On warnings, and other matters

[winter]

The post at metafandom seems to have sparked quite a debate on what warnings are warranted in fanfiction (my favourites: haircutting, feet, non-fluff) and what should be done to writers who don't precede their stories with at least a paragraph-ful of caveats. The latter doesn't go quite into graphic detail, possibly because that would warrant warnings, but tarring and feathering seem to be a good guess for starters. See kyuuketsukirui's post for more information.

Which is as good a place as any to state my own warning policy. Now, I understand warning for squick - I've put down many a book because it just turned my guts and I didn't see the point of forcing down nausea just to read it through in hope of finding some gem buried in the dung. Consequently I do warn for all things sex-related, which are also good indicators that should anyone want a story with torture, bondage, dubious consent and bloodplay to brighten their day, Als es Sommer war is a good choice. (And I still can't believe I wrote that one. fyrie is a bad influence on me.) The same goes for squicky graphic violence, though apparently the same story misses a warning for rib-breaking - something I never thought would warrant one.

On the other hand, I don't understand warning for general mood of the story - angst or fluff belong in the summary, not the warning section, though I may put them there jokingly. And no, I will not warn for character death. I never kill people gratuituously. If I do kill someone, I want that death to grab the reader by the throat and force a gasp from their mouth. I might or might not accomplish that, but I won't warn and spoil it for everyone. If you haven't gotten the message yet that I've a twisted brain and a liking to be cruel to my muses, you're in the wrong territory.

I've yet to get a flame for killing people off in my fics. I think that means my strategy is working.

Now, off to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Yo ho ho and a bottle of amaretto, because I can't stand rum :P

Comments

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Just read the metafandom post. Then saw that there is now a SGA community for readers to post the warnings for stories that the authors omitted. Then saw your post.

I'm not going to start warning about feet, (unless my characters for some reason end up having them removed in violent ways).

And I think I may have to blatantly imitate this post of yours and state my own stance on warning... wouldn't want anyone to stumble across sudden incidents on haircutting and then complain that I accidentally didn't warn about it.

[ciciaye.livejournal.com]

"But *why* is all the amaretto gone?" doesn't really have the same ring, though, does it? :-)

Hope you enjoy POTC2 - I haven't seen it yet, but it looks good.

CCA

[seraphim-grace.livejournal.com]

i think death fics should have warnings but not character death. Character death happens, but a death fic is surrounded by the whole aspect of mourning and i dont want to go into that without a warning.
FMA warnings amuse me because there is always the foul language warning, Ed is a potty mouth, why warn, it's canon?
I must admit though i did read a fic because it's warning said necrophilia, of course having read the fic she didn't know what on earth she was talking about but i was, why hello new warning.
i very rarely even read the warnings any more. I recently posted a kink fic on my journal with the warning "do not expose to naked flames" and no one noticed so i wonder if we should include them at all except for possible squicks.

[alice_montrose]

Warnings. oh yes. Well, I don't really see the point of having a field that says "Warnings: None", in any case. I'll usually warn for angst when there's a lot of it (in order not to squeak the US readers too much), and for elements such as bondage, non-con, etc. But to warn for lemon, yaoi, etc.? It's more likely I'll warn for het, if that's the case.

And no, I wouldn't warn for character death either. In orignal fic it has no point, and in fanfic... well. Why take away the element of surprise. Unless it's a deathfic, which is thus categorized and obvuiously has character death in it.

But hey. We're European. We have a different mentality than US-based writers. We also have lower ratings.

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

*snickers* My warnings are limited to the sex-kinks and suchlike. Mainly because good lawd these vampires like to play in different ways. Death? No. Angst? No. Just the sex. I don't like to spoil the surprises ;)

I guess I'm old but.......

[dracschick.livejournal.com]

I started reading fanfic back in the mid-80s. The reader usually got the name (was real back then) of the person writing the story, a brief summary and the rating. I dunno, that's all I like, even now.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Some of the warning stuff is beyond silly. How do such sensitive, easily traumatized people dare leave their house?

Why do so many people have trouble putting down a story that's disturbing them? It's not like the browser will refuse to close until you've completely finished the fic!