Stories Affecting Readers?

[MatthewVett]

So, I just got an email from one reader, a Midwestern conservative Christian, who told me that my She Has a What?! series, about a guy who falls in love with a transsexual woman, has caused him to re-evaluate his views on marriage equality. Yay?

Have you ever had anything like this happen, where your fiction has prompted readers to re-evaluate their views?

 

[slyc_willie]

I've had readers tell me their stories affected them, made them lose an afternoon because they couldn't stop reading, that sort of thing. One email I got -- an expansion of a comment he left on the story -- told me that a story made him re-assess his own life choices and how he wished he had made better ones.

Sounds like you pulled a few heart strings there, Matt. Good job.

 

[damppanties]

My "Lost Love" got a lot of interesting responses. It's about two people who are in separate marriages with other people but in love with each other. The story's about the dynamics of the relationship and how the protags deal with it. I got a lot of PCs on it, but the email responses were much more intense. People emailed me about similar situations in their lives, their issues and trials and problems. Some even said it gave them the courage to do what they needed to do... and so on. It was humbling.

 

[sr71plt]

Yes I get "it affected my life" responses. Mostly encouragement a story gave to change/try out lifestyles. But also some other comfort. For instance, my "For the Love of Pete," which includes the death of a family dog, continues to generate "thanks, I just lost my X, and this helped me cope" comments and messages. My Christmas stories seem to generate the most of such comments.

 

[PennLady]

I've gotten most (I think) of my comments on stories like "Who Cares What I Wear?" and "Ghosts of the Forum," which were about loves lost and loves found. I got so many comments from people saying they'd been there and this helped them cope, or brought back fond memories, or things like that. It was very flattering. One person even said on "Who Cares..." that they might share it with friends, or maybe it was patients, who had lost someone and were still grieving. Not sure anything came of that, but it was again flattering to know someone thought so much of it.

Can't say I've had anything on the reassess life views front, so way to go Matt.

 

[lovecraft68]

Okay well first let me mention that if I had a buck for every "Oh, you're story brought back so many memories" or "Your story reminds m,e of what happened when" on my incest stories I could retire. Some of them have been so bad its almost made me feel bad I wrote the story.

As for something positive my "Home is where the Heart is" had both a bunch of public comments saying how inspiring the message behind the story was and a slew of private ones talking about how my story inspired hope in them in their own troubled situations.

Who the hell would ever think I could be inspiring? Yeah, if that know it all guidance councilor could see me now!

 

[Bramblethorn]

So, I just got an email from one reader, a Midwestern conservative Christian, who told me that my She Has a What?! series, about a guy who falls in love with a transsexual woman, has caused him to re-evaluate his views on marriage equality. Yay?

Have you ever had anything like this happen, where your fiction has prompted readers to re-evaluate their views?

I just got "I am a straight guy but you make me want to be a lesbian in one of your stories", if that counts ;-)

(Weird thing is, the only chapter I posted lately is a really miserable one with no sex. I'm hoping this was a response to one of the other chapters...)

 

[D_Lynn]

First of all, that's great Matthew. Feels good, doesn't it?!

I received dozens of messages after I posted Tribal Unity from people in troubled marriages who felt that my story gave them hope. And several from Games We Played and House of Three.

But the most heartwarming for me were the notes I received from blind men and friends of blind people after submitting Differently Visioned telling me that I did okay. That finally someone got it right. I cherish those the most.

 

[sr71plt]

I just got "I am a straight guy but you make me want to be a lesbian in one of your stories", if that counts ;-)

I get the flip side occasionally: "I'm a straight woman, but you make me want to be a gay guy."

 

[sr71plt]

But the most heartwarming for me were the notes I received from blind men and friends of blind people after submitting Differently Visioned telling me that I did okay. That finally someone got it right. I cherish those the most.

I've gotten varied responses to letting disabled folks have sex. I have both pro and con comments and e-mails on my "A Gift?" As long as I have a couple from disabled men who thanked me for letting the disabled be sexual, that was good enough for me.

 

[oggbashan]

I have had interesting responses to:

Bagged At The Opera,
Donna - one wanted to email it to a friend in an abusive relationship,

and of course:

Herd Of Donkeys

 

[NaokoSmith]

Matthew, that is so cool. Way to go!

I did once get a comment on a blogpost I wrote reviewing an amazing play written with and performed with ex-veteran soldiers. The mum of one of the soldiers put a comment that my review was excellent and she was going to share it with all her friends. I was a bit blown away by that.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I get emails from women who love interracial, I recently got an email from a Brit who wanted to bring his wife over for me to service. I suspect it was a prank.

But the feedback I prize came from judges who liked my legal writing. Judges do not enjoy incoherent, incohesive, windy tales that never reach the station.

 

[MSTarot]

I had a request for the picture of the tattoo from 'Tits for tats' the reader wanted to get it and needed the picture.

the problem is there wasn't one. It was straight out my head. I did what I could to tell the reader what to tell his artist so as to get it close but then i got to thinking about it.

I described what has to be one of the most painful places to get ink and some one want to go get it done based on my story.

that one shook me.

M.S.Tarot