Write a wedding conversation? Me?

I’ve run into another writing activity in the Open University’s A174 Start Writing Fiction that takes me far into the realm of the unknown.

Activity 3.9 asks us to develop a narrative, by first telling a mini-story almost entirely though dialogue and then retelling it entirely in narrative without dialogue.

Fair enough, it’s interesting challenge to develop our writing skills.

The only problem, for me, is the subject matter. The activity guidelines are that the story:

‘…has 2 main characters, Jane and Elizabeth. Jane’s daughter, Ruth, is about to be married. Elizabeth is more excited about this than Jane, who has already seen 4 of her other daughters married already. It’s the day before the wedding.’

What would two women say in this situation?

I haven’t the foggiest. I haven’t been around women talking about weddings in almost 20 years and in the days when I was—while working on women’s magazines—I changed the subject, moved away or blanked out the conversation until it sounded like ‘gush, gush, blah blah blah, gush, sigh, oooh, gush, blah blah blah’.

The Other Half is no help. She has no interest in weddings either. When the women she works with go into wedding conversation mode she, too, moves away, changes subject or lets it wash over her.

I’ve made several attempts at coming up with the wedding story but each one sounded unnatural and was binned. They also tended to descend into bitchiness, which may or may not be common, but didn’t feel right.

Having said that, I know where the course’s author, Candida Clark, is coming from with the guidelines. She writes novels that centre on country house parties where dark secrets are uncovered, with characters who go through love and loss.

In that sort of scenario, I suspect the two women would be on the verge of discovering a dark secret, sharing a story of love or sympathising with a loss. Not only is it not my thing, but I don’t know how to write in a way that feels natural and appropriate to the genre.

We’re supposed to share this activity with our tutor group, so I shouldn’t skip over it or write it with a different subject for my own benefit.

Hmmm.

I guess I won’t write short stories for women’s magazines any time soon.

Related articles

• Time for another challenge (stoneheadcroft.com)
• Objects On The Page (accordingtohoyt.com)
• Revising Fiction: My Short & Dirty Laundry List (presentsofmind.wordpress.com)