Why do people in LW divorce/btb stories almost never have pets?

[SimonDoom]

When the pizza arrives does anyone care that a dog barks to answer the knock on the door? Of course not. As long as the naked girl opening the door drops to her knees and starts sucking without delay, everyone is happy.

Hold on, now. I thought you were the big advocate for character and plot development. Shouldn't they get to know each other and learn their motivations while she's setting the pizza down before she drops to her knees? Or the pizza manager calls him and wants him to get back quickly to the store and he has to wrestle with the conflict between keeping his job and receiving fellatio?

 

[lc69hunter]

I've been bingeing a lot of LW stories focusing on cheating and splitting up, btb, RAAC, other, to help me form some ideas for a story & I just realized something odd while reading one where a wife horned up by a coworker pulls her husband away from fixing dinner for sex without putting the food away... where are the pets?
The stories OFTEN deal with the kids, but in hundreds of stories from many authors there's almost never a mention of a cat or dog. Statistically that's REALLY unlikely, and pets would often play a part, whether it be as something to be fought over (one tale did that & cleverly hid that it was about a dog until the end), something that gives someone a reason to live, or any number of other things.
Doesn't seem to matter which way the story goes, the troubled couples never have pets.
Why?

Pets elicit sympathy. BTB'ers do not want that

 

[HordHolm]

Hold on, now. I thought you were the big advocate for character and plot development. Shouldn't they get to know each other and learn their motivations while she's setting the pizza down before she drops to her knees? Or the pizza manager calls him and wants him to get back quickly to the store and he has to wrestle with the conflict between keeping his job and receiving fellatio?

Alternatively, there's a gruff, "honey, who's at the door?" from the depths of the broken down shack, followed by the hollow sound of shotgun shells sliding into the gun, and he has to decide whether to cut and run, or just another moment before the Ozark gentleman gets too curious and tears himself away from the tv.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Hold on, now. I thought you were the big advocate for character and plot development. Shouldn't they get to know each other and learn their motivations while she's setting the pizza down before she drops to her knees? Or the pizza manager calls him and wants him to get back quickly to the store and he has to wrestle with the conflict between keeping his job and receiving fellatio?

I think that the bigger question that everyone needs to know is whether the pizza has pineapple on it or not.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Probably for the same reason I don't see pets in other categories of stories. They're irrelevant. They serve no dramatic purpose. If the pet isn't necessary to the story, get rid of it.

There's absolutely no need to stuff your characters' story lives full of the little things that actually inhabit the lives of real people we know. A little goes a long way.

Not only are they irrelevant, they are another detail to keep track of. In one of my series the FMC and MMC only meet because of the MMC's dog. I thought it was a fun way to get two people who likely wouldn't otherwise meet together.
Now I constantly have to keep track of where the dog is and what she's doing as well as the human characters or someone will call me out on it.
Couple going away for the weekend? What did they do with the dog?

 

[SimonDoom]

I think that the bigger question that everyone needs to know is whether the pizza has pineapple on it or not.

You just want to kill the eroticism, don't you?

 

[Kelliezgirl]

You just want to kill the eroticism, don't you?

I thought the whole point of the erotic horror category was to have a spot for pineapple pizza?

 

[Devinter]

I thought the whole point of the erotic horror category was to have a spot for pineapple pizza?

I can do you one better; In Sweden, one of the most popular pizza toppings is bananas.

 

[SimonDoom]

I can do you one better; In Sweden, one of the most popular pizza toppings is bananas.

Probably better than lutefisk pizza.

 

[Devinter]

Probably better than lutefisk pizza.

The most popular combination is pineapple, banana slices, and a ton of curry powder. All together. The weird part is that it actually tastes good for some reason.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I can do you one better; In Sweden, one of the most popular pizza toppings is bananas.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

The most popular combination is pineapple, banana slices, and a ton of curry powder. All together. The weird part is that it actually tastes good for some reason.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

The most popular combination is pineapple, banana slices, and a ton of curry powder. All together. The weird part is that it actually tastes good for some reason.

Do they use dick cheese?

 

[HordHolm]

Ah, yes, how well I remember having to go down to the pizza place on the corner outside my first wife's parent's apartment in Sodermalm (Stockholm) and pick up the curry and banana pizza ordered over the phone twenty minutes earlier. The frustrating thing was that I wanted to practise Swedish in the shop but they just wanted to show off their English once they knew I was a foreigner. That, and the fact that I was picking up a curry and banana pizza. Vile things.

 

[Devinter]

Ah, yes, how well I remember having to go down to the pizza place on the corner outside my first wife's parent's apartment in Sodermalm (Stockholm) and pick up the curry and banana pizza ordered over the phone twenty minutes earlier. The frustrating thing was that I wanted to practise Swedish in the shop but they just wanted to show off their English once they knew I was a foreigner. That, and the fact that I was picking up a curry and banana pizza. Vile things.

It's not something I would ever order, but when I've had a bite or few, I found it surprisingly palatable. In Literotica rating, maybe a 3.8? Also, I work five minutes (walking speed) from Södermalm and I frequent the art galleries there. Quaint part of town, really!

We have another dish we ruin with bananas too. It's basically a nice chicken casserole and then we ruin it by chucking a bunch peanuts and bananas in there. That one's a lot worse than the pizza, in my opinion!

 

[HordHolm]

It's not something I would ever order, but when I've had a bite or few, I found it surprisingly palatable. In Literotica rating, maybe a 3.8? Also, I work five minutes (walking speed) from Södermalm and I frequent the art galleries there. Quaint part of town, really!

We have another dish we ruin with bananas too. It's basically a nice chicken casserole and then we ruin it by chucking a bunch peanuts and bananas in there. That one's a lot worse than the pizza, in my opinion!

I really miss Sodermalm. My first marriage broke down twenty years ago and I haven't been back since then. I loved the artist part of it, with the wooden cottages up on the cliff looking down on Gamla Stan. I found the Black and Tan bar in Sodermalm badly named, though (you'd need to know the British/Irish history to know why that name made me raise my eyebrows). I bet it's all changed now, and I'd be surprised if that bar still exists. My ex-in laws lived right by Sodra Station, on Kvarngata, and there were a couple of pleasant little bars around there. I'd love to see it all again, but, as they say, you can never go back.

I've never had this chicken/banana/peanut casserole. I regard that as a lucky escape from the sounds of it. And the pizza scored down in the Lit 2.5 - 2.8 for me.

 

[Devinter]

I really miss Sodermalm. My first marriage broke down twenty years ago and I haven't been back since then. I loved the artist part of it, with the wooden cottages up on the cliff looking down on Gamla Stan. I found the Black and Tan bar in Sodermalm badly named, though (you'd need to know the British/Irish history to know why that name made me raise my eyebrows). I bet it's all changed now, and I'd be surprised if that bar still exists. My ex-in laws lived right by Sodra Station, on Kvarngata, and there were a couple of pleasant little bars around there. I'd love to see it all again, but, as they say, you can never go back.

I've never had this chicken/banana/peanut casserole. I regard that as a lucky escape from the sounds of it. And the pizza scored down in the Lit 2.5 - 2.8 for me.

The Black and Brown Inn? Tiny little pub, with a vaulted back room? It's still open. They make the best Irish Coffee in town, if you ask me. Honestly, Stockholm has not changed much in the past 20 years. But nevertheless, I think we associate both memories, feelings and people with certain places. If that relationship is a thing of distant past, then perhaps Stockholm just has to make due without you.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The Black and Brown Inn?

Sounds like somebody made a sensible name change.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

It's not something I would ever order, but when I've had a bite or few, I found it surprisingly palatable. In Literotica rating, maybe a 3.8? Also, I work five minutes (walking speed) from Södermalm and I frequent the art galleries there. Quaint part of town, really!

We have another dish we ruin with bananas too. It's basically a nice chicken casserole and then we ruin it by chucking a bunch peanuts and bananas in there. That one's a lot worse than the pizza, in my opinion!

Mental note: Swedes have a weird relationship with bananas.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Filipino banana ketchup.

 

[Devinter]

Filipino banana ketchup.

You are opening my mind to brand new worlds. Have you tried it? Is it awful? Is it more similar to ketchup or more akin to, for instance, apple sauce? That's what I'm getting from google images.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

You are opening my mind to brand new worlds. Have you tried it? Is it awful? Is it more similar to ketchup or more akin to, for instance, apple sauce? That's what I'm getting from google images.

It looks just like ketchup but it tastes banana-y. I'm not super gaga for it but I like it much more than regular ketchup. I'll get a little bottle once every 2 or 3 years for a nice change. You might have to go to a Filipino corner store to get it.

 

[James G 5]

Pets elicit sympathy. BTB'ers do not want that

Well if it's the guy's pet & she takes it or her lover hurts it... the pet could also be a method of discovery in a few different ways. There is at least one LW story I've found where the guy walking his dog is what leads him to stumble on his wife & her lover.

 

[James G 5]

I think that the bigger question that everyone needs to know is whether the pizza has pineapple on it or not.

Funnily enough I was in a discussion earlier this week on another writing board where someone noted that in medieval settings (primarily discussing fantasy works with vaguely medieval worlds) they ALWAYS describe characters walking along eating bread & cheese, but never say what KIND and people want to know.
This devolved in to 2 streams, one of people saying that was ridiculous and irrelevant and the other of people arguing about WHEN various sorts of cheddar, gouda, etc were invented and could be appropriate (with a whole side thing about cheese being colored orange).
I pointed out that everyone was missing the obvious: was it sheep, goat, or cow cheese. That COULD make a difference in describing the setting, because the sort of livestock being raised makes a difference for worldbuilding and how your villagers live.
But that sort of minutiae is a whole different thing in that kind of setting.

 

[James G 5]

I've been SUPER busy with work & this thread had died down a bit so I hadn't checked in a while. I will answer one question a few people have asked, which is "why are you focusing this on LW instead of other categories."
Simple answer, like I said in the op I was bingeing a LOT of LW stories all at once, like ALL of @NoTalentHack and @saddletramp1956 and @CindyTV and @other2other1 and LOTS more all at once, and I'm citing several of those authors not just because I enjoy their work but because they write longer, more involved pieces with a lot of character development, often without a lot of explicit sex, in some cases (like with Saddle's "Justice" interlinked works) a lot of world building... but no pets (well except Justice's horse). I read a lot of short pieces and medium pieces from other authors too, same thing, and it just jumped out at me. Lots of other little details did too, like for instance HOLY SHIT do people in LW stories spend a hell of a lot of time in IHOP, followed closely by Denny's... in the Lit LW world not only is there an IHOP or Denny's close to everyone's home but people who make well north of 6 figures routinely dine there. That's pretty odd, too.
I'm sure if I'd been bingeing another category I'd have found other things that made me go "WTF?" since tropes & conventions cluster.