People have weird morals

[tenyari]

Write like you care........

Write like you care...

Lets pretend for a second that the girl getting stoned actually was a big deal. Ok... so what.

I mean... they're characters, in a story. You're telling their tale.

I've had characters do extremely imperfect things.

Half the point of a plot for a character is that they've got to be flawed to get themselves into enough trouble for there to be drama.

Nothing is worse than a character that always makes the right choice.

 

[HordHolm]

Write like you care...

Lets pretend for a second that the girl getting stoned actually was a big deal. Ok... so what.

I mean... they're characters, in a story. You're telling their tale.

I've had characters do extremely imperfect things.

Half the point of a plot for a character is that they've got to be flawed to get themselves into enough trouble for there to be drama.

Nothing is worse than a character that always makes the right choice.

It's that voice in the Simpsons, "won't somebody think about the children!"

 

[Altissimus]

If the topic is not something that you care for don't read the story.

But... but... what about all the potential righteous indignation? How can people get angry if they only read things they like?

 

[RachelWalsh]

If... any

 

[gunhilltrain]

Write like you care...

Lets pretend for a second that the girl getting stoned actually was a big deal. Ok... so what.

I mean... they're characters, in a story. You're telling their tale.

I've had characters do extremely imperfect things.

Half the point of a plot for a character is that they've got to be flawed to get themselves into enough trouble for there to be drama.

Nothing is worse than a character that always makes the right choice.

I think it's the idea of impaired driving that bothers them. As if Lit is supposed to be a Public Service Ad about traffic safety?

 

[Euphony]

I think it's the idea of impaired driving that bothers them. As if Lit is supposed to be a Public Service Ad about traffic safety?

M.A.D.D.

Masterbators
Against
Drunk
Driving

 

[gunhilltrain]

M.A.D.D.

Masterbators
Against
Drunk
Driving

If you feel the need to masturbate, please pull over to the right shoulder and put your blinkers on.

 

[Euphony]

If you feel the need to masturbate, please pull over to the right shoulder and put your blinkers Flashers on.

FTFY

 

[Buffy47]

It does seem a little weird that a reader who be so passionate about your story that they actually treat it like it's real..... very similar reaction that actors get when people forget that they are playing a character and they not really a bad person in real life.

 

[gunhilltrain]

FTFY

Also, don't flash someone in another car because they might get distracted and have an accident.

 

[tenyari]

I think it's the idea of impaired driving that bothers them. As if Lit is supposed to be a Public Service Ad about traffic safety?

Yeah. But like... for fiction that's just dramatic tension for plot.

I've had my characters in the middle of a drive-by shooting before. That's not me recommending folks go out and do such a thing.

You gotta wonder how readers like that handle watching some dop drama show like Law and Order, or even an old Sherlock Holmes mystery, or something like Lord of the Rings. Do they write angry letters to Marvel about how morally wrong it was for Thanos to do the snap and eras half of all life in the universe n Avengers?
(They probably do...)

The protagonist in my longest ever serial was a minor drug dealer who'd arranged for somebody to get stabbed in a theater (a guy who'd assaulted in a high school bathroom), in a story that ended in the prior noted drive by with multiple fatalities after they were all out getting into trouble. Oddly... I never got a 'how dare you' letter. I got lots of people not liking how I ended it (they wanted a happy ending but I spent the last 2 chapters having my heroine rip her own life apart piece by piece, stupid move after stupid move) - but never a moralizing letter.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I have to admit I wouldn't want to read a story that normalised drunk/stoned driving. If a character is messed up in various ways, and drunk driving is consistent with that, fair enough.

But a typical incest story that describes a nice normal bro and sis, all totally ordinary pleasant people you're meant to empathise with, then having them drink-drive? It undermines the portrayal of them as nice people, which makes the story unconvincing.

Maybe it's a cultural difference and where you are drunk-driving is still seen as just a bit naughty? I recall some colleagues being told by New Orleans police to just drink and drive as it was safer than walking, once (wtf?) But to me it would kick me out of the story, just as if a story described a protagonist as "a really great guy. OK there was that one time he beat up his girlfriend and raped her, but hey, he's a great guy really."

But given I don't read incest stories anyway, and generally avoid stories about nice teenagers, treat this with all due consideration.

 

[sister jenny]

Same here.
I only write incest and I really like non-con.
In my latest I wanted to be extreme so I made a deep throat lead to throwing up. Hey, it’s my fucked up story.
And lots of people wrote me and complianed about the puking, the other non-con incest was obviously ok.
Maybe it’s me, but felt that was weird.
I guess it’s better than complaining on my punctuation

 

[ycym]

This is, how it is. Sometimes you really wonder what the complains are about and what will be totally ok. You can just sit there and wonder.
It is, how it is. Just wonder, why nobody complains about all the death in th war-films or why the people in crime series doing all the bad stuff.

 

[Otis_Ravelli]

Because they, hopefully, aren't jerking off to it I guess.

There are some people who have a sense of entitlement when it comes to this sort of thing so if something happens in a story that they personally find deeply unattractive they take it as an affront and need to admonish the writer for it rather than doing what most normal people do and just close the story and find another one.

 

[ChassonKnight]

Because they, hopefully, aren't jerking off to it I guess.

There are some people who have a sense of entitlement when it comes to this sort of thing so if something happens in a story that they personally find deeply unattractive they take it as an affront and need to admonish the writer for it rather than doing what most normal people do and just close the story and find another one.

Exactly this. People read war stories for the drama, of which potential death is a part. I presume people read erotica for a sexual buzz, and I suspect most people don't want potential death, or actual death, to be a part of that, although some certainly do. Other people might have experience of drug taking or drunk driving that means it turns them off in a story they've specifically started reading to get off to, or it might just be one of their pet hates, which is all fine. Don't read the story, then.

How much any writer panders to their potential readership is up to them, and probably depends on what they want to get out of writing on Lit. But you certainly don't owe it to one particular reader to give them stories they specifically can get off to, and you absolutely will not please everyone. But people do make the mistake of thinking how they feel actually means something, and they don't seem to be able to help trying to make that other people's problem.

I've closed so many stories on Lit because there was something in them that was a turn off, occasionally what you could categorise as 'moral issues', but that's my problem, my choice, so I stop reading, and say nothing more. I like to offer encouragement, give the odd positive comment when I like something, never rate anything less than 4 stars, and leave the rest to people who mistake themselves for professional reviewers, rather than someone reading amateur erotica.

 

[sister jenny]

Exactly this. People read war stories for the drama, of which potential death is a part. I presume people read erotica for a sexual buzz, and I suspect most people don't want potential death, or actual death, to be a part of that, although some certainly do. Other people might have experience of drug taking or drunk driving that means it turns them off in a story they've specifically started reading to get off to, or it might just be one of their pet hates, which is all fine. Don't read the story, then.

How much any writer panders to their potential readership is up to them, and probably depends on what they want to get out of writing on Lit. But you certainly don't owe it to one particular reader to give them stories they specifically can get off to, and you absolutely will not please everyone. But people do make the mistake of thinking how they feel actually means something, and they don't seem to be able to help trying to make that other people's problem.

I've closed so many stories on Lit because there was something in them that was a turn off, occasionally what you could categorise as 'moral issues', but that's my problem, my choice, so I stop reading, and say nothing more. I like to offer encouragement, give the odd positive comment when I like something, never rate anything less than 4 stars, and leave the rest to people who mistake themselves for professional reviewers, rather than someone reading amateur erotica.

I support this message!
Thank you.

 

[ChassonKnight]

I support this message!
Thank you.

Thanks. It does occur to me that it doesn't address the opening post on this thread, which I suppose is about a commenter being fine with incest in a story because it only affects the participants, but objects to driving under the influence in the story which potentially affects others. Whatever, man! It's just adding colour to the story, establishing characters, creating context. I suppose if you've lost a relative in a DUI incident you'd feel compelled to comment. But, unless the characters were racing along saying, 'This driving while stoned and pissed is great, ain't it?', 'Yeah, dude, and totally without potential consequences, ' I doubt I'd give it a second thought.

 

[HordHolm]

But, unless the characters were racing along saying, 'This driving while stoned and pissed is great, ain't it?', 'Yeah, dude, and totally without potential consequences, ' I doubt I'd give it a second thought.

Exactly. However, I now feel almost compelled to work that precise sentiment into something just to irritate Anonymous.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

I suppose if you've lost a relative in a DUI incident you'd feel compelled to comment.

I once met someone from the US who thought it was interesting that I didn't know anyone who had died in a car wreck. Like, doesn't have to be your mother, but not anyone at all? Really? Apparently, where he's from (somewhere in the Midwest) everyone has a cousin or a classmate or something.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yeah. But like... for fiction that's just dramatic tension for plot.

I've had my characters in the middle of a drive-by shooting before. That's not me recommending folks go out and do such a thing.

You gotta wonder how readers like that handle watching some dop drama show like Law and Order, or even an old Sherlock Holmes mystery, or something like Lord of the Rings. Do they write angry letters to Marvel about how morally wrong it was for Thanos to do the snap and eras half of all life in the universe n Avengers?
(They probably do...)

The protagonist in my longest ever serial was a minor drug dealer who'd arranged for somebody to get stabbed in a theater (a guy who'd assaulted in a high school bathroom), in a story that ended in the prior noted drive by with multiple fatalities after they were all out getting into trouble. Oddly... I never got a 'how dare you' letter. I got lots of people not liking how I ended it (they wanted a happy ending but I spent the last 2 chapters having my heroine rip her own life apart piece by piece, stupid move after stupid move) - but never a moralizing letter.

Sure, how many mobsters, serial killers, drug dealers, etc. have been protagonists in novels, movies, TV shows, etc.? You may not have to like the Corleone family or Tony Soprano, but there are attempts to understand how they got that way and figure out how they think. Even during the Hays Code era, there were many portrayals of criminals in movies. Many of these films and shows have been highly regarded by critics and audiences.

Thought I'd include a scene from a movie that portrays gangsters - from their point of view - from youth to old age. (Notice the modern red brick building in the background of the Manhattan Bridge. Hard to film 1920 or whatever on location.)

 

[JaxRhapsody]

I just got a comment a few minutes ago from a reader of my story "Shaving My Mom."

The title could not make the subject matter more obvious.

I gilded the lily with the tagline: "I saw Mom's big bush and had to do something about it."

No sentient reader can be unaware of what he is about to get into with this story.

Yet, even so, the reader read the story, and STILL complained about Mom getting shaved.

Excerpt (all caps in the original): "(SHAVED PUSSIES ARE for the most part SOME OF THE NASTIEST LOOKING THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. I CAN GOOGLE THE IMAGE OF A PLUCKED CHICKEN IF I WANT TO SEE THAT KIND OF MESS) "

He told me he gave me a 1.

See... chucklefucks like this are why I wish we could reply directly to comments, like on AO3.

I haven't been here that long but I am amazed at the number of complaints in the comments ( I do read them ) from so many people. If the topic is not something that you care for don't read the story.

We know that, but see... that requires actual pragmatic thought and a bit of brain power without the false sense of obligation.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I think LW might be the biggest culprit with all the anger over make believe people cheating, but it seems like it shows up everywhere.

As opposed to getting off from make believe people cheating? It’s just another emotional reaction, like getting grossed out by scat or warm fuzzies from a nice, romantic ending.

It cracks me up that you don’t see your handwringing as the exact same thing you decry here. You have devoted a huge portion of your life to helping abused women, and that’s great; then you turn around and say “LW and it’s readers and writers are a bunch of abusive incels,” because of the stories they enjoy, which isn’t.

But now that someone who probably has as ingrained a negative reaction to DUI as you do, and possibly for similar real-life reasons, they’re wrong for their reaction? Come on, man. Either own that shit or stop being a hypocrite.

 

[SimonDoom]

chucklefucks

!

My vocabulary addition for the day. I like it. Thanks!

Chucklefucks.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

!

My vocabulary addition for the day. I like it. Thanks!

Chucklefucks.

Stole it from one of my favorite webcomics. The character that uses it has quite a way with words.