How Do LW Readers Feel About Taboo?

[420AnalLez69]

So, I'm working on a story for the Tis the Season for Conception challenge that I'm thinking will find its way into the Loving Wives category. Like many stories, it could probably fit in a few places, but I honestly want to try my hand at LW.

It centers a lesbian married couple seeking a natural pregnancy after a difficult experience that they relate to IVF. They settled on their longtime friend's 21-year-old son, whom they've known since he was a boy, as the donor. He calls them both Aunty because of their pre-existing relationship. I could easily lean into this taboo or dispel it in a couple of sentences.

I have to be honest: I enjoy transgressive sex in my fiction, so I like taboo. But I also have a lot of actual incest stories in the works, so it's not the end of the world if I don't include it in this one story. I don't want to needlessly alienate/antagonize the reader base when I already think a lesbian couple as the primary couple is an oddity in that category.

I'm casting out a net and hoping for the opinions of those who know and post in that area. Thanks!

 

[lovecraft68]

Before I answer, one thing confuses me. IVF isn't done through sex but being this is an erotic story and you're concerned with taboos and category I'm going to guess he is going to have sex with one of the women? Need to clarify because that makes a big difference.

So I'll answer both ways

Rule of thumb with a story that has mixed genres is to decide which trumps the other. I think this 'hybrid' story presents issues in finding a definitive 'home'

I don't think a lesbian couple is going to go over that well in LW, they want a husband and wife so they can attack the wife. Two women will leave them confused and let's face it, there's a faction there that will be offended by two married women in the first place "That's not marriage!" says Joe while stroking with one hand and holding his bible in the other (I'm only half joking with that comment)

Now as far as incest, there isn't really any here. It's the son of a longtime friend, not the son of one of them. He calls them aunts but they're not actual family so the taboo is the broader definition of this being a hey we've known you since you were a kid, want to help us have a baby? So incest category wouldn't fly in anyway the readers will let you have it for misleading them.

So I think your best off in the lesbian category where you'll get more readers accepting of the situation and some could even identify with it. I'd go there.

Unless there is sex between the young man and the woman

Because now you're looking at straight sex in a lesbian category and now you may be better off in erotic couplings.

One more caveat is if you're considering going all in on a wild story and all three are going to play but he's only 'finishing' in one of them...group can apply

Lesbian if no straight sex but if there is any interaction between the man and woman(or women) erotic couplings, too many moving parts to go into a niche category

 

[NotWise]

So, I'm working on a story for the Tis the Season for Conception challenge that I'm thinking will find its way into the Loving Wives category. Like many stories, it could probably fit in a few places, but I honestly want to try my hand at LW.

It centers a lesbian married couple seeking a natural pregnancy after a difficult experience that they relate to IVF. They settled on their longtime friend's 21-year-old son, whom they've known since he was a boy, as the donor. He calls them both Aunty because of their pre-existing relationship. I could easily lean into this taboo or dispel it in a couple of sentences.

I have to be honest: I enjoy transgressive sex in my fiction, so I like taboo. But I also have a lot of actual incest stories in the works, so it's not the end of the world if I don't include it in this one story. I don't want to needlessly alienate/antagonize the reader base when I already think a lesbian couple as the primary couple is an oddity in that category.

I'm casting out a net and hoping for the opinions of those who know and post in that area. Thanks!

As described, your story may not be well-received in either LW or T/I. The transgression in your description is more age-gap than anything else. Mature is the category for age-gap stories, but I don't know how they'd handle the lesbian relationship.

 

[CalBishForNow]

I'd put it in Erotic Couplings, unless you really want to maximize your views. Lesbians and nonmonogamy are fine there. (Pregnancy-related plots are sometimes penalized, but that'll be a problem for any story for this challenge.)

If you do want to maximize your views, then just make the 21-year-old the nephew of the lesbian who isn't getting impregnated and make sure to include a three-way sex scene and everyone is happy. (Spoiler alert, that's very similar to the plot of my only foray into T/I so far!)

 

[metropolinational]

I have not noticed any anger against Lesbians or F/F erotica in LW. In fact, a recent long series by @RoleplayLiterate had at least two lesbians out of the six main characters. There was plenty of gay sex between them, between them and other characters, and they were definitely "good guys" in the story. Check it out here. And it was very well received by LW standards, getting high 3s and low 4s throughout, hundreds of comments and favorites, etc.

So, I would not shy away from LW if that's where it belongs. But you have to be realistic about the feedback you will get. As I said, low 3s and high 4s is what excellence looks like in LW. You are not going to mid to high 4s unless you follow the @NoTalentHack formula. Even then, it won't be a truly high score by the rest of the site's standards. A 4.9 is pretty much inconceivable in LW, even if you follow the formula. Same with the comments, you are going to get some nasty ones. It's just how it is. But, you will get comments, favorites, and followers if your story is good.

I would not shy away because your story has lesbian characters.

 

[sirhugs]

Any chance it might work in Group Sex?

 

[NoTalentHack]

If it were a competition, I'd tell you to steer clear entirely; I can't remember the last time a LW story won one of those, and I'm certain it was a boilerplate, if well-written, "post-divorce dude romance" story.

How will it do score-wise? Eh. I think it'll do fine, especially if it's not IVF but actual sex. Not great, necessarily, as it's not what any of the typical readers are specifically looking for, but high 3 to mid 4 is within reach, and you'll get a lot of eyes on it in LW. Depending on the structure, Group might be better, and if the couple is old enough Mature might actually be an okay fit, if maybe stretching it a bit.

The primary thing I'd be concerned about is blowback; LW is a high views, high comments, high number of ratings category, and the people that either really love or really hate your story will bring that energy with them to the other stories in your catalog, with the additional caveat that this also means (given that LW readers grade harsher in general than anywhere else, even putting aside the prolonged turf war there) that your ratings elsewhere may take a hit. On the flipside, you may also pick up a fair number of followers.

 

[MillieDynamite]

If you want to go all-in on the transgressive nature, make him an actual nephew of one of the women.

 

[Britva415]

IVF isn't done through sex

Right. They’re now

seeking a natural pregnancy after a difficult experience that they relate to IVF.

 

[Britva415]

Anyway, I don’t see how this is a LW story at all. Not even in the original formulation before it morphed into the all-cheating-all-the-time scene it is now. Is it extramarital sex? Sure but not in a way which ticks any of the LW criteria.

 

[metropolinational]

Anyway, I don’t see how this is a LW story at all. Not even in the original formulation before it morphed into the all-cheating-all-the-time scene it is now. Is it extramarital sex? Sure but not in a way which ticks any of the LW criteria.

I had assumed feeling developed between the nephew and the aunt, leading to a drawn out love triangle made only more inescapable by the presence of the child!

Delicious suffering and angst!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Any chance it might work in Group Sex?

Not much works in Group Sex, in my experience. It's the least responsive of any category I've written in - a black hole for stories to go to and quietly die. The lowest vote to view ratio, and basically no comments. I'll never post there again, that's for sure.

 

[sirhugs]

Not much works in Group Sex, in my experience. It's the least responsive of any category I've written in - a black hole for stories to go to and quietly die. The lowest vote to view ratio, and basically no comments. I'll never post there again, that's for sure.

Funny, i fel that way about erotic Couplings (though recently posted one there).
I have had decent response in Group Sex. ot magnificent, but respectable for me. aven't posted enough there to really analysis, but 5 of my top 50 stories for views are in that category, and given how seldom I post there, not bad. Certainly safer than LW.

 

[SmilingLez]

Before I answer, one thing confuses me. IVF isn't done through sex but being this is an erotic story and you're concerned with taboos and category I'm going to guess he is going to have sex with one of the women? Need to clarify because that makes a big difference.

So I'll answer both ways

Rule of thumb with a story that has mixed genres is to decide which trumps the other. I think this 'hybrid' story presents issues in finding a definitive 'home'

I don't think a lesbian couple is going to go over that well in LW, they want a husband and wife so they can attack the wife. Two women will leave them confused and let's face it, there's a faction there that will be offended by two married women in the first place "That's not marriage!" says Joe while stroking with one hand and holding his bible in the other (I'm only half joking with that comment)

Now as far as incest, there isn't really any here. It's the son of a longtime friend, not the son of one of them. He calls them aunts but they're not actual family so the taboo is the broader definition of this being a hey we've known you since you were a kid, want to help us have a baby? So incest category wouldn't fly in anyway the readers will let you have it for misleading them.

So I think your best off in the lesbian category where you'll get more readers accepting of the situation and some could even identify with it. I'd go there.

Unless there is sex between the young man and the woman

Because now you're looking at straight sex in a lesbian category and now you may be better off in erotic couplings.

One more caveat is if you're considering going all in on a wild story and all three are going to play but he's only 'finishing' in one of them...

Lesbian if no straight sex but if there is any interaction between the man and woman(or women) erotic couplings, too many moving parts to go into a niche category

Dude, looks like you're telling her what to write. Thread carefully, you don't want her to abandon her idea because you don't like it

 

[lovecraft68]

Dude, looks like you're telling her what to write. Thread carefully, you don't want her to abandon her idea because you don't like it

They asked for category advice, I'll say that more slowly T...h...e...y.....a...s....k...e....d

I replied with what might not work and why and would could work and why.

Nowhere did I say there was an issue with the idea itself other than categories they may take a beating in which is not the same as "Don't write this"

Here, I have one of those magic eightballs, I shook it for you, and it said, "Try Again."

 

[SmilingLez]

Before I answer, one thing confuses me. IVF isn't done through sex but being this is an erotic story and you're concerned with taboos and category I'm going to guess he is going to have sex with one of the women? Need to clarify because that makes a big difference.

So I'll answer both ways

Rule of thumb with a story that has mixed genres is to decide which trumps the other. I think this 'hybrid' story presents issues in finding a definitive 'home'

I don't think a lesbian couple is going to go over that well in LW, they want a husband and wife so they can attack the wife. Two women will leave them confused and let's face it, there's a faction there that will be offended by two married women in the first place "That's not marriage!" says Joe while stroking with one hand and holding his bible in the other (I'm only half joking with that comment)

Now as far as incest, there isn't really any here. It's the son of a longtime friend, not the son of one of them. He calls them aunts but they're not actual family so the taboo is the broader definition of this being a hey we've known you since you were a kid, want to help us have a baby? So incest category wouldn't fly in anyway the readers will let you have it for misleading them.

So I think your best off in the lesbian category where you'll get more readers accepting of the situation and some could even identify with it. I'd go there.

Unless there is sex between the young man and the woman

Because now you're looking at straight sex in a lesbian category and now you may be better off in erotic couplings.

One more caveat is if you're considering going all in on a wild story and all three are going to play but he's only 'finishing' in one of them...

Lesbian if no straight sex but if there is any interaction between the man and woman(or women) erotic couplings, too many moving parts to go into a niche category

Suggest you learn how to read, dude

 

[ElectricBlue]

Funny, i fel that way about erotic Couplings (though recently posted one there).
I have had decent response in Group Sex. ot magnificent, but respectable for me. aven't posted enough there to really analysis, but 5 of my top 50 stories for views are in that category, and given how seldom I post there, not bad. Certainly safer than LW.

I've always found EC okay as a category, if the major kink theme doesn't make more sense somewhere else. Probably because I first started using it a decade ago, and it became a bit of a default category.

Overall, I've found Mature to be the most responsive category in terms of the success markers that matter to me, EC in the middle - it can depend whether or not the story "takes off" - and Group the bottom of the pile. I've got stories scattered around more than half of the Lit categories, so reasonable frames of reference.

 

[lovecraft68]

If it were a competition, I'd tell you to steer clear entirely; I can't remember the last time a LW story won one of those, and I'm certain it was a boilerplate, if well-written, "post-divorce dude romance" story.

How will it do score-wise? Eh. I think it'll do fine, especially if it's not IVF but actual sex. Not great, necessarily, as it's not what any of the typical readers are specifically looking for, but high 3 to mid 4 is within reach, and you'll get a lot of eyes on it in LW. Depending on the structure, Group might be better, and if the couple is old enough Mature might actually be an okay fit, if maybe stretching it a bit.

The primary thing I'd be concerned about is blowback; LW is a high views, high comments, high number of ratings category, and the people that either really love or really hate your story will bring that energy with them to the other stories in your catalog, with the additional caveat that this also means (given that LW readers grade harsher in general than anywhere else, even putting aside the prolonged turf war there) that your ratings elsewhere may take a hit. On the flipside, you may also pick up a fair number of followers.

I don't think LW has placed since I've been here and because of the warring factions, I can't see it doing so, just enough bombs to keep it down. There are some higher scoring stories over there but these days you all but need a 4.9 to place.

You're the second person to mention mature and technically it does fit but I've done a fair number of stories there and I just don't see it working.

I think because there's multiple 'moving parts' EC wins out for this. Not the most widely read category but the readership seems pretty fair and open.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I don't think LW has placed since I've been here and because of the warring factions, I can't see it doing so, just enough bombs to keep it down. There are some higher scoring stories over there but these days you all but need a 4.9 to place.

You're the second person to mention mature and technically it does fit but I've done a fair number of stories there and I just don't see it working.

I think because there's multiple 'moving parts' EC wins out for this. Not the most widely read category but the readership seems pretty fair and open.

It looks like I’m 51 by qhml1 won at least a monthly contest in 2022, but I’m too lazy to go look further than that. And it was, in fact, a post-divorce dude romance, albeit a great example of one. https://www.literotica.com/s/im-51-2

 

[lovecraft68]

It looks like I’m 51 by qhml1 won at least a monthly contest in 2022, but I’m too lazy to go look further than that. And it was, in fact, a post-divorce dude romance, albeit a great example of one. https://www.literotica.com/s/im-51-2

That might have been one of the last monthlies period, they vanished some time ago.

I was thinking of the themed contests.

 

[Duil2]

If you look at the category description for Loving Wives, you would meet some of the of what's there but as others have said the readership is so split and also so entrenched in what they think fits the category it will probably get lambasted. Once you're prepared for that - go for it.

Obviously Lesbian Sex seems like a no-brainer for the category and you might find that the moderators could change the category you select to put it in there if they think it's more approptiate.

Erotic Couplings seems to centre around one on one encounters and so unless you were to focus exclusively on the hook-up of the younger man with one of the older women, I can't see it fitting here.

Group Sex - it might just cut the mustard for this one if the three of them got together to conceive the child put you'd be pushing it a bit, I think.

Mature was mentioned and that could fit as you do have an age gap and this category is mainly about May to December and since the age-gap is between a male and female it might work.

Finally Taboo/Incest is generally for actual family relationship as I've seen the readers be annoyed if you even go for step relatives instead of full blood relationships. The more taboo would be if the young man was, as suggested, the blood nephew of one of them. Being the son of a friend may not be taboo enough for them.

Out of all of them I think I'd stick with either Lesbian Sex or Mature and be prepared to be overruled during the publishing approval stages.

Good luck.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Lesbian sex is a very gentle category to post in. You don't get a lot of angry slamming comments, however, I'm not sure a story that involves sex with a male, regardless of who he is, would score highly... That doesn't mean don't do it, merely go in with eyes open.
At the end of the day, you just have to post it where choose and accept the slings and arrows...
Each category has it's little quirks...
Just have a go...

 

[lovecraft68]

Suggest you learn how to read, dude

That' the second time you've referred to me as 'dude' and a negative comment posted recently on one of my stories that started off with 'dude'

I'm sure its coincidence, but that's some interesting timing wouldn't you say?

 

[lovecraft68]

If you look at the category description for Loving Wives, you would meet some of the of what's there but as others have said the readership is so split and also so entrenched in what they think fits the category it will probably get lambasted. Once you're prepared for that - go for it.
View attachment 2625096
Obviously Lesbian Sex seems like a no-brainer for the category and you might find that the moderators could change the category you select to put it in there if they think it's more approptiate.
View attachment 2625098
Erotic Couplings seems to centre around one on one encounters and so unless you were to focus exclusively on the hook-up of the younger man with one of the older women, I can't see it fitting here.
View attachment 2625099
Group Sex - it might just cut the mustard for this one if the three of them got together to conceive the child put you'd be pushing it a bit, I think.
View attachment 2625100
Mature was mentioned and that could fit as you do have an age gap and this category is mainly about May to December and since the age-gap is between a male and female it might work.
View attachment 2625101
Finally Taboo/Incest is generally for actual family relationship as I've seen the readers be annoyed if you even go for step relatives instead of full blood relationships. The more taboo would be if the young man was, as suggested, the blood nephew of one of them. Being the son of a friend may not be taboo enough for them.
View attachment 2625102
Out of all of them I think I'd stick with either Lesbian Sex or Mature and be prepared to be overruled during the publishing approval stages.

Good luck.

Your post has me thinking that the OP mentioned he calls the women aunts and depending how she chooses to write it, if that term is used often, I wonder if the site would boot it to incest. Its obvious however the site screens context is not a thing it takes into account.

 

[SmilingLez]

That' the second time you've referred to me as 'dude' and a negative comment posted recently on one of my stories that started off with 'dude'

I'm sure its coincidence, but that's some interesting timing wouldn't you say?

View attachment 2625110

You must be old, dude. Dude no longer is attached to male gender.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/dude