Lovely War: How to Write a YA Meet-Cute (That Isn’t Annoying)

A meet-cute is critical to any fictional romance, especially a young adult one. It’s the magical moment when your two characters meet for the first time. It’s the scene that gives a reader that first impression of their relationship, and will determine how shippable they are. And whether or not the actual character’s first impressions of each other are particularly good, these first few moments need to be crafted carefully. If the scene is too dry, your reader won’t be invested enough, but if the dialogue is too cheesy, it will definitely prompt a few eye-rolls. 

How do you make your ship loveable from their very first meeting? How do you avoid making your meet-cute stiff and clunky? Is there really a way to write this moment in a YA novel and keep it from being overly-dramatic? And most importantly: Could awkwardness actually be the answer instead of the problem?

Lovely War

Lovely War by Julie Berry is a historical YA novel, told from the perspective of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. She weaves the story of two young mortals she brought together during the time of World War I.

Hazel Windicott, a talented young musician, is pounding away at the piano in order to avoid talking with soldier boys at a small party in 1917. She’s shy and already socially exhausted, but since she had to be there anyway, she decided to stay in her comfort place and not talk to anyone. But despite her best efforts, one of those men, James Alderidge, takes notice of her. He just can’t bring himself to interrupt her playing. He anxiously waits off to the side, trying to distract himself, but always being drawn back to the girl at the piano.

Then suddenly, Hazel looks up. “She caught his expression in full.” Aphrodite says. “Both of them were too startled, at first, to look away. Hazel kept on playing, but she had seen straight through those brown eyes and into the depths behind them…” 

When Hazel finishes the song, James finally gains the courage to introduce himself. Their conversation entails a lot of blushing, bumbling, and awkwardness, but after a kind old woman encourages Hazel to let her take over the music for a bit, the two end up dancing together. 

Awkwardness Can Be a Tool

Hazel and James are both confident, intelligent, and innovative people. As the story grows, you watch their love for each other grow as well. However, their first meeting was far from perfect. James was anxious about talking to Hazel in the first place, he stumbled through his social cues, and just barely got a dance. Meanwhile, Hazel glued herself to the piano bench in the beginning and wasn’t the best at keeping up a conversation, either. 

Many meet-cutes I have read tend to be missing this element of growth. They forget to slow down, start from the less-than-perfect beginning and continue from there. This opens up incredible opportunities to allow the characters’ relationship to develop. If their relationship starts out perfect from the very beginning, they won’t have anywhere to grow. Instead, allow them to stumble through initiating the relationship. Let them be a little messy in the way that they open the first conversation. Then allow your readers to watch their relationship grow into the fully-developed romance they’ve been rooting for since their very first conversation. 

There will be no such thing as a perfect meet-cute, at least not to the characters. Unless you’re writing a classic fairy-tale or a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, your female love interest shouldn’t make eye contact with a guy and then immediately be swept off her feet and carried into the perfect relationship. This isn’t realistic, nor is it relatable. Many relationships take time, and many more don’t start out with two strangers knowing how to smoothly flirt with each other. 

Instead, try starting without a perfect beginning. Even if your characters aren’t in the YA genre and don’t meet the normal meet-cute standards, their first conversation still can’t be perfect. To make the relationship seem natural, make it awkward. Make one character unwilling to start a relationship, or have the other be so flirtatious that their love interest is flustered. There are an infinite amount of character possibilities here, but as long as there’s awkwardness involved, it’ll leave the rest of the romance open to growth. 

How to Use Awkwardness

However, you should be wary, because this tool can be taken too far. It’s easy to slip awkwardness into every aspect of the character’s relationship, but then your characters will quickly become ‘adorkable.’ If this makes sense within your character’s personality, then that’s great! But you should still be careful not to make their meet-cute too over-the-top.

However, if being comically clumsy isn’t something your no-nonsense girl-boss would likely do, even around their romantic interest, then there is still a way you can incorporate this technique.

No matter how confident your character, there should always be a little awkwardness at first. Maybe your incredibly strong-willed character only misspeaks once, but it’s enough to make them blush. Maybe your main character is flirtatious, but they’re inwardly cursing themselves for daring to speak at all. It’s natural, and infinitely more relatable to the reader, to have just that little unperfect element. After that, their relationship could stay that awkward for months, or, if your characters are a little more confident, they’ll probably move out of this stage quicker then most. 

No matter who your characters are, their meet-cute is important. It shouldn’t be too dramatic, but it shouldn’t be devoid of life either. Slip in some awkwardness here and there, but make sure they stay within their personality as well. Remember that no relationship starts out perfectly, then stand back to watch your fictional relationship blossom. 

Let us know in the comments:

What is your favorite meet-cute? Did you enjoy the one in Lovely War? How do you go about writing them in your own work?