Christmas movies are a staple of the Hallmark Channel. So much so that I often forget that Hallmark does, in fact, make movies for other seasons and holidays.
As I flipped through the channels the other day, I noticed the station was premiering a new Valentine’s Day movie titled My Secret Valentine. The summary described it as the story of a woman who returns to her family’s vineyard.
Although the title was cheesy, I was intrigued by the non-Christmas movie and decided on a whim to record it.
Last night, I settled into the living room with my mom to watch the movie as part of a mini girls’ night. The dim glow of an evening fire settled into the fireplace as we snuggled up in blankets to watch the family-friendly movie.
My Secret Valentine turned out much as I expected. A scene focusing on Girl’s life. A scene focusing on Boy’s life. Girl and Boy meet. Chaos commences. They fall in love. And their lives are changed forever.
Throughout the movie, Boy and Girl exchange notes on a chalkboard without knowing the other’s identity. Girl signs off as “In Need of Repairs,” and Boy signs off as “Handyman.”
At the movie’s end, the two find out who the other person is, and rather than writing a cheesy, comical exchange like Girl saying, “You’ll always be my handyman,” and Boy saying, “You’ll always be in need of repairs,” the screenwriters chose for the couple to share their first kiss in a gas station parking lot.
I don’t know about you, but who really wants their first kiss to be in a gas station parking lot in front of half the town?
I could not believe a movie that was set in a beautiful vineyard with wine and roses and lights everywhere ended in a gas station parking lot.
With that, I decided to research Hallmark screenwriters to find out exactly what the process looks like, and the results were not what I expected.
Come to find out, anyone can submit stories to Hallmark, and they’ll review and consider them for movies. There’s actually an entire webpage dedicated to submissions with guidelines like: Looking for “sweet romances” and “cozy mysteries” and “We aren’t interested in paranormal romance in general, but we’re open to time travel or a little bit of magic.”
My favorite guideline is that “all stories must have happy endings.”
While I’m sure that Hallmark has some wonderful writers on their team and I appreciate that they acknowledge aspiring writers’ story submissions, I do think they need to save us all another gas station kiss by more carefully crafting what makes the final cut.
However, for all of you aspiring writers out there who just need to start somewhere, the link to the Hallmark submissions page is http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/hallmark-publishing/write-for-us.
Until next time…
Shelby Rasco is a staff writer for the Snyder Daily News. Comments about her column can be emailed to shelby@snyderdailynews.com.