Warnings in Stories: How and When Should We Use Them

this beautiful thief:

Should you warn for homophobia/homophobic slurs? I only ask 'cause we have to for racism, and it's along the same lines.

I don't think we have to warn for racism, though lots do. That's up to you. I don't really warn for it, but I've seen some people who do.

I was just revisiting this thread and I think that very few things would actually warrant a specific warning like,

Warning: This story contains...

because I think a lot of the things listed in the first post are just things that aren't to the specific taste of all readers but it's not necessarily something that's "bad" to write about. I feel like warning about a lot of the things I do see people warn about, just sheds a negative light on those topics and makes the topic seem taboo or makes it seem like there's something shameful in writing about it.

For example, incest. It's not something that I personally enjoy reading, so if I read a story and I get to a point where I see that it's a focal point of the story, I'll just hit the back button. But I feel like including a warning about it, puts this glaring, red DO NOT ENTER: THIS IS TERRIBLE sign on it. It just automatically makes it seem like a topic that's so terrible people have to be warned about it before reading.

Similarly, when it comes to slash or femme-slash. I hate warnings about slash and femme-slash because it makes it seem like more than just a reading preference but something that's so horrible people need to be warned about it so that their poor little minds aren't sullied by the content. I hate that feeling I get when I read warnings for things like that.

I also feel like most of the things people warn are unnecessary because there's already a silent 'warning' in the rating and genre. For example, when people have a NC-17, romance story and they warn for sex - with the NC-17 rating, we can already assume that this story is going to have graphic sex scenes, so the warning about it just seems unnecessary - and it again it makes the topic of sex seem so taboo that people have to be warned for it.

Eh. There's very few cases where I think warnings in stories are needed or are used to actually 'protect' readers. I think, more often than not, it's more used as a way to lure in more readers. Kind of a 'My story has so much sex in it, I had to warn you about it' and then people are going to go 'Oh my goodness, this much be so good.'

I think a writer has the responsibility to rate and categorize their story correctly, and everything else would fall into that.

Cowboy T.:

I was just revisiting this thread and I think that very few things would actually warrant a specific warning like,

Warning: This story contains...

because I think a lot of the things listed in the first post are just things that aren't to the specific taste of all readers but it's not necessarily something that's "bad" to write about. I feel like warning about a lot of the things I do see people warn about, just sheds a negative light on those topics and makes the topic seem taboo or makes it seem like there's something shameful in writing about it.

For example, incest. It's not something that I personally enjoy reading, so if I read a story and I get to a point where I see that it's a focal point of the story, I'll just hit the back button. But I feel like including a warning about it, puts this glaring, red DO NOT ENTER: THIS IS TERRIBLE sign on it. It just automatically makes it seem like a topic that's so terrible people have to be warned about it before reading.

You know, I thought of that too when I was about to add a warning. In my story Dream Life, I initially put a warning about the things in the story, but took it off and put something humorous instead, because I felt I had shed a negative light on it when it wasn't that bad. I changed it to "WARNING, contains some real hood ish", but that was a "haha" kind of thing

But in my story Souls of the Damned, I felt that I needed to put a warning because it wasn't just incest I was using in the story. There's gore, rape, cannibalism, pedophilia, animal abuse and serious violence in it, and most wouldn't expect that just from looking at the rating, title or description. I didn't want to start working someone's gag reflexes without a warning there. So at the end I put "If you are squeamish, please don't read". I had one person say that couldn't read it anymore after some time because of the content. but I understand.

Cowboy T.:

For example, incest. It's not something that I personally enjoy reading, so if I read a story and I get to a point where I see that it's a focal point of the story, I'll just hit the back button. But I feel like including a warning about it, puts this glaring, red DO NOT ENTER: THIS IS TERRIBLE sign on it. It just automatically makes it seem like a topic that's so terrible people have to be warned about it before reading.

I think more for what will trigger. A friend of mine who was raped by her dad discovered consensual incest fan fiction online and she was . . . it was not a pretty picture. She was so upset and crying and shit because she didn't know.

But I think a lot of warnings have to do with how they're presented.

I don't say Warning; lots and lots of incest and sex and yummy bro-on-bro if you don't like it DON'T READ IT lolz, bitchez.

Instead I say Warning; incest.

I don't put warnings in my stories. I think the rating of the story should say enough.