I’m so excited to host this month’s author interview with Melissa Tagg. I had heard great things about her books and finally had the chance to read “From the Start” the first in her Walker Family series.
This is a book you will want to savor and read slowly because there is a moment in the book that literally made me giggle out loud. Not laugh, but giggle! And that moment was the meet cute – the moment where the hero and heroine meet for the first time.
Because Melissa did this so well I just had to ask her to talk to us today about meet cutes.
A meet cute is defined as the moment when a couple meet for the first time. How do you decide how to write that out for your characters?
Meet cutes are one of my faaaavorite things to write! How I decide to write my meet cute really depends on the characters themselves. For instance, I remember back when I was working on the second book in my Walker Family series, Like Never Before. Previously, most of the meet cutes I’d written were funny. So I kept trying to write a memorably funny or awkward scene for Logan and Amelia. I wrote and rewrote and rewrote that scene until it finally hit me—the reason it wasn’t working wasn’t my writing and it wasn’t because the scene wasn’t funny. It was funny…it just wasn’t right for Logan and Amelia. Specifically, Logan is a widow who, right before meeting Amelia, is tucking in his daughter and remembering his wife…it’s a soft, gentle moment. So to then give him a hilarious meet cute…it just didn’t feel right.
So I definitely let my characters drive my meet cutes. Too, I don’t want the meet cute distracting from the mood of the scene or chapter. In Keep Holding On, my character—Beckett—is very tense about his return to his hometown and dreading what he has to do (turn himself into the police). So his meet cute wasn’t so much funny as it was dramatic. In my first Christmas novella, One Enchanted Christmas, however, I wanted to keep the mood light and cute and funny…so my hero meets my heroine while she’s climbing up the side of his porch on a blustery December day. 🙂 It’s really just dependent on the character and the mood or emotional setting.
Speaking of meet cutes, I literally giggled out loud when I read the meet cute for Kate and Colton in your book From the Start. The approach from the humor perspective worked! It had tension, conflict and of course made me as a reader laugh. Why did you decide to write from this approach?
Aw yay, I’m glad you like that scene! Thank you! True story: I probably wrote that meet cute four or five times before finally settling on the, ahem, bedroom scene. 🙂 And I learned a big lesson in the process. See, I kept wanting to write a really funny, really memorable meet cute. So I’d devised all these random, slightly outlandish situations to put Kate and Colton in. Yet, it just kept not feeling right.
And it finally hit me: I didn’t need to come up with some crazy scenario in order for it to be funny. All I needed to do was write a logical, every day scene…and then twist it just a little. So I asked myself, “What’s the logical thing for Kate to be doing in this scene?” Well, she was arriving at her Dad’s house late at night after a full day of travel, not realizing that her brother’s friend, Colton, was also staying at the house. Everyone else was already asleep. What was the logical thing for her to do? Go to bed! So she does…and how did I twist the scene? By having Colton sleeping in her bed. I didn’t need to finagle some other situation in which both Kate and Colton are awake late at night in the kitchen or the garage or wherever. I just need to say, “What’s Kate’s obvious next move?” and go from there.
In other words, a meet cute doesn’t have to be over-the-top in order to be hilarious. So now I’ve developed a habit of checking myself any time I’m writing a funny meet cute to make sure it’s logical and believable rather than overly screwball-ish.
What are some of your favorite meet cutes either in one of your books or someone else’s?
Ooh fun question. I have so many favorites…obviously, I really enjoy the meet cutes in my own books (haha!) but some of my favorites from other books include:
- I think Sarah M. Eden does an exceptional job writing meet cutes! She has a book called Friends and Foes where the hero and heroine meet at an inn and get their walking sticks mixed up…and proceed to throw the best zingers at each other! Oh, and her book, The Kiss of a Stranger starts off with a meet cute that perfectly encapsulates the title. 😉
- Julianne Donaldson’s meet cute in Edenbrooke is simply adorable…and hilarious…and perfect.
- And of course, I can’t leave out a classic favorite meet cute…when Anne smashes a slate over Gilbert Blythe’s head in Anne of Green Gables!
How do you brainstorm the perfect meet cute?
Well, again, for me, it really comes down to the characters. I’ll ask myself what makes sense for my hero and heroine, what mood I want to convey, what setting will be the most memorable, what kind of impression I want my hero to make on the heroine and vice versa. Do I want them to make a positive first impression on each other…or negative? Sometimes I’ll just have a random snippet of dialogue in my head and I’ll build the whole scene around that. What’s funny is, I’ve had times when I’ve written a meet cute and I’ve known from the first words that it was just right…and barely anything changes about it from first draft to final. And other times, I’ve had to rewrite it over and over before getting it right. So while I’d love to say I have a set-in-stone technique, it seems like it’s different for every story. 🙂
Thanks again Melissa! I would love to hear what everyone’s favorite meet cute is – real or fiction!
And…I’m giving away one paperback copy of her book “From the Start.”
Enter below:
I had no idea what a meet cute was, let alone much thought goes into one! What I love about a lot of meet cutes in books and television is that magic I feel when I realize this could happen to someone, or perhaps HAS happened to someone! I love romance 🙂
I love The Holiday movie, and Cameron Diaz has the best meet cute. I can watch it over and over. My all time favorite is the movie Serendipity, which I have watched many times!
I like Real for sure! Thanks!
My favorite cute meet is my own. I met my husband through assigned seating in college
Fun!
Love love 💘 Melissa’s books!
I just read Edenbrooke a week or so ago. That initial meeting was great, and then the scene where she sings about being a milkmaid is hilarious!
Even though I read alot, I have never heard of a meet cute. Now that I know, I will be paying more attention to them! I don’t know if a specific one comes to mind…so I guess I can just mention the style I like. Actually, Melissa’s book sounds like it has the kind of meet cute that I like to read…the awkward ones. I am awkward at meeting people so I guess that’s why that type of meet cute 🙂
If you follow Melissa on Facebook she mentioned an awkward encounter she had just recently!
Meet cute. Nice! I enjoy the fictional ones but the real-life ones are better!
I’ve read From the Start and Like Never Before, and I agree that Melissa’s meet cutes are always perfect! I also agree with her that Anne and Gilbert’s is fantastic too! Now I want to go watch those movies! Lol
Anne and Gilbert are a classic!
This was neat! I love reading meet cutes, but don’t necessarily have a fave.
Becky Wade has some really good ones, I’ve also loved Tammy Gray’s.
Yay another Tammy and Becky fan!
My favorite meet cute isn’t in a book, it’s in the first Thor movie when Jane meets Thor, I believe she almost hits him with her camper and then she tasers him.
Too funny!
Great interview. I love meet cutes. My favorite is not a meet cute, but rather in the movie The Holiday where the older gentleman, Arthur, is explaining to Kate Winslet’s character what a meet cute is and giving her a bunch of movie recommendations. It’s such a great scene.
Aww yes! I love that movie!
I haven’t read this series although I’ve read several by Melissa. I would love to have this one. Cute post! Thanks!
One of my favorite meet cutes is in Catherine Marshall’s book Christy when Christy meets Dr. MacNeill for the first time in Cutter Gap and he is performing a surgery in a mountain cabin and tensions are high in the cabin & she is in culture shock. How memorable!
I hear so many great things about this book. I need to read it!
So many faves to choose from! One fave might be opening the back kitchen door to toss the soapy water and accidentally soaking the guy! So funny! So overdone and might not fly now, but when I was reading it in high school, it definitely made me laugh. Maybe too close to real life? Lol
Thank you for the chance to win your beautiful book. I entered on rafflecopter and appreciate your writing.
I love my meet cute with my now husband. We first officially met at a Managers Training Meeting that was held at a go-kart, adventure type place. I remember he was standing out front and I thought he looked cute! I wish I would have paid even more attention because I had no clue how much he would come to mean to me someday! 🙂
You can make up for lost time now!
I don’t have one particular meet cute example though I appreciate a good one when I read it. Melissa does this very well in her books. At my age, all the meet cutes I experience are fictional! Thanks for the giveaway.
I like others had no idea what a meet cute was. My real life meet cute was when I met my husband for the first time. I had just gotten off an airplane and he was with the people picking me up. We ended up getting married just a little over a year after that first meeting. 😊
Fun!
Ahh! Yes! Sarah Eden and Julianne Donaldson were the first two authors I thought of as well!!
I have no idea what a meet cute is? I guess that’s when hero and heroine meet for the first time. I just rewatched Sleepless in Seattle and my favorite part was when Sam (Tom Hanks) gets his first glimpse of Annie (Meg Ryan) when she comes off the plane…Though they don’t really “meet” until the end on top of the Empire State building. Just the look on Sams face when she walks by him….like he’s starstruck 🙂 Yeah, that’s good stuff right there!
I would say I enjoy fictional meet cutes best because I read all the time (romance, of course). There’s a lot of great examples in books! Thanks for the giveaway chance for From the Start by Melissa Tagg.
Yes! A meet cute is when the hero and heroine do meet. I wanted to highlight “From the Start” because that meet cute is sooo funny. And I love Sleepless in Seattle. Great example!
I had never heard of a meet cute! I guess my own meet cute was special! I was headed to a Tupperware party & my now husband was headed to a revival meeting! He asked if I’d like to go to church with him and I accepted the date leaving my Mama & aunt to go to the party without me! But it worked now almost 49 years married!