Writer's Fallout Shelter

Good answer, but I liked your first one, too.

I wouldn't want to include anything that's in excessively bad taste and not essential to the story.

I included a teen "date rape" (sort of ) scene in my first novel, and I'm still squeamish about it. It may be more graphic than it needed to be, but interestingly, none of my readers had a problem with that or even commented on it, except to say that it fit the story and provided a nice contrast to the other lovemaking scene in the book - one between two more mature people who loved each other and were considerate of each other. It did deepen the characters and it did fit the story. I think I'm still feeling guilty, though, because I know that initially, I wrote it because sex scenes are good for the word count and I was doing NaNoWriMo. I feel like I exploited one of the characters in order to finish the book. Then again, isn't that what date rape is? Exploitation? I have reread the scene many times, and am now convinced it belongs in there. The fact that it still makes me feel squeamish and guilty may be a sign of its effectiveness.