As a single girl, I think it is appealing because in some ways I feel a lot like Ted. I’ve been meeting new people and they all just seem to be curves in the road on this journey to meet “the one.” Plus, Ted and I have about the same luck when it comes to meeting “the one.” However, it is hard to meet new people and it is amazing how he and I both meet some of the people we have dated, however, briefly.
It got me thinking about when we write stories and the various ways our characters meet. In movies, they call it the meet cute. As writers, we constantly have to think up of cute, fun and/or interesting ways for our characters to meet. Is this the first time they have meet? Do they have a history? Do they love each other immediately or do they hate each other first? It’s fun to think up of new ways for characters to meet and exciting because it is the start of a new story.
As a reader and big movie fan, I enjoy 
seeing how other authors and writers come up with ways for their main characters to meet. One of my all time favorites is in Love Actually when Hugh Grant plays the Prime Minister and he meets Natalie for the first time. She is so nervous to meet the new Prime Minister that she swears in front of him, twice. I feel her embarrassment, but laugh too, because it is such a cute 
meeting.
Another great one is when Drew Barrymore’s character meets the prince for the first time in Ever After. She immediately begins throwing apples at him because she sees hm stealing the horse from the stables. I find that mistaken identity meetings are usually fun and some of my favorites.
What are some of your favorite meet cutes?
Kasey, I love both movies you commented about! Especially how those characters meet their better half.
ReplyDeleteI personally like when characters know each other, not necessarily romantically, but have known each other or been introduced before.
In historicals, I like when the heroine or hero have loved (or had a strong liking) of their future mate, but maybe they've had reason to hide their attraction for some reason. Love wallflower novels, for this reason. Girl in love with unattainable man...etc...
In a contemp I rather them not know each other. Only in certain circumstances would I like the h/h to have met previously.
Thanks for the thought provoking thread!
HUGS
Trish
Great movie choices! Another of my favorites is The Wedding Planner, where he saves her life, and only later does she find out he's the groom in the wedding she's planning. The unusual meet-cutes are my favorite, and are some of the biggest struggles I have when writing.
ReplyDeleteTrish, I love wallflower stories too! They are usually some of my favorites, especially Lisa Kleypas's wallflower series and Julia Quinn's Romancing Mister Bridgerton. Love those!
ReplyDeleteNoelle, The Wedding Planner is a good one too. :)
I like the unusual meet cutes too. Loved The Wedding Planner! Or when they hate each other and have to work together or something and then they grow to like each other.
ReplyDeleteI love the meet cute part of the book. One of my favorite ways is the reunion. I seem to be drawn back to that time and again in my own writing. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but another one of my favorite types is the hidden gender like in Johanna Lindsey's Gentle Rogue and Viola in Shakespeare in Love.
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
Kellie, those hate to love relationships are fun.
ReplyDeleteCherie, I completely spaced out on hidden gender/identity. I love those too. Have you seen She's the Man. I love how it is a remake of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which I also love.
Wonderful movie choices and an excellent topic, Kasey! Two of my favorite cute meets are from the movie, "The Holiday". The term is even used within the movie. I love how Cameron Diaz and Jude Laws' characters and Kate Winslett and Jack Black's characters meet. Yes, I love those unexpected encounters that turn into something magical. Love seeing it on the big screen and reading about them. Really enjoyed the post.
ReplyDeleteHa...reversed the phrasing. Sorry, should be meet cute. Defnitely need more coffee this morning. :)
ReplyDeleteLove the post and the replies. Wish I could rememeber some meet cutes, but I can't. I did like the one in the old version of the Pride and Prejudice movie with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier. (See in on TCM :>) I like the wallflower stories, too, and the heroine loving the impossible male from afar.
ReplyDeleteJD, I think I learned the term from that movie!
ReplyDeleteBarb, I haven't seen that version of Pride and Prejudice yet, but do love the new one with Matthew MacFayden and Kiera Knightly or the Colin Firth one too. By the way, has anyone on here seen Lost in Austen? I love that movie; it's such a fun twists on Pride and Prejudice meeting the modern day world.
I can't seem to think of anything in the newer movies, but I love when Joe meets the Professor in Little Women. Especially the newer version with Wynona Rider and that hunky guy whose name always escapes me. I love that movie. Great movies Kasey. I adore Love Actually and the Wedding Planner.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post!
Lori
Gabriel Byrne, the Irish actor as Professor Baer...Yummy!
ReplyDelete