It's all in the kiss...or is it?

Let me preface this post by admitting my number one guilty secret.

I watch terrible television.

I mean really, really bad. Now, get your minds out of the gutter. I mean I watch a lot of teen dramas. My current obsessions are Pretty Little Liars, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, and The Vampire Diaries. Noticing a trend? Not only are they all teen/young adult shows, but more importantly they were all based on books I loved.

Don't judge me.

So anyway, I was watching Nine Lives season finale and, not to spoil it for anyone, but I was SO GLAD to see Brian die. Heartless? Maybe a smidge. But I really love Chloe and Alek together. Now before you get all in a huff about it, I know that's not how it goes in the books. Chloe and Alek in the books do not end up together. So I found myself wondering why I was so into them as a couple in the show, when the books were totally clear that she and Brian where the 'destined to be together couple'. And I realized that for me, it boiled down to this.

It was the kiss.

Or more accurately, the six episode lead up to that amazing kiss. It's the same reason I love when Elena and Damon have those heated moments. I really want them to kiss. I know, they aren't going to end up together, but the chemistry is so powerful that I cease to care about any of that. And that's what makes it great.

I believe that nothing, whether it be in books, movies, or TV shows, makes us root for a couple than some serious anticipation. That moment before the kiss, the sweaty palms, heart racing space between when your eyes meet and for a brief moment, there is no one else in the entire universe.
Alek/Chloe is a great example of that. For six episodes we see these meaningful glances, we watch Alek becoming a better person through his feelings for her, and every time he touches her or gets close to her, we are on the edge of our seat. Is this going to be the moment? Is he going to kiss her? And then, nope. Nothing.
And our frustration grows.
And we love it.
There is a saying in screenwriting that goes, "Nothing is as boring as consummation." which basically means, there is nothing exciting about getting what you want. It's in the WANTING that people fall in love. The reason that characters like Angel and Buffy worked so well is because they couldn't ever really be, well, a couple. We wanted them to end up together, you bet your wooden stakes, but they never really did. I mean, okay, the writers did give us some really CLOSE calls. But at the end of the day, it was the hope, the anticipation that it might, someday happen that kept us coming back for more.

So I'm looking at my new manuscript. My heroine has basically her choice of two men. One she can have, and one she really can't. Which do you think would be a more interesting story to tell? A more interesting story to read?
Yep, I agree.
It's funny to me how some of my characters have such great chemistry. In a perfect world, they would be together, maybe they even belong together. But as we all know the world isn't perfect and more often than not we don't get what we want. Why should it be any different for them? So I keep throwing road blocks at them. Big, house sized road blocks. And while I do feel a little guilty about it, I think the anticipation needs to grow a lot more before I give in and let them have that kiss.
So, needless to say, I am back at the manuscript, re-working the last few chapters so I can head off in a new direction, one that keeps them in the race but never quite hitting the finish line.

At least not yet....