coming in threes
Mar. 16th, 2021 06:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lirelyn Okay! *rubs hands* OT3 thoughts!
I love writing/reading OT3s, I think mostly because in general I like thinking of love as a community experience rather than something isolated between two people. Also because it's that many more opportunities for juicy character interactions and problems that don't have a simple answer.
There are four relationships in an OT3: the three two-person combinations and the relationship of the triad as a whole. (Having a character insist that there aren't multiple relationships, it's just a single relationship that happens to feature three people, is a quick way to give me the heebie-jeebies, based on too much real-life experience.) I love the way each side of the triangle can bring out a different aspect of the characters: the Parker that shows up with Hardison is different from the one that shows up with Eliot, and it's just such a fun playground for a writer who's mainly character-focused (that would be me.)
The two OT3s I've written the most for are on kind of opposite ends of the scale in terms of "how much the triad stuff is an issue." In the Leverage OT3, while the story was technically a get-together, as far as I'm concerned the three of them were already in a functioning, committed relationship as a triad. The story wasn't about starting a new relationship so much as shifting the nature of one side of the triangle, and the issues were mostly internal to one character. It was about him getting to a place where he could accept the kind of love he didn't feel like he deserved, and the OT3 aspect mostly helped resolve conflict instead of creating it.
At the other end is the zhanchengxian OT3, which I'm now writing in two different iterations. If you'd asked me a year ago, I would have said I'd never want to write a trio so rife with jealousy and looming primary/secondary issues, let alone one where every member is canonically awful at communication. Turns out it's a bit cathartic, so, as always, sorry and thank you to Jiang Cheng for inflicting my own stuff on you.
In the Leverage OT3, they shore each other up, bridging each other's weak spots and making the unit stronger. In the zhanchengxian OT3, the triad dynamic hits like a hammer to a wedge right where each of them is weakest. Wei Ying, believing he can and must fix everything by piling more burdens on himself. Lan Zhan, for whom "causing Wei Ying pain" is an unforgivable offence (there could also be a thing about possessiveness, but I write him on the low end of his possessiveness sliding scale because to do otherwise would not be fun for me). Jiang Cheng, who has spent his whole life being second best and look, here it is again. It creates a kind of crucible relationship where they all have to grow real fast or just fracture completely.
I cannot overstress how much I do not recommend this approach to IRL relationships. Occasionally it works out well, usually it just piles on additional damage and trauma. But as a writer, it's so much fun to just push and push on those stress points.
I'm also working on an original OT3 romance that has a different dynamic yet. But more on that another time.
I love writing/reading OT3s, I think mostly because in general I like thinking of love as a community experience rather than something isolated between two people. Also because it's that many more opportunities for juicy character interactions and problems that don't have a simple answer.
There are four relationships in an OT3: the three two-person combinations and the relationship of the triad as a whole. (Having a character insist that there aren't multiple relationships, it's just a single relationship that happens to feature three people, is a quick way to give me the heebie-jeebies, based on too much real-life experience.) I love the way each side of the triangle can bring out a different aspect of the characters: the Parker that shows up with Hardison is different from the one that shows up with Eliot, and it's just such a fun playground for a writer who's mainly character-focused (that would be me.)
The two OT3s I've written the most for are on kind of opposite ends of the scale in terms of "how much the triad stuff is an issue." In the Leverage OT3, while the story was technically a get-together, as far as I'm concerned the three of them were already in a functioning, committed relationship as a triad. The story wasn't about starting a new relationship so much as shifting the nature of one side of the triangle, and the issues were mostly internal to one character. It was about him getting to a place where he could accept the kind of love he didn't feel like he deserved, and the OT3 aspect mostly helped resolve conflict instead of creating it.
At the other end is the zhanchengxian OT3, which I'm now writing in two different iterations. If you'd asked me a year ago, I would have said I'd never want to write a trio so rife with jealousy and looming primary/secondary issues, let alone one where every member is canonically awful at communication. Turns out it's a bit cathartic, so, as always, sorry and thank you to Jiang Cheng for inflicting my own stuff on you.
In the Leverage OT3, they shore each other up, bridging each other's weak spots and making the unit stronger. In the zhanchengxian OT3, the triad dynamic hits like a hammer to a wedge right where each of them is weakest. Wei Ying, believing he can and must fix everything by piling more burdens on himself. Lan Zhan, for whom "causing Wei Ying pain" is an unforgivable offence (there could also be a thing about possessiveness, but I write him on the low end of his possessiveness sliding scale because to do otherwise would not be fun for me). Jiang Cheng, who has spent his whole life being second best and look, here it is again. It creates a kind of crucible relationship where they all have to grow real fast or just fracture completely.
I cannot overstress how much I do not recommend this approach to IRL relationships. Occasionally it works out well, usually it just piles on additional damage and trauma. But as a writer, it's so much fun to just push and push on those stress points.
I'm also working on an original OT3 romance that has a different dynamic yet. But more on that another time.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-17 12:33 am (UTC)And I love how you framed it in the first place -- love as a community experience. I'm always pontificating about this even when we're talking couples, not polyam ships. Romances that are just two people orbiting obsessively around each other, with no other important relationships in sight, kind of creep me out, but I LOVE reading about ships as components of larger networks of friends and family and loving bonds and obligations.
(Also, while I am VERY excited about your zhanchengxian, I will probably wait to read until it's finished, because my brain is leery, these days, of stewing in the angsty middle without having the happy ending right there waiting. So I'll just be cheering you on from the other side of the garden gate until it's safe for me to come galumphing in.)
no subject
Date: 2021-03-17 11:10 pm (UTC)And I'm the same way with a lot of WIPs so I get that! And especially since I don't have a set posting schedule for this one... I don't intend for it to drag out too long, but I definitely don't have a clear end date in mind. It'll be here for you when it's done!
no subject
Date: 2021-03-17 02:24 am (UTC)OT3s! I like your perspective about there being four relationships and the way you've explained it. Gimme all the character interactions, and show every side of the triangle! Even if it's more of a wedge-shape, the interaction is still something I want to know. (now I'm thinking too much about shapes... Imagine your OT3: are they an equilateral/isosceles/scalene triangle??)
I've had a hard time figuring out who I'd like to see Jiang Cheng in a romantic relationship with. Somehow, I hadn't considered this OT3 before. But, oh, yes, I would love to find out how it could work, with all of them so easily poised to hurt one another, as you've described. They could be so disastrous! Which makes the idea of the three of them finding their way together fascinating.
(I don't usually read wips, but I'm intrigued now, and going to check out the zhanchengxian you just posted)
no subject
Date: 2021-03-17 11:22 pm (UTC)And yeah, Jiang Cheng ships can be tricky. I often think of him as somewhere on the ace/aro spectrum, and a lot of his popular ships don't really work for me most of the time. I really love chengxian, but not as a replacement for wangxian, hence the OT3. Figuring out the right dynamic for him and Lan Zhan together is a challenge that I apparently really enjoy, since I'm doing it for two different versions of them.