LW vs. Romance category - undecided, leaning towards Romance

[NewOldGuy77]

I have a story I'm working on that involves a male character overhearing his wife in a kitchen debate with her sleazy friend about whether or not she should accept an invitation to spend a weekend with her ex-husband. She's not keen on it, but friend is pushing her to go. Husband is furious that she's even considering it, confronts her, then files for divorce. Realizing she's made a mistake, wife bends over backwards to work on reconciliation before the divorce is finalized.

Although it involves almost-cheating and a little revenge (not a BTB by any means) there's a happy ending, so I'm thinking of going Romance. I've already written one LW story, and was blown away by the vitriolic reactions so I'm reticent to do another. Besides, my male character loves his wife in spite of everything, so he'd probably get condemned and labelled a simp by 80% of the LW readers.

Thoughts?

 

[TheRedChamber]

Romance is always the safer option.

You might (MiGHT) be okay in LW if both husband and wife are innocent and she's not REALLY considering it, but them I'm sure you'll get comments fomr people who haven't even read it anyway (and certainly not with nuance).

 

[other2other1]

Any time you post something into the LW category its going to get a lot of hate, I just ran through the latest comments the Annon's posted on mine and all they can do is yell. Yet between the abuse, there are great comments and I get about five emails a week of people that tell me they like my stories and encourage me to write.

The question is does your story belong in LW or Romance? I've read a few of your stories (I am a sucker for Romance, even though I write LW)

If it's an LW story it's all about someone going outside their marriage and doing something that many of us in a monogamous relationship wouldn't consider. You can have romance, reconciliation and the lighter side of life in a LW story. Reading your plot, I would suggest that the focus of your story is about the breakdown in the relationship and its journey back, Romance is a part of them coming back together, however, I would suggest the LW is the category if there is an external party involved because your premise is about the pain of the marriage breaking.

Anyways' that's my two cents, hope that helps

 

[DouglasFinney]

I'm pretty new here, but I've read nothing but horrible things about posting in LW, and I have to confess that I don't understand why writers are willing to take the punishment that posting there seems to be. I'm not trying to kinkshame LW writers. What interests me is what I hear to be a uniformly ungrateful and hostile audience. I hope that this question isn't too ignorant or offensive, but why do writers reward the LW readership with material to bash? It seems like a thankless endeavor not unlike the feeding of trolls.

I don't have the authorial will to write LW fiction, and I have a lot of respect for those of you who submit LW stories knowing what and who awaits you. I don't write for myself; I write for an audience, and I hope that my readers are both happy and many. That's one of the major reasons that the first project that I'm working on for Lit is being written for I/T. I want to maximize my exposure and I prefer positive comments to negative feedback. I assume that most other writers want this too (maybe I shouldn't).

I respect that—just like with other categories—the vast majority of LW writers likely write LW stories because that's their kink and that's what they're going to write, damnit. I know that some people write for themselves, and that's totally cool, but I wonder why writers would want to share something as personal as fantasies of their favorite kink with hostile and intellectually challenged ingrates who I'd argue don't deserve the privilege.

I recognize that there could be a masochistic element involved with submitting stories, and I also bet that there are are some LW writers who enjoy antagonizing the incels and idiots who carpet bomb with single stars and leave barely literate comments under the classic nom de guerre, Anon. In another life, I was a newspaper columnist and I can identify with riling up the readership for sport; I've trolled creative writing workshops with offensive fictions too. If that's your thing, there's definite fun to be had doing it. Finally, I understand that it would be satisfying to connect with the few readers there who "get it." That's cool too.

Still, all of that said, if LW is truly as bad as I have come to believe, it sounds like someplace that I, personally, would want to avoid. For me, the benefits of publishing in LW wouldn't be worth it. So, to the OP, I'd ask why you'd want to post in LW when there's an option to post in R, which, from your description, seems to be a strong possibility. Speaking only for myself, I'd go out of my way to write the story into the R category to avoid LW.

Peace.

 

[StrangeLife]

I'm pretty new here, but I've read nothing but horrible things about posting in LW, and I have to confess that I don't understand why writers are willing to take the punishment that posting there seems to be...

Speaking only for myself, I'd go out of my way to write the story into the R category to avoid LW.

As an occasional LW writer (and somebody who doesn't neccessarily believe that all cheaters must die horribly) I can attest to the fact that this category indeed is everything that you assume.

However there are serious advantages too. You get a ton of exposure and feedback to your stories - way more than in other categories - and not all of it is about name calling and asking you to do anatomically impossible tasks with close family members. There is usually some genuinely constructive critique too. So posting LW stories is not a bad way to hone your skills.

Plus rude comments can't really hurt you. Just tune them out...

 

[Lifestyle66]

" doing something that many of us in a monogamous relationship wouldn't consider. "

I post stories in LW because I take a broader approach to what a faithful monogamous relationship SHOULD be, and most fail the test.

Being faithful isn't just about the physical sex act, because that would make the marriage an ownership pact, as in one has exclusive ownership and use of the genitals the other carries. So, when you add in the emotional exclusivity, they fail every time a wife lusts for the handsome actor in a romance movie or the husband gets a rise from watching a porn movie, or either reading most of these Literotica stories for the emotional thrill.

So, I poke the hypocrites in LW who are here secretly reading and mentally cheating on their spouse while they draw their line in the sand saying "Well at least I don't do THAT!"

If a wife was thinking about having sex with her ex, then in my opinion, she has already cheated on her husband. It's just a question of whether they're honest with each other. And there's nothing wrong with it as long as they are honest.

 

[NotWise]

Although it involves almost-cheating and a little revenge (not a BTB by any means) there's a happy ending, so I'm thinking of going Romance. I've already written one LW story, and was blown away by the vitriolic reactions so I'm reticent to do another. Besides, my male character loves his wife in spite of everything, so he'd probably get condemned and labelled a simp by 80% of the LW readers.

Thoughts?

From your description, the story isn't a Romance, despite the HEA.

The normal story arc in Romance starts with two people who don't know each other, develop a mutual interest, and struggle through barriers and conflicts to build a relationship. The ending needs to be HEA, or at least HFN.

Your story starts with a married couple, places their relationship at risk, and then brings them back together--virtually the opposite of the Romance arc.

One of my early stories for Lit was very similar. I put it in Romance and the Romance readers were strongly divided. Some liked it, some hated it. It's still one of my lowest-rated stories. I went to the feedback forum to ask why, and Dreamcloud and some of the more outspoken Romance supporters explained the difference to me.

The Romance readers might be more accepting of variations now than they were five years ago, and (even if the readers aren't ecstatic) your story will probably get a happier reception in Romance than in LW.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Romance is a fairly low-views category. The readers there tend to be responsive, but there aren't a whole lot of them.

 

[NewOldGuy77]

From your description, the story isn't a Romance, despite the HEA.

The normal story arc in Romance starts with two people who don't know each other, develop a mutual interest, and struggle through barriers and conflicts to build a relationship. The ending needs to be HEA, or at least HFN.

Your story starts with a married couple, places their relationship at risk, and then brings them back together--virtually the opposite of the Romance arc.

One of my early stories for Lit was very similar. I put it in Romance and the Romance readers were strongly divided. Some liked it, some hated it. It's still one of my lowest-rated stories. I went to the feedback forum to ask why, and Dreamcloud and some of the more outspoken Romance supporters explained the difference to me.

The Romance readers might be more accepting of variations now than they were five years ago, and (even if the readers aren't ecstatic) your story will probably get a happier reception in Romance than in LW.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Romance is a fairly low-views category. The readers there tend to be responsive, but there aren't a whole lot of them.

Fair points, thank you. The majority of my stories are Romance, so I think I’ve got a good following there. Food for thought, though.