30 Day Fanfic Writing Meme – Day 15

[meridian_rose]

15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?

I warn for character death – which is an odd one in many fandoms, where death is often a temporary inconvenience – and for non-con/dub-con, although I write those only rarely. I sometimes put a disclaimer about the violence involved being on par with the relevant show, because I tend to write in-line with that. I will warn for torture.

I sometimes think about replacing 'warnings' with 'content' because some things aren't necessarily warnings but people might like to know if they're featured in a fic. For instance I mention if there's vomiting mentioned because I know that's a squick for some people. Prevailing wisdom inists that Warnings as a category is important for the big three [death, non-con, graphic violence] and that other potentially troublesome content should be mentioned separately.

I also mention if I'm tackling themes like depression or suicide, and I specifically warned when I wrote a piece that it contained ' unsympathetic response to the depression by a major character, including scenes of verbal domestic abuse'. This might seem a bit over the top, but I don't know who might come across the fic, and what their triggers are. Furthermore, forewarned is forearmed. One day you might not be up to reading about a character with depression or a fic containing animal abuse or unwanted pregnancy; another day you might find the subjects bearable or even cathartic. So it's about building trust with your potential readers.

I also sometimes include spoilers with the warnings, saying 'spoilers for episode three' or 'first season setting' as a heads up.

Oddest thing? Probably for Sounds of the Sixties, which featured the following advisory:
Content and Warnings: Sex [f/m, m/m, threesome, masturbation], Drugs [marijuana] and rock'n'roll [OK, this one's not a warning unless you really hate Sixties music!]
The music was an important part of the fic, but I was really just joking when I 'warned' for it, riffing off the aphorism :D - and hence the 'content' part.


Filled questions available via the fanfic writing meme tag; index post will be completed at finish of meme.
16 – Summaries – Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?

17 – Titles – Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?

18 – Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?

19 – When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?

20 –Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?

21 – Sequels – Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?

22 – Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?

23 – When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?

24 – Betaing – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?

25 – Music – Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?

26 – What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a fic?

27 – Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?

28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?

29 – What is your current project or projects?

30 – Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!

Comments

[pristineungift.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting. I'm of two minds about warnings. I understand that it's important because people need to be warned if a work might hit on their triggers, but at the same time I dislike giving away plot elements. For example, I almost never warn for character death in longfics. Because usually when I kill a character, it's serving a specific plot point, and I feel like warning for the death spoils the effect of the fic. I'm also wary of warning for character death, because people tend to assume you mean one of the main characters the fic focuses on, which isn't always the case. And then finally, if you were going to read a book, books don't actually warn do they?

I will warn if the fic is about the death, etc, and I always warn for violence, sexuality, dub-con/non-con and torture, but as I have a tendency to write high fantasy adventure, if I warned for character death on those, every single one would have character death as a warning.

I guess I might include a character death warning if I was bringing death into a fandom that generally doesn't deal with it. For example, I don't warn for character death on the Blood Trilogy, even though a lot of characters die - but then there is a lot of death within Legend of the Seeker itself. But I probably would include a character death warning if I wrote a fic for say... Glee.

*slinks back off, isn't really here*

[meridian_rose]

LOL, I appreciate you dropping in when you're not really here.

I'll take the 'books don't warn' thing first, because when I first started reading the debates it was my position too. But with a published novel there are ways to find out about the content; plenty of reviews and critical analysis, maybe websites with parental guidance [or even the morally/religiously outraged who count every f-word], forums for the particular author/genre/etc and/or forums supporting people with various triggers where you can ask 'is there any non-con in the new Jackie Collins/Michael Connelly book'. You might even be able to have a friend read the book for you and point out issues.
However it's harder to find someone to read information about a fanfic, harder to find someone willing to pre-screen a fic in a fandom they're not familiar with.

Fandom is - ideally - a safe space, but unregulated, so it is up to the creators of fanworks to do what we can to keep it that way. There are ways to warn without spoiling people - the highlight-to-read text and putting full warnings at the end of the fic with a note in the header are two ways I've seen writers give potentially 'spoiler' information that readers might want to be warned for.

I agree with the 'about the death' vs 'character death' to some extent, and that things like warning for 'past canon death' for me goes too far.

Good point about the fandom; people are more likely to expect death in LotS than in Glee. But on the other hand, death is often temporary in LotS, unlike a 'real-world' setting like Glee.

I've read how people can be very upset when not warning for major character death; they may strongly identify with the character or the character's loved ones and find a sudden death scene hard to take. And when they might be already sad over the cancellation of a show, they want to read happy fic rather than death fic. But character death is an odd one, and one I've more or less absorbed through fandom than one I'd have thought to warn for straight off.

[ivanolix.livejournal.com]

I specifically warned when I wrote a piece that it contained ' unsympathetic response to the depression by a major character, including scenes of verbal domestic abuse'

As someone to whom this actually is one of my big emotional triggers, one that can give me panic attacks and a severe depressive episode if I'm not prepared, I appreciate your warning system. <3

I'm with you that it's about building trust with the readers. I don't like giving away plot points, but I'd much rather sacrifice a minor aspect of art for the sake of being considerate of my audience. And usually there's a way to provide warnings where they don't give away everything in any case.

[meridian_rose]

Reading the debates, having conversations with people who have triggers, going through rough times myself, have all made me more sensitive to the types of warnings people appreciate. And absolutely there are plenty of ways to warn without spoiling plot points for readers without triggers.

[hrhrionastar.livejournal.com]

First of all, I love that you warned for sex, drugs, and rock and roll :D

I never know what to warn for, other than things like non-con, dub-con, or torture - a lot of the time, as you said, the violence is there but it's in line with canon, so should one really warn for that?

And character death is a tough one. If it's temporary, should one warn? Plenty of the time I write stories that refer to canon death or torture as something that's already happened, known to the characters - I usually don't warn for that.

I never know what people's triggers are - something that bothers me may be no problem for my readers, and vice versa. So a lot of the time I end up putting something like, 'disturbing themes' just in case.

[meridian_rose]

It's tricky, where there's canon violence involved; I guess the rating of the fic should be taken into account as well as the fandom.

I don't warn for canon death either. I think it's more for major characters that people might be very attached to and/or identify with that are alive in canon that it's customary to warn for.

'Disturbing themes' is a good umbrella term - and lets people know they might want to ask a friend to review it, or even PM you for details, before deciding if it's something they'd find triggering. You've done your part by saying there are potential triggers in the fic.

[brontefanatic.livejournal.com]

Knowing what to warn for is one of the hardest things for me. There is very little that triggers me. For that reason, I'm not good at anticipating what will trigger others.

I lurk over at fanficrants, and many of the complaints there are about lack of proper warnings. Some of them puzzle me - like warnings for bullying, "ableism" (I'm not clear on what that is, exactly, but it seems to involve writing about people with disabilities), and eating disorders (OK - I guess I can understand that one to an extent).

I'm with Pris about warning for character death. I was worried about that warning when I started my long fic, because I saw writers warning for it everywhere. but I didn't want to give away a major plot point. So I decided not to warn. Since the plot evolved a little differently than originally planned, I stopped worrying about it.

I don't write explicit sex or torture, and only mild violence and sexual references, so I don't worry about those too much.

I do like being warned about graphic sadism, torture, BSDM, and graphic sex. But otherwise, TBH I like to be surprised in fics, and if I don't like where a story is going, I'll just stop reading and back out of it. I do have to start being more sensitive to what may trigger others.

The Disturbing Concepts warnings is a good one to keep in mind - sort of a catch-all.

One thing that interests me, especially at ff.net, is how differently each author defines what should be considered M. I've seen extremely graphic sex and rape fics written in the K-T section of the archive, and fics that only contain very mild allusions to sex and non-con placed in the M archive. It seems as if some authors just ignore the TOS, and maybe others are too cautious about including their fics in the K-T section.

[meridian_rose]

Ableism is, as far as I understand, writing about people with any form of disability in a negative way and treating them as the Other or 'less'. If you assume all mental disorders and problems as well as all illnesses and injuries in additional to obvious physical differences like missing limbs, disability becomes a large umbrella. It can be difficult to write about certain aspects of a disability sensitively.

I think bullying is a hot button for many people, and they don't want to start reading a fic about someone they identify with, and maybe are inspired by, being hurt by physical or verbal abuse in a way they have been hurt. Again, fandom would ideally be a safe space, which doesn't mean not tackling issues, just warning people beforehand what they're going to encounter.

I don't have triggers, though I have things which upset me; I've read comments from those who do have triggers, and describe how it's sometimes impossible for them to stop reading once they hit a trigger, or that by the time they've started reading the scene it is already too late to stop themselves reliving a traumatic event. It sounds incredibly disturbing and scary, and so I now try to make sure I warn for things that could be triggering. But that doesn't mean to say I won't mess up and miss one. It can be difficult.

As I mentioned to Pris, and as Merry mentioned, there are ways to warn without spoiling the majority of readers, such as the highlight-to-read text and the 'full warnings at end of fic' option.

FF.net is so badly policed. I won't post certain fics there because I think they're above an M, but I've seen fics with as much - or more - sexual description on the site. I think it's a combination of both the ignoring the TOS authors, and the not-knowing-a-suitable-rating problem.

You definitely mentioned when there were darker elements coming up in Serpent's Tooth, which is absolutely enough from my POV. I do wonder if I wouldn't have deliberately noted 'suicidal ideation' or 'suicidal thoughts' somewhere for myself though...it's not as high on the list of Must Warn For items though. There are no hard and fast rules, so we just all do the best we can, and hope we don't hurt anyone.

[brontefanatic.livejournal.com]

I just checked, and saw that I did warn for self harm/suicidal/disturbing thoughts in the last 2-3 chapters of my fic- so I covered some of the triggers better than I thought. >_>

[meridian_rose]

Good work :D To be honest, because the sort of things that upset me aren't usually warned for, I sometimes skip over the warnings section of fic I want to read, so unless I was beta'ing a fic, I don't necessarily pick up on how effective the warnings section is. I remembered the 'dark themes' in the less explicit chapter but I was so thrilled that you'd posted the last two, I just read them straight through :D