How They Met

The novel that I'm writing is a chick lit novel, and one of the things I struggled with at first was the scene where the two main characters meet. I wanted it to be funny, honest, and original, so that the following scenes where the characters formed a connection with each other would be suprising rather than expected and all laid out by the first page.

What about you? In the stories you're writing, did you also struggle with "how they met" scenes? Or did your characters already know each other before they formed connections?

I once met a guy who told me that he met his wife at the Chicago Summer Dance Festival, where people learn new moves and dance to live music in Grant Park every week. He said that at one point the announcer told the crowd to turn around and dance with whoever they were facing. This guy did, and he came face to face with a beautiful woman. They fell in love the first time they danced together.

I met another guy who said he met his girlfriend at a train stop. They waited for the same train at the same time every morning, and they kept noticing each other. Eventually they got up enough courage to talk to each other, and now they've been together for years.

I also know of (though I don't them personally) two people who met through their blogs; they kept blogs on the site quarterlife.com and made videos of themselves. Apparently they found each other's blogs, left messages for each other, and then they finally met in person and fell for each other. The guy ended up moving to Boston, where the girl lived, in order to be with her. Then they started documenting their relationship through their blogs.

I always thought I'd meet that special someone the way so many other people did, at a party, through friends, or even by accident. It's not like I had unrealistic expectations about meeting someone. I didn't think I'd lock eyes with some guy on a crowded street, and that we'd then run towards each other with our arms outstretched, as music played out of nowhere and everything suddenly happened in slow motion. Not only is that unrealistic, it's also totally lame.

Before I even considered online dating, I thought the whole concept was weird. The idea of going through profiles as if I was combing through a catalog (of men) seemed surreal to me. And I couldn't imagine writing to perfect strangers, let alone dating any of them. What if the guy turned out to be an ex-con? Or what if he was a lot younger/older/weirder-looking than he appeared to be?

But now a lot more people are doing online dating. And it's not viewed in the same way as it was when it first came on the scene. And many people are succeeding at it; they're meeting great people, going on dates, falling in love, and getting married. And now that I've tried online dating, I actually like the idea of writing to someone before the first date. It's often easier to break the ice that way.

Even if I don't meet someone I could be with, I'm still willing to give online dating another shot, at least for now. Hopefully I won't regret it. Hopefully I won't feel the urge to give up dating altogether or smash my laptop into tiny pieces so that I never have to look at another profile again. Hopefully, I'll meet someone I like.

I have another date tonight, this time with a different guy. (What? I know I just went on a date with someone else on Tuesday, but I'm going out of town next week and then I won't get to date at all until I come back! I figure I should meet the guys sooner rather than later, especially because they might meet Heidi Klum's double before they meet me, and then all would be lost as far as I'm concerned.)