Advice on Loving Wives

[MillieDynamite]

It doesn't matter what the site's description of loving wives is; the trolls have taken it over. When you post contrary to their desires (and there are conflicting trolls), you must bend over, put your head between your knees, and kiss your ass goodbye.

I've read it. I don't disagree with much of what is written, but I find the premise fundamentally flawed.

I first came across the issues with the Loving Wives moral gatekeepers in 2014 with a story called "Cucked!" - a relationship built around female non-monogamy. In ten years, it's got worse. I am writing 25 short stories with the same prompt for each category. Hence, my submission to Loving Wives, having avoided it for almost a decade.

My issue is that the site has allowed this to continue. Clearly, there is a want for a category where BTB and revenge is rife. But that is not what Loving Wives is. LW is described as "Married extra-marital fun: swinging, sharing & more" and stories which fit this narrative are being flamed by those who believe they have the right to decide what a category should be about.

Their comments are poisonous and unconstructive. They are incorrect; the stories are correctly categorised.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Then two things need to happen IMO:

1. Loving Wives needs to be relabelled as "Relationship Breakdown: Stories of divorce, breakup and twisted tales of BTB"
2. There needs to be a new category called "Non-Monogamy: Cheating, cuckolding, wife-sharing and polyamory."

At the moment, those who want Loving Wives to be about relationship breakdown are poisonous towards anything that doesn't fit their narrow view of the world, despite stories being signposted.

Maybe that would be cool. But you’ll need to add “heterosexual” to category 1. I had a relationship breakdown story slayed by LW. Now it was a lesbian relationship…

Em

 

[bawdybloke]

Maybe that would be cool. But you’ll need to add “heterosexual” to category 1. I had a relationship breakdown story slayed by LW. Now it was a lesbian relationship…

Em

Fair point.

These incels sure do have a very narrow view of the world. I'd hate to be as uninspired as them

 

[NoTalentHack]

The owls are not what they seem… neither is LW. If you want to understand, read @NoTalentHack ’s helpful essay.

Em

WHO HAS SUMMONED ME FROM MY SLUMB… Oh, hey Em.

 

[EmilyMiller]

WHO HAS SUMMONED ME FROM MY SLUMB… Oh, hey Em.

Hey

Em

 

[NoTalentHack]

Then two things need to happen IMO:

1. Loving Wives needs to be relabelled as "Relationship Breakdown: Stories of divorce, breakup and twisted tales of BTB"
2. There needs to be a new category called "Non-Monogamy: Cheating, cuckolding, wife-sharing and polyamory."

At the moment, those who want Loving Wives to be about relationship breakdown are poisonous towards anything that doesn't fit their narrow view of the world, despite stories being signposted.

That’s not necessarily true. Longer, well-written takes on swinging, swapping, and sharing (especially serialized ones) can and do get into the 4 star range and even into the Hs. I will say, I kind of would consider a focus on cum eating to probably be more appropriate for Fetish, but it’s an edge case; categories are fuzzy like that. I have a sharing/swapping story that I could put in LW, but the married, experienced couple aren’t really the focus, so it’s going in Group.

I do have a swapping tale that will go in LW when I get around to finishing it, though, one that starts with the dreaded “a man comes over to take a wife on a date” but ends with “and, eventually, they all fucked happily ever after.” I understand your frustration, though.

 

[Lifestyle66]

The Loving Wives category does not need to be fixed or changed.

Yes, there are various factions of readers there who 1-bomb and leave hateful comments (on one of my stories they said "EAT SHIT AND DIE!", which the site admins deleted within a day). And there are others who "love" the same stories with 5s.

I've received my share of 1s there, and I continue to get more on my legacy stories posted there. Just a few days ago, I had five of my older stories in my "Lifestyle" series 1-bombed overnight by someone who went methodically through them. Now who in their right mind opens the next story in a series when they hated the story they just read? But if that's what they do to have their fun, why deny them their pleasure? They'll just shift their focus and energy on stories in a different category to ruin someone else's day. At least by keeping LW as is, you all know where they are.

Let them spar and continue having their fun their way. Anyone who has a problem with that is being just as narrow minded and judgmental by hating what someone else is doing, because you have the option to ignore them and go elsewhere, too.

 

[lovecraft68]

I was thinking on this a little last night because I started a hot wife short for an anthology.

For those claiming LW isn't the right category for cheating/stag/hot wife/cuck extra marital etc...and suggest fetish..

Here's the slug for Fetish-Feet, panties, food, and other kinky things.
Loving Wives-Married extra-marital fun: swinging, sharing & more

1-Hotwife/cuck etc is a type of kink and a regular sexual act with the only added flavor the fact its a married woman. It is not a fetish in the same way Interracial has its own category even though some folks could argue its a fetish of sorts, but doesn't quite fit the true definition.

2-The word Extra Marital is boss here. If the story involves a married couple with a wife who sleeps with other men-and whether its behind hubs back, with his permission, with him involved in the action-doesn't matter, it is extra marital.

Therefore all of these stories do belong in that category.

What doesn't belong there, or anywhere other than non erotic is BTB stories. There is nothing sexual about violent torture stories or even 'I ruined her in court or financially" stories.

But its that crowd trying to force the other content out.

Lit's mantra has always been "yeah, whatever," and they let things run their course for good or bad, so no amount of complaining about either opinion or making suggestions is going to matter. This is just going to continue to devolve until it hits rock bottom either in the sense that no one not catering to the bad element can get a decent reception to a story because the good readership has gotten fed up and left, or more people start caving and taking their stories to fetish-or maybe group-and the entire category is just an ugly tribute to the hatred of women not stuck in the 1950's ideals of the frenzied incel faction.

 

[lovecraft68]

Advice on LW?

All you need, right here: *boop*

(Okay? Maybe not ALL you need, but it's an informative, helpful resource)

The issue with any how to, is they can be a good guide and provide some tips, but there's people who take them too seriously and begin writing that way and only that way until they're not writing, they're pandering and no longer creating their own story, but other people's ideal story.

I saw this on the one I put out years ago. I had people reaching out to me with "I did everything you said and it really worked!" it wasn't my intent to lay out a write by numbers, just give some tips on things that work, don't work, and why.

But I learned both by doing it and just reported the 'findings'. Since then I've written stories that go completely against my own guidelines because I want to write different ways.

Essays can be a good tool, but when it becomes the writer's bible, you're not writing anymore you're copy/pasting.

I think in LW, more than any other category, people are beginning to "write in fear" over what crap they're going to deal with if they don't appease the jackals.

In my Halloween entry I wrote a paragraph, stopped for a minute and thought "Yeah, this is going to bring the man babies running in crying" I thought of changing it and in that moment, one I'd never experienced that I can remember, I shook my head and said, "Fuck them, its my story"

It's in I/T and it did overall very well, but there's a lot of whining comments as I knew there would be, but it didn't stop me, but I bet it has stopped others, especially in LW. But my story showed they are rolling out of Lit's biggest cat box and invading other categories...so should every category now have to follow a plan to tip toe around them?

 

[NoTalentHack]

For those claiming LW isn't the right category for cheating/stag/hot wife/cuck extra marital etc...and suggest fetish..

Here's the slug for Fetish-Feet, panties, food, and other kinky things.
Loving Wives-Married extra-marital fun: swinging, sharing & more

1-Hotwife/cuck etc is a type of kink and a regular sexual act with the only added flavor the fact its a married woman. It is not a fetish in the same way Interracial has its own category even though some folks could argue its a fetish of sorts, but doesn't quite fit the true definition.

2-The word Extra Marital is boss here. If the story involves a married couple with a wife who sleeps with other men-and whether its behind hubs back, with his permission, with him involved in the action-doesn't matter, it is extra marital.

Therefore all of these stories do belong in that category.

I cut out the bit about BTB not belonging there, because you and I have gone around on that plenty enough as it is. I was not saying that the swapping/swinging/hotwife stuff doesn't belong there. I was saying that, in this case, the story might better belong in Fetish because of the creampie eating fetish. It might be better received there, too, of course, but mostly because, for a lot of guys, that skirts right at the edge of Gay Male. Yes, yes, I know, it's not gay, etc. I agree. But still, there's that feeling, even in the comments and scores outside the LW category.

And I would also say that the cuckolding stuff, the hard cuckolding, the "he loves the humiliation and I provide it" and "he lives in his cage" stuff belongs there, too. Fetish has an even looser definition than LW, but I think a safe rule of thumb might be, "if the average reader on this site would find this not only not erotic, but actually repellent" then it belongs in either Fetish or a designated category. That's actually how the categories in general have trended, other than LW; pegging used to go in Fetish, extreme domination went in NC/R instead of BDSM, etc.

Cuckquean stories mostly go in Fetish, too (or BDSM, depending on certain factors), even though they're regularly in the context of a married couple and an "interloping" cuckcake. They don't usually do well in LW when they show up there, either, with most people complaining that it seems too cruel. Both those and the cuckold stories (especially the creampie cleanup) belong better in Fetish.

But that's the problem with categories: what seems too extreme for one is too vanilla for others.

 

[EmilyMiller]

But that's the problem with categories: what seems too extreme for one is too vanilla for others.

The problem with categories is that sub-sections begin to feel they own them and are the sole arbiters of what type of content they should include. They are meant to be guidelines, used in conjunction with tags, to help readers. Not rigid demarcation lines with border patrols.

Em

 

[NoTalentHack]

The issue with any how to, is they can be a good guide and provide some tips, but there's people who take them too seriously and begin writing that way and only that way until they're not writing, they're pandering and no longer creating their own story, but other people's ideal story.

But... it's not a how to guide on how to write in LW. It does say, "these are the archetypes that do poorly by score here and there," but also that there are no surefire winners. I mean, most of the essay was about the evolution of the category anyways, but in the "how to write there" portion, I was very frank that people should be true to themselves:

Loving Wives is a crucible. Its commenters are mean, but helpful. Its ratings are harsh, but fair; you won't get a red H just for writing competently and to their kink, because there is no "their kink." There is no formula that will make you successful there. You can write a story where the husband burns the wife, or they reconcile, or she's dead before the story starts. You can write a story where she cuckolds him and he hates it or he loves it, where she feels guilt or no mercy at all.

You can write damn near anything there, and they'll give you a fair shake. Not a high rating; the simple fact is that the people that are there for drama outnumber the people there for extramarital fun stories. That's okay, though; you can go over to Group Sex or Erotic Couplings to post those for ratings. Maybe you'll get a dozen comments if you're lucky. Or you can drop them in Loving Wives and get told everything wrong and right about what you've made, all the way from characterization and plot on down to grammar and spelling.

You can stop worrying about your ratings and start worrying about your writing. You can stop equating score with skill. You can stop worrying about your stars and start engaging with your readers.

That's my strongest argument for why you should write there, if you want to be a better writer. If you don't, if you just want to chase Hs and attaboys, stick to other categories. Let me be clear: I'm not throwing any shade when I say that. This is a hobby for most of us. You should be doing the things that make you happiest in your hobby, and if that's what makes you happy? Go for it! I'll be cheering you on.

I've advised almost every writer I talk with to try their hand at writing a Loving Wives story at least once. A few regretted it, especially at first. Their stories in other categories got 1-bombed. They got angry, maybe hateful comments for the first time. In some cases, it shook their confidence to the point where they almost gave up writing.

And then they--some of them, at least--wrote there again. And they got better, both as a writer and as a receiver of criticism. They got an understanding of what made the category tick and how wrong so much of the received wisdom from Authors' Hangout was. Where it was sometimes right, too, of course. But how lacking in nuance the critiques of the category were from people who had never posted there and only repeated what they heard. Or maybe they posted once or twice and got their asses handed to them and their egos bruised.

Hey, I'm not being a Pollyanna. Sometimes, people have gotten absolutely mauled there, because they posted hard cuckolding stories in the midst of BTB-mania, which sucks. Or they tried to "teach the readers a lesson," which... yeah. That doesn't work with anyone, especially with people already in a siege mentality because they're the only community telling the type of stories they want to read. Don't do that.

Use a throwaway account if you want to save your ratings on your other stories. Write to your perceived prejudices of the category, making the burniest BTB story you can, and see how it flounders. Of the eight stories I have in there with a red H attached to them, only one has a significant burn attached to it for the wife, and only decades after the end of the marriage. Maybe you can do better! But, honestly, that's not the way the category is trending.

Write against your perceived prejudices and make the cuckiest cuck story you can, and see how it... well, not soars. Not with the numbers stacked against you, in terms of how many people want those stories versus how many don't. But at least does tolerably well, for a cuckold story in Loving Wives. See how it gets a bunch of comments, some hating it and some loving it. How it maybe gets you a bunch of followers who want to pick up what you're putting down.

Mix it up! Do both! Yeah, my sole cuckolding story is my lowest scoring one, but who cares? I picked up probably a hundred followers who clearly came to Loving Wives for cuckold stories, got a hundred-odd comments on the story--including ones from hardcore BTB fans thanking me for helping them understand the mindset, even if they still thought it was icky--and stretched myself as a writer. I got even more feedback privately, from guys who thanked me for helping them understand their own kink and not judging them for it.

Of course, you would know that if you had actually read it.

 

[offkilter123]

I’m a new author and I post exclusively in LW. I do post the occasional BTB story to appease the mob, however I generally try to add a good helping of snark or humor when I post. My Winter contest entry currently sits at 4.42 and it is a reconciliation story. I announced at the beginning that it was not a BTB story. A lot of commenters have stated that they do NOT like reconciliation stories but they enjoyed this one. I have no doubt it would be rated higher except that there is a coterie of authors that 1-Bomb every one of my stories and then post anonymously bashing me. The other group that will 1-Bomb me is the hardcore BTBers. These are the folks I understand.

Most every guy has a friend, co-worker, or relative that has been screwed over in a divorce. Add to that, the fact that 3 out of every 100 children are the products of affairs and are being unwittingly raised by a man that is not their bio dad and you have a simmering stewpot of rage and resentment. I get it. I am sympathetic to them and usually write for them. They want to see justice prevail and since they don’t see it in the courts, they want to see it in their fiction. That’s why some stories that are unreadable score highly. My chief issue with the BTB crowd is that I fear that a lot of them own red baseball caps

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’m a new author and I post exclusively in LW. I do post the occasional BTB story to appease the mob, however I generally try to add a good helping of snark or humor when I post. My Winter contest entry currently sits at 4.42 and it is a reconciliation story. I announced at the beginning that it was not a BTB story. A lot of commenters have stated that they do NOT like reconciliation stories but they enjoyed this one. I have no doubt it would be rated higher except that there is a coterie of authors that 1-Bomb every one of my stories and then post anonymously bashing me. The other group that will 1-Bomb me is the hardcore BTBers. These are the folks I understand.

Most every guy has a friend, co-worker, or relative that has been screwed over in a divorce. Add to that, the fact that 3 out of every 100 children are the products of affairs and are being unwittingly raised by a man that is not their bio dad and you have a simmering stewpot of rage and resentment. I get it. I am sympathetic to them and usually write for them. They want to see justice prevail and since they don’t see it in the courts, they want to see it in their fiction. That’s why some stories that are unreadable score highly. My chief issue with the BTB crowd is that I fear that a lot of them own red baseball caps

The category should really be renamed to Male Hetero Divorce Revenge Fantasies. A much more accurate title.

Em

 

[offkilter123]

The category should really be renamed to Male Hetero Divorce Revenge Fantasies. A much more accurate title.

Em

For every 1 MHTDRF, there are twenty or more cuckold or swinging stories so the MHTDRF stories are very much in the minority. They do however get the most views and most comments. As someone new to writing, I am interested in reading all comment good or bad. The Winter Contest story I wrote went live yesterday. It has nearly 18K views and 81 comments. Mock and disparage them all you want. Everyone can look down on the LW readership with disdain. The fact is, that readership is f‘ing engaged. The highest rated story for the last 30 days on I/T was posted on 11/21 and has 4K views and 7 comments.

 

[EmilyMiller]

For every 1 MHTDRF, there are twenty or more cuckold or swinging stories so the MHTDRF stories are very much in the minority. They do however get the most views and most comments. As someone new to writing, I am interested in reading all comment good or bad. The Winter Contest story I wrote went live yesterday. It has nearly 18K views and 81 comments. Mock and disparage them all you want. Everyone can look down on the LW readership with disdain. The fact is, that readership is f‘ing engaged. The highest rated story for the last 30 days on I/T was posted on 11/21 and has 4K views and 7 comments.

Wasn’t mocking or disparaging. Just stating a fact. Based on just under 100,000 views of three LW stories with over 300 comments.

To summarize from my learned friend, @NoTalentHack ‘s essay, it’s one of few places on the Internet where male hetero divorcees of a certain type gather in wildebeest like numbers.

It’s true, not surmize.

But anyway, it seems that LW spurs argument even here.

Peace.

Em

 

[Lifestyle66]

The category title suggests consensual non-monogamous fun. However, the least well-received stories within it often depict a domineering wife having sadistic fun by turning her husband into her pathetic whipping boy. In these stories, the poor guy is forced to watch and comply, and even if he's turned on by it, he's still being coerced. It's mental torture, plain and simple.

In my view, these stories aren't about sex or fun. They're about humiliating, belittling, and tormenting the main male character, and, by extension, emasculating the majority of male readers. They're not trying to entertain; they're just trying to twist the knife.

A few years ago, I met a woman who was wearing a collar. It wasn't a stylish choker around her neck, but a leather collar with D-ring for a leash. So, she explained to me and a few others why she wore it.

She's into BDSM, and she said that was her symbol she wore to show she trusted her boyfriend to respect her limits. She found him on a fetish website. He was free to use and abuse her ... within HER limits. And she would take that collar off and leave him if he ever exceeded her limits and did something she didn't want.

So, even if he's beating her or ordering her to do something degrading in public ... and she remains with him wearing that collar, it's because she wanted it and he was doing it FOR her. It's consensual!

Other women who feel degraded BY this one wearing her collar need to get their own life. And if a man feels emasculated by another man wanting to be humiliated, they need to GET A LIFE OF THEIR OWN!

 

[Lifestyle66]

Agreed, but as you mentioned, she was into BDSM, and it was consensual, while the examples I mentioned fall into either NonConsent/Reluctance or BDSM categories. In any case, they have little to do with loving wives or fun.

Nonetheless, bursting into an open door with unwarranted holy rage against those who don't necessarily share your worldview reinforces my argument about the hidden motives behind the writing of certain authors.

But you said: "...these stories aren't about sex or fun. They're about humiliating, belittling, and tormenting the main male character,..."

Just like that BDSM woman, there are some men who seek out a woman to humiliate, belittle, or torment them.

Women ... in general ... would say the same about BDSM woman being beaten. "How can anyone see that as sex or fun?" But BDSM woman wants, seeks, and needs such treatment (for whatever reason).

The man who wants, seeks, and needs a woman to humiliate, belittle, and torment him is out to find his own version of a "loving wife" for his own "fun" (dysfunctional as it may be to others.)

And IMO, even the readers who 1-bomb my stories are, in their own dysfunctional way, finding their own version of pleasure by reading and hating my stories. I "made their day!"

EDIT: When I write a fun, consensual, spouse-sharing story, you (and the LW haters) might say I'm "twisting the knife" in their own life of having endured a cheating spouse.

 

[Lifestyle66]

You keep presenting pure BDSM examples and insist on categorizing them under Loving Wives.

I'm far from a hater, but I sense you may not be entirely free from negative feelings towards others yourself.

In case I wasn't clear enough, just as there is a fair amount of underlying misogyny in the BTB genre, there is also a significant amount of misandry in the hotwife/humiliation genre. I find both types equally unpleasant to read, but if you justify one, you must accept the other.

I'm not categorizing that BDSM example as an LW story. I'm using that as a real-life example of other people being judgmental and intolerant of something, merely because they don't like it.

If you think BDSM woman's boyfriend is a misogynist, then you are being intolerant and judgmental. He's doing things FOR her.

When you see "underlying" misogyny in BTB stories, you're being intolerant. The BTB stories are what they are, not because the innocent husband (or innocent wife with cheating husband) wants revenge on their cheating spouse. The author is SHOWING a picture of the extreme emotional disconnect between the husband and wife, by using what she did versus how he reacts. (EDIT: In BTB stories, the husband doesn't HATE women. He hates his wife due to what she did. So, calling him a misogynist is wrong.)

If you shift your focus away from the misogyny, think of a BTB story as "I didn't realize the husband had so much emotional investment in his wife, and that she didn't see it, and she threw it away. She destroyed him with her indifference."

I don't like those BTB (or humiliations) stories. But I don't 1-bomb them either. At worst (if otherwise reasonably well written), I rate them a 3. But I understand them and why author's write them.

 

[Lifestyle66]

There's underlying misogyny in BTB stories as they often portray one-dimensional, dense, heartless bitches. I'm concerned that your perspective might be influenced by subconscious biases, and to be honest, I'm a bit tired of explaining the obvious.

A male rapist is a one-dimensional, dense, heartless person, who inflicts their will on the unwilling/innocent. But we still see them portrayed in stories and movies to show a story, because it happens in real life.

The generic outline of the BTB story is:
Innocent couple gets emotionally involved and commit to each other with the promise and understanding of their emotional entanglement.
Time goes by, one changes their mind, and without warning ignores their entangled relationship, and emotionally rapes the other by cheating (either through ignorance or evil scheming). (Nonconsensual invasion of the victim's emotional state.)

BTB: The victim lashes out at the cause of their emotional pain. (Rate the lashing out from 1-10, with 1 being divorce and 10 sexual dismemberment or enslavement of the former spouse/assailant).

RACC stories just add the victim's reluctant acceptance and forgiveness of the emotional rape.


If a male is walking down a city street and is robbed by another male who has a gun, is it automatically an example of racism or sexism? The author might use black/white, tall/short, or male/female descriptors to distinguish one from the other. The victim can hate the robber, without being a racist or sexist. And the criminal can just be a robber without being a racist or sexist.

Only bigots always see it with "underlying ___" because their not-so-subconscious bias looks for it. It can be merely a story describing reality.

 

[djrip]

But you said: "...these stories aren't about sex or fun. They're about humiliating, belittling, and tormenting the main male character,..."

Just like that BDSM woman, there are some men who seek out a woman to humiliate, belittle, or torment them.

Women ... in general ... would say the same about BDSM woman being beaten. "How can anyone see that as sex or fun?" But BDSM woman wants, seeks, and needs such treatment (for whatever reason).

The man who wants, seeks, and needs a woman to humiliate, belittle, and torment him is out to find his own version of a "loving wife" for his own "fun" (dysfunctional as it may be to others.)

And IMO, even the readers who 1-bomb my stories are, in their own dysfunctional way, finding their own version of pleasure by reading and hating my stories. I "made their day!"

EDIT: When I write a fun, consensual, spouse-sharing story, you (and the LW haters) might say I'm "twisting the knife" in their own life of having endured a cheating spouse.

It seems like you're not seeing the distinction between consensual and non consensual that Dyb is making. Your collar example is extremely consensual, you even make a point of saying she will take the collar off if he does something she doesn't like. But in the cuckold stories Dyn is talking about, the wife cruelty cheats and rubs the husbands face in it and maybe abuses him in other ways. There can be stories where the husband wants these things, but those aren't the ones he's talking about.

Now, I don't doubt that there are humiliation fetishist readers enjoying imagining themselves in that husband's place, and getting off on his misery. But the actual character in the story did not agree to it and is not enjoying it. And many readers will react badly to that.

 

[Lifestyle66]

It seems like you're not seeing the distinction between consensual and non consensual that Dyb is making. Your collar example is extremely consensual, you even make a point of saying she will take the collar off if he does something she doesn't like. But in the cuckold stories Dyn is talking about, the wife cruelty cheats and rubs the husbands face in it and maybe abuses him in other ways. There can be stories where the husband wants these things, but those aren't the ones he's talking about.

Now, I don't doubt that there are humiliation fetishist readers enjoying imagining themselves in that husband's place, and getting off on his misery. But the actual character in the story did not agree to it and is not enjoying it. And many readers will react badly to that.

I do see the distinction between consensual and non-con.

I'm saying they're stories, as valid as any other, whether they're stories about gays, lesbians, romance, inter-racial, trans, or whatever. The BTB ones are stories SHOWING an emotional disconnect and consequences.

I don't have to "LOVE" every story written and posted on LitE. We all have a right to read and rate them according to our own likes and dislikes.

 

[AchtungNight]

I think the idea that the LW category is full of misogynistic imps is a bit incorrect. I punished a female character in my story in an attempt to placate such imps and I still got trashed for not punishing my other characters. The ones who were doing sanctioned extramarital affairs. The category was supposed to permit such things.

I have deleted the comments, I wish I could reset the negative votes.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I think the idea that the LW category is full of misogynistic imps is a bit incorrect. I punished a female character in my story in an attempt to placate such imps and I still got trashed for not punishing my other characters. The ones who were doing sanctioned extramarital affairs. The category was supposed to permit such things.

I have deleted the comments, I wish I could reset the negative votes.

Over the years, I've often read how LW was full of incels and women-bashing, misogynistic men. And we still hear authors here saying the same thing.

So, I wrote my story "A Gathering of Trolls" to poke fun at the incel types, expecting it to rate below 2.0 if that were true. But it's at 3.03 with 178 votes, suggesting it's just another average story in that category and there's no preponderance of incels there.

With the BTB stories, some people here say they're shallow, not presenting the woman's side of the story when she cheats. Those stories are focused only on the husband's side of the story, and too violent toward the cheating wife, and thus misogynistic.

I look at BTB stories by comparing them to a crime story where a woman is physically raped (a betrayal by non-consensual sexual invasion of her body). The author doesn't describe the rapist with feelings and a past justifying his actions. People would be outraged to read such a story which says, "but think of it from his POV." They want to see that man burn in Hell!

The same goes with the BTB stories: the cheating wife is betraying her husband with a non-consensual sexual invasion of their marriage. So, why would an author spend a disproportionate amount of effort justifying her feelings and past. Many of the BTB stories are about the victim husband and how he reacts, often violently against his attackers (burning the cheating wife and her lover in Hell.)

I don't like those BTB stories, just as I don't like rape crime stories. But because BTB's are so popular in LW, I think there are far more victimized husbands in the audience there, and that's likely why they 1-bomb consensual sharing stories. They see all extra-marital sex from a different perspective, having been there as the non-consenting victim.

BTB stories in LW do better than consensual sharing stories, probably because consensual-husbands-sharing-wives in the audience don't 1-bomb BTBs, seeing that it IS non-con.

 

[Gamblnluck]

Maybe that would be cool. But you’ll need to add “heterosexual” to category 1. I had a relationship breakdown story slayed by LW. Now it was a lesbian relationship…

Actually a lesbian relationship is accepted. Done it in one of my stories with only a few comments. It depends how it is presented. I'm not sure I could write it, but here is an idea to see how it received:
Two women in a long term lesbian relationship. They may even have kids but certainly have established far more than a short term affair. One is away for a few days and comes home to be told by her partner that she found sex with a coworker, a man to be exciting. She wants to pursue it to test it out but knows her 'wife' loves her enough to let her get her pussy filled etc..etc. for a weekend.
Now if you have the cheated upon lesbian sit back and say 'yes, my love, let me suck his cum from your pussy when you come home." I will almost guarantee you that the story will be flamed.
If the jilted lover gets pissed and has some kind of unique revenge (the more innovated, the better), I will say the story will do well.
The key idea here is that justice is served to the wrong doers. Vows and trust, if violated, will not go unpunished. Disrespect gets a response.