For Writers: Have You Ever Been Accused That Your Story is too "Strong"

Tweet

Okay here's what I mean by "strong"--actually I mean the word graphic...One of my favorite short stories that I have written has the American Civil War as the background--its twenty-five pages long, and believe it or not I'm doing a rewrite, what will be the "directors cut" version where I'll add even more to it. Now I happen to be a Civil War buff...to get me in the "mood" of the story I kept watching over and over again the movie Glory and re-watched my Ken Burns' Civil War series...so I wrote it. I showed it to someone and they said they couldn't finish reading it because it was so graphic and detailed about the terrors of a war. Maybe I should take it as a compliment that my story was so detailed and graphic --it wasn't gory by any means, but it was descriptive about a war situation--after all no war is a stroll in the park. So have you ever written anything and people couldn't read it because it was just too "strong"??