It's been so long since I've done a proper chapter that doesn't contain endless excuses about why I haven't posted chapters of anything.

Right, love triangles. They are everywhere, like everywhere. TV shows, dramas, books. I'll be focusing on books.

Are they really necessary? They're overused, and just put into the plot to create *tension*. (Is it just me that thinks putting asterisks between a word looks like *jazz hands*?)

I've never read Twilight, but my friend summarised it for me. Of course there's a love triangle between a human, a werewolf and a vampire! By association, it put me off reading about vampires and werewolves.

I'm reading a book at the moment called The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. I didn't realize it was about vampires until I had read through a few chapters. But me being me, I decided to give the book a chance. I'm about halfway through, and it's brilliant. It's about a human girl who finds a strange book in her father's library, who then tells her the story of how he found it and what it meant for him. It's told alongside the girl's story, so half the chapter will tell you about the girl and her father travelling over Europe for her father's research, and the other half will be the father telling hus daughter the story of him and the book.

But then the father goes missing, and the girl (I can't remember her name) goes on a journey to find him, learning the rest of her father's long story through a series of letters. When I first discovered the book was about vampires, I thought, 'Oh great, it's going to pull a Twilight on a story that's been brilliant up until now'. Nope. The vampires are actually evil, and actually hurt humans and don't befriend them in any way.

I watch this really funny Youtuber called Terrible Writing Advice. If you like watching someone pick out the clichés involved in a particular genre or trope with a simple but effective animation style, mountains of sarcasm and a burning hatred for live triangles, I'm sure you'll love his videos. I'll put his video on Urban Fantasy at the top of the chapter, which pretty much tears apart Twilight and love triangles. He also has videos on Mary Sues, fantasy races and cosmic horror, as well as lots of other things. Check him out!

Maybe I should make a separate book for cliché rants.