Meet cutes are the introduction of two characters where the reader falls in love with them as a couple before the hero and heroine ever fall in love with each other. From the meet cute, your audience knows there’s going to be a storyline that keeps the characters together, motivations that pull them apart, and a whole lot of fun within the push and pull dynamic.
In this one scene, the author must set up the plot, the characters, and the message of the story. Let’s take a look at how to do that well.
- Chemistry. Create your characters as opposites so that the audience knows there is going to be a reaction once the two come together. This is what makes the story entertaining no matter what happens or what the characters learn. Your love interests can be fire and ice, oil and water, or soda and Pop Rocks. Maybe one is rich while the other is poor. Or make one an athlete and the other a nerd. Set it up so that after the initial introduction, neither will ever be the same again. Whether they like or loathe one another, it’s obvious they are more alive when they interact.
- Connection. This is what keeps your two opposites from taking off separate directions once their worlds collide. The connection reveals the plot of the story as well as adds dramatic irony to the meet cute. If a cop pulls a woman over for speeding, make the speed demon his new partner. If a couple’s blind date turns out to be a disaster, make her his new boss. If she cuts in line in front of him in line at the coffee shop, make him the judge for the case she’s defending. The reader needs to know this moment is more than just a chance meeting.
- Conflict. Even when both characters want the same goal, they have to want it for different reasons. This is going to give readers the theme of the story. Say the two main characters meet in a bidding war to buy the same property. She wants it because her grandpa built the house while he wants to tear it down to build condos, thus the theme becomes stability vs growth. Or say she hires him to track down her dad. She wants to find out her family history, but the PI she hired knows the guy is a criminal and is looking to get the bounty, creating a theme around judgement and mercy. Their motives must be mutually exclusive so that someone (or both) will have to bend. Rather than making one of them right, make them both sympathetic. Then the audience doesn’t know which side to root for. Your readers want to feel this quandary come across in the characters’ very first interaction.
As you can see, the meet cute is much more than a cute way to meet. It’s symbolic of your entire book and important for your story to be told well.
Husband Auditions
In a world full of happily-ever-after love, Meri Newberg feels like the last young woman on the planet to be single, at least in her Christian friend group. So when she’s handed a strange present at the latest wedding–a 1950s magazine article of “ways to get a husband”–she decides there’s nothing to lose by trying out its advice. After all, she can’t get any more single, can she?
Her brother’s roommate sees the whole thing as a great opportunity. Not to fall in love–Kai Kamaka has no interest in the effort a serious relationship takes. No, this is a career jump start. He talks Meri into letting him film every silly husband-catching attempt for a new online show. If it goes viral, his career as a cameraman will be made.
When Meri Me debuts, it’s an instant hit. People love watching her lasso men on street corners, drop handkerchiefs for unsuspecting potential beaus, and otherwise embarrass herself in pursuit of true love. But the longer this game goes on, the less sure Kai is that he wants Meri to snag anyone but him. The only problem is that he may not be the kind of husband material she’s looking for . . .
