"And then he sent the bitch to a Mexican Whorehouse. The End."
I had just read the first attempt by my husband Jack Phillips at writing a BTB story for the Loving Wives section of Literotica. Even if you ignored the bad grammar, misspellings, and wrong word choices it was pathetic. I was torn between being honest and diplomatic in response to his question "What do you think of it Alicia?"
"Uh...well...it's certainly interesting," I started out, still trying to decide on the correct strategy. "You certainly got a lot of clichés into 674 words, but it has to be at least 750 words to be published, you know."
"Oh, I forgot; I can just add 76 more words about the wronged husband's revenge and get it up to speed," Jack enthusiastically replied.
"Uh...OK," I continued, "however why do you have all of the wife telling the husband that she's going out on a date and it won't affect them, in fact it will help their marriage; and that she's already cheating with his brother behind her back; and that she justifies occasional sex with a black man all at the same time? Wouldn't just one of those suffice?"
"Well I know that's what's normal, but as you know the women-hating troglodytes who do most of the commenting on Loving Wives stories will probably like all three of those at once since the cheating bitch will get hers," he grinned broadly.
"Well at least he knows his audience?" I mused.
"I understand, Jack -- but then there are the many different punishments for the cheating wife. Isn't that a little overboard? I mean how can you first have her shunned by the community and her kids and regretting that she ever cheated on her flawless husband, and then have her thrown out of the house and penniless, and then still send her to a Mexican whorehouse; wouldn't one suffice? And why does it have to be a Mexican whorehouse, why not a Honduran one, or Costa Rican one?"
"Well at least he didn't kill her too," I thought to myself trying hard to reign in my laughter.
"You don't get it Alicia; that's what's going to put my score over 4.5 -- she gets all three normal punishments as revenges. Also the readers don't know where Honduras or Costa Rica are; we've got to keep it more local." Then Jack paused, rubbed his chin, and with a big smile continued, "You know what, I think that after she's in the Mexican whorehouse for a year I should kill her off -- that will help get me up to 750 words too."
"I don't know about that, Jack..." I started to say finally willing to tell him that at least this aspect of his story was crap, but he was not to be deterred.
"I know what!" he said so excitedly that he also gave a little jump into the air as he said it. "I'll have her get AIDS, be beaten up by an ex-lover who she thought was a real gentleman but turns out to be abusive, and then fall into an acid bath in a manufacturing plant."
I could see that I wasn't going to be able to talk Jack out of his plan to put every revenge-on-the-cheating-wife cliché that appears in every unoriginal Loving Wives story on Literotica into his drama in his determined quest for a 4.5 troglodyte score.
"Uh, well...if you're determined to use everything that gets a high score in the same story, couldn't you at least use some richer language, with less common words? For example instead of 'brazen hussy' how about 'audacious trollop;' or instead of 'cheating bitch' you could use 'charlatanistic termagant.'" I posited.
"Are you crazy?" Jack rhetorically asked, waving his hands up and down. "Guys who give 5* ratings on Loving Wives stories don't like big words, and have never used a dictionary or thesaurus since High School. They'll mark my score down."
"Then how about at least something novel for how the husband finds out. Instead of all of high-tech cameras, his best friend cluing him in after he is naïve for ten years, overhearing a phone conversation, or coming home early from a business trip when his wife doesn't answer his phone calls or texts advising her of that, you do something different?" I inquired, with my game face on.
"What, like something from outer space?" he ruminated out loud. "Nah, guy readers who give five stars don't care about originality -- they want the same tried and true shit. I'll just leave my story having the husband find out all of the ways you mentioned within the same few days."