Breaking from your usual style

[blozo]

I've written a story, which will post tomorrow, that's not meant to be terribly erotic.
I meant it to be comedic social commentary.
I don't have the huge base of followers that many of you have, barely 300.
It's not like we're getting paid here, but my question is; how risky, in these times of intense political polarization, is writing sociopolitical humor?
Am I risking alienating the few loyal readers I have, or is the erotic reading community sophisticated enough to take a joke?

 

[gordo12]

I've written a story, which will post tomorrow, that's not meant to be terribly erotic.
I meant it to be comedic social commentary.
I don't have the huge base of followers that many of you have, barely 300.
It's not like we're getting paid here, but my question is; how risky, in these times of intense political polarization, is writing sociopolitical humor?
Am I risking alienating the few loyal readers I have, or is the erotic reading community sophisticated enough to take a joke?

I tossed in one line in a short story about you know who and the reaction was impressive. But at least the love/hate pretty much balanced out. Haters gave me 1, lovers gave me 5 even stating they gave five to balance out the idiots!

Unfortunately some of the haters took aim at other stories and I watched one go from H to not H and another drop 10 points in one afternoon. It does have it's drawbacks.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've written a story, which will post tomorrow, that's not meant to be terribly erotic.
I meant it to be comedic social commentary.
I don't have the huge base of followers that many of you have, barely 300.
It's not like we're getting paid here, but my question is; how risky, in these times of intense political polarization, is writing sociopolitical humor?
Am I risking alienating the few loyal readers I have, or is the erotic reading community sophisticated enough to take a joke?

As long as the site (Laurel) accepts it, go for it. Trying different styles and themes is a great idea. Without risk there is no growth.

Think of your followers as coming to you; you are not going to them. They cannot determine, much less dictate, what is best for you.

By the way, having 300 followers within a year seems impressive to me.

 

[KeithD]

Laurel rejects heavily partisan political works, so you risk that on one level. Then, if it goes through, you risk being rejected--not just your future stories, but you as a writer and board participant as well--by a big chunk of the readership. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[blozo]

Laurel rejects heavily partisan political works, so you risk that on one level. Then, if it goes through, you risk being rejected--not just your future stories, but you as a writer and board participant as well--by a big chunk of the readership. Just something to keep in mind.

That was my fear. I picked a fairly safe target, a 29 year old living in his mom's basement playing video games all day, and made no mention of race, sexual orientation or political affiliation.
Not that there isn't room for humor on those subjects. But we live in a climate where it is no longer enough for people to say they disagree, they feel obligated by their dogma to destroy all who don't parrot every word of their chosen party line.
And that's a shame. I don't hold any political beliefs dearly enough to refuse to listen to a reasoned argument.
I hope I didn't make a serious mistake.

 

[redzinger]

Go for it.

I've written a couple of stories out of my usual - one horror, one humorous . They're my lowest scoring stories, coincidentally at the bottom of the list.

I'm proper proud of both though, as they were things I needed to do at the time, and the humorous one was a proper challenge.

 

[Hypoxia]

I've received more backlash for religious than political issues, but I don't aim to press partisan buttons anyway. I mentioned The Trump War in a near-future story but moved right along with no details and no comments. But worshiping Great Lord {JHWH} drew unfavorable responses. Other political elements of my stories have either been obvious parody or unattributed fiction. No complaints. And none for a non-erotic story I wrote before LIT existed, about a terrorist decades ago. But again, I didn't celebrate a partisan position, only reported.

OP: Don't name current political figures in your story and you'll probably be OK.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's not like we're getting paid here, but my question is; how risky, in these times of intense political polarization, is writing sociopolitical humor?
Am I risking alienating the few loyal readers I have, or is the erotic reading community sophisticated enough to take a joke?

Depends what category your fans inhabit, I'd say. Humour is hard to do, I think, unless you do it with a light touch. I've got a couple of "Lit targeted" pieces which were well received, that readers "got." By the sound of your piece though, it might cut too close to the bone. Also, what some folk think is hilarious, others will think is infantile, and some folk don't understand satire at all.

The good news though, is that you'll soon find out if there's damage done. Please report back, with results .

 

[Hypoxia]

Paranoia helps too. Post risky stuff under an .alt so the other you isn't attacked.

 

[SimonDoom]

Also, what some folk think is hilarious, others will think is infantile, and some folk don't understand satire at all.

.

Many people take their porn stories very seriously. I wrote a Loving Wives spoof and I've never seen so much hellfire and obscenity in comments to my stories before or since. What you especially don't want to do is to satirize the category in which you post it. You're spoiling for a fight if you do that. Better to post it in the humor category.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Paranoia helps too. Post risky stuff under an .alt so the other you isn't attacked.

Definitely 100% agree on that one.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I tossed in one line in a short story about you know who and the reaction was impressive. But at least the love/hate pretty much balanced out. Haters gave me 1, lovers gave me 5 even stating they gave five to balance out the idiots!

Unfortunately some of the haters took aim at other stories and I watched one go from H to not H and another drop 10 points in one afternoon. It does have it's drawbacks.

Use an alt for stories like that. Otherwise that’s the risk you take, but if you have al alt to use for stories that will get tanked you can laugh about it

 

[blozo]

Worst rated story ever!
I lost 3 followers but gained 4 new ones. The ratio of favorites to views is consistent with my other works.
I posted a note explaining it was satire in the comments section a couple hours ago, and the review score has been creeping up since then.
A reader commented that it should have been categorized as humor/satire instead of incest/taboo. I think he's correct, but my experience with Laurel tells me if it's clearly incestuous, she's going to change it for you anyway.
It appears to be driving traffic to some of my seldom viewed stories with favorable impact, and having little to no impact on my more popular stories.
All in all, not a bad experience.

 

[NotWise]

Worst rated story ever!

Not gettin' a lot o'love there.

I haven't paid much attention to scoring in I/T recently, but I've had the impression that the scores in the category have been falling. I've had the impression for a while now, and I think it's been discussed here before. The scores there now are LW-esque.

Among the 25 new stories, more than half (14) are scored below 4.0 and only one has a score over 4.5. The scores may go up as the day goes by.

I hit the spinner on the random stories list a few times and, by contrast, about 40% of the stories it came up with were rated over 4.5.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

My latest violates LIT rules ion plenty of ways. Its LAURELS shop and she's free to drive it to hell if she wants, but I wanna see what works, so my latest is over the top in terms of lotsa things. The latest is a detailed expose of prostitution.

 

[Hypoxia]

Worst rated story ever!

My lowest-rated (in IT) is also my most-viewed, and my most-commented outside LW. I apparently affected many readers, which is my goal. Any response is better than none.

 

[KeithD]

My lowest-rated (in IT) is also my most-viewed, and my most-commented outside LW. I apparently affected many readers, which is my goal. Any response is better than none.

I have no response to that.

 

[gunhilltrain]

My lowest-rated (in IT) is also my most-viewed, and my most-commented outside LW. I apparently affected many readers, which is my goal. Any response is better than none.

"There is no such thing as bad publicity." - possibly said by P.T. Barnum.

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." - Oscar Wilde

 

[Emirus]

I've written a story, which will post tomorrow, that's not meant to be terribly erotic.
I meant it to be comedic social commentary.
I don't have the huge base of followers that many of you have, barely 300.
It's not like we're getting paid here, but my question is; how risky, in these times of intense political polarization, is writing sociopolitical humor?
Am I risking alienating the few loyal readers I have, or is the erotic reading community sophisticated enough to take a joke?

I’ve read your story “mom gave me a blowjob” and found it mildly amusing but then again one person’s belly laugh is another person’s giggle.

I couldn’t see the “sociopolitical” content. Or am I missing something and it’s too subtle for me? I do see that it is your worst rated story. I don’t think any story should be below three. It’s an insult to the person who’s put the work in. They’ve done their best and don’t deserve a kick in the teeth.

Perhaps the comment about it being in the wrong category and should be in Humour not Incest is correct. Perhaps that’s the reason for the low rating. People voting low because they consider it’s in the wrong section. Or perhaps it is as simple as the majority of readers not finding it funny.

 

[blozo]

I couldn’t see the “sociopolitical” content. Or am I missing something and it’s too subtle for me?

As social commentary, it's a slap at milennials who live with their parents and choose not to work.
As for politics, my fear was his use of #Me Too as an excuse for his failure to form functional relationships with women would offend those who champion that cause, in spite of my having firmly established, in my mind anyway, that my main character was a doofus.

 

[KeithD]

The first sentence firmly establishes it in Laurel's Incest/Taboo realm, so I don't see any reason to discuss the category aspect.

 

[YDB95]

Some of my stories have a political bent. The worst I've gotten from them is some whiny responses in the comments. One of which I've used to great effect in a subsequent story.

 

[NotWise]

I think the story is reasonably conceived and written, but it's a very short story over all, and the one sex scene is so brief as to nearly make the story non-erotic. Those -- rather than a reaction to category of socio-political commentary -- probably account for the low score

 

[yukonnights]

It almost worked. The narration and general setup was clearly intended as humor, and I thought quite good. But, the build-up needed more development. Even in humor/satire there remains a need for believability. When mom walks in and finds "you" whacking off with her panties on your head (fun image btw...then drops to her knees and gets going...well, that's not ever going to be likely to happen. IMO, that's where this one skidded off the road.

I think you shot for; satire (the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.)...but hit; farce (a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.)

The fact that both mom and step-dad showed up so close to the same time was another "rush job". Surely son knew their routines? Had the sexual tension been building between Jr. and Mom...maybe stepdad was going out of town on work...perhaps if it was Mom who was plotting and waiting for just the right moment to catch Jr. with her undies on his head (cause Mom's always know when someone's been in her drawers)...and finally it all was now the best sex either of them ever had...until hubby came back from the airport due to flight cancellations = homeless again...but at least you got that blow-job! (before it all ended )

 

[yukonnights]

In answer to your original question about "Breaking Style"; I did a similar exercise/attempt at humor/satire. If you're interested it's here Country Boy's Valentine (warning it's in Gay Male category)