February Sucks in LW

[AngelRider]

Can I ask what makes people write alternate takes to this story when it has literally been done dozens of times? I am serious, there is not one plot thread that has been missed or unexplored. What is it about that ridiculous story that makes people feel "oh my God I just HAVE to add to that catalogue" and George, if you happen to read this. Can you stop authorizing requests? It was amusing at first but Jesus how many times do we have to see it?

Yeah I know, I don't have to read them. I try to ignore them but Jesus it's like multiple every single day. These writers are worse than Hollywood. They don't have original ideas either.

Okay rant off. I am sorry if I offended you all. Not the people who perpetuate this but those who are more forgiving and tolerant than I.

 

[KeithD]

Who's George?

 

[NotWise]

Who's George?

GeorgeAnderson. He authored "February Sucks" on 9/11/20. There are now about 50 stories in LW that spin off "February Sucks."

 

[lovecraft68]

I'd be flattered if that many people wanted to do spin offs of one of my stories/concepts.

Instead I get multiple requests to...stop writing.

 

[jaF0]

I've freely offered (here on this board) two for follow-ups .... not a single taker that I know of.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've freely offered (here on this board) two for follow-ups .... not a single taker that I know of.

I had someone contact me about writing an alternate ending to one of my stories and I said go for it.

I had another person ask if he could take one of my taboo stories and make a manga video of it for Porn hub and I agreed.

Another asked if they could borrow the fictional demonic siblings I created in Hellbent for incest (and a e-book not posted here) I said sure.

In all cases I just wanted credit in the authors note, and not just for myself, but so they don't get reported or harassed for stealing my work.

 

[AngelRider]

GeorgeAnderson. He authored "February Sucks" on 9/11/20. There are now about 50 stories in LW that spin off "February Sucks."

If not more. If it has been 50 takes then that is absolutely insane. The whole problem with the original was the lazy/inconsistent character development. The author goes out or his way to describe the couple as completely devoted, their friends support and hate infidelity. Yet, on a night that was carefully planned to allow the husband and wife to reconnect intimately and emotionally while their kids were off at the grandparents, she ends up dancing with some famous football player, ignores her husband and ultimately conspires with her friends to distract the husband so she can sneak away and spend the night cheating on what was supposed to be their special night.

Not only does she cheat, she is unapologetic. After, she can't understand why he didn't stay alone in their hotel room like a simp. She can't understand why he trashed the lingerie they selected. She can't understand why he is so upset. Their love should be enough, HIS love should be enough to accept it AND support it. When confronted she tells the husband it was the best sex she ever had. She can't understand why he is pissed. Their friends support HER. Again, this is the devoted wife and mother who loves her family and respects her husband. These are the friends who hate cheaters. George went out of his way to say this.

Needless to say it was a ridiculous mess. I do understand the celebrity pass but this was something else entirely. It wasn't horseshit because women don't cheat. It was horseshit because the exposition and character development did not support the following action. The preposterous plot is why there have been so many alternate takes. I just want people to recognize that one cannot polish shit.

I am a woman, I know women cheat. If the story had the bitch cheating in secret and it turned into an affair, I could possibly accept it with some change in characterization. Only someone who doesn't have any respect for their spouse would do what she did and the friends wouldn't respect the husband either.

I could go on but you get the point. I would love for the trend to end. Maybe it's just the way it is now. I give Randi credit for trying to encourage quality writing with the events. There just hasn't been much of that over the past couple of years outside the events. Even there....

What I wouldn't give for a story by Todd. Lol

 

[lovecraft68]

If not more. If it has been 50 takes then that is absolutely insane. The whole problem with the original was the lazy/inconsistent character development. The author goes out or his way to describe the couple as completely devoted, their friends support and hate infidelity. Yet, on a night that was carefully planned to allow the husband and wife to reconnect intimately and emotionally while their kids were off at the grandparents, she ends up dancing with some famous football player, ignores her husband and ultimately conspires with her friends to distract the husband so she can sneak away and spend the night cheating on what was supposed to be their special night.

Not only does she cheat, she is unapologetic. After, she can't understand why he didn't stay alone in their hotel room like a simp. She can't understand why he trashed the lingerie they selected. She can't understand why he is so upset. Their love should be enough, HIS love should be enough to accept it AND support it. When confronted she tells the husband it was the best sex she ever had. She can't understand why he is pissed. Their friends support HER. Again, this is the devoted wife and mother who loves her family and respects her husband. These are the friends who hate cheaters. George went out of his way to say this.

Needless to say it was a ridiculous mess. I do understand the celebrity pass but this was something else entirely. It wasn't horseshit because women don't cheat. It was horseshit because the exposition and character development did not support the following action. The preposterous plot is why there have been so many alternate takes. I just want people to recognize that one cannot polish shit.

I am a woman, I know women cheat. If the story had the bitch cheating in secret and it turned into an affair, I could possibly accept it with some change in characterization. Only someone who doesn't have any respect for their spouse would do what she did and the friends wouldn't respect the husband either.

I could go on but you get the point. I would love for the trend to end. Maybe it's just the way it is now. I give Randi credit for trying to encourage quality writing with the events. There just hasn't been much of that over the past couple of years outside the events. Even there....

What I wouldn't give for a story by Todd. Lol

Randi does try, but when it comes to LW, you can't put perfume on a pig, and a large and verbal faction of the crowd there oinks when their mouth opens, good work is wasted on most of them.

As for this person's story.

1-this is fiction
2-If the husband did the same thing the same people bitching would be cheering
3- the writer wrote the story he wanted, but I guess the men in LW readership are so goddamn pathetic they have to rewrite other people's stories so the "bitch gets hers" or whatever they want, because if they don't get what they want they cry.
4-its a category filled with those types of stories where people go there to read, froth, then froth more that they didn't like the story in a category full of stories they know they're not going to like
5-Its fiction...but the readership over there is real, and that's pathetic.

 

[nyc1975]

Alternate ending

I began to write an alternate to the story that I felt was more IRL than most of the others. In it Marc turns out to be a self-absorbed douche. It's not the best sex of the wife's life; it is possibly the worst. He fucks her several times only caring that he gets off. She doesn't even get close. In the morning, before she can even shower, he ushers her out the front door to meet an Uber he called. He explains he had fun but he is meeting three buddies at the executive airport to fly south for a few days of golf. Ta, ta. Used and dumped.

Linda has the Uber drop her at the hotel where she discovers Jim had checked out in the middle of the night. She then has to get another Uber home where she arrives a mess, dressed in the infamous blue dress. This leaves hubby conflicted about how she had been treated but still upset with her choosing the jock.

I had trouble developing it past that bare outline. One of my problems is taking seriously the whole celebrity pass premise as presented. If anyone reading this wants to run with my idea, knock your lights out.

 

[gordo12]

Can I ask what makes people write alternate takes to this story when it has literally been done dozens of times? I am serious, there is not one plot thread that has been missed or unexplored. What is it about that ridiculous story that makes people feel "oh my God I just HAVE to add to that catalogue" and George, if you happen to read this. Can you stop authorizing requests? It was amusing at first but Jesus how many times do we have to see it?

Yeah I know, I don't have to read them. I try to ignore them but Jesus it's like multiple every single day. These writers are worse than Hollywood. They don't have original ideas either.

Okay rant off. I am sorry if I offended you all. Not the people who perpetuate this but those who are more forgiving and tolerant than I.

Funny, I was thinking about this too the other day. Mainly because a second one has taken off based on "Just Once." I'm sick of them. Don't read them and consider the authors must be bereft of ideas to have to do it. For the time they put in, they could come up with something original. But then LW is awash with cliche stories.

I only tried it once, and 25000 words in it was, yeah, we really don't sound like each other, do we? I dropped it.

 

[njlauren]

I think when people write sequels to stories, it is because for whatever reasons it spoke to them, something in it hit home, hit on a fear or nerve, or they really thought they had a unique take on it. I will agree that with February sucks, that many of the responses were boiler plate, they were cliché'd and didn't really add much.

To me the reason for finishing a story is you think you have a unique take on it. Some of the writers with February sucks saw the original story for what it was, a variation on the old "Martian Slut Ray" where a seemingly devoted wife goes off the deep end for seemingly no reason. Anderson's take was celebrity did it, and that could very well be true if the woman in question lives in a dream world where she envisions constantly a celebrity of some sort paying attention to her; this story though Linda as written didn't match that. Some tried to write a backstory where the wife already was cheating, they had met previously, and that at least had some credibility.

But I think it raises an interesting question: In oddball situations like this, what could make someone who is otherwise a loving spouse (note I include men and women in this), to do something spontaneous stupid? Especially where it is outrageous, like with February Sucks (I couldn't find a handle on that one, didn't even try to come up with something there, I personally couldn't wrap my head around someone cheating like that because it was a celebrity) . The thing is, in real life people do stupid things, totally out of character with them, and outside the Martian Slut ray or whatever, why?

I have written one like that attempting to finish Kalamaxos "Just once...." (submitted but not approved, learning my lesson about uploading a file versus cut and pasting...). It ran long and I suspect many will not like it, but I hope I found a unique way to describe crazy behavior. For the record,outside of someone with a sudden mental break, that most 'spontaneous' things like this happen because of a long chain of things, that a devoted wife/husband who has been solid and staid and steady must of had something boiling beneath the surface.

On the other hand you can tell I am a masochist, who for their first two submissions would choose to finish other stories? I swore I wouldn't after the first one *lol*.

 

[gordo12]

I think when people write sequels to stories, it is because for whatever reasons it spoke to them, something in it hit home, hit on a fear or nerve, or they really thought they had a unique take on it. I will agree that with February sucks, that many of the responses were boiler plate, they were cliché'd and didn't really add much.

To me the reason for finishing a story is you think you have a unique take on it. Some of the writers with February sucks saw the original story for what it was, a variation on the old "Martian Slut Ray" where a seemingly devoted wife goes off the deep end for seemingly no reason. Anderson's take was celebrity did it, and that could very well be true if the woman in question lives in a dream world where she envisions constantly a celebrity of some sort paying attention to her; this story though Linda as written didn't match that. Some tried to write a backstory where the wife already was cheating, they had met previously, and that at least had some credibility.

But I think it raises an interesting question: In oddball situations like this, what could make someone who is otherwise a loving spouse (note I include men and women in this), to do something spontaneous stupid? Especially where it is outrageous, like with February Sucks (I couldn't find a handle on that one, didn't even try to come up with something there, I personally couldn't wrap my head around someone cheating like that because it was a celebrity) . The thing is, in real life people do stupid things, totally out of character with them, and outside the Martian Slut ray or whatever, why?

I have written one like that attempting to finish Kalamaxos "Just once...." (submitted but not approved, learning my lesson about uploading a file versus cut and pasting...). It ran long and I suspect many will not like it, but I hope I found a unique way to describe crazy behavior. For the record,outside of someone with a sudden mental break, that most 'spontaneous' things like this happen because of a long chain of things, that a devoted wife/husband who has been solid and staid and steady must of had something boiling beneath the surface.

On the other hand you can tell I am a masochist, who for their first two submissions would choose to finish other stories? I swore I wouldn't after the first one *lol*.

There's nothing wrong with writing a story inspired by ideas. I get inspiration all the time. Other authors, stuff online, singing in the shower while bylaw officers are pounding on the door to ticket me for noise violations, the list is endless.

But to directly try to take off from another author's story? Nah, don't like it.

 

[invisible_bridges]

Why February Sucks is compelling

Some folks watch or read horror because they can feel fear in a safe environment. Likewise, some people read Loving Wives stories so that they may experience betrayal vicariously. For connoisseurs of betrayal, FS delivers a gut punch.

It has to do with a heretofore loving, faithful wife emasculating her husband by abandoning him to openly cheat on him in front of not only him, but also their friends. It's the RAAC version of RichardGerald's 'The Bridge'.

It's not the reconciliation or the BCB climax that matters, but rather the power of the initial betrayal. That is where the energy lies.

That energy is what draws other authors to give their take on the story, but nothing competes with the original.

 

[AngelRider]

Sorry for the late response. This likely came across as a dump rant and run. I am back to my normal life now that I am no longer working full time as a nurse and am able to go back to my practice (I have a practice where we work with patients who have suffered trauma, victims of violence etc. When the pandemic started to overload the hospitals, I limited my counseling patients and went back to the hospital full time instead of per diem)

Anyway, I don't offer marriage counseling as a standalone service. Basically, I don't work with couples who are on the verge of divorce because one cheated, they aren't communicating, lack of intimacy, court ordered etc. When I meet with couples it is because my patient is married and they need help due to the primary reasons why my patient is meeting with me. Think sexual violence survivors, people with pts etc

Anyway, I have been around enough to know that the story is preposition. It's not that that wife wouldn't cheat. She might if she was narcissistic enough to believe she was owed the experience. That doesn't mean she would do it that way. Only someone with no empathy would do what the wife did in the story. I mean seriously, just how high of an opinion of oneself must one have in order to actually believe that they can:
A: plan and prepare a special evening with your husband for just the two of you and make it known to all your friends
B: meet some attractive person (celebrity or otherwise) who flirts with you and suggests you ditch your husband publicly
C: make no effort to hide your leaving. You publicly ditch your husband, on your special night. All your friends know you had planned a night of wild sex with your husband but you ditch him alone to have a night of wild sex with a stranger.
D. more than that, you leave it up to a 3rd person to tell your husband what is going to happen but that it will be all over eventually and it doesn't mean anything.

That IS the premise of the story and Georgina had them stay together even after the wife proceeds to tell her husband it was the best sex of her life. Now look, I am here to tell you that author is delusional if he or she thinks that is even remotely realistic if the husband has any self.esteem. this isn't even ego. It's self worth. If your spouse treats you that horribly, they don't respect you. THIS is why I loath the story and why I suspect so many have written it again. To this week.

If the problem is you cannot polish a fucking turd. You make the wife always narcissistic from the start. No well adjusted woman is going to do this nor would any well adjusted man. SOME might be narcissistic enough that they would plan a secret encounter AFTER the night. That is absolutely plausible. If it came out, upon reflection other behaviors would be identified that lined up with this happening. A secret indiscretion is still wrong but it intends to cake eat. To maintain the happy family, keep the spouse from pain, oneself from pain and indulge as well. The rest of the story could proceed as usual in regards to the begging and anger.

I want to shake the people who defend the concept. I mean seriously, if you can envision your wife doing that exact same situation to you and you honestly believe your marriage is perfect, you need to seriously take a step back.

I think when people write sequels to stories, it is because for whatever reasons it spoke to them, something in it hit home, hit on a fear or nerve, or they really thought they had a unique take on it. I will agree that with February sucks, that many of the responses were boiler plate, they were cliché'd and didn't really add much.

To me the reason for finishing a story is you think you have a unique take on it. Some of the writers with February sucks saw the original story for what it was, a variation on the old "Martian Slut Ray" where a seemingly devoted wife goes off the deep end for seemingly no reason. Anderson's take was celebrity did it, and that could very well be true if the woman in question lives in a dream world where she envisions constantly a celebrity of some sort paying attention to her; this story though Linda as written didn't match that. Some tried to write a backstory where the wife already was cheating, they had met previously, and that at least had some credibility.

But I think it raises an interesting question: In oddball situations like this, what could make someone who is otherwise a loving spouse (note I include men and women in this), to do something spontaneous stupid? Especially where it is outrageous, like with February Sucks (I couldn't find a handle on that one, didn't even try to come up with something there, I personally couldn't wrap my head around someone cheating like that because it was a celebrity) . The thing is, in real life people do stupid things, totally out of character with them, and outside the Martian Slut ray or whatever, why?

I have written one like that attempting to finish Kalamaxos "Just once...." (submitted but not approved, learning my lesson about uploading a file versus cut and pasting...). It ran long and I suspect many will not like it, but I hope I found a unique way to describe crazy behavior. For the record,outside of someone with a sudden mental break, that most 'spontaneous' things like this happen because of a long chain of things, that a devoted wife/husband who has been solid and staid and steady must of had something boiling beneath the surface.

On the other hand you can tell I am a masochist, who for their first two submissions would choose to finish other stories? I swore I wouldn't after the first one *lol*.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's not the reconciliation or the BCB climax that matters, but rather the power of the initial betrayal. That is where the energy lies.

.

I'd put it a bit differently. These are revenge stories. They're like Dirty Harry or Death Wish movies. An honorable man who lives scrupulously by a code is betrayed in a world that does not support him or his principles. He gets back at the wife AND at the society that supports the wife and that refused to honor his code. These stories obviously have appeal for readers that are nursing a sense of deep grievance. They are angry at society, and in particular from the perception that men are getting screwed (figuratively). These stories arise from that anger.

I've read a number of these stories and am struck by the metronomic repetition of certain themes, even in stories written by some of the better writers:

1. The man is blameless.

2. The woman is bad and weak and has no morals. Her betrayal is not nuanced. She is wholly in the wrong.

3. The woman doesn't understand why the husband wants to break up with her.

4. Family and friends support the cheating wife, to a weird degree.

5. The system screws the man (evidence shows this is not usually true. Men usually come out of divorce better off than women, and whether one spouse or the other cheated usually is irrelevant to divorce settlements in America).

6. The man with whom the wife cheated is always a bad and unsympathetic character.

7. The cheated husband outwits both the wife and the system in the end, through his superior intelligence, resourcefulness, and principle.

8. The honorable husband, of course, cannot reconcile with the cheating wife, even though in real life this is often what happens for all kinds of reasons. If he did, readers would call him a cuck and would crap all over the author for letting reconciliation happen.

In other words, they're cartoon stories, which bear no resemblance to real life, even though some of them are quite well written.

As Lovecraft pointed out, it's very curious that there are virtually no stories of this type where the sexes are flipped.

 

[Payne_Hall]

In other words, they're cartoon stories, which bear no resemblance to real life, even though some of them are quite well written.

As Lovecraft pointed out, it's very curious that there are virtually no stories of this type where the sexes are flipped.

We're comic dispensers.
We crack up all the censors.
On Tiny Toon Adventures, get a dose of comedy!
So here's Acme Acres, it's a whole wide world apart.
Our home sweet home, it stands alone, a cartoon work of art!
The scripts were rejected, expect the unexpected.
On Tiny Toon Adventures, it's about to start!

No, actually, I had something real that this reminded me of, which is something called the Fantasy Novelist Exam. The idea is that it goes through all the questions of formula that Fantasy books tend to fall to.

http://www.rinkworks.com/fnovel/

My personal favorite is: “ Does your novel contain a character whose sole purpose is to show up at random plot points and dispense information?” Because I’ve shamelessly done it in fantasy writing. But it’s always interesting to see different kinds of formulas, especially for content I don’t generally read.

 

[AngstIgnored]

Anyway, I have been around enough to know that the story is preposition. It's not that that wife wouldn't cheat. She might if she was narcissistic enough to believe she was owed the experience. That doesn't mean she would do it that way. Only someone with no empathy would do what the wife did in the story. I mean seriously, just how high of an opinion of oneself must one have in order to actually believe that they can:
A: plan and prepare a special evening with your husband for just the two of you and make it known to all your friends
B: meet some attractive person (celebrity or otherwise) who flirts with you and suggests you ditch your husband publicly
C: make no effort to hide your leaving. You publicly ditch your husband, on your special night. All your friends know you had planned a night of wild sex with your husband but you ditch him alone to have a night of wild sex with a stranger.
D. more than that, you leave it up to a 3rd person to tell your husband what is going to happen but that it will be all over eventually and it doesn't mean anything.

That IS the premise of the story and Georgina had them stay together even after the wife proceeds to tell her husband it was the best sex of her life. Now look, I am here to tell you that author is delusional if he or she thinks that is even remotely realistic if the husband has any self.esteem. this isn't even ego. It's self worth. If your spouse treats you that horribly, they don't respect you. THIS is why I loath the story and why I suspect so many have written it again.

I think you completely diagnosed and broke this down, very accurately. It's so unbelievable, people can't resist trying to make some sense out of it, no matter how farcical the original.

 

[jaF0]

I think we've found a few of the Anon LW commenters.

 

[oksideshow859419]

So I have never read any of the February sucks series mostly because I didn't know if they were like one big story together or separate stories especially since they're so many of them.
I know the first one and original is the George version so I guess my question is there an order to read all of the February Sucks stories. If there isn't any should I go by date that they written and published or there a list already if so where?

 

[NoTalentHack]

So I have never read any of the February sucks series mostly because I didn't know if they were like one big story together or separate stories especially since they're so many of them.
I know the first one and original is the George version so I guess my question is there an order to read all of the February Sucks stories. If there isn't any should I go by date that they written and published or there a list already if so where?

The only "canon" one is George's original. All the others are rewrites, sequels, prequels, what if stories, etc. Basically, people trying to either make sense of the story or rewrite it so that it doesn't offend their sensibilities or both. The vast majority deviate wildly from the original story at some point, usually either when Marc (the football player) comes to the table or right after Linda (the wife) left with him.

Only a handful attempt anything that could be called a "real" sequel where the events in the story happened, and then it picks up some time later. Off the top of my head, KitDeLuca's February Sucks: The Details Matter, GodivaFan's February Sucks - The Aftermath, and my own February Sucks - Sessions are the only ones that went that route, although I think someone else took Kit's story and ran with it in yet another direction.

As to why it's spawned so many of these? I think a lot of what's been said here is accurate, but that's true of a lot of other stories with nonsensical takes on cheating and reconciliation; there are plenty of stories in LW where the wife cheats, does it with no real thought towards her husband's feelings, and then expects him to reconcile, and he eventually does. Those ones, though, rarely inspired anything like the frenzy of writing that February Sucks did.

Normally, that's because the writer is not good at telling a story, but that's not true of George. He's written some excellent stories, and his technical skill is quite good. So we had this disconnect between writer skill and... basically everything that happens in the story. I talk a little about it in the afterword of my take, excerpted here:

This story, my ending to February Sucks, is the reason I got back into creative writing after decades away. The original story bored its way into my brain, like it did for a lot of folks. I've reread it multiple times trying to figure out why it sticks in our heads so well. And I think I finally hit on the reason: it's like a nightmare.

I don't mean that in a metaphorical sense. Yes, if it happened to you, it would be a nightmare, the worst month of your life, but that's not the point. It's got nightmare logic throughout. Not weird nightmares, with zombies and falling forever and vampires and the end of the world; it's a lot more subtle than that. It's the type of nightmare where you dream that your wife did something outlandishly bad to you. Then you wake up actually mad at them, and then stay that way for the rest of the day. Maybe the rest of the week. You know it's irrational, and what happened in the dream was too outlandish to actually ever happen, but it's how you feel.

Any two or three things that happen in the original story would be plausible together: A famous person sweeps your wife off her feet AND it's in public. Your wife cheats on you AND she doesn't seem sorry afterwards AND a family friend tells you to suck it up and stay together for the kids. Either of those works as a reasonably realistic story. But if you take all of those and then lump on the fifteen or twenty other things that happen in the original story, it starts to feel like a nightmare. All it's missing are having all of your teeth falling out and having to take your final exam naked after missing all your classes for the semester.

The thing is, while FS is unsurpassed in this arena, there is actually a proto-February Sucks from sixteen years ago in the form of Something We Have To Talk About by nici. In it, a guilty wife confesses that she's been having an affair with a younger man for a year, and that, while she's in love with the other man, she still loves her husband, too, and she has no plans to leave. The husband blows up, and when he threatens divorce, she basically says, "if you do that, I'll take half your stuff and the kids."

When he suggests that maybe he'll have an affair too, she replies,

"Don't be so stupid Jonathan. Take a long look at yourself. You're not eighteen and young any more. You're balding on top. Your belly is starting to hang over your belt. You're a middle aged married man with three children and a wife to support. Who would even consider having an affair, or even a one-night-stand with a man like you? Women our age want sincerity, comfort, compassion and security or they want erotic, sensuality, interesting men who can seduce them towards passions they have never known before. None of these can you provide. No again Jonathan. If you go out chasing skirts in bars and embarrass and shame me for being your wife, I will divorce you."

Then she tries to tell him if he loves her he'll let her have this, and it will be over before too much longer because the affair partner is so much younger than her. He reacts, as one might expect, poorly, and she leaves him to soak in his misery for fear of what he might do or she might say if she stays, promising to be back in a few days.

In effect, it's like 90% of all the current Loving Wives cliches stuffed into one story, and it absolutely blew up.

The first problem was that that was the end of the story. That was how it ended, with no resolution. That, by itself, might have only earned it a low rating and some angry rantings. But the writer's foreword contained this:

I'm going to try my hand at writing a cheating wife story. I've read some fairly nice stories. But, in too many cheating wife stories I have read, the female characters seemed to either have a full blown narcissistic personality disorder, a histrionic personality disorder or they're so weak and spineless that I can only wonder how they could ever exist in the real world. They can't. They can only exist in the fantasies of testosterone overdosed, teenaged minds.

Cheating is not that uncommon. I do not even closely believe that 99% of people who cheat are so wacko, so abnormal. Where are those stories, stories about real people dealing and coping with real problems, in real ways?

I'm writing this story, putting emphasis on creating a couple where each is as emotionally strong as the other is. A real-life couple, who interact with each other along logical lines of subjective chance. Cheating and adultery is about passion, love, anger and hate. Cheating and adultery is about conflict, conflict between partners where one is pushing for change and the other not. Events must happen where change is inevitable, conclusive and consequential.

In other words, saying, "yes, this is fine, everything is fine, and it's totally realistic." Not that it's moral, but that this is how normal people could and do act and react. Just like George's foreword on February Sucks. That's what really drove the reaction to the earlier story, the absolute incredulity at that idea.

While it didn't get nearly the number of direct redos and sequels--although it had a few--it is essentially the ur-"honey, we need to talk" story in LW, the "I'm telling you right now that I'm having or will have an affair/weekend away, only because you deserve to know, and therefore it won't be cheating, because you know." You know, the thing that no one in real life ever does, but which shows up A LOT in LW, because it does make for a compelling story.

FS is like that, but instead of spawning a bunch of indirect retellings, it spawned ones where people used the same character names and setup, then did wildly different things with them. I'd argue that a huge chunk of the stories since then that aren't direct FS takeoffs have also been reactions, in the same way that so many people reacted to nici's story.

 

[Gamblnluck]

This story, my ending to February Sucks, is the reason I got back into creative writing after decades away. The original story bored its way into my brain, like it did for a lot of folks. I've reread it multiple times trying to figure out why it sticks in our heads so well. And I think I finally hit on the reason: it's like a nightmare.

I don't mean that in a metaphorical sense. Yes, if it happened to you, it would be a nightmare, the worst month of your life, but that's not the point. It's got nightmare logic throughout. Not weird nightmares, with zombies and falling forever and vampires and the end of the world; it's a lot more subtle than that. It's the type of nightmare where you dream that your wife did something outlandishly bad to you. Then you wake up actually mad at them, and then stay that way for the rest of the day. Maybe the rest of the week. You know it's irrational, and what happened in the dream was too outlandish to actually ever happen, but it's how you feel.

You hit the nail on the head. As you read the original 'base' story, you feel the anger, loss etc. Your blood pressure if tested, would probably be elevated. Until a point, it hit those nerves. Then it sorta ended with no 'good' resolution. By that that makes you feel good. Hence the multiple endings people wrote.
After a point, I think some authors saw it a challenge to write their own version.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'll give props to George, because its an achievement to get that far under people's skin. More props that a lot of the angst over his story is from the 'real men' who have to rewrite it into BTB stories because the idea of a woman 'winning' even in a fictional story is too much to bear.

 

[lovecraft68]

Do you two need a room?

 

[Gamblnluck]

I'll give props to George, because its an achievement to get that far under people's skin. More props that a lot of the angst over his story is from the 'real men' who have to rewrite it into BTB stories because the idea of a woman 'winning' even in a fictional story is too much to bear.

Have you read the story? George got only a 3.94 scoring for a great story. The reason? He had a lousy resolution. I'm sure if your wife kicked you in the nuts, you'd put some ice on them and say "good shot, honey. Guess I deserved it."
The wife did not win. The MC simply decided his kids were worth more than his sense of self. Then they built a new relationship. Even where George left it, you get the impression if she stepped out again, the results would be far different.

 

[lovecraft68]

Have you read the story? George got only a 3.94 scoring for a great story. The reason? He had a lousy resolution. I'm sure if your wife kicked you in the nuts, you'd put some ice on them and say "good shot, honey. Guess I deserved it."
The wife did not win. The MC simply decided his kids were worth more than his sense of self. Then they built a new relationship. Even where George left it, you get the impression if she stepped out again, the results would be far different.

He had a lousy resolution...in some people's opinion. To still be near a four there had to be a fair amount of people who were okay with it.

If you didn't like the ending, of course that's your right, and you're right to have the opinion of why you didn't like it.

But to sit here and tell someone they wrote the story wrong, and encourage it to be rewritten is sheer hubris.

Tell you what, I see you've written a lot of non con. I don't care for that category, should I bitch about your stories, and then rewrite the endings where the antagonist gets what they deserve in glorious fashion? I could write my own story with that type of outcome, but I wouldn't touch yours because how you write is your business.

Maybe you should extend that courtesy to others.

I have a story in LW sitting at 2.95 and its a serious effort, and a lot of people said it was well written, but they couldn't figure out who to root for because all the characters are unlikable, which was what I wanted. If someone approached me and said "If you made the wife this or the husband that," I'll appreciate the fact they commented and have no qualms with their take. If someone said "This was so wrong I had to make it right...then that story will be reported and pulled because its mine, not theirs.

I'll deal with the score and the abuse because it was my story my way, which is what your stories are, and George's was.

But it seems CMI leads people to think THEY get to decide how someone else's story should end.

Try thinking about what I just said.