You get a lot of nasty comments and low ratings in Loving Wives, but ...

[RetroFan]

I would have to ask how you portrayed the husband. Was he reluctant because he'd be accused of being a pervert? Was he gathering evidence to confront and divorce the wife later? Or was he pulling his pud, or coming in his pants as he watched and too conflicted to say anything later? The reaction would differ wildly as would the scoring.

The husband in this story was in a dilemma - he suspected his wife was being disloyal but once it was confirmed - he didn't know what to do. Plus they were hundreds of miles out at sea three days from New York and the husband didn't want this to become public knowledge in high society, especially in those long-gone days. Complicating things is that he next saw his wife's younger sister getting changed, then the pretty maid who secretly tries on one of the wife's dresses, and enjoyed seeing these things. The husband did get an erection watching his wife and her lover having sex but he was dismayed by this reaction, eventually chalking it up to an experience like laughing at a funeral.

 

[NoTalentHack]

It's quantity over quality.

Not to say you can't get some good comments from normal readers, but you have to weed through a lot of crap to find them.

That is unless you've perfected a formula to kiss every faction's ass to appease them, but at that point you're not writing, you're pandering. I don't have a lot of ideas that go there, but when I do, that's where I'll put it. Fetish is safer if you want to avoid the heat, but LW is where anything involving a hotwife/cuck in any context belongs whether they like it or not. The fact the nuts there try to scare people away from it makes it more important to keep posting there. One person here decides what belongs there and they don't care about the feelings of trolls.

Hate there is a badge of honor for those who will not be told they can't put their story there and will not be bullied or driven off by the crazy factions. People who truly write for themselves will put something there and just deal with the abuse. I give a lot of props to good readers there as well because they are often attacked in comments for having the nerve to like a story there.

Disagree on the quantity over quality. There's both quantity and quality. Even on my lowest-rated stories there (one a mostly willing cuckold story and the other a 750 word cheating wife POV without a "real" ending), there were plenty of comments both positive and negative, but mostly either positive, or, if they were negative, comments/complaints on structure rather than story. To be fair, those are both from a couple of years ago, so how about something more recent?

Hall Past, my spin on the hall pass archetype, did a bunch of things that would piss off... basically just about every contingent. The couple exchanged hall passes when they were younger. The wife used hers almost fifteen years later and hid that for months, then wouldn't give up the details for reasons she wouldn't specify. I don't want to go too far into specifics, but it had an ending that would be unsatisfactory to both the BTB and the "I came here for sexytimes crowd," along with a wife that bit back on the husband's hypocrisy at least once, and a female love interest that was, in her way, much more appealing to the wife, and yet which the husband didn't end up with. It was also too long, not edited well enough, and got into the weeds in more than a few places, mostly because I rushed it to get it out in time for Geek Pride a couple of months back and was sick of looking at it after almost a year of writing and rewriting it.

And yet it's sitting at a 4.28 on 2.8K votes, with 300-odd comments. Of those comments, most are positive or mixed, with the majority of the mixed/negative ones focused on it either structural issues (too long/needed more editing) or wanting a change in ending; not necessarily that the MMC leave his wife for the love interest, but that he at least sleep with her to even the odds. And, frankly, I get that; I struggled with the "best" ending for the story, and there was a world where that was specifically how I did end it, so seeing readers say "hey, what about this" didn't bother me. A couple of typical negative and "mixed" comments, as examples:

Ok my two bobs worth.
About three pages too long.
Very good exploration of this subject in a mature adult way. By and large an enjoyable read.
Lastly I can't believe how many perfect people read this story.

Didn’t like the ending much, story sort of run out of gas.

Normally I like your stories and this one started out looking promising but it just dragged on and on and on....
Gave you a 3.

A 9 page waste when the story could have been done in 1 or 2 pages.

And possibly my new favorite negative comment on all of my stories:

It was a lifeless parade of melodrama by a self-important bore. Seldom will you find a a writer who imagines they are an expert in all subjects and the smartest person in every room. NoTalentHack seems to be that person, despite the evidence that he is, in fact, a no talent hack. This cliche has been written a hundred times, and 99 of them were better.

And, yeah, there were not a few that were like "rawr, rawr, he should have divorced her/banged Briana/been a real man" type of comments, but that's fine. Comes with the territory. And they were maybe a quarter of the comments? A third if you count the ones that were like "rawr, rawr, but also good job on the writing, 4 stars."

And the flipside is comments like:

Hall pass stories are probably the most difficult LW to pull together and not seeming "same old, same old." You nailed this one to perfection

Rarely leave comments, but wanted to say —beautifully written, psychologically astute, and moving. Find most reconciliation stories unsatisfying, but this one works for me, as his journey through feels real. Thanks.

Anybody can tell a joke, but it takes comedic chops and timing to get the most laughs. Anybody can follow a recipe, but it takes the attention to detail and imagination to produce mouth watering dishes.
Here we have all the ingredients of a standard LW cheating story; hall pass, travel opportunity, confession, regrets, anger, lifestyle changes, younger, hotter female rebound interest and the inevitable reconciliation. In most LW author’s hands, this would be a standard boilerplate completion exercise, but NTH manages to elevate it to something that feels real.
While I found it a bit long, that was as much due to my attention span as it was to the style of NTH. I would still take a quality long story over a template short one.

Brilliant, insightful, real, intimate, raw and a host of other adjectives. Thank you for sharing this wonderful, personal tale even if it’s fiction. I personally enjoy reading your stories and the well crafted perspectives and sober thoughtfulness throughout them. Very mature experienced perspective of the most important possessions we have, our relationships. Thank you for sharing.

This is the first 5* I've given this year, so I give them sparingly. And I hate hall pass stories. NTH writes on a different level. I was worried for a bit that he was going to nail Briana and destroy everything. Kudos

Yeah, I'll take the lumps (and even the occasional crazy rant) every day and twice on Sundays for folks that appreciate the stuff I like writing. If you're willing to write real stories with interesting characters, you can do well there, and that even includes ones with cuckolds, cheaters, and the like; check out DonSilver's ratings on his NTR stories if you don't believe me.

 

[SavannaT]

Personally i think its a lot of closeted cucks, there is a frustration knowing it turns them on but also knowing the stigma against it. So when i read an irrate review i do get some satisfaction knowing this person is probably turned on even as they unleash their wraith on me lol

 

[SimonDoom]

Disagree on the quantity over quality. There's both quantity and quality. Even on my lowest-rated stories there (one a mostly willing cuckold story and the other a 750 word cheating wife POV without a "real" ending), there were plenty of comments both positive and negative, but mostly either positive, or, if they were negative, comments/complaints on structure rather than story. To be fair, those are both from a couple of years ago, so how about something more recent?

I agree with you about this. The perception of the Loving Wives category is a good example of how people notice the bad more than the good, and they give it undue weight. One faction of the readers there leaves very nasty comments for any story that features wives having sex outside marriage and not getting punished for it, but it's just one faction.

I put this concept to the test way back in 2017 when I published my story BTB, Incorporated, which spoofs the "Burn the Bitch" story theme. If there was any story that was going to get flamed by that crowd, that was it, and it DID. But I got some good, appreciative comments, too, from people who got and appreciated the joke. It's my lowest rated story, with a 3.76, but it has over 100,000 views.

I'd say that the level of engagement from LW readers, both bad AND good, is unusually high. So if you value getting a lot of readers, and a lot of comments, it's a good place to put your story as long as you have a thick skin and don't mind a little venom.

 

[Wifetheif]

I only put my stories in LW only if they absolutely won't fit anywhere else. LW does generate the comments. In two cases however, which were quickly dealt with by Laurel, I received DEATH THREATS! Most likely that is not a danger BUT I'm not untraceable if someone does their homework. On the one hand my writing really affected them on the other hand... That reaction pretty much cooled me off from posting in LW again.This is al fiction, nothing about it is worth killing over.

 

[SimonDoom]

I only put my stories in LW only if they absolutely won't fit anywhere else. LW does generate the comments. In two cases however, which were quickly dealt with by Laurel, I received DEATH THREATS! Most likely that is not a danger BUT I'm not untraceable if someone does their homework. On the one hand my writing really affected them on the other hand... That reaction pretty much cooled me off from posting in LW again.This is al fiction, nothing about it is worth killing over.

Holy crap. Your reaction is understandable. I've received vicious comments, but nothing that bad.

 

[JenniferSmithJones]

Personally i think its a lot of closeted cucks, there is a frustration knowing it turns them on but also knowing the stigma against it. So when i read an irrate review i do get some satisfaction knowing this person is probably turned on even as they unleash their wraith on me lol

Sounds about right. My thought is most of the LW haters have been cheated on. And when you read the hateful comments, you can understand why they got cheated on and dumped!

 

[Lifestyle66]

I only put my stories in LW only if they absolutely won't fit anywhere else. LW does generate the comments. In two cases however, which were quickly dealt with by Laurel, I received DEATH THREATS! Most likely that is not a danger BUT I'm not untraceable if someone does their homework. On the one hand my writing really affected them on the other hand... That reaction pretty much cooled me off from posting in LW again.This is al fiction, nothing about it is worth killing over.

Like any anonymous internet bloggers, there are always a few out there who throw out threats. I've had one or two over the years by irate readers of my LW stories.

But the worst they've ever done is 1-bomb my stories (most or all of my stories.) Since then, I've appreciated their attentions! I even jerk their chains with parodies, like "A Gathering of Trolls". That story didn't get the venomous comments some of my other stories did. One comment from one of my favorite haters was "Not certain who you’re angry at here."

Don't take their death threats seriously. That's the most writing any of those trolls will ever do, and that saps all of their energy.

EDIT: BTW, I'm up to 54 Loving Wives stories online now, and I have yet to be killed by one of the trolls.

 

[SavannaT]

Sounds about right. My thought is most of the LW haters have been cheated on. And when you read the hateful comments, you can understand why they got cheated on and dumped!

That makes sense.. the idea of fetishizing men being cheated on is ironically a kink of mine since i got married and i often pretend its my husband and i in my stories.. must really upset them

 

[lc69hunter]

Disagree on the quantity over quality. There's both quantity and quality. Even on my lowest-rated stories there (one a mostly willing cuckold story and the other a 750 word cheating wife POV without a "real" ending), there were plenty of comments both positive and negative, but mostly either positive, or, if they were negative, comments/complaints on structure rather than story. To be fair, those are both from a couple of years ago, so how about something more recent?

Hall Past, my spin on the hall pass archetype, did a bunch of things that would piss off... basically just about every contingent. The couple exchanged hall passes when they were younger. The wife used hers almost fifteen years later and hid that for months, then wouldn't give up the details for reasons she wouldn't specify. I don't want to go too far into specifics, but it had an ending that would be unsatisfactory to both the BTB and the "I came here for sexytimes crowd," along with a wife that bit back on the husband's hypocrisy at least once, and a female love interest that was, in her way, much more appealing to the wife, and yet which the husband didn't end up with. It was also too long, not edited well enough, and got into the weeds in more than a few places, mostly because I rushed it to get it out in time for Geek Pride a couple of months back and was sick of looking at it after almost a year of writing and rewriting it.

And yet it's sitting at a 4.28 on 2.8K votes, with 300-odd comments. Of those comments, most are positive or mixed, with the majority of the mixed/negative ones focused on it either structural issues (too long/needed more editing) or wanting a change in ending; not necessarily that the MMC leave his wife for the love interest, but that he at least sleep with her to even the odds. And, frankly, I get that; I struggled with the "best" ending for the story, and there was a world where that was specifically how I did end it, so seeing readers say "hey, what about this" didn't bother me. A couple of typical negative and "mixed" comments, as examples:









And possibly my new favorite negative comment on all of my stories:



And, yeah, there were not a few that were like "rawr, rawr, he should have divorced her/banged Briana/been a real man" type of comments, but that's fine. Comes with the territory. And they were maybe a quarter of the comments? A third if you count the ones that were like "rawr, rawr, but also good job on the writing, 4 stars."

And the flipside is comments like:











Yeah, I'll take the lumps (and even the occasional crazy rant) every day and twice on Sundays for folks that appreciate the stuff I like writing. If you're willing to write real stories with interesting characters, you can do well there, and that even includes ones with cuckolds, cheaters, and the like; check out DonSilver's ratings on his NTR stories if you don't believe me.

Read that one. It was a tough read at times (emotional), but I think I ended up giving it a 5

 

[lc69hunter]

read a sharing, non monogamous story this morning (actually polyamory), and one of the commenters went off on morals. My question? Why are you spouting off on morals when you just happen to be on a porn site?

 

[WCSGarland]

read a sharing, non monogamous story this morning (actually polyamory), and one of the commenters went off on morals. My question? Why are you spouting off on morals when you just happen to be on a porn site?

Indeed!

 

[TarnishedPenny]

cancel - formatting is out to get me

 

[JenniferSmithJones]

read a sharing, non monogamous story this morning (actually polyamory), and one of the commenters went off on morals. My question? Why are you spouting off on morals when you just happen to be on a porn site?

Hell, you might as well ask: "Why do these people keep reading LW stories if they know that it only pisses them off?"

But, that exact reaction explains a lot of both Howard Stern's audience, and Rush Limbaugh's audience: many people listened to them just to see what they would say that would piss them off next. It explains my reaction in the one story I've written, then utterly deleted, as a result of the LW haters. Fortunately, many here made me realize I was doing the exact same thing the LW haters do: willfully engaging in something I did not like, and writing a story for all the wrong reasons (pissing people off, rather than being a fun fantasy). It can sneak up on you, like that. Then you wake up, smell the coffee, and think, "What the Hell was THAT all about?"

 

[secretLace]

Are there any stories in the Loving Wives category where the wives are actually loving?

One of my first stories was submitted into Loving wives because I thought that it actually meant just that

Still it went well and actually have a good rating, sitting at a 4.23 with mostly nice comments. All the while my story hasa loving wife that doesn't cheat

 

[Lifestyle66]

Hell, you might as well ask: "Why do these people keep reading LW stories if they know that it only pisses them off?"

But, that exact reaction explains a lot of both Howard Stern's audience, and Rush Limbaugh's audience: many people listened to them just to see what they would say that would piss them off next. It explains my reaction in the one story I've written, then utterly deleted, as a result of the LW haters. Fortunately, many here made me realize I was doing the exact same thing the LW haters do: willfully engaging in something I did not like, and writing a story for all the wrong reasons (pissing people off, rather than being a fun fantasy). It can sneak up on you, like that. Then you wake up, smell the coffee, and think, "What the Hell was THAT all about?"

I've done that with the LW audience, writing a story to poke at their sensitivities.

Knowing how much the HATE cheating wives, I wrote "Pavlov's Dog - 750 Words" to poke at them. It's an extremely short scene of the wife coming home after seeing her lover, and she's facing her angry husband who's pointing a gun at her. Then she drops to her knees and asks him "Do you want your blowjob or not?" As she's starting, she's thinking how she's training her husband with the sounds she makes when entering the house, so she won't always have to give him a BJ, he'll eventually learn to calm down when he hears the sounds.

That story after a year and a half is still at 2.28/797 with 17k views.

But I wrote that same scene into a longer version, "Raging Hormones" (5.5k words) to build the characters and show how they got there. Her husband wanted her for more sex, but her declining libido was putting him off. So, she went on hormone pellet treatments and her libido exploded! (Husband should have been careful what he wished for.)

That story is at 3.16/507 with 36k views! The LW audience was (generally) more accepting of the explanation.

So, you can turn your anger and frustration stories into useful tools.

 

[Tomh1966]

Got my first actual hate mail over Cherry Trees. Someone actually pushed a button to send me a PM email of how much I sucked. Lots of rude comments on that one in the comment section. After a few stories, I became immune and later I kind of got a kick out of the venom if it was creative enough.

The story did okay for one about a guy who reconciled around a 3.9 something. I was trying to keep it true to its inspiration, 'No Reply' by Harddaysknight. Yes, I had permission.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Disagree on the quantity over quality. There's both quantity and quality. Even on my lowest-rated stories there (one a mostly willing cuckold story and the other a 750 word cheating wife POV without a "real" ending), there were plenty of comments both positive and negative, but mostly either positive, or, if they were negative, comments/complaints on structure rather than story. To be fair, those are both from a couple of years ago, so how about something more recent?

Hall Past, my spin on the hall pass archetype, did a bunch of things that would piss off... basically just about every contingent. The couple exchanged hall passes when they were younger. The wife used hers almost fifteen years later and hid that for months, then wouldn't give up the details for reasons she wouldn't specify. I don't want to go too far into specifics, but it had an ending that would be unsatisfactory to both the BTB and the "I came here for sexytimes crowd," along with a wife that bit back on the husband's hypocrisy at least once, and a female love interest that was, in her way, much more appealing to the wife, and yet which the husband didn't end up with. It was also too long, not edited well enough, and got into the weeds in more than a few places, mostly because I rushed it to get it out in time for Geek Pride a couple of months back and was sick of looking at it after almost a year of writing and rewriting it.

And yet it's sitting at a 4.28 on 2.8K votes, with 300-odd comments. Of those comments, most are positive or mixed, with the majority of the mixed/negative ones focused on it either structural issues (too long/needed more editing) or wanting a change in ending; not necessarily that the MMC leave his wife for the love interest, but that he at least sleep with her to even the odds. And, frankly, I get that; I struggled with the "best" ending for the story, and there was a world where that was specifically how I did end it, so seeing readers say "hey, what about this" didn't bother me. A couple of typical negative and "mixed" comments, as examples:



If you're willing to write real stories with interesting characters, you can do well there, and that even includes ones with cuckolds, cheaters, and the like; check out DonSilver's ratings on his NTR stories if you don't believe me.

I just finished reading (listening to the text-to-speech) your "Hall Pass" story. I meant to do that when it first came out but got side-tracked writing my latest. (I'm a SLOW writer.)

Yours is another great one, a highly emotional story, with the MMC going through a lot of turbulent emotions. Personally, I think the MMC over-reacted and was far TOO angsty. I would have more logically focused on questioning WHY it took her five months and delved more into possibly accusing her of some other nefarious reason for the delay. Maybe she was hoping for more or about to be blackmailed by the other guy. But you finally provided her reasoning.

The only discrepancy I noticed was the wife saying she needed to feel like she was desired as she approached 40, then much later saying she was always fending off men making passes at her. That would negate her initial reason for using the hall pass. Other than that, you covered all the bases.

I think one reason your story is doing well above a 4.0 in LW is that the wife was throwing herself at the husband begging forgiveness, and the husband never did cheat or use his hall pass. (That, and it's just good writing.) That may have earned a pass from SOME of the diehard monogamy-only, BTB crowd. SOME. There are always those who want the BURN regardless of the circumstances.

I gave it a 5.

 

[Actingup]

(snip)

I think one reason your story is doing well above a 4.0 in LW is that the wife was throwing herself at the husband begging forgiveness, and the husband never did cheat or use his hall pass. (That, and it's just good writing.)

This is important. In general, the LW audience recognise and reward good writing. The other factors are an overlay onto that - they're not trivial and they are more obvious than for other categories, but the fundamentals stay the same.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

and she's facing her angry husband who's pointing a gun at her.

NO!

 

[Lifestyle66]

NO!

You should read the story. It's not loaded, and she knows it.

If you read the longer story, his unloaded gun is like his security blanket.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

No guns, period.

That would get an automatic 1 star from me.

 

[Lifestyle66]

No guns, period.

That would get an automatic 1 star from me.

LOL.

1-star?

I'll take it! It's already at 2.28!

 

[WCSGarland]

This is my rifle, this is my gun,
One is for killing, one is for fun.

 

[Actingup]

No guns, period.

That would get an automatic 1 star from me.

Whoa - there's a lot of difference between a story that has guns and a story that's been written by the NRA's shadow-ops team.