Love Blooms In A Perfect Match!
Writing A ‘Seasoned Romance’ With My Writing Group
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March 11 Meeting
Since my last update, we’ve had two meetings.
Go here to download the Agenda for the 11/03/25 meeting. Password: dear reader
Michelle, Denise, and I attended this meeting, which lasted two and a half hours. We believe our brainstorming session nailed our MC, Laurence!
We brainstormed:
How he had been hurt in the past
How this influenced him now
What false identity he’d created to protect himself from further hurt
For each of our two MCs, we identified:
2 likes and 1 dislike
Claire: enjoys going to the gym to stay fit and wearing expensive leather shoes. She dislikes assumptions about her abilities that stem from sexist attitudes.
Laurence: enjoys unwinding in natural surroundings and taking early morning walks in the cool air to stay fit. He dislikes narcissistic, domineering, and judgmental people, such as his father.
Skills
Claire: Leading business meetings & photography
Laurence: flying his helicopter and painting
Positive Attributes
Claire: kind, generous, loyal, clever, logical
Laurence: innovative, disciplined, charismatic, elegant, spiritual
Negative Attributes
Claire: overthinks
Laurence: guarded
We also brainstormed Claire’s sidekick, Trish, Claire’s best friend since childhood in Kalminora, and, to a lesser extent, Claire’s other best friend, Maggie, in Perth.
The Four Critical Questions
What makes these two perfect for each other
What’s the obstacle (on both sides) to the romance itself?
How are they going to spend enough time together to fall in love?
How will both of them change, learn, or grow so they can get their happy ever after together?
We solved the third question by having Claire get a serious knee injury when she goes into the bush with Trish. She then takes sick leave in Kalminora instead of returning to Perth.
We didn’t get to ‘Key Scenes’ but will complete that task in the next meeting.
Meeting 25 March
This was exciting because it was the first meeting that all seven writing group members could attend.
The Rat and The Dragon
The meeting commenced on a highly positive and creative note when Bryan informed us that he had identified Claire and Laurence’s Chinese horoscope signs based on their birth dates!
The birth date we had chosen for Laurence put him in the year of the Rat, and Claire’s birth date put her in the year of the Dragon. We were amazed at how compatible these two signs are.
The Rat and The Dragon:
Like and respect each other
The Rat values the Dragon’s enterprising and enthusiastic manner
Both are hard-working
They could enjoy considerable success together
Because of their shared interests, outlooks and devotion to each other, they make for an excellent love match
We are taking this as a really positive sign for our book. Great job, Bryan!
Key Scenes
Our main task for this meeting was to identify:
The Inciting Incident
The scene where everything falls apart
The iconic romantic scene ((e.g. the kiss in The Notebook, the New Year’s kiss in When Harry Met Sally, the final dance scene in Dirty Dancing, and the unforgettable line in Casablanca!)
We had already identified our Inciting Incident. Specifically, Claire’s father dies after suffering a heart attack, and she returns to Kalminora for the funeral.
After much discussion, Fran pinpointed the ideal moment for the Iconic Romantic scene, when Claire and Laurence share their first passionate kiss - right before Laurence’s ex-wife arrives on the scene!
Bryan suggests the perfect emotion to cause everything to fall apart: jealousy! Claire is jealous of Laurence’s ex-wife.
Tasks
Denise will introduce the reader to Claire by writing a first draft of her day-to-day life in Perth.
Michelle will introduce the reader to Laurence by writing a first draft of his day-to-day life in Kalminora.
Bryan and Fran, who have both visited Kalgoorlie (the real Australian town that we are basing Kalminora upon), will come back with descriptions of the town regarding sight, smell, sound, touch and taste.
Tess will write a backstory scene in which Trish’s parents are furious when they discover that Trish has a boyfriend from the wrong side of the tracks.
Margaret has missed all our recent meetings and is becoming familiar with all the background work we have completed.
Next Meeting
Discuss Denise and Michelle’s drafts of the everyday lives of Claire and Laurence
Discuss the “Meet Cute” Scene and Claire and Laurence’s backstory scene
Use Stella Fosse’s template for Building the Romance Plot
Love to get your feedback on what you find interesting or helpful ☺️
