Driveway Moments
Setting the scene for big moves, in life and fiction
Hello lovers,
Welcome back to The Romantic, the newsletter dedicated to the evaluation and explication of love stories. I’m your host, Meg Oolders, emotion engineer, angst aficionado, and your swoon-savvy chaperone along the moonlight-dappled pathways of romantic storytelling.
Whether you’re reading love stories, writing them, watching them, living/dreaming them, or secretly despising their existence, this is the internet rendezvous for you.
Consider if you will, your first kiss.
Considering how many first kisses are epic disasters, consider instead …
your first GOOD kiss.
If the kiss was as good as you say it was, you’ll hopefully definitely remember who it was with, why it was good, what it signified, and where and when it took place.
I’ll go first.
My first good kiss was with [REDACTED]. It was good because it was unexpected (read: stolen), tender (read: not slobbery), and deftly aimed (read: practiced). It signified that I had no idea what was going on in [REDACTED]’s head and probably never would. At the time of the kiss, we were standing in [REDACTED]’s driveway. Summer. Evening. Circa 1998.
Your turn.
As the title of this post suggests, I’m most interested in learning WHERE all these amazing kisses took place. Because while details like eye contact, body proximity, and mouthfeel are all crucial to encapsulating the kissing experience, as storytellers, we’re charged not only with building the necessary tension ahead of the kiss to make the moment worth a reader’s vicarious titillation, but also with choosing the precise time and perfect location for that moment to unfold.
A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to take a masterclass with one of my favorite YA authors, Elana K. Arnold. The class was called “Into the Weeds” and it was about the revision process.
Regarding settings, she advised us to comb through our draft and ask ourselves:
1. What are the most important settings?
2. When do they appear in the story?
Notice them [Okay … here]
Question them [Wait … here?]
Lean in on the ones that seem most significant [YES, DEFINITELY HERE]
In real life, the places we’ve kissed (and been kissed) may seem arbitrary.
But are they … really?
Several months before my real-life driveway moment with [REDACTED], I wrote a very cringy romantic story for my high school creative writing class that culminated in a similar moment (read: stolen kiss), with a similar love interest (read: carbon copy of [REDACTED], in a similar location (read: driveway).
Am I suggesting that at age seventeen, I was able to predict my romantic future with astonishing accuracy?
No.
I’m suggesting that at age seventeen,
DRIVEWAYS.
WERE.
SIGNIFICANT.
Consider if you will, the driveway …
Property limbo between dependence and independence. Home and away. Structure and freedom.
Where goodbyes (and goodnights) can be stretched and rolled over the rumble of an idling engine and the faint pulse of an R&B bassline.
A place you can be picked up, dropped off, let down, thrown over, and carried away.
Driveways … for some … are hotbeds for romantic tension.
As are parking lots. Playgrounds. Libraries. Boardwalks. Movie theaters. Church basements. Swimming pools. Greenrooms. Porch swings. Arcades. Phone booths. Horse barns. Supply closets. Cockpits.
And so on …
Where you set the scene for romantic milestones in a story will depend on the world you’ve created for your characters, and which corners of that world are most conducive to building, prolonging, and eventually releasing tension.
When you find that special corner of your story’s world, remember to lean in.
This [meet cute, confession, kiss, fight, breakup, reunion, consummation] takes place [here].
Wait … [here?]
Yes.
DEFINITELY.
[HERE.]
If you were too shy to share your first GOOD kiss details in the comments, perhaps you’d be willing to share the details of a favorite romantic moment in film, television, or literature.
Did you feel the timing and location of that moment was sufficiently significant to the characters in that story?
Next time, on The Romantic …
A three-way review of “old” movies starring one of my quirkiest noblest celebrity crushes.
Until then, have fun reliving all those GOOD kisses.
You’re welcome. 💕
This brought up oodles of memories and a big smile.
Never on a driveway for me. Nor on a front porch. My first kiss was with a boy a year younger than me— he knew too much because when he shoved his tongue down my throat I had no idea why and found it repulsive. I was 12!
I don't remember my first kiss, which probably means it wasn't all that great. LOL. I love movies where the kiss is passionate and this is going to sound crazy, BUT, back in the day, I was a huge fan of actor Christopher Atkins (as in that dude from "The Blue Lagoon" movie). He did an EXTREMELY corny movie with actress Kristy McNichol called "The Pirate Movie" and their first kiss was on a beach. With tongue! LOL It's what I consider a REAL. GOOD. KISS. I lurved it. To me, that's when you know it's a real good kiss: when you (clearly) see tongues. LOL
Another one I liked was the movie "Teen Witch." Lordty, the MMC was an actor named Dan Gauthier--someone who was major eye candy on a show called "China Beach"--who ends up falling for the teen witch (Robin Lively, the sister of Blake Lively). Their first kiss was in an abandoned house, on a mattress I don't want to think about where it'd been (Ew!), and it was a tongue kiss. I can't tell you how many times I replayed that scene once it came out on video. LOL I would've been like, "A tongue kiss with this dude had better be in my contract." LOL.
The BEST close-mouthed kiss I've seen was between Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour in "Somewhere in Time." In a house, I think? But it was... wow. Just. Wow. The way he held fer face was SO tender and the kiss was SO fervent. If you can find the clip, you'll see what I mean.