I was reading T.MaskedWriters' blog entries and one of the responses he shared with us. Just for kicks, I checked the downloads for "The Falling Oak" where I'm documenting my struggle with neurological and emotional disorders that have pretty well turned my world upside down. I've talked about suicide, anger, all sorts of things there.
Since Sept. 2018 there's been way over 10,000 downloads and it scores in the mid 8's. I have to assume that some people find value in people sharing deep heartfelt experiences.
Most artists whether writers, painters, comedians, use their art to process their deepest experiences about life even the most painful ones. We then share that art/pain with the world.
Why was Richard Pryor so powerful? It wasn't because he used the word nigger. In his later years, he came to despise the word and quit using it. It was because he had his finger on the pulse of the pain of a generation and had lived it himself. He could then turn that pain into a comedy and use that comedy as a teaching tool.
Yes, this is a story site and an adult story site at that. To a lot of the authors here including myself, it is also a therapy room. And being mean to us doesn't get you more stroke stories or any other type for that matter.