I’ve been working on the outline for that new novel idea from earlier in the week (ideally just enough barebones to allow me to gauge my interest in exploring it properly but not so much that I throw myself off track on the other one I’m actually meant to be writing right now!) and I got to thinking about the ‘lovers meet’ scene.

You know the one I mean, it’s in every romance novel the world over, that moment when we first set eyes on our heroine’s love interest. He strolls onto the page and even if she doesn’t know it yet, we the reader know that he will be “the one”.

And yes, it’s a total cliche because real life doesn’t always quite work out like that, but without it, the whole thing just doesn’t work.

I didn’t want that to be true so I went in search of exceptions to the rule and yes, I found some and yes, they were terrible!

In chic lit at least, we have got to meet “the one” and the sooner the better. We can experiment with how it plays out, bring a new perspective to the scene in a bid to break free from the cliches but, like it or not, the scene is obligatory.

Which got me to thinking about you … what are your obligatory scenes?

It helps if you know what kinda story you want your life to be telling of course (lots of stories have a love interest but it’s only really in the romance genre that the two must meet and soon!) but even if you’re not totally sure, think about it …

What are the ‘must have’ or set pieces you want from life? When all else fails, do you believe that it’ll all work out well in the end or is your story fairly tragic?

Here’s the really neat part … you totally get to choose!

The stories you live by are not the final draft.

If you don’t like how things are playing out, all is not lost. You can tweak the plot. Make a new choice, change the direction of the action and watch a whole other story unfold.

You simply have to choose 🙂