What I Wrote And Why: In The Box - An April Fools' Story

[OffNSFW]

My entry for the April Fools' Day event went up this morning. It's called "In The Box." It's about a character who's a bit of a cad, and whose wife unwittingly stumbles into a plot to cuckold him.

(This story is the WIP I was alluding to in this thread.)

I predicted the rating bombers would find it quickly. And, by god, they have it holding steady at 1.8(!), the lowest I've ever gotten for anything I've written on this site. (My next-lowest ratings are all above a 3.) Considering my goals for this story, I'm going to treat this as the inverse of the real rating and call it a 3.2.

This is the ultimate April Fools' story, because it's a prank being played on its most likely readers--the people who seek out stories they know they're going to hate in order to trash them. The main character shares their arch sense of morality, and his opening monologue is a compendium of the usual themes you see in the comments of stories like this one.

It isn't all a gag, though. Above all else, it was still my goal to write a good story that people who are into cuckolding would find sexy and interesting. It was also an interesting creative exercise to put myself in this character's shoes, to understand that obsession with controlling his partner's sexuality, and to write from that perspective.

 

[lovecraft68]

Problem is that the trolls don't have a sense of humor over there.

 

[StopT]

Problem is that the trolls don't have a sense of humor over there.

He shamelessly admits to trolling the readers, yet they are the trolls? Judging by the number of comments and views, his prank failed miserably.

Take a glance at the comments for this vignette posted today. Do you spot any incels or trolls there?

Just to be clear, this is not a real story; there's no conflict or character progression, barely even a scene. It's a successful attempt at hitting all the soft spots and sentimental glands of an elderly readership, resonating with any portrayal of imminent loss. About half of the one thousand words are devoted to depicting the suffering of the dying spouse -- pure schmaltz.

Like many readers nowadays, they prefer cartoons and need to be spoon-fed. They are incapable of digesting or enjoying any sort of real, sophisticated writing.

They may be many things, but they are not trolls. They will, however, bite the finger that's trying to poke them in the eye, but even that would require a more worthy effort than the OP's.

 

[lovecraft68]

He shamelessly admits to trolling the readers, yet they are the trolls? Judging by the number of comments and views, his prank failed miserably.

Take a glance at the comments for this vignette posted today. Do you spot any incels or trolls there?

Just to be clear, this is not a real story; there's no conflict or character progression, barely even a scene. It's a successful attempt at hitting all the soft spots and sentimental glands of an elderly readership, resonating with any portrayal of imminent loss. About half of the one thousand words are devoted to depicting the suffering of the dying spouse -- pure schmaltz.

Like many readers nowadays, they prefer cartoons and need to be spoon-fed. They are incapable of digesting or enjoying any sort of real, sophisticated writing.

They may be many things, but they are not trolls. They will, however, bite the finger that's trying to poke them in the eye, but even that would require a more worthy effort than the OP's.

Um, sir? Can you pay attention to the actual story being discussed?

The link you provided is so far out of the norm for an LW story-even one that does decently-that its irrelevant. It is worth nothing however, that they have a lot of stories in LW and most are in the threes and full of nasty comments. Which means your attempt to defend the readers there failed when I took an extra minute to look further than the story you linked.

Back to the OP, they wrote a story to try and prank/satire them, and the truly miserable are not capable of laughing at themselves, or anything else for that matter.

BTW, by poking them I assume you mean any story that doesn't adhere to their fake morality and attempts to bully everyone into them or out of the category?

 

[EmilyMiller]

My entry for the April Fools' Day event went up this morning. It's called "In The Box." It's about a character who's a bit of a cad, and whose wife unwittingly stumbles into a plot to cuckold him.

(This story is the WIP I was alluding to in this thread.)

I predicted the rating bombers would find it quickly. And, by god, they have it holding steady at 1.8(!), the lowest I've ever gotten for anything I've written on this site. (My next-lowest ratings are all above a 3.) Considering my goals for this story, I'm going to treat this as the inverse of the real rating and call it a 3.2.

This is the ultimate April Fools' story, because it's a prank being played on its most likely readers--the people who seek out stories they know they're going to hate in order to trash them. The main character shares their arch sense of morality, and his opening monologue is a compendium of the usual themes you see in the comments of stories like this one.

It isn't all a gag, though. Above all else, it was still my goal to write a good story that people who are into cuckolding would find sexy and interesting. It was also an interesting creative exercise to put myself in this character's shoes, to understand that obsession with controlling his partner's sexuality, and to write from that perspective.

Haven’t r read, but - as always - I think these are great and @StillStunned is to be congratulated

Emily

 

[OffNSFW]

He shamelessly admits to trolling the readers, yet they are the trolls? Judging by the number of comments and views, his prank failed miserably.

Take a glance at the comments for this vignette posted today. Do you spot any incels or trolls there?

Just to be clear, this is not a real story; there's no conflict or character progression, barely even a scene. It's a successful attempt at hitting all the soft spots and sentimental glands of an elderly readership, resonating with any portrayal of imminent loss. About half of the one thousand words are devoted to depicting the suffering of the dying spouse -- pure schmaltz.

Like many readers nowadays, they prefer cartoons and need to be spoon-fed. They are incapable of digesting or enjoying any sort of real, sophisticated writing.

They may be many things, but they are not trolls. They will, however, bite the finger that's trying to poke them in the eye, but even that would require a more worthy effort than the OP's.

Blocked.

 

[StopT]

Blocked.

Airtight blocked?

 

[OffNSFW]

Haven’t r read, but - as always - I think these are great and @StillStunned is to be congratulated

Emily

I do tend to appreciate lately that the writers have a good sense of humor about their stories, even if the readers sometimes do not.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I do tend to appreciate lately that the writers have a good sense of humor about their stories, even if the readers sometimes do not.

I think it helps to have a sense of humor when writing. It’s kinda a narcissistic exercise. If you can’t be a bit self-deprecating and not take yourself too seriously, then assholery lies in wait.

Emily

 

[StopT]

BTW, by poking them I assume you mean any story that doesn't adhere to their fake morality and attempts to bully everyone into them or out of the category?

"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike."