: Re: Does my book need to have a love triangle in it? I'm editing my book currently and I have a basis for a love triangle. Should I add one? I feel like it would add another subplot to my story

@Smith147

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Writing SE often gets a lot of questions in this vein:

"Should I include [thing] in my story, since so many other books in my genre have it?"
"I don't feel super comfortable writing [thing] but I feel obligated to write it, should I?"
"Will readers expect [thing] in my story and be disappointed if it's not there?"

The answer to all questions like this, at least from my point of view, is always the same:
If it will substantially improve the story and you want to write it, add it. Otherwise, leave it out.
Readers can tell if you're only adding something for the sake of having it, instead of being passionate about it and excited to include it. Love triangles are a trope, and while tropes are tools and there are absolutely ways to write good ones, don't feel obligated to include one solely because you're writing a YA novel.
There are so many other ways to have notes of romantic tension in a YA story without necessarily having a love triangle. You can heavily imply that one character has a crush on another without having to turn it into a subplot, and that alone will add tension, since their interactions will be colored by that character being secretly in love with the other and their dialogue and actions will subtly reflect it. Or maybe the protagonist loves a character who is oblivious to their affections, which can create both romantic tension and comic relief. My point is that there are many, many other ways to do YA romance without doing love triangles, so if you don't want to write a love triangle, don't! Try something that works better for your story and your characters.
(In addition, writing romance is very hard if you have never written one before or had personal experience to base it on, so those two things may also be reasons to not include it.)

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