Writing prompt 8

Somehow I keep forgetting that I started these writing prompts to give away some of the story ideas that have come to me that I don't think I'll ever have time to follow through on; I keep defaulting to the types of prompts you'd find in books on creative writing. I guess the difference being that I have actually used the prompts that I'm posting here.

That said, I'm going to share one of my plot ideas with you this week. I'm not sure how you'd make it into a warm-up except to maybe try and write a scene out of it? And of course if the plot appeals to you and you want to write this book/play/screenplay, have at it!

Prompt:

Two protagonists - a woman and a man. They've been friends for many years. Perhaps they were lovers at one point, but not at the time this story begins. One of the things that draws them together is their rejection of mainstream lifestyle choices, and in particular their shared aversion to the traditional life path of marriage-children-real estate. One day they joke about getting married as something they'd like to experience once, mostly for the party, the gifts, and the honeymoon. (Distinction: the experience they want is getting married, not being married.) Decide to marry each other for the experience of it and agree to annul afterwards. They have wonderful wedding, party, trip together. The twist: After the honeymoon, the man doesn't want to get the marriage annulled. He wants to stay married to her. Huge conflict ensues between them. Also lots of potential, of course, for conflict between protagonists and their families/friends when the fam/friends realize that the marriage was meant to be a sham. Hollywood ending would of course be that the man succeeds at convincing her to stay married & they live HEA. More interesting indie ending would be for her to convince him to get the marriage annulled and for them to co-create a model of romantic relationship consistent with their values. Alternatively (or in addition?), they could find out that getting the marriage annulled isn't as easy as they thought it would be and then learn the hard way what marriage-as-legal-contract actually means.

ROW80 update
For the sake of saving space and time, I'm going to refer to my goals by their numbers rather than re-listing them every week, but you can see the goals the numbers refer to in this post.

1. a) Have not gone to any readings lately.
b) Am taking a break this month from writing VoiceCatcher articles because July tends to be busy with family events...and also because I need a little break. But I've already talked to Trista Cornelius and Tanya Jarvik about future interviews, and I'm stoked that they've both agreed to be interviewed! So progress has been made here; I have my interviewees for the September and October articles lined up.
c) Gah! I forgot to email a couple of people last week to see if they'd be willing to do an interview for this site. Gotta get on that!
d) Prompt posted above.

2. Did no writing sprints last week & have not done any yet so far this week. But I have spent quite a bit of time over the last several days watching Being Erica, this amazing Canadian show I found on Hulu about a woman in her early 30s who's finally learning how to be herself and get what she wants. Did I mention that her therapist sends her back in time so she can correct her past mistakes? But of course nothing turns out the way she expects. Loving this show.

3. Blerg. Did not do this last week. Almost forgot about this goal entirely. But I will do it this week, and I know just the publication to start with: The Citron Review. I've been meaning to check it out ever since Heather Luby, Citron's managing fiction editor, left a nice comment on my VoiceCatcher article about Liz Prato. Now's my chance!

4. If things go the way I want them to, my next author interview for this blog will also lead to a publisher interview. Fingers crossed.

5. Did this! =*D

This is a blog hop! Click here to read the other ROW80 participants' check-ins.