Depending on your audience ... a LOT.
LGBTQIA+ rights, women's rights and autonomy, economic disparities, racial prejudice, environmental destruction, politics in general, military aggression, police brutality, hate crimes, sexual assault. OMG the list goes on forever.
I think the only point I want to make is this: don't shy away from subjects just because some readers may take issue with it! Go ahead and disturb the comfortable, and let other readers know you see them and support them.
Research! That's really your only option. Research the hell out of whatever it is that your character is supposed to be good at. Become an expert in it. As much as your character is.
Anyway. In a love "triangle" *sigh* one person has to make a choice. The most common sequence of events that I've seen in love triangle dramas is when the center person is already dating someone and a new person comes into their lives that they are interested in. Do they stay with the person they're already with, or do they dump that person and go with the new person?
My first instinct is to say: go with the new person. If you were really in love with the first person, you never would have noticed the second. That seems the easy answer.
One of the ways I've seen the drama build is when the central person can't think of a good reason to break up with their current partner. That person hasn't done anything "wrong" per se. They're just not the right person. But if you realize the person you're with is "wrong for you", that should be a good enough reason to break up with them. Yes, you're probably going to hurt their feelings, potentially even break their heart. But you're not doing them any favors by staying with them out of shame or pity. And you're doing any favors to the person you want to be with by avoiding that relationship.
Worse, sometimes these dramas will have the central person actual cheat on their current partner with the new love interest. Please, please, please break up with someone rather than cheat on them. They will be far more hurt by the cheating than you breaking up with them to be with someone else. And the person you're cheating with probably feels like crap, too, being the side piece and all.
All that being said, I have written love triangles a time or two, because they do feel so realistic. This is something that people face out here in real, 3D life, so it should be reflected in fiction as well. In one romance, I did an unrequited love triangle, where the central person stays with their current partner because they never developed an interest in the second person who was yearning for them. But in the other story, I had the central person make the switch, and it was a very angsty moment for him, which is always fun to do to my characters.
I feel that this trope is definitely a standard for a reason, and will remain as such. I just wish it was named correctly.
I tend not to like this particular trope. I don't really like bully redemption stories, and a lot of lovers to enemies stories involve that. I don't really like stories where people are denying their true feelings by acting out in anger, either. It seems disingenuous.
So, naturally, the latest story idea I got and was compelled to start writing down is a YA enemies to lovers romance. *sigh*
As I'm writing it, and getting into the heads of my characters, I'm beginning to understand better how this whole trope works ... I think. My main character is physically attracted to the love interest right away, but dislikes his personality. Meanwhile, the love interest is projecting a negative attitude because he thinks he dislikes the personality of the main character. In reality, both of them are projecting falsified versions of their personality for different reasons. Their true personalities are actually very compatible.
Creating a false persona can be common in teen years, as people are still trying to figure out who they are, what matters to them, and how to fit in with their peers. Judging people on the surface is common as well. Feeling comfortable enough to be yourself around someone can be particularly difficult if you don't feel like you can trust them.
It's difficult to write, though. I want to make sure their growing feelings for each other make sense and feels natural to the reader. The passion they feel for each other from the beginning is actually always an attraction.
For example: in the YA series I'm currently querying, my main character starts dating during his junior year of high school (book 2). That relationship goes poorly and he ends up dating someone else his senior year (book 3). That relationship goes very well and they're still together when they graduate. But this isn't the person my main character is going to spend the rest of his life with. He meets that person after college (not sure what book number that will be). But my MC loves his book 3 LI. He's devastated when they break up in book 4. It's just a fact of the human condition, most high school sweethearts break up.
I recently started a YA romance one-shot, and I'm having more trouble with this one. The problem I'm coming up against is that I don't want to think about my MC and his LI breaking up, EVER. They're great together and they really love each other. But they meet when they're 15. If this were the real world, what would be the chances that they stay together for the rest of their lives? Pretty much none. It's fiction, so I can pretend they stay together forever.
But I'm also a bit of a realist. (Not a helpful personality trait for a writer.) I want to write my romance books with a hint as to what comes after "the end". For an adult romance one-off I recently wrote, I ended it with a proposal. That's about as close as we can get to "and they lived happily ever after" in modern fiction. I can't exactly do that with a couple of teenagers. Maybe showing them going off to the same university? Do an epilogue of them 10 years in the future when they're having their first kid? Ugh. Then there's my brain telling me that there's no way these two would stay together all through high school and college without at least temporarily breaking up and trying their own things; dating other people or moving away for a few years. That can be part of healthy development.
What to do, what to do, oh, what to do? I guess I just write the story that's living in my head and hope the readers can extrapolate the kind of future I envision for the characters.
So, I have a day-job. I'm lucky enough to get to work from home 3 days of the week. But my commute into the office is about an hour, so on the days I go in, I lose 2 hours of my life to sitting in a car.
Then there's family obligations. I live with family, and I enjoy spending time with them. I want to make sure they know that I love them and cherish them, so I try to give them time and attention.
When do I write? Well, every chance I get. I've heard it said that you should set aside a set time every day that you can focus on writing. I've tried that, but too often, things get in the way. A work project runs late and I can't just step away. There's a traffic accident on the freeway and it takes me an extra half hour to get home. My sister asks me to pick up my niece from ballet. We completely ran out of bread and I need to make an emergency trip to the store, so I might as well pick up the other things we're low on (literally happened just yesterday).
Instead of trying to carve out writing time, I set myself up so that any moment of the day could be writing time. I have a notebook and pens in my purse. I put a notebook specifically for my WIP in my work bag and take it to the office. I keep a notebook and my laptop next to me when I'm watching TV. Any little moment when inspiration might strike, I have a tool at my side that will allow me to start writing. Yes, I try to stick to a writing schedule as well, but I don't rely on it. Instead, I take the available moments as they come and keep myself prepared. It's served me well thus far.
Now I have to rewrite the first 3,000 words or so in order to switch perspectives, but I think the story will make a lot more sense and be more compelling with this change of main characters. Sometimes the story tells you how it's supposed to be written, and we, as writers, just have to sit back and listen.
