Taking break from series to avoid reactionary writing.

[Texienne]

I got an ongoing story about a femdom relationship and its not a super serious story. Just two characters having weird fun and falling in love.

In the story I have this ongoing joke/storyline about the girlfriend trying to convince her boyfriend that he should do gay stuff cause she thinks its hot. And it's literally the only thing his simp ass hasn't immediately done for her.

I don't know if the boyfriend will ever actually do it.

But. I got a comment that was really nice and positive, until the last line where the anonymous person pleaded for 'less gay stuff'

And now I'm in a really weird spot where I bounce between wanting to write the absolute most gayest stuff for the boyfriend character as humanly possibly, or stray away from the gay stuff because it will turn off some of the readers who have been following the series.

Both choices would reactionary.

So I guess I'm taking a break from writing the next part until I forget about the 'less gay stuff please' request because I don't wanna have the such a request influence the story in either direction.

Anyways, this is a lot of words. So...

I'm just gonna say, it's your choice as the author whether your MMC is bi. It is perfectly possible that the FMC helps him discover his bi side, in that case. Pleasing your readers is a choice, not an obligation.

Having said that, if pleasing your readers is important to you, then you do need to gauge whether the readers you've attracted will appreciate or dislike the choice as one of your factors to consider. I have lost readers over a character discovering her bi side (although not here. It was a wattpad thing.) I learned how cis hetero romance readers can be very earnestly wedded to straight-only erotica, and will drop you. The difference for me is that it was a male partner recognizing and encouraging his SO to explore it after four chapters of hetero romance (frankly, this was what the overall story arc was about), rather than forty four. It does hurt, as a reader, to suddenly hate a story you've been following for dozens or hundreds of episodes.

An alternative, if you have a storyline you want to pursue, is another series, perhaps an alternate history version of your series or perhaps a different couple.

 

[OddLove]

I'm just gonna say, it's your choice as the author whether your MMC is bi. It is perfectly possible that the FMC helps him discover his bi side, in that case. Pleasing your readers is a choice, not an obligation.

Having said that, if pleasing your readers is important to you, then you do need to gauge whether the readers you've attracted will appreciate or dislike the choice as one of your factors to consider. I have lost readers over a character discovering her bi side (although not here. It was a wattpad thing.) I learned how cis hetero romance readers can be very earnestly wedded to straight-only erotica, and will drop you. The difference for me is that it was a male partner recognizing and encouraging his SO to explore it after four chapters of hetero romance (frankly, this was what the overall story arc was about), rather than forty four. It does hurt, as a reader, to suddenly hate a story you've been following for dozens or hundreds of episodes.

An alternative, if you have a storyline you want to pursue, is another series, perhaps an alternate history version of your series or perhaps a different couple.

It took me longer than I'd like to admit, but since posting about this in July, I've just recently come to the conclusion that I don't care if I upset some or even most of the people following the ongoing story. If writing was my job then I'm sure I'd be more inclined to deliver on what readers of the series want, but I'm just writing because I'm enjoying developing these characters and taking them on adventures.

And to be fully transparent, at first I did cave to the pressure and try changing the characters to better match what the strictly-straight readers were requesting. But when I was editing and fixing typos and stuff, the story was complete garbage. It felt like I betrayed the characters.

When I sat on the story for a few weeks while trying to figure out where the story was going, I hit a writers block that I couldn't get past. Once I deleted that part of the story and stopped trying to please the strictly-straight readers, I wrote like 40k words for this next entry within a few days.

Long story short. I literally can't focus on pleasing the readers. I don't have the creative ability to write a good story that I don't care about.

I know there's people out their that can step outside of what they want and instead write what they know or think others will enjoy, and that's probably the difference between a hobbyist writer and a professional writer. But I just don't have that level of creativity and discipline for writing.

 

[JenniferSmithJones]

It took me longer than I'd like to admit, but since posting about this in July, I've just recently come to the conclusion that I don't care if I upset some or even most of the people following the ongoing story. If writing was my job then I'm sure I'd be more inclined to deliver on what readers of the series want, but I'm just writing because I'm enjoying developing these characters and taking them on adventures.

And to be fully transparent, at first I did cave to the pressure and try changing the characters to better match what the strictly-straight readers were requesting. But when I was editing and fixing typos and stuff, the story was complete garbage. It felt like I betrayed the characters.

When I sat on the story for a few weeks while trying to figure out where the story was going, I hit a writers block that I couldn't get past. Once I deleted that part of the story and stopped trying to please the strictly-straight readers, I wrote like 40k words for this next entry within a few days.

Long story short. I literally can't focus on pleasing the readers. I don't have the creative ability to write a good story that I don't care about.

I know there's people out their that can step outside of what they want and instead write what they know or think others will enjoy, and that's probably the difference between a hobbyist writer and a professional writer. But I just don't have that level of creativity and discipline for writing.

Write what you like. You can bet some will hate it, some will say "eh, it was ok ,,,," and some will love it. Since we don't have to write for a living, we can write whatever we like best.

 

[Texienne]

It took me longer than I'd like to admit, but since posting about this in July, I've just recently come to the conclusion that I don't care if I upset some or even most of the people following the ongoing story. If writing was my job then I'm sure I'd be more inclined to deliver on what readers of the series want, but I'm just writing because I'm enjoying developing these characters and taking them on adventures.

And to be fully transparent, at first I did cave to the pressure and try changing the characters to better match what the strictly-straight readers were requesting. But when I was editing and fixing typos and stuff, the story was complete garbage. It felt like I betrayed the characters.

When I sat on the story for a few weeks while trying to figure out where the story was going, I hit a writers block that I couldn't get past. Once I deleted that part of the story and stopped trying to please the strictly-straight readers, I wrote like 40k words for this next entry within a few days.

Long story short. I literally can't focus on pleasing the readers. I don't have the creative ability to write a good story that I don't care about.

I know there's people out their that can step outside of what they want and instead write what they know or think others will enjoy, and that's probably the difference between a hobbyist writer and a professional writer. But I just don't have that level of creativity and discipline for writing.

Well, that's why I prefaced my long paragraph with 'If pleasing the readers is important to you.' The main point of my reply was in the first paragraph.

This isn't a job, for the vast majority of us (including me.) You have found what is important to you about your writing, and that's giving your characters life. For you, it clearly has to be their life, because that's what you enjoy writing about.

 

[DeMont]

I got an ongoing story about a femdom relationship and its not a super serious story. Just two characters having weird fun and falling in love.

In the story I have this ongoing joke/storyline about the girlfriend trying to convince her boyfriend that he should do gay stuff cause she thinks its hot. And it's literally the only thing his simp ass hasn't immediately done for her.

I don't know if the boyfriend will ever actually do it.

But. I got a comment that was really nice and positive, until the last line where the anonymous person pleaded for 'less gay stuff'

And now I'm in a really weird spot where I bounce between wanting to write the absolute most gayest stuff for the boyfriend character as humanly possibly, or stray away from the gay stuff because it will turn off some of the readers who have been following the series.

Both choices would reactionary.

So I guess I'm taking a break from writing the next part until I forget about the 'less gay stuff please' request because I don't wanna have the such a request influence the story in either direction.

Anyways, this is a lot of words. So...

@OddLove et al,
Good morning my dear colleagues.

So, if both choices are going to be reactionary pick one and run with it @OddLove. I believe that it has been firmly established in a number of threads hereabouts that we can, will, and do write exactly what we want, how we want and when we want. Writing here and casting our proverbial net with what we write we are bound to get a range of reactions ranging from doting followers to random haters and there is nothing we can do to influence that. Why not just "go for broke" and write for yourself?

If you want to make your story go one way take it there. Unless our readers are paying customers (mine aren't) why would I be overly concerned with the ones that don't like what I am dishing up?

I don't think there are any lines to be crossed here but if we were working authors making a living from our word craft that would be an entirely different matter. I am still firmly of the belief that we should write what we want, how we want, when we want and why we want.

(Still just my two cents, as ever humbly)
Respectfully,
D.