One love interest or more?

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1

Do you prefer a story with one love interest or more?

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2

I always prefer 1, its hard to write a story with two and i never enjoy them

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3

Yes, I agree. I think no matter how much an author tries they always favorite one of the LIs

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4

Right! I think its a subconscious thing, you always have characters you enjoy writing more than others, and unless you’re incredibly conscious of that it will come through when reading. Its incredibly difficult to write one love interest to be compelling and peak the interest of another character, so adding multiple makes it so hard, because not only do you have to do that again, you have to do it differently, and there has to be conflict or the choice would be easy, and thats not engaging. Its hard to balance the pros and cons of multiple relationships while still keeping both LI likeable and someone the reader will consider. Ive yet to see it done in a compelling way in any media really.

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5

You couldn’t have said it any better!

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6

I like more than one

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7

One with unrequired romance, that way if the love interest is terrible I can still enjoy the story. Two, if it’s required. Also depends on genre — because while I probably will care for a second or two, it’s not a deal breaker in drama/mystery/etc. Romance, though? Love interest has to be somewhat appealing.

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8

In romance stories, I enjoy two or three. Otherwise, number doesn’t matter, but I prefer to have an option for a no-romance route.

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9

1 I don’t like having to pick

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10

1 love interest, becouse choosing becomes difficult, and I feel bad when I have to choose one and have to ignore the other :slightly_smiling_face:

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11

I prefer 1 as well, as @willowkayyy said and i also feel like it’s just unnecessary then having to choose as well, yh that’s long for me lol-

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12

I think there are ways to do multiple in a way that works but like others pointed out, it only works if you can give each LI the same amount of attention. I think the important thing is to remain as impartial as possible and remember that you are giving the reader the choice - so write each LI as a whole person and not a placeholder in hopes that your reader loves the character that you do.

I’m not a romance reader but if I were to pick between the two, I think that you can write a more complex relationship with one LI over multiple LIs.

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13

1 love interest is enough. Why is there a trend of protagonists having to pick between two or more?

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14

I prefer one love interest. I don’t like choosing. Like I’d be mad if someone has to choose me or another girl after weeks of flirting. Like okay, you can have them :rofl::rofl:

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