THAT MOMENT IN A LOVE STORY WRITERS MUST DELIVER

This Valentine, Enjoy The Art Of Romance From K-Drama “Our Beloved Summer”

Love stories when executed well, reminds us that we are puzzles in search of that one piece that would make us complete. That fuzzy warmth you feel when you watch lovers unite successfully on screen is your heart telling your brain how lovely, how appropriate, and how much you wished you had found your piece of the puzzle.

Like how Choi Ung and Yeon Soo, the couple in the recent Netflix Korean Drama, Our Beloved Summer, found in each other.

What can we learn as writers and storytellers?

How do we give our audience the pleasure of love’s magic, in a single moment?

A LOVE THAT QUIETLY COMPELS

Beloved summer charts the romance between Choi Ung, an artist, and Yeon-Soo, a marketing manager. The story shifts nimbly between past and present, when their romance was budding, and then they broke up, only to realize, ten years later, that the love they had for each other never went away, and so, with slow, agonizing steps, they fumble their way back into love again.

There are no big villains or gut punching betrayals, unusual for a K drama. Just two flawed and believable characters. They’re like planets that drifted away and years later, found their way back and now they orbit around each other warily. Love is an old familiar jacket they are putting on and still trying to find a comfortable fit.

Watching Our Beloved Summer was like the experience you get when you’re working on something and then a song plays on your radio. It’s a new song, but you look up because there’s something familiar about the chords. The gentle melody draws you in and before long, you forgot you were working and just leaned back, surrendering to the spell of the song. Like every good romantic drama, there were moments, but there’s one moment, that made me fall in love with the show.

It is the moment you find in good romantic stories.

A moment you can’t do without.

A moment that as writers, we must constantly hone and craft and rework.

LOVE AND THE PROOF OF IT

Courtship is a dance. Back and forth. The lover beckons. The other withdraws. A dance we all recognize because we have done some version of it in our lives. We recognize the steps. Who commits first? Who shall make the move? A hand hovers tantalizing near another hand. Fingers brush. Then fingers twine.

And just like that, love begins.

In the movie, Jerry McGuire, Jerry, played by Tom Cruise finally declares his all-consuming love to Dorothy Boyd, played by Renee Zellweger.

In the movie, Notting Hill, Anna Scott, played by Julia Roberts, finally opens up to William Thacker, played by Hugh Grant.

Good romantic movies that charmed us with their courtship dances. But at some point, the music stops. The dance comes to a close. One lover must end any doubts to whether or not he or she will ever give his or her heart to the other.

It is time to seal the deal.

In my former life as a lecturer for screenwriting, I noticed that students liked to pitch love stories. All very well and good but when it comes to that one scene, they fall short.

It is the scene where writers of romantic films must spend a considerable bulk of time rewriting.

It is the proof of love moment.

It is why a writer is paid to write these lines.

You complete me. (Jerry McGuire)

I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. (Notting Hill)

At times she feels extremely distant, other times, she’d pull me closer…And make time stop. (Our Beloved Summer)

A Gentle Reminder For Me, As Writer

A good love story draws you in. As the writer crafts believable and flawed characters and traces their inevitable journey towards each other, pay attention to that one moment that seals the deal.

And make time stop.

Happy Valentines Day!