February Sucks in LW

[Justplainjeff]

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

I have to add my two cents worth, since you mentioned Randi. Yes, she has her invitationals, which I participated in a few, but authors beware! Don't ever use a certain word that she and hundreds of authors use, or face total banishing by her and her "homies"

 

[NoTalentHack]

I have to add my two cents worth, since you mentioned Randi. Yes, she has her invitationals, which I participated in a few, but authors beware! Don't ever use a certain word that she and hundreds of authors use, or face total banishing by her and her "homies"

... Okay, I have to ask. What word?

 

[Justplainjeff]

... Okay, I have to ask. What word?

The "N" word, in any form.

 

[Justplainjeff]

The "N" word, in any form.

She has ghosted both my wife and me after communicating with both of us for over two years.

 

[WordsIntheWyld]

I'm super tempted to write a story called February Sucks that has absolutely nothing to do with the original story, just to see what the responce is.

February sucks without having anything to do with Jim and Linda because it’s like winter’s annoying encore—nobody asked for it, but here it is, dragging on with cold, gray misery while pretending that Valentine’s Day makes up for it. Plus, it’s the only month that can’t even decide how many days it wants, like a flaky friend who keeps canceling plans at the last minute.

 

[inka2222]

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.

1. You're making an assumption that the character has empathy. Even with all the other faults of the original crap story, one thing the author didn't do, was to prove 100% she's NOT a narcissist without empathy. Merely that main character hasn't noticed that behavior before (not even that there wasn't one, just that he didn't notice)

2. People do have attacks of the stupids. Especially with hormones involved. Both men and women. When your prefrontal cortex misfires, you do stupidly uncharacteristic shit.

3. Having said that, many of the GOOD sequels play well with the idea that she was ALWAYS selfish and narcissistic, but the husband never tumbled on to it because he loved her and was one of the millions of simps raised with "happy wife happy life" idiocy. Don't forget the original story is all from his point of view, NOT an omniscient narrator's.

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
...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.

People do WAY WAY WAY stupider stuff. Go google "Florida Man" stories for random assortment. And yes, if the husband spent their entire married life catering to her whims and ensuring she's happy, she might very well have internalized the entitled attitude and honestly didn't think it was THAT much of a big deal. After all, her brain convinces her it's NOT cheating because she didn't go behind his back, he knows about it. Humans have this truly amazing capacity to convince themselves of literally almost anything they want to be convinced of.

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.

OK, in this assessment, I'm 100% with you.

But you just answered your original question yourself. Why do people write alternate endings to F.S.? Because GA's ending was disgusting, man-hating, pro-cheater, nauseatingly awful. So many alternate sequels try to address THAT problem. What happens after she cheats and treats him like crap afterward (which honestly can be considered to be a worse offense than original behavior, in a way).

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.

Narcissists and sociopaths tend to be VERY good at masking themselves as good people. So I don't consider this to be extremely unrealistic. Also, back to my point of people convincing themselves about things. Maybe there were red flags, but he talked himself out of noticing them or interpreting them as red flags.

 

[WordsIntheWyld]

To first POV or not to first POV is the question for my version.

 

[H. Jekyll]

Who's George?

George Anderson wrote "February Sucks," the most copied, extended, twisted, manipulated, rewritten story anyone here has ever run across. I believe there may be over 200 takes on the story.

 

[Oatmeal1969]

George Anderson wrote "February Sucks," the most copied, extended, twisted, manipulated, rewritten story anyone here has ever run across. I believe there may be over 200 takes on the story.

yup, I have 230 stories noted including stories published as individual chapters. The closest competitor to February Sucks is "Just Once… If You Don't Mind?" by Kalimaxos with 46 variations.

 

[H. Jekyll]

yup, I have 230 stories noted including stories published as individual chapters. The closest competitor to February Sucks is "Just Once… If You Don't Mind?" by Kalimaxos with 46 variations.

I typed "February Sucks" into the Literotica story-search app, and it said there were 254 instances of it. So I need to search further. I've probably read 30-40 of them. Frankly, a few of them are great stories, and by among my favorite writers. I've sworn to never write a Feb Sux takeoff, but I don't know how long I can resist. It's become such a thing. I've also read several versions of "Just once..." and I've thought of writing my own conclusion.

 

[WordsIntheWyld]

I started writing my take on February Sucks, but instead of just telling the story, I accidentally created a multiversal Linda intervention squad. My Linda—armed with sheer frustration and an ever-growing sense of deja vu—began dimension-jumping like some kind of rom-com Terminator, kicking down doors and yelling, “No! Not Marc! Trust me, girl, it’s a disaster! Stay with Jim and avoid the impending heartbreak, bad haircut, and existential crisis!” Of course, every version of Linda thought she knew better, forcing my Linda to get progressively more unhinged as she tackled her alternate selves mid-flirt, stole their phones, and even (in one desperate timeline) pulled a fire alarm to stop the worst decision of her life from repeating. At some point, I realized my story was less about romance and more about a woman losing her mind across the space-time continuum—so, naturally, I kept writing.

 

[Oatmeal1969]

I started writing my take on February Sucks, but instead of just telling the story, I accidentally created a multiversal Linda intervention squad. My Linda—armed with sheer frustration and an ever-growing sense of deja vu—began dimension-jumping like some kind of rom-com Terminator, kicking down doors and yelling, “No! Not Marc! Trust me, girl, it’s a disaster! Stay with Jim and avoid the impending heartbreak, bad haircut, and existential crisis!” Of course, every version of Linda thought she knew better, forcing my Linda to get progressively more unhinged as she tackled her alternate selves mid-flirt, stole their phones, and even (in one desperate timeline) pulled a fire alarm to stop the worst decision of her life from repeating. At some point, I realized my story was less about romance and more about a woman losing her mind across the space-time continuum—so, naturally, I kept writing.

Next escalation will make the Linda Intervention Squad morphed into the Mark Lavalier Elimination Squad... frustrated, Linda #2048 becomes more devious and enjoys an undetected tryst a different celebrity... or Mark Lavalier from Earth-1610 steals the device that allows the LIS to hop across the multiverse to continually fulfill his destiny.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I started writing my take on February Sucks, but instead of just telling the story, I accidentally created a multiversal Linda intervention squad. My Linda—armed with sheer frustration and an ever-growing sense of deja vu—began dimension-jumping like some kind of rom-com Terminator, kicking down doors and yelling, “No! Not Marc! Trust me, girl, it’s a disaster! Stay with Jim and avoid the impending heartbreak, bad haircut, and existential crisis!” Of course, every version of Linda thought she knew better, forcing my Linda to get progressively more unhinged as she tackled her alternate selves mid-flirt, stole their phones, and even (in one desperate timeline) pulled a fire alarm to stop the worst decision of her life from repeating. At some point, I realized my story was less about romance and more about a woman losing her mind across the space-time continuum—so, naturally, I kept writing.

Everything, Everywhere, All in February?

 

[TheRedChamber]

My Linda—armed with sheer frustration and an ever-growing sense of deja vu—began dimension-jumping like some kind of rom-com Terminator, kicking down doors and yelling, “No! Not Marc! Trust me, girl, it’s a disaster! Stay with Jim and avoid the impending heartbreak, bad haircut, and existential crisis!”

Just saw the original Terminator again last night as it happens. Very quotable movie...

"I'll be back...in the morning."

"Your clothes. Give them to me."

"Come with me if you want to live...a little."

"She doesn't feel pity or regret or fear. And you absolutely cant stop her walking out on you."

"The difficult thing is deciding what to tell you and what not to. His penis size. Thats a tough one. Will it affect anything if you know...""

And of course you should end with...
"He says 'A storm's coming'"
"I know...in the comments"

 

[NoTalentHack]

Since the Linda in this one is the hero, when she was previously the villain, there’s an obvious place for this to go.

“So, she’s like you?”
“Not like me. A Dee-1000, advanced prototype skank. Liquid polyamorous alloy.”

 

[H. Jekyll]

Like Karen, the names Linda and Dee are forever sullied.

Maybe the lovie will end with "I'll be on my back!"

 

[Oatmeal1969]

Like Karen, the names Linda and Dee are forever sullied.

Maybe the lovie will end with "I'll be on my back!"

Don't forget Tracey too.

 

[H. Jekyll]

Especially Traci with an 'i'

 

[Oatmeal1969]

Especially Traci with an 'i'

haha. I guess I wasn't that committed to the joke.

I was also thinking of a real-life Tracey. She's now my Best Friend's ex-wife but before that she propositioned me at HER wedding.

 

[NoTalentHack]

haha. I guess I wasn't that committed to the joke.

I was also thinking of a real-life Tracey. She's now my Best Friend's ex-wife but before that she propositioned me at HER wedding.

Wow. I thought that was just a trope.

 

[Oatmeal1969]

Wow. I thought that was just a trope.

nope. I was best man, during a photo of just the two of us, she turns to me and says "you can put your hand on my ass if you want." Never saw that photo to see the expression on my face. haha She was definitely a "Traci"

 

[H. Jekyll]

I've never been propositioned at a wedding. Not even mine. OK. TMI.

 

[WordsIntheWyld]

I had to put a pin in writing my contribution to FS mythos as I'm finishing up my second series and outlining my third.

So Linda and Dee get a reprieve until I run out of ideas.

 

[Seurat]

When I first read FS, I was immediately struck the, "that's not how I would have done it" bug. I have since penned about ten variations of how I thought the story 'could' have ended... and kept them all to myself. At first I thought that I might have actually done justice (in my own mind) to the situation. As dozens and dozens of alternatives came out, I saw that some authors had taken tracts similar to the a few I had started. Then the floodgates opened, and three days didn't go by without an alternative version. I realized GA was probably irritated (as I would have been) at seeing some of the shit meant to be derivative but instead was just coattail-riding and decided it might be better if I left mine in the 'to be developed' folder.

 

[Oatmeal1969]

When I first read FS, I was immediately struck the, "that's not how I would have done it" bug. I have since penned about ten variations of how I thought the story 'could' have ended... and kept them all to myself. At first I thought that I might have actually done justice (in my own mind) to the situation. As dozens and dozens of alternatives came out, I saw that some authors had taken tracts similar to the a few I had started. Then the floodgates opened, and three days didn't go by without an alternative version. I realized GA was probably irritated (as I would have been) at seeing some of the shit meant to be derivative but instead was just coattail-riding and decided it might be better if I left mine in the 'to be developed' folder.

You could develop them as fresh stories. Either off a similar premise or a different form of shocking betrayal. Some of the FS fan-fic I've read would have been more enjoyable without the baggage of being associated with the original.

I like the idea of authors publishing alternate endings a lot. I just wish they'd tackle other stories that feel unfinished or go a direction that doesn't feel natural based on the characters in the original.