Fix your boring scene with a surprise

Something I picked up from the Story Grid:

Let's say you have a scene that is straightforward or obvious, totally expected for your genre.

For example, if this was a love story or romantic comedy, let's imagine that your POV character is a girl who is at a wedding reception, or a formal dance, or something. There's a guy she's noticed, and he comes up and asks her to dance. That's the "meet cute." This is the guy the story is going to be about, right?

How can you make this more interesting or surprising to the reader?

1) Write the boring obvious scene, so you get everything you need on the page.

2) Brainstorm a list of every variable in the scene. ie. Characters present, location, time of day, interruptions, etc.

3) Brainstorm a list of unorthodox things that could happen to surprise readers in the genre.

4) Make a couple copies of the scene and edit each one with a different mix of these what-ifs, variables changed, etc. and see which one you like best?

5) If that didn't get there for you, try free-writing the scene from a different character's POV. Not because you'll include this in your book, just because it may help you think of interesting details, what-ifs, etc. that may inspire you.

At the end of this you come up with some twists:

What if the guy she's noticed asks her to dance and she's excited, then some other guy she hadn't noticed cuts in and she's pissed -- which guy is the story going to be about? Now does the original guy need to sort of "rescue" her? Or does she end up liking the assertive cut-in guy?

What if something happens to derail the dance? A huge thunderstorm rolls in and the party loses electricity. It turns out the girl is afraid of the dark. Or maybe the guy is!

What if the cut-in happens and the two guys get in a fight right there in the middle of the party. Does the girl like it? Or is she horrified, and she runs out of the room, depressed because her night has been ruined?

Now, I'm not a romance writer so I don't know why this particular generic example is the one that first popped into my head, but I've done stuff like this with my SF/F scenes and had good results.

Try it out, how does it work for you?