Lessons from wedding season
Three things I learned about storytelling (and life!) from Alison Espach's new novel, The Wedding People
I love wedding drama. I love wedding dresses. I love flailing about on wedding dancefloors to classics like “Mamma Mia” by ABBA and “Rasputin” by Boney M. I love weddings, period—which is why I was outraged not to get invited to any this summer. I’m a thirty-one-year-old with a moderately large social circle! How could this happen to me?
Maybe all this weddinglessness was what drew me to Alison Espach’s new book, The Wedding People, which I read on vacation in Kelowna, BC last month.
The novel follows an English lit professor named Phoebe who, reeling from fertility struggles and her recent divorce, checks into a Rhode Island hotel with the plan of attempting suicide there. Her plans are foiled, thankfully, when she encounters a young bride hosting her wedding at the hotel that same weekend.
Phoebe forges a strange friendship with the bride and soon finds herself entangled in some chaotic, absolutely hilarious wedding drama. The end result is a gorgeous, tightly-written story about grief, starting over, and the ways that human connection can lift us up. The beginning is dark, I won’t lie—but then it’s pure joy.
The novel is also full of wisdom for writers. Here are a few of my favourite passages and the lessons they taught me about storytelling (or in some instances, life).
There’s no “correct” way to write anything. Some people plan out every paragraph before they write a single word, while others proceed blindly, discovering the story along the way. But what Espach has said here—that it’s helpful to know the general shape of the thing you’re creating—rings true for me.
Often, if I’m struggling with a scene, it’s because I don’t know the arc of it. I don’t know what I’m building toward. What do the characters want? Are they going to get it? What’s going to be revealed by the end? This stuff is what makes a scene a scene and not a rambling anecdote.
This feels so true for me as well. Some writers approach their work from a place of anger, or sadness, or joy. Like Phoebe, I come to it from a place of confusion. There’s usually a central question I have in mind—something I can’t quite figure out.
In the case of Favorite Daughter, I was guided by the question of whether people who are struggling can really get better, and what it means to actually change. And I honestly didn’t have an answer until I typed “The End.”
Oof. As a very indecisive person, I felt seen (and attacked??) by this. It takes courage to move on from something you’ve invested a lot of time in—a job, a relationship. Stasis is just easier.
The same is true with writing projects.
I once listened to an interview with the brilliant novelist Arundhati Roy where she likened her writing practice to her pottery-making. Sometimes she ends up with a hunk of misshapen clay that does not remotely resemble what she intended to make, and there’s no fixing it. She just has to throw it away. And this happens with a piece of writing sometimes, too. She just has to toss it.
If she can throw away her writing, then surely the rest of us can?
To be clear, I don’t mean you should give up on a project after two drafts (or ten drafts, or twenty). But if you know in your heart that something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to move on. I still throw a ton of stuff away. Essays, stories, entire 80,000-word manuscripts.
It stings for a second (or maybe longer), but then you’re free.
End notes
Currently reading: Alison Espach’s second novel, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, a 90s-set coming-of-age story about a teenager coping with the aftermath of her sister’s sudden death. As you would expect, it’s completely heartbreaking—but also unexpectedly funny and tender.
On my desk this week: I’ll be sharing the cover designs for Favorite Daughter over the coming weeks and months, which is so exciting! The Canadian, US, and UK editions of the book will each have a different cover tailored to the specific market. In the meantime, I’m plotting out a new novel. For me, this means scribbling ideas on Post-It notes and promptly losing them. (I know some authors plan their novels using cue cards or Excel spreadsheets, but I’m just not that person.)
Did you attend any weddings this summer? Read any good books? I’d love to hear in the comments! And thanks as always for reading.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider forwarding it to a friend. I’ll be sending these letters a few times per month in the lead-up to my book’s publication. Find me at morgandick.com or on Instagram @morgandick_author for more.
As a wedding photographer, I have so many thoughts about weddings (which I hope to explore at length in my next book!). 😂 This one is on my TBR!!
this book is on my list and im so excited to read it!!