When You Strike an Unexpected Nerve

[Wifetheif]

I have a story "The Maid's Revenge" which has been up for quite a while. It is about a neighbor's wife who takes on the job of being the neighborhood slob's maid after being laid off from her regular job. Slob objectifies her and buys her somewhat revealing maid uniforms to work in. Story ends with slob drugging, stripping, and shaving the maid. She exacts revenge but the police don't get involved. For the longest time, the responses to the story were typical but lately, I've stuck an unexpected nerve. One person wrote that they would not review the story because they knew women who had been raped and hated the fact that my heroine didn't go to the police. This was followed by a similar comment also lamenting that the police were not involved because this guy deserved to be on the sexual offenders' list. Those responses surprised me as we tend to deal in fantasy here. It also made me aware of just how realistic my scenario was. The point is -- What unexpected nerves have your stories exposed in your readers?

 

[EmilyMiller]

One person’s fantasy is another’s trauma. It’s not really that unexpected.

Em

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm surprised too, usually the crowd here is on the side of the rapist

 

[Bazzle]

I wrote that my protagonist flicked her cigarette into the gutter.

Someone complained that they could not enjoy the story with such wilful littering.

The girl was strutting around half naked ... And the littering was the concern?....

Ok.

 

[lovecraft68]

My latest story is a brother sister piece. Its mentioned the sister is kind of a stoner/hippie throwback, and the brother smokes with her from time to time.

I received several comments that I shouldn't encourage drug use

So....screwing your sister is cool, smoking pot is an issue.

O....kay.

The story placed third in the Nude Day contest and someone sent me feedback saying I'd have finished higher if not for the drug use.
I replied I thought pot made things higher....they didn't respond. No sense of humor these people.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

I had people upset about the ending of my demon story, because the guy didn't get the revenge he wanted, well he should've did as he was told. I thought the lead up was obvious. A "deal with the devil" never really goes your way.

Now that I think about it; I think that's the only time I get comments is when they don't like what I write. I have stories that have been favorited by several people and no comments, one man falls to his own hubris and it was almost like LW people got lost on the way there.

 

[WyreBendr0417]

Don't sweat it, it's impossible to make everyone happy and not worth attempting. The first story that really took off for me with readers had the MFC occasionally asking for, and loving a moderate amount of pain (titty slaps and such) when it came to playtime. I think the only negative comment I got on that story was from someone saying pain should never be inflicted, whether it's wanted or not. (Big shoulder shrug.)

WB

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I wrote that my protagonist flicked her cigarette into the gutter.

Someone complained that they could not enjoy the story with such wilful littering.

The girl was strutting around half naked ... And the littering was the concern?....

Ok.

I suppose that they couldn't enjoy Schindler's List because of you know all that Holocaust going on. I suppose that it shouldn't but it still does amaze me at just how judgemental people can be over fiction.

 

[mirafrida]

My latest story really struck a nerve. It was absolutely love/hate response, which I honestly wasn't expecting (thought my warnings would be sufficient, but not even close). The rating is horrific, because people who don't like it are reading it all the way through rather than bailing, loathing the ending, and dinging it accordingly. But in terms of "favorites per views" it's significantly better than all my other stories (bar one), so it's got a disproportionate number of enthusiasts as well.

I do feel bad, in a way, because really not all that many of the negative comments are truly toxic. A number of them offer heartfelt and often lengthy expressions of how let down they felt by the ending, and how they think it should have gone. Ouch.

I still think it's an awesome story, but came out of the whole thing feeling a bit shell-shocked. Oh well, I'm sure I will learn something from it.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Non-consent of any sort is very much a hot-button issue here. My call (shared with many others) is that (1) repeated studies have shown that a very large slice of women (some studies say as high as 60%) report having or having had fantasies about being forced into some sort of sexual activity and (2) it’s a fantasy, not a serious desire to be raped and (3) it’s not an encouragement of or support of rape IRL, anymore than the wildly-unrealistic happy-brother-sister incest stories here support pedophilia, so carry on.

Others, whom I acknowledge as sincere and apparently intelligent, argue strongly the rape is horrible (which it is, of course) and that no depiction of it should be permitted.

As others have noted, you’re not going to please everybody.

 

[SexyVita]

I received several comments that I shouldn't encourage drug use

Heck, where I live weed is a legal recreational intoxicant and few people complain about stories where people drink together.

The first story that really took off for me with readers had the MFC occasionally asking for, and loving a moderate amount of pain (titty slaps and such) when it came to playtime. I think the only negative comment I got on that story was from someone saying pain should never be inflicted, whether it's wanted or not.

It's amazing how many people believe that they know what is best for someone else, especially in the bedroom. Just because they don't like being slapped or spanked doesn't mean no one does. Why do they care so much what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own bedrooms? Are they afraid they are missing out on all the fun?

I do feel bad, in a way, because really not all that many of the negative comments are truly toxic. A number of them offer heartfelt and often lengthy expressions of how let down they felt by the ending, and how they think it should have gone. Ouch.

I think all artists suffer from this sort of thing, but I look at it this way; If someone liked my writing enough to read all the way through to the end, and then comment about it, that's a win in my book! It means I kept them interested in the story long enough for them to get to the end, and they were invested enough in the story to comment on it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

One person wrote that they would not review the story because they knew women who had been raped and hated the fact that my heroine didn't go to the police. This was followed by a similar comment also lamenting that the police were not involved because this guy deserved to be on the sexual offenders' list. Those responses surprised me as we tend to deal in fantasy here. It also made me aware of just how realistic my scenario was.

I was going to say - only in fantasy land is going to the police an easy and simple option, and even an enlightened and sympathetic PD can't guarantee that justice will be done.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

A number of them offer heartfelt and often lengthy expressions of how let down they felt by the ending, and how they think it should have gone. Ouch.

If they think that it should have ended another way then they should have written it themselves. You got off your ass to write it. They didn't bother. So you get to choose the ending and there's no reason to feel bad about it.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Others, whom I acknowledge as sincere and apparently intelligent, argue strongly the rape is horrible (which it is, of course) and that no depiction of it should be permitted.

And these folks should stop reading their Bibles and Qr'ans and such since they're full of atrocities like rape and murder and genocide. Let's burn all the newspapers too while we're at it.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I write for the Loving Wives category, where I tend to get hateful comments about my married, swinger couple having fun.

I take those negative comments and use them for fodder for my next stories!

Last month, I wrote the story "What Were You Thinking?" about a swinger husband finding his wife deceived him when setting up her private weekend with a lover. My latest story is based on a comment saying this dysfunctional couple needs therapy. So, I wrote "What Were You Thinking? - Therapy".

 

[petes478]

I wrote that my protagonist flicked her cigarette into the gutter.

Someone complained that they could not enjoy the story with such wilful littering.

The girl was strutting around half naked ... And the littering was the concern?....

Ok.

Laughing my ass off

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

I wrote a story about an impromptu gangbang among some college friends. At one point the female narrator experimentally rubs two guys' dicks together and comments (in character) that "it was kind of gay but they seemed to enjoy it".

Someone told me that ruined the story for him because guys touch dicks all the time during gangbangs and it's not gay!

 

[djrip]

I wrote a story about an impromptu gangbang among some college friends. At one point the female narrator experimentally rubs two guys' dicks together and comments (in character) that "it was kind of gay but they seemed to enjoy it".

Someone told me that ruined the story for him because guys touch dicks all the time during gangbangs and it's not gay!

"It's not gay when it's in a 3-way. With a honey in the middle there's some leeway. The area's grey in a 1-2-3-way..."

 

[onehitwanda]

I wrote a story about an impromptu gangbang among some college friends. At one point the female narrator experimentally rubs two guys' dicks together and comments (in character) that "it was kind of gay but they seemed to enjoy it".

Someone told me that ruined the story for him because guys touch dicks all the time during gangbangs and it's not gay!

Everybody knows it's only gay if the balls touch.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Everybody knows it's only gay if the balls touch.

 

[jehoram]

I remember a comment on a story I wrote, where the female MC had sex with her father. It happened off-stage, so to speak, not graphically described but referred to by the girl's mother while she was screwing the girl's lover. (All the sexual activity, including the incest, was by adults.)

The reader said that even the mention of the incest dropped him out of the story.

You can't please everybody, I guess.

 

[Winter_Fare]

I have a really nasty series of succubus stories, maiming, murder the lot. Incest with the MCs (hot) grandma, fisting, forced insemination...

The only thing that triggered a negative comment across all six instalments was.... "Threats of amputation"

 

[yowser]

One of my few entrants in the BDSM category got this comment:

Leave out animals
Warn us that the story involves animals.

There were two mentions: one of the MC being scared of a neighbor’s dog when she was young, and the second of an (admittedly) alarming falcon in the BDSM scene (threatened damage but not actual.)

I would have thought the BDSM crew would be used to erotic facets involving pain or distress perhaps not tolerated in other categories, but I had no idea that the inclusion of animals would provoke a reaction (there was only one other comment.)

Was this an outraged PETA member? I have no clue.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I think this time, with this topic, I'll just read the posting and keep my little ole mouth shut!

 

[EmilyMiller]

I think this time, with this topic, I'll just read the posting and keep my little ole mouth shut!

I try to do the same - but just like the Four Tops…

Em