: My first thought is: If you're concerned that this religion you're inventing will be too uncomfortable to describe for many of your readers, why not just come up with something different so

@Annie587

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My first thought is: If you're concerned that this religion you're inventing will be too uncomfortable to describe for many of your readers, why not just come up with something different so it's not a problem?

If for some reason this idea is essential to your story, you could probably avoid making people uncomfortable by describing it briefly and clinically. If I read a story that says, "Sally got so sick she threw up", I'm unlikely to find it distasteful or disturbing. But if the writer goes into detail about her stomach wrenching and how she felt the bile coming up her throat and what it looked like and smelled like, that would be very unpleasant to read. Odds are I'd quit reading such a book, because I read a novel for pleasure, not to be revolted.

Likewise, if you said, "Their religion was based around women's menstrual cycles", I suppose a few might find just the mention of the idea upsetting, but most would not. But if you go into great detail about the process and what it looks like and feels like and smells like and so on, I think many readers would say, "This book isn't fun to read; it's just unpleasant."

(I sometimes read non-fiction books that are extremely unpleasant because I think it's information that's useful to know. Reality is sometimes unpleasant. But I expect a novel to be fun.)

I suppose there are some number of readers who think it's cool to read about unpleasant bodily functions. I don't have any surveys on the matter, but I strongly suspect they're a small minority. But if you're looking for a niche market, etc.

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