"Death of a Salesman", or Do You Ever Choose to Write an Erotic Tragedy?

[Lifestyle66]

I've done this twice.

My Aftermath story is about the marriage breaking apart, when the husband couldn't deal with the changed wife after her abduction and assault. And at the end of the story, it implies they died longing for each other.

In my latest "A Band of Sisters and Brothers", I could have ended the story with a "happily ever after" with the non-monogamous couple enjoying their group of "swinger" friends. I even considered embedding a statement before the Epilogue saying: "End here for the Happily Ever After".

But it seemed incomplete, and I knew it would draw out the trolls explaining how the couple will eventually get divorced or that the husband should burn the cheating slut. So, I wrote the epilogue and showed how the couple's marriage finally ends.

I've found I don't get as many hater comments on these stories, except for the ones who apparently don't bother to READ the story.

Just "food for thought" as these stories have rated just over 3, at 3.08 and 3.11 (lower than my usual crap average at 3.6.)

Do you ever deliberately write tragedies (other than a Burn the Bitch), something where the MC has a bad ending?

 

[iwatchus]

My stories are all escapist, for both me and the readers. So I always provide HEA (or some approximation thereof in a few cases)

Stress and drama during the story, sure. But I have even replied back to some comments saying I promise HEA.

Not to say a good story has to have HEA here to do well. @MelissaBaby Gold Dollar Girls story is superb. And while the story somewhat comes to a resolution, it is certainly not HEA. But that is a much more gritty, real-life story and real life does not guarantee a HEA. (She told me that the continuations are happier, but I haven't had a chance to read those yet).

 

[NotWise]

The Third Ring is an epic tragedy in SciFi/F, but it's intended to inspire. Love is Enough is tragic, but it ends with a promise. Those are both fairly popular. Aside from those, I have a story or two where the outcome isn't entirely joyful. They aren't my most popular stories.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I love tragedy and bad ends. there is such strong and beautiful emotion in it. I don't always write negative stuff. I mix it up, so you never know what you will get form me. And I like it that way.

 

[StillStunned]

Several of my Sci-Fi & Fantasy stories: The Countesses of Tannensdal, Not A Soul and The Only Flower On Rose Street in particular.

Of my non-SF&F stories, Tammy, Jessica, Yuliya is one that got several comments about the ending. To my mind it's HEA, just not the one readers might have expected.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I did aftermath/recap endings on two stories.

One story: 'Years later and here we are, everybody died but me and I'm on my way out soon ....'

Another: 'Three of us are dead now and it's time for our spirits to go collect the sprit of the last one of us on her night of death.'

The there was the 750 that some loved but most hated.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

This thread sort of ties in a bit .....


https://forum.literotica.com/threads/do-you-stories-break-you-up.1638994/


.

 

[THBGato]

Once, because it was what the premise demanded.

The Parting Glass. Two army medics - a straight Ukrainian nurse and her Irish queer volunteer friend - are trapped in a Bakmut basement during a Russian bombardment.

You can tell where this is going, can't you?

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

It is an interesting endeavor, especially for someone that usually only writes Harlequinesque romances. Consequence to Recompense chronicles the demise of a man who's wife catches him cross dressing. Cold, calculated, manipulative gaslighting from start to finish, she destroys everything he thought he was and makes him into her personal slave and makes him not only like, but crave it. Well, she does share him with her new husband, but, yeah, I think it fits in the tragedy camp.

 

[Rob_Royale]

It's not out of the realm of possibility, though I usually go for the happy endings. I read one where a young man had a love affair with an older woman, who unbeknownst to the man, was terminally ill. After he went back to school with the plans to spend the holiday with her, she passed, leaving him her home and her savings. It was a very bittersweet story but it was terrifically well done. I could see me doing something like that.

 

[APilgrimSquare]

I’m working on a longer story that I originally started with the summer contest in mind, but it’s sort of a downer. Divorced dad, midlife crisis, chasing youth… you’re not supposed to root for the guy. I think the writing’s good, but are Lit readers going to like it?? It’s not what they come here for.

Gonna keep writing it because it’s rattling around my skull, but it might be for publishing elsewhere.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

It's not out of the realm of possibility, though I usually go for the happy endings. I read one where a young man had a love affair with an older woman, who unbeknownst to the man, was terminally ill. After he went back to school with the plans to spend the holiday with her, she passed, leaving him her home and her savings. It was a very bittersweet story but it was terrifically well done. I could see me doing something like that.

I kind of liked the spirits one I did. Thought it was unique. To me, it was sort of uplifting ... the family getting back together with no illnesses or disabilities. In the story, Mom had been ailing for quite some time and in a lot of pain, barely able to walk. That was all gone in her after life.

I guess I was the only one though.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I kind of liked the spirits one I did. Thought it was unique. To me, it was sort of uplifting ... the family getting back together with no illnesses or disabilities. In the story, Mom had been ailing for quite some time and in a lot of pain, barely able to walk. That was all gone in her after life.

I guess I was the only one though.

I'd like to read that. Oh wait ...

 

[MrPixel]

I wrote myself out of a tragic lover situation. Since it was but one chapter of a serial, I didn't want the specter of her death recurring within the clan. The recollections of the precipitating event and aftermath are fodder enough.

There is a finished BTB in my "never to see the light of day" folder. The development comes directly from IRL, but the dark plot twist is too disturbing.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I'd like to read that. Oh wait ...

Three characters/family members had died over a span of many years. Only one was left, alone in the community and house she grew up in. On the night she died, the spirits of the other three arose from their graves and walked into town to claim her and guide her to the afterlife. Her spirit was on the porch wondering why the townsfolk were gathered in front of the house. It wasn't until she watched her body being wheeled out of the house into the Hearse that she saw the spirits of her brother, Mother and Aunt waiting for her and began to understand

Mom was free of pain and ailments and could walk upright.


Anyone is free to use the premise if you wish. I might even be willing to help reconstruct it somewhat.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I have written several stories with sad or melancholy endings, but none that I consider tragic in the traditional sense.

I think the key to satisfying readers without giving them a HEA is to give them an ending that is uplifting or redemptive. I appreciate iwatchus' kind words for The Gold Dollar Girls, and I think it is a pretty good example of that. The main characters, Roxanne and Clover, end the story battered, but not beaten. But they started the story as rivals, thrown together by circumstances, constantly bickering and insulting each other, and at the end, each knows that the other can be counted on as a loyal friend. It's not a happy ending, but I hope it is satisfying to the reader. I hope they find it uplifting.

The sequels are more comedic and uplifting, primarily because it's so much fun to write the characters that way. I suppose that to me, and to those who have read them all, that may make the ending of the original less melancholy. So I found iwatchus' perspective very interesting.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Three characters/family members had died over a span of many years. Only one was left, alone in the community and house she grew up in. On the night she died, the spirits of the other three arose from their graves and walked into town to claim her and guide her to the afterlife. Her spirit was on the porch wondering why the townsfolk were gathered in front of the house. It wasn't until she watched her body being wheeled out of the house into the Hearse that she saw the spirits of her brother, Mother and Aunt waiting for her and began to understand

Mom was free of pain and ailments and could walk upright.


Anyone is free to use the premise if you wish. I might even be willing to help reconstruct it somewhat.

I wish I had read that while it was available. The ending to my series Mary and Alvin is somewhat similar, at least in spirit (no pun intended).

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

It's one of those that still 'breaks me up'. I had a hard time typing that short recap.



Thing is, I intended it to be as you say 'uplifting'. All together again, in peace.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

One of my very early attempts was A Maid for Timon. Looking at it objectively now, it wasn’t bad. The descriptions and characters were good and so was the sex. But (spoiler alert), it had a sad ending. The comments were Not Good and its score is one of my lowest. I’ve not tried that again. Maybe I’m too lazy.

 

[Djmac1031]

I think the closest I've come to that is the "Really Terrible Person Finally Gets What They Deserve" story.

But that's not really a tragedy, is it?

 

[WaxPhilosophic]

Once, because it was what the premise demanded.

The Parting Glass. Two army medics - a straight Ukrainian nurse and her Irish queer volunteer friend - are trapped in a Bakmut basement during a Russian bombardment.

You can tell where this is going, can't you?

Good story. Kicks you in the teeth, but good. Well worth reading if you haven't already.

 

[Erozetta]

On my profile:

Slippery Slopes -750 LW - A lonely wife gets online attention

The Climb - 750 LW - neglectful husband finds out about wife's cam shows and uses it to his advantage.

Strokes of Desire, Whispers of Harm - 2.9k BDSM - Ill-fated dom/sub lovers have a trust

A Midnight Fantasy - 631 words poetry - melancholy offers and desires laid out



No longer on the site:

How Villains are Made - 64k erotic horror - A serial killer forever changes the path of a young woman and an older cop, for the second time.

Tainted Love - 13k, I think? LW - An emotional affair partner unexpectedly arrives in town and a lonely young wife tries to stay loyal.





Was never on the site but published elsewhere:

The Keeper of the Cave -20 something k fantasy - A group of DnD players have an adults only single run campaign before they all head their separate ways.



Never been published:

So fucking many ... Seriously, so fucking many ..


Will never be published again:

For Some Reason, I Think of Home - 20-something k words erotic couplings - Fear of a friendly tryst turning into a real and healthy relationship makes the bed of an abusive man seem like home. It is less scary when you know how they'll hurt you.

I Still Have So Much to Say - it was about 4k words and was genuinely written to a friend.

 

[Actingup]

I tend to gravitate towards tales with some tragedy but hopeful endings, maybe because of how I’m feeling about the world. My most miserable story in that sense is ‘After Her Workmate’s Funeral’, which is a letter to a co-worker who had committed suicide. He’s still dead at the end of the letter, but she’s worked through her emotions a bit.