Why We Need More Married Fiction

Photo by Nay Nyo

“And they lived happily ever after.”

Some of our favorite stories end with those words. They’re a perfect summary to what’s often a winding, hard-earned love story. And yet, to me, they’ve always felt like more of a beginning than an ending. What comes after happily-ever-after? Isn’t the adventure just getting started?

When my husband and I were first engaged, it seemed as though people came out of the woodwork with discouraging words. “Sure, you’re in love now, but just wait a few years…” “Wait ’til you have your first real fight.” “The honeymoon phase will wear off before you know it.”

In hindsight, I’m not sure why they felt the need to burst our bubble, although I don’t doubt we were naïve and glowing in that early flush of love. Still, it rattled both of us enough that we faced down some hard questions. Could love really last? Was it even possible to have a good marriage—a marriage that was stronger and more vibrant—after decades? Were we setting ourselves up for disappointment and failure?

We didn’t see many marriages that looked like what we hoped ours would be, but we saw a few. We clung to those examples and set out to build something lasting. We needed to know it was possible to have the sort of marriage we so desperately wanted.

More than twenty years down the road, I still need those examples. As life crowds in, the pressures mount, and the temptation to drift apart lurks ever in the shadows, I find myself craving stories of couples who’ve made it. Who’ve learned what it takes to do the hard work of staying. Who continue to choose one another—even when the emotion of that choice lags behind. Who intentionally grow a love that’s mature and lasting, an antidote to the chaos and heaviness of this world.

This is my ‘why’ for writing what I call ‘married love stories,’ fictional stories that feature married couples. We all need examples to look to, proof that marriages can withstand even the darkest storms. We all need to see what it looks like to choose to stay, to heal, to do the hard work of building something that lasts. And we need to see what real, steadfast love looks like in the daily ordinary moments of life.

But there’s more to it than that. As I’ve grown in my passion for marriage, I’ve discovered that, throughout Scripture, God often uses the imagery of marriage to describe the kind of intimate, covenant love He desires with us. It’s a sort of mirror to the world of what love is meant to be, and there’s a beautiful synergy between our pursuit of God and our pursuit of one another.

It’s in marriage that we practice loving selflessly, keeping no record of wrongs, serving one another, forgiving, stepping away from the currents to be together, and reveling in the deep communion of intimacy. All of those things require us to come to God for help and strength, deepening our relationship with Him. In turn, we reflect Him to the world around us as we live out our very human marriages.

There will always be a place for traditional romance, with its excitement and newness and promise of what’s to come. We need ‘happily-ever-after’ stories to remind us of that sparkling joy and to help us see our own relationships with fresh eyes. But I would argue that we also need the stories that come afterward. The ones that portray love that continues to show up when the marriage vows are called to account. Stories that reflect marriages where two people keep choosing the other, even when life pulls them in opposite directions. Ones where they stay and deepen and fall in love with each new version of the other person as they grow and change—love that reminds us of the unwavering, unfailing Love that pursues us in every season.

There’s beauty in these stories that’s barely been explored, just as there’s beauty in our own marriages. And we need them, perhaps now more than ever.

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