Do You Take…

Elaine asks is life stranger than fiction?

If you are a writer, established or beginner, than you may well be taking part in the National Novel Writing Month (fondly known as NaNoWriMo). For those that don’t know, the idea is to write fifty thousand words in the month of November, which breaks down to approximately one thousand six hundred and sixty words a day. Normally I would be participating in this because it is a good way of getting a rough first draft of a novel written or several short stories. Everyday the writer fills out their word count and a graph rises, giving the incentive to carry on. There is no time for editing, just writing.

I am not taking part this year because I haven’t done any preparation for it, although I have set myself a word goal to write during this month. The last few months were taken over with wedding planning and preparations. My daughter got married two weeks ago; you may wonder why I am sharing this information with you, well there were some unexpected twists and turns during the ceremony.

If you were reading a romantic novel and the end was in sight, would this be an acceptable ending?

The bride wanted to get married outside. The weather was good so the registrar gave his permission for it to go ahead in the hotel grounds, under a beautiful pagoda. During the ceremony, he kept getting the bride’s name wrong, although they were all names that related to her. After the fourth occasion, the groom smiled before saying he was getting concerned because he wasn’t sure whom he was marrying. Thankfully, the bride and her fiancé were laughing and the Registrar was very apologetic. He finally stopped the proceedings because he couldn’t concentrate, as the bride had a wasp under one of the layers of her dress and it was getting closer to her arm. Pandemonium broke out as layer upon layer was lifted. The bride turned to the guests and laughingly asked everyone to avert their eyes while they set the wasp free.

My question is could you get away with writing that scene in a novel? Is it plausible or believable? Is it romantic?

Is life stranger than fiction? This scene did actually happen to my daughter two weeks ago and caused a lot of laughter. Was it romantic? For some, probably not, but for my daughter and her fiancé it was the very relaxed, memorable and happy atmosphere that they wanted, although I’m sure they could have done without the wasp.

@RobertsElaine11