Everyone loves a good love story.
Boy meets Girl.
Boy loses Girl. Boy gets Girl back.
What a classic, am
I right?
We’ve all seen or
read it a million times over, and we keep coming back for more. Because above
all else in life everyone wants to love and to be loved. Even us tattooed,
weight-lifting, chest-pounding apes called men love a good ol’ heart-tugger now
and then. Heck, one of my all-time favorite movies is Untamed Heart with Marisa
Tomei and Christian Slater. But shhhh! Don’t tell anyone.
Time is life’s
most valuable commodity, but Love is life’s most precious gift.
Such is life.
But sometimes we
don’t always get what we want, also such is life, so we watch a movie or read a
novel already knowing going in that the two lovers will eventually end up
together despite whatever differences separate them. Just like we want them to
do. Just like we yearn for in our own tragic lives.
I can’t think of
any other genre which has the same predictable ending 9 outta 10 times yet
still endures to this day (‘Liar, Liar’ with Jim Carrey is a great example of
that 1 outta 10, by the way). So much so that nearly all movies not of the love
genre have “the love story” as their subplot.
Rocky and Adrian
Neo and Trinity.
Han Solo and
Princess Leia.
But I digress.
Romeo &
Juliet, and When Harry Met Sally.
Two of the
classics.
One modern, and
one . . . well, not so modern.
To the untrained
eye these two love stories are as different as night and day.
Romeo & Juliet
fall in love at first sight.
Harry and Sally
argue to the bitter end.
But to the trained
eye they are almost the exact same story.
Yes, “almost.”
Two potential
lovers meet, are separated, then meet again to live happily every after.
Boy meets Girl.
Boy loses Girl. Boy gets Girl back. Or vice versa; Girl meets Boy, blah blah
blah . . . depending on your cup of gender tea.
Of course, Romeo
& Juliet “meet again to live happily ever after” in the afterlife by
committing suicide, and that depends on your personal opinion of the existence
of said afterlife. Clearly Shakespeare believed in one, at least for their
story.
So what’s the
“almost” difference?
Boy loses Girl.
Or, the
separation.
Romeo & Juliet
are separated by External circumstances. Their warring families hate each
other, and the two young lovers are forbidden to be together because of it. But
like all horny teenagers they defy their families’ wishes and see each other
anyways. Because that’s what lovers do. Darn those rambunctious teenagers!
Harry and Sally
don’t have such family problems. Their issues stem from another source:
themselves. They’re adults. And their separation is one of Internal
circumstances. Harry believes men and women can never be friends because of sex
always getting in the way, while Sally believes men and women can be friends
just fine without ever having sex. They argue this topic despite their clear
attraction to and chemistry with one another, then separate to go about their
lives until they finally meet again.
So who is right?
They’re both
wrong, silly!
And after learning
as much, Harry and Sally meet again to live happily ever after together. Yay!
The only real
difference between Romeo & Juliet and When Harry Met Sally are the
circumstances which temporarily separate them. Romeo & Juliet = External.
When Harry met Sally = Internal. Switch the circumstances around and you have
When Romeo met Juliet. Or Harry & Sally.
You see, life is
like a box of . . . no, wait, that’s not right.
A bird in the hand
is worth . . . no, no, no.
Adversity builds character.
That’s not only a
fact of life but a fact of fiction. Especially so a fact of lovers.
And “adversity
builds character” also happens to be the premise of every story ever told
before they’re written.
Boy meets Girl has
been done a million times before, and will be done a million times again. So if
you’re planning on writing a Boy meets Girl (or Girl meets Boy), then as the
writer it’s best to begin plotting with why they can’t be together. Because the
circumstances of their separation (External or Internal) is not only the true
test of their love, but the whole middle of your Boy meets Girl story.
Boy meets Girl,
and Boy gets Girl back, are just the two pieces of bread. Boy loses Girl is the
entire meat of your lover sandwich.
Don’t choose
bologna.