Yuffie's Writing How-To's

I don't understand arranged marriage stories

...where the girl is forced into it and hates her new husband.

If I were the girl, the moment I stepped in the house with my new husband, I'd turn on my disgusting/psychosis/serial killer acting and scare the creep away.

I'll pull out all the stops: leave dead rats in his shoes, pour rotten milk on his face as he sleeps, shit in the bed, start talking to the evil spirits in my head, start rumors about the husband being a witch (if this was olden times) or being a child molester (in today times), vomit in his hat, and sprinkle him with "holy water" that actually came from my bladder.

Take that, mom and dad.

No way is he getting me to be a "good" wife. In all those arranged marriage stories where the parents force it on the daughter so she can "be happy", I have no idea why the daughter actually quietly goes along with it (while fuming internally). Seriously, just act so disagreeable that the husband will want to get away from YOU.

Or if we build on the starting crazy rumors thing, we can also add in some gaslighting to make him look mentally unstable, in which case the girl's parents will be convinced they did not pick the most desirable match for their daughter. (Although careful with this so you're not stigmatizing mental illness.)

Idk I never understood forced arranged marriages. Even political ones, just act like the Joker and you'll have the husband and his family begging you for a divorce. Who cares if you're shamed and shunned by your family? You get freedom

to live on your own and don't have to set foot in bed with a creeper.

Win-win.

(I'm sure there are exceptions to why someone will have to go along with their arranged marriage even though they don't want to do it. I'm partially exaggerating here. :P Partially not exaggerating.)

But seriously, why doesn't anyone write an arranged marriage story where the girl acts freaky in order to get the husband to divorce her? THAT WOULD BE AN AWESOME STORY.