taboo

Several years back, a friend and I who’d met on a message board developed a sort of loose-critiquing habit of exchanging chapters. It was more of a beta-read than anything else, and we’d point out anything that might scream for attention if we happened to find it.

Generally, there were no huge surprises and I agreed with most of what she said—with one exception. It was a scene in a full-length contemporary hot romance, and it involved an old friend of the heroine’s family, an unmarried minister. A very down-to-earth man, he was reminiscing with the hero over a pint of whiskey about his youth and history with the lady’s mother. He’d adored her, desperately wished he’d bedded her, and loved her to this day.

My beta reader was SERIOUSLY offended. To paraphrase her comments: “This seems VERY inappropriate to me for a man of the cloth. Suggest making it more wistful, more worshipping-from-afar.”

Uhhhhhh~~~~~~~~~

No.

To be honest, very few things are so sacred to me they should remain untouchable. In fact, I’m trying to think of something right now. Anything. Something, I’m sure there must be something… :roll:

There are things that are unappealing to me to consider writing. I confess, I will not write about animals being abused or killed. Extreme BDSM doesn’t tempt me, nor does graphic guts-&-gore. But nearly everything else seems like fair game, since I’m writing to an adult audience.

Are there subjects or situations that you might shy away from writing (or reading), other than the usual pedophilia, bestiality, racial intolerance, rape as titillation, necrophilia sort of thing?
What’s taboo for you?

nono