Boilerplate warnings
"If you really don't want to post actual warnings, a generic 'I don't warn' statement is better than nothing. Though, please always warn for mpreg and watersports. That way I can find stories I want to read. I mean avoid. Umm, yeah."
--Not giving credit on this one, for obvious reasons.
Below, a slightly edited version of my response to Jane Carnall's post about the warnings issue. Only likely to be of interest to folks in the fan fiction community.
o--o--o
I think that the use of warnings depends on context. When I open a book at a bookstore (the example that K. S. Langley uses), I don't expect warnings because bookstore literature is usually pre-censored. In the few cases where it isn't, the publisher generally plasters warnings all over the book, either through blurbs (I agree with K. S. Langley that this is the best way to warn readers) or by a notice that the book is adults-only (which is publisher-ese for saying, "Triggery stuff ahead!"). So I'm afraid that the "bookstore versus fandom" analogy doesn't work for me, because fandom is inclined to post stories with very touchy content that is unpublishable.
I'd really like to know how the warnings tradition developed in the fan fiction community. When I did a survey of readers many years ago, I found that 50% of them read warnings to find out if the story has something they'd like to read. And that is exactly how the erotica community uses story codes. I think this issue would be regarded a lot less negatively if fandom hadn't chosen to use the word "warnings" to describe its form of story codes.
I decided early on that (1) I wouldn't spoiler readers, and (2) there are ways to give warnings to readers who need them that don't involve spoilering. For the most part, I use this warning. It covers the triggery scenarios in most of my stories without giving away whether any of those activities will actually occur (because in far too many of my stories, the lack of a character-death warning would be a sure-fire indicator that the death-endangered character would live). I think that a boilerplate warning like this (which I link to whenever I post a fic at community blogs) is all that most readers need.
By the way, you'll notice that I warn for love and respect. I really do think that positively wording one's description of the type of stories one writes is the best way to approach such matters.
So I end up taking the middle road on this. If an author doesn't want to give warnings, I'll defend to death their right to not do so. But it seems to me that the amount of energy that some writers spend in saying, "It's against my rights as an author to create warnings!" could be better put to use in creating a one-paragraph, spoiler-free, boilerplate warning . . . or simply saying, "No warnings given," which will alert the reader to the fact that the author doesn't give warnings.
o--o--o
What I didn't mention in my reply is that I do have triggers. My online triggers are all visual. So when I visit a blog where somebody hasn't LJ-cut their art, guess what? I'm often triggered. That can have nasty consequences.
As an Internet addict, I also have the "hey, would you like another drink?" trigger. It goes like this:
Friend: "Hey, did you know that metafandom is having a really interesting discussion of warning labels?"
Me: (*Zips to the computer and spends the next twelve hours online*.)
So I do understand the perspective of folks who say that it's not quite as simple a matter as "Just put the story down if you find you don't like it." By the time you put it down, it might be too late. And friends and recs aren't always the most reliable way to discover what type of story you're going to be reading.
The most reliable way, I've found, is to know beforehand what types of stories the author usually writes. That's why I recommend a boilerplate warning that says something along the lines of, "I just love to write fluffy stories about people who have no problems!" (*image of Dusk hitting the back button*). Or, alternatively, "I kill off characters with frightening frequency!" (*image of Dusk checking carefully to see whether the deaths are gratuitous*). I sure as heck wish a lot of mainstream authors would give such warnings.
--Not giving credit on this one, for obvious reasons.
Below, a slightly edited version of my response to Jane Carnall's post about the warnings issue. Only likely to be of interest to folks in the fan fiction community.
I think that the use of warnings depends on context. When I open a book at a bookstore (the example that K. S. Langley uses), I don't expect warnings because bookstore literature is usually pre-censored. In the few cases where it isn't, the publisher generally plasters warnings all over the book, either through blurbs (I agree with K. S. Langley that this is the best way to warn readers) or by a notice that the book is adults-only (which is publisher-ese for saying, "Triggery stuff ahead!"). So I'm afraid that the "bookstore versus fandom" analogy doesn't work for me, because fandom is inclined to post stories with very touchy content that is unpublishable.
I'd really like to know how the warnings tradition developed in the fan fiction community. When I did a survey of readers many years ago, I found that 50% of them read warnings to find out if the story has something they'd like to read. And that is exactly how the erotica community uses story codes. I think this issue would be regarded a lot less negatively if fandom hadn't chosen to use the word "warnings" to describe its form of story codes.
I decided early on that (1) I wouldn't spoiler readers, and (2) there are ways to give warnings to readers who need them that don't involve spoilering. For the most part, I use this warning. It covers the triggery scenarios in most of my stories without giving away whether any of those activities will actually occur (because in far too many of my stories, the lack of a character-death warning would be a sure-fire indicator that the death-endangered character would live). I think that a boilerplate warning like this (which I link to whenever I post a fic at community blogs) is all that most readers need.
By the way, you'll notice that I warn for love and respect. I really do think that positively wording one's description of the type of stories one writes is the best way to approach such matters.
So I end up taking the middle road on this. If an author doesn't want to give warnings, I'll defend to death their right to not do so. But it seems to me that the amount of energy that some writers spend in saying, "It's against my rights as an author to create warnings!" could be better put to use in creating a one-paragraph, spoiler-free, boilerplate warning . . . or simply saying, "No warnings given," which will alert the reader to the fact that the author doesn't give warnings.
What I didn't mention in my reply is that I do have triggers. My online triggers are all visual. So when I visit a blog where somebody hasn't LJ-cut their art, guess what? I'm often triggered. That can have nasty consequences.
As an Internet addict, I also have the "hey, would you like another drink?" trigger. It goes like this:
Friend: "Hey, did you know that metafandom is having a really interesting discussion of warning labels?"
Me: (*Zips to the computer and spends the next twelve hours online*.)
So I do understand the perspective of folks who say that it's not quite as simple a matter as "Just put the story down if you find you don't like it." By the time you put it down, it might be too late. And friends and recs aren't always the most reliable way to discover what type of story you're going to be reading.
The most reliable way, I've found, is to know beforehand what types of stories the author usually writes. That's why I recommend a boilerplate warning that says something along the lines of, "I just love to write fluffy stories about people who have no problems!" (*image of Dusk hitting the back button*). Or, alternatively, "I kill off characters with frightening frequency!" (*image of Dusk checking carefully to see whether the deaths are gratuitous*). I sure as heck wish a lot of mainstream authors would give such warnings.
I think you seriously underestimate the amount of time it would take to attach such a one-paragraph template / link to every single one of my stories, each chapter, each drabble.
I read a bunch of arguments, coming from people saying that there were some things generally understood that "everyone" should warn about, and a lot of very angry, demanding posts from people saying "you've GOT to do this".
And I thought, and I still think: Actually, no, I don't. I actively want to harrow up a reader's emotions. I want to take a reader by surprise.
And I quite see that means someone who is feeling at the point of stress where something could be too much on the instant, shouldn't be reading my stories. But then... shouldn't they already know that? If I'm feeling at that point of stress, ready to dissolve in tears, then by preference I go check out something I've already read where I'm not going to be taken by surprise, or go looking for fanfic via a rec-list.
Trying to enforce a general code of "Everyone should use warnings" is pointless: some people will not warn. Better to inculcate a culture in which people are prepared to think first before they leap if they know that leaping could do something appalling to them. Someone said they were looking for tools that a fan with trauma/PTSD could use to read with safety: well, her best tool is her brain, and she should use it.
No, no, what I was envisioning was a single warning at the beginning of your Website/profile - exactly what you have now. And if you posted to a community blog or list that required warnings, you could just link back to that warning, like this:
Warnings.
"I read a bunch of arguments, coming from people saying that there were some things generally understood that 'everyone' should warn about, and a lot of very angry, demanding posts from people saying 'you've GOT to do this'."
Demands don't get me upset, because I simply ignore them. But for every loud person saying, "You've GOT to do this," I suspect that there's ninety-nine quiet, polite people thinking, "It would be really nice if you did this." They just don't tend to speak up when the conversations get loud and noisy.
"well, her best tool is her brain, and she should use it."
I'm sorry, but I think this is a bit harsh. There's a middle area between "too traumatized to do normal activities" and "okay with doing all activities."
I don't read erotic het. I just don't. So I like to know when a story is in that category. I'm not filing demands that authors label their stories as erotic het; I'm just saying, very quietly, that if they tucked that information away in some inconspicuous place that wouldn't spoiler most readers, that would be nice.
If the author says, "No, I couldn't do this in any way that wouldn't be a spoiler," that's perfectly fine. It means I won't be reading any of the author's PG het stories, but I understand the author's concern about keeping her stories spoiler-free.
On the other hand, if the author told me, "Your best tool is your brain, and you should use it," I'd be really steamed. Because the fact is that many authors write both erotic het and non-erotic het, and me wanting some authorial help in differentiating between the two isn't me not using my brain. I'm simply noting the fact that "erotic" and "non-erotic" are common categories that many people like to be able to differentiate between. It's not as though I'm asking that stories be labelled as "erotic het featuring D-cup-sized brunettes."
"Trying to enforce a general code of 'Everyone should use warnings' is pointless: some people will not warn."
I tend to think this is a community matter. A community blog maintainer has the right to institute rules. An author posting at their own blog has the right to follow their own conscience. Someone reading a community blog that doesn't require warnings should talk to the community maintainer, not to the authors. And someone who is reading a personal blog should content themselves with making a polite request, IMHO.
Well, that's one way to make sure that the rude and noisy people set the community standards - one way or another.
I'm sorry, but I think this is a bit harsh.
I'm sorry too: but this is my reaction to reading a stack of people issuing harsh demands for warnings. It seems to occur to none of them that they themselves can do some of the work and carry some of the responsibility: that if they know there are kinds of stories they have issues with, they should figure out for themselves some way of finding out which they are before they read them - and avoid reading brand-new stuff about which they know nothing if they know they're not in a state of mind when they can cope if they run into something they didn't want to read.
There's a middle area between "too traumatized to do normal activities" and "okay with doing all activities."
Yes: and demanding that the writer do all the work of making sure you're guided to the stories you want to read, and only to those stories, is inappropriate. Which is what these people seem to me to be doing, and that's just annoying.
Because the fact is that many authors write both erotic het and non-erotic het, and me wanting some authorial help in differentiating between the two isn't me not using my brain.
But I won't warn for erotic het any more than I will warn for erotic slash. Not least because I realised many years ago - since I quit writing sex scenes to rule, in fact - that I no longer had any notion when a story of mine became "erotica" in the eyes of other people. I write - or I intend to write! - sexually-charged stories in which the sexual tension builds to a climax - I want to get the reader charged up and turned on - and I write very few sex scenes, but I am absolutely not going to let on where they are, what they are, how detailed they are, or anything like that. (At least, certainly not in the form of a list of tags: if you want to know where all of what could possibly be described as "erotic het" moments are in all my stories, e-mail me and I'll let you know.)
I tend to think this is a community matter.
*nods* That's absolutely right. One of the things that some of the rude/noisy people do not seem to grasp is that there is no such thing as a universal fannish community standard with regard to warnings. There are a whole array of fannish communities all of which have different standards.
(Anonymous)
The one way to make sure that the rude and noisy people set the community standards is to dismiss the concerns of the mild-mannered and polite people. Preferably rudely and noisily.
(Besides, I though the commenter had a valid point, though I would have put it, um, more politely.)
I thought the commenter had a valid point: I would have responded to it if the commenter had signed their name. I realise it's your journal, but my feeling is that someone who makes a hostile comment and doesn't sign it has not earned a thoughtful response.
I have the same problem - so many of my stories straddle the line between erotic and non-erotic. That's usually obvious to the reader, though, from my blurbs.
In your case, um, you don't supply blurbs. :) At least, not at your Website. So it really is a game of Russian roulette for readers visiting your Website. It's a game I'm quite willing to play in your case, because I had the good fortune to stumble upon a story of yours that was so good that I added you to my "will read anything by them" list of authors.
Personally, I don't care whether warnings are given, and I tend to skip them anyway, because they so often include major spoilers. But I really, really appreciate it when an author includes a blurb, because I usually don't read stories because they appear in certain fandoms or feature certain characters - I read them because they have some sort of plot premise that intrigues me.
Yeah, well: I am hopeless at writing blurbs. Really. So there are none, because I had rather none than bad blurbs.
It's a game I'm quite willing to play in your case, because I had the good fortune to stumble upon a story of yours that was so good that I added you to my "will read anything by them" list of authors.
:-D Yeah, I'm afraid I slightly rely on people taking the first jump and liking it and then reading the others. I very seldom get rec'd - I think one, not many people like my stories, and two, the people who do tend to be embarassed about it and not want to admit.
But I really, really appreciate it when an author includes a blurb, because I usually don't read stories because they appear in certain fandoms or feature certain characters - I read them because they have some sort of plot premise that intrigues me.
That's interesting - my lack of blurbs is actually something I was seriously not worrying about on the basis that I originally started the website to have an archive, as much as anything else. Do you know of any online tutorial in How To Write Blurbs? As noted above: I'm bad at it. (Most people are, and I hate bad blurbs.)
You just confirmed my theory that good writers tend to be overlooked.
"two, the people who do tend to be embarassed about it and not want to admit"
My apprentice, after reading "MirrorM*A*S*H," which I'd recced to him: "You do know that you've completely destroyed M*A*S*H for me, don't you?"
I told him that you'd simply brought to the surface the stuff that was in the series anyway. I mean, when you turned Hawkeye's indiscriminately lecherous behavior into what you did, I was punching the air and saying, "Yes! This is the proper response!" (Hawkeye's pat-the-sweet-young-thing-on-the-bottom behavior irritated me even as a teenager growing up in the 1970s, when such "comedies" were common.)
"Do you know of any online tutorial in How To Write Blurbs?"
That question deserves a proper response (says the writer whose ambition was once to be an ad copywriter). I'll get back to you in a later post.
Is it evil that I grinned widely and said out loud "YES!" when I read that comment? Heh.
Not that I actually want to destroy M*A*S*H for anyone! I just... er... as you say, that's what I saw.
And I have written nicer fluffy M*A*S*H stories... Maybe you should have started your apprentice on Sins and Virtues? ;-)
That question deserves a proper response (says the writer whose ambition was once to be an ad copywriter). I'll get back to you in a later post.
Excellent. I'll look forward to that.