On 28 February, Minorvogonpoet, herself a fiction writer, wrote:

I wondered about symmetry in stories cc, but what I look for is triangles. Whilst a geometrical triangle might be stable, in relationships, a triangle is a source of conflict. Apart from the classic love triangle, you can have two parents fighting about one child, two employees ganging up against one boss, two sisters teasing their younger brother...

I wondered if you had one person in the middle of two triangles, you'd end up with a six-pointed star but I don't think it's as neat as that.

What an interesting idea!

I'd never thought about relationships as geometry before. Sure, everybody says 'love triangle', but you know? I thought of it as a phrase, and never visualised it that way. But it's an elegant way to look at relationships in narrative. And that goes for factual writing as much as fiction. If you're describing people, you could do worse than look for the shape of their interconnectednesses. If there is such as word as 'interconnectednesses'…I digress.

What about the Yalta Conference of 1945? Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. Now there's a triangle for you. Uncle Joe's jealous, because FDR and Winnie are thick as thieves. Are they plotting behind his back? Can he woo Winnie back? Should he make overtures to Franklin? What's Frank up to, hinting about secret weapons against the Japanese? Hey, that works. Thanks, MVP.

I suspect there are other configurations you could consider, as well. This morning, I was thinking about what fans of the old Doctor Who series called 'the Holmes team'. One of their writers, Robert Holmes, was fond of creating sets of incidental characters to help his stories along. There were always two of them – two guards, say, or two spaceship workers, whatever. They might be humans or aliens. They would be there to set the stage for some action, and react to the menace du jour. But Holmes would give them funny dialogue. It was his signature bit.

Pairs in fiction indicate tightness: trust, reliance, the idea of 'I've got your back'. Holmes and Watson, Pancho and Cisco, Laurel and Hardy. 'Two are better than one,' as the Bible says.

The Bible also says, '…and a threefold cord is not easily broken.' Hm. Maybe there's a positive triangle to go with that negative triangle? Just thinking out loud. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory. The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey. The Three Musketeers. Batman, Robin, and Alfred. What does it take to turn a tension triangle into a united triangle?

Trust. And a shared goal.

Aha. That's it. Joe, Winnie, and Frank only stayed together for the sake of the children…er, Allied nations. Once they had different goals, they broke up. The Iron Curtain fell across Europe, and the Cold War started. That was a rough divorce, with custody battles all over the globe.

What might it take for your characters to resolve a triangle struggle? Assuming that you wanted them to. I suspect one or more of them would have to give up a goal for the mutual good. That might or might not be possible to motivate. But consider two cases.

In A Tale of Two Cities, Sidney Carton is in love with Lucy Manette. She's not in love with him, but with his less harried lookalike, Charles Darnay. Carton understands, and decides to be their friend. In the end, he sacrifices himself so that the Darnay family will live on, and they honour his memory. Cool story.

In Ian McEwan's Atonement, Briony thinks herself into a love triangle with her older sister and a young man. The problem is, Briony's only eleven, she has not clue one about adult love, and her sister and her boyfriend are tragically unaware of this imaginary conflict. Before anyone can stop it, all manner of unpleasantness breaks loose. And that's before World War II gets started. By the time Briony is old enough to realise where she really fits into the whole story, Robert is dead, and Cecilia has lost him forever. Briony atones the best way she can – by writing them a better story.

Isn't that what we're all trying to do, though? Write a better story? Of course we are. We could go on about geometries – what about circles? Circles of families, circles of influence, circles of events and causalities? Do pyramids play a role? We could go on like this, and we probably will, if I know us.

Thanks, MVP. You've given me something to think about the next time I outline a story. Have a good one – and don't poke yourself on the corners of those triangles.

PS MVP's discussion was apropos of a short story called Death Comes to Ressonhurst Manor, which she posted in the AWW. Drop by and have a read, you'll enjoy it. And join in the discussion.

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Dmitri Gheorgheni

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