in my post “The Evolution of Sawyer”, I originally planned for Never Touched to be the love story of Sawyer and Guy A, with her personal trauma creating secondary conflict. In other words, I wanted to write a romance novel without Guy B.
As I wrote my first draft I learned three things:
(1) I am not a romance writer. Maybe it’s my personality. Maybe it’s that I’m philosophically against HEAs. Maybe it’s that I want you to believe those reasons and not the fact that writing romance well is a monstrous task. I used to laugh and tell my husband that love stories were the easiest thing in the world to construct. Oh, how little did I know.
(2) Sawyer is not a romance protagonist. If you asked Sawyer if her story was about finding love, she would laugh in your face. Then she’d pour you a shot of whiskey and say, “We only have a few minutes before he catches us with hooch. Let’s begin…”
(3) Sawyer’s story would be flimsy at best without Guy B. No. That’s not true. Guy A, Guy B, and Sawyer aren’t a love triangle; they are the three legs that her story stands on.
Just because this isn’t a romance novel doesn’t mean Never Touched is devoid of love. It means that love is so much more than attraction and electricity and sex. It’s compassion and devotion and holding the hand of someone who needs you even when they fight to be rid of you. It’s indignation and grief and undeserved heartache. It’s thirst and hunger so the other can be filled. And, sometimes, it’s surrender.
Sawyer and Guy A have all of this. Sawyer and Guy B do, too.
That’s a love triangle.
In other words, if Never Touched was a war for Sawyer’s heart, Guy A and Guy B would be equally matched. They would be worthy opponents. You know how I know? Because Guy B was never supposed to get the girl and he did. I had no choice but to let him after this one stupid chapter I wrote back in November that changed the momentum of the entire story (it’s in the final draft; see if you can spot it). Because half my beta readers were outraged by the ending and half were giddy. Because even Sawyer didn’t know until that critical moment who her heart belonged to.
It’s a stretch to say I crafted this love triangle. Truly, I stumbled upon it. Sawyer forced my hand. That’s just how she is. Guy B is pushy too. I blame him a little. But that’s the most rewarding kind of writing, isn’t it: when you learn your characters’ desires better than they do and scramble to write down their choices as they make them?
I can’t wait to hear what you think of Sawyer’s choice. Until then, here’s what I want to know: what’s your favorite love triangle in literature, television, theatre, or film? Mine: Jane, Michael, and Rafael in Jane the Virgin. I sympathized with both Michael and Rafael. I rooted for either in different episodes. I couldn’t predict who Jane would choose in the end. That is a well-crafted love triangle.
That’s my favorite. What’s yours?
Psst…that’s what the comment section is for.
