Examining the Results of the previous blog · 1:04am Jan 29th, 2023
Hello again!
It's been three days now since I made the post asking if there's any interest if I were to produce some NSFW content, the comments have stopped rolling in and votes on the poll I posted seem to have come to a halt, so it's time to take a look at what I learned.
1. The Poll
Not gonna lie, the poll paints a pretty clear picture, at least among the people who felt they wanted to give an opinion there.
Obviously not everyone who saw the blog post voted in the poll, but based on the data I have, the crowd who anonymously voted seems to be largely in favor of NSFW stories. So that's something to consider.
2. The comments
The comments were not as cut-and-dry as the poll, but I seemed to receive two particular opinions more than any others, with those opinions being.
A: I like and/or am fine with NSFW, and more importantly, authors should write what they want.
or
B: I'm fine with NSFW elements as long as there's a good story backing it up.
Now, here's where things get... a little tricky. Maybe I was a bit too gentle with how I worded the first blog. My good ideas for meaningful plotlines are mostly packaged in my SFW stories. I don't really feel (most) good narratives need explicit NSFW elements. Implications, sure, even Magic of the Heart had some of those, but not direct depictions. At least, not the way I write. The NSFW stories I was trying to politely talk about here are at least mostly those where the story is a vehicle to contain all the sexy stuff. I'll still be making sure to write strong characters,, but not necessarily strong narratives, when I'm exploring this genre. Which unfortunately is not what those under option B above wanted to hear, I won't sugarcoat that. Obviously I'm not trying to pressure anyone to read anything, and encourage those people to simply pass over such fics if they don't see anything there that appeals to them.
3. Other Things to Consider
I've been writing sequels and sequels to those sequels for a long time. Most of my "active" readers right now are those who kept up with that long string of sequels. So I also need to consider not only my current audience, but my potential one. Not everything I write is going to appeal to every person. I'm sure I have some followers right now who followed me for one of my short stories (looking at you, Infallible) and don't really care about the novels I've been focusing on for a long time. Likewise, there are plenty of users on this site that might not care about what I've written already, but would be interested in an NSFW fic. It's just another genre, really. It just happens to be a polarizing one. I've got quite a few friends, too, that like NSFW fics and are excited for me to write one.
Conclusions?
I can't please everybody, but based on the poll, at least a decent portion of the comments, and outside factors, it seems overall like such a story would be received with at least somewhat more positive reception than negative. Looks like it won't bother TOO many people if I break my precedent for SFW fics and try this out. Overall The site is full of NSFW fics, and that doesn't stop people who are uninterested in them from using the site, so I hope the same will apply here. If it's not for you, I respect that! Just pass over the story if I post something with an M-rating. Or, if you browse the site with the mature filter on, this won't affect you at all, since you won't even be able to see it.
So a new, explicit side story featuring some of my existing characters will likely be coming along in the future, written in a way so that it will be accessible to new readers who don't already know those characters. Along with the usual SFW faire, which will be continuing as normal as well.
If this is something you're interested in, I hope to see you there!
~PRB
Good luck, have fun!
I’m looking forward to it!
I completely agree with you on this. Personally, I find such bits to mostly take me out of the flow in a really good story because, as you say, it doesn't (mostly) add anything to the story that just a fade-to-black gets across.
I'll be watching my feed