Good afterevenmorn!
In an effort to try and get myself “out there,” so to speak, and figure out what marketing tricks I can use that don’t feel horrendously icky to me in order to try and inch towards making a living from my writing, I spend a lot of time on TikTok. I sometimes attempt to get my books out there, but those videos never get any views. When I’m just fooling around with the various filters they have, I often get far more views; in the hundreds or thousands. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand the algorithm, or how to take advantage of it. I am terrible at marketing. Still, I try. And I’ll keep trying. Maybe I’ll have it work out randomly. Mostly, I just waste hours of my life scrolling through my feed, which currently consists of international news, Hozier (I watched two videos and TikTok has decided I’m obsessed), and a lot of book content. As is usually the case in BookTok, there is a debate raging right now regarding content/trigger warning appearing at the front of the book.
It’s quite an interesting debate.
Readers on BookTok are less militant about their opinions. While there are a couple, very few readers I’ve come across have ever said the absolutely will not pick up a book if content warnings aren’t present. Many expressed their desire and appreciation for them, but few draw a hard red line at their absence. It’s writers that have the strongest opinions, and the fact that it’s so hotly debated is endlessly fascinating.
For the record, I have not previously included content warnings in my works before this. It’s not because I don’t care about the mental health of my readers. I just didn’t really give it much thought. It’s a new thing for books, and they were never included in any books that I can remember reading when I was younger. They’re in none of the books that I’ve read now as an adult, either. But just because it’s just not done
or is rare doesn’t make it inherently a bad idea. So let’s look into the arguments surrounding content warnings.
First, what is a content warning? It’s essentially a mention at the beginning of books of events, themes or ideas that could be a little too challenging for people who may find those things too much for their current headspace. These are usually very heavy things; rape, suicide, child death… that kind of thing. While reading about them in books can offer a way to explore these difficult topics with the safety of some distance between the reader and the event, human imaginations can often be so visceral that safety is less safe than we might first assume. PTSD is no joke, and anything that can set if off should be handled with care.
There are plenty of arguments writers have used to justify — if that’s even the right word — their reasons for not including a content or trigger warning in their books. Here are some common ones I’ve seen:
1. It is Impossible to Cater to Everyone
The argument here is that there are so many phobias and potential triggers. Is the writer supposed to be aware of and list every single one. What if someone has a phobia of defenestration? Should it be listed just to spare that one person? To be honest, I find these kinds of defenses a little silly. I don’t think anyone expects a writer to accommodate everyone, or mention every obscure thing that may or may not be a trigger. The list is entirely up to the discretion of the writer, as is the decision to include one at all. Personally, defenestration is such a fun word, I’d definitely add it to any list I made. Facetiousness aside, the slippery slope argument here is assuming expectations that no one actually has, in my experience. A person who is afraid of glass is probably very well aware that there will be very few folks terrified of glass. They would, no doubt, be surprised and incredibly grateful if it was mentioned, but I don’t think that even that person would make it a hardline expectation.
2. It Shouldn’t be About Feelings Over Substance
Dancing around individual feelings will destroy the integrity of the story or plot, comes the cry. There is nothing false in and of that statement alone. In fact, it’s very true. Writers should tell the stories they want or need to tell, without worrying about how much it would upset one particular reader. Trying to twist oneself up in knots in order to be as inoffensive as possible to as many people as possible will absolutely neuter the story and its potential impact.
However, near as I can see, no one on the other side is demanding that the stories change for their benefit. They’re not clamouring for the removal of difficult scenes or events from the narrative. All I can see from the other side is that they’re just given a quick heads-up so they can decide if they’re up for reading whatever it is, or given the chance to mentally brace for something that they might find incredibly disturbing. I can sympathize here. I have read scenes that have left me absolutely nauseated; so much so that I’ve had to put the book aside and have been unable to return to it for months (when I was in a better headspace). I’ve been given nightmares from scenes in books. It might seems silly for people who have never experienced this, but it does happen.
3. Self-Defeating, Much?
If something is triggering, wouldn’t the mention of it in the content warnings trigger someone?
Okay, while have no strong feelings either way, even I had to roll my eyes at this. The mention of a thing is rarely the problem. The issue is in the detail… The Devil, if you will. If a writer is good at their job, the reader will be drawn in. The events will be quite visceral for the reader. That’s, by and large, where the issue will lie. The word of the thing is generally not the issue. It’s the experience of it that is. And for people who maybe went through something similar, the experiential effect that writing can have might be a bit too much.
4. Spoiler Alert
Listing events or tropes at the top of the story will spoil the plot twists or what have you in the story. Now this carries some validation. It’s incredibly hard if you want an emotional hit for a story about, for example, a woman seeking a love who has vanished and one of the content warning events listed is ‘death of a loved one.’ Yeah, it might give it away. And that can suck.
A counter to this, I remember seeing, is that if you’re relying on surprise to deliver emotionality, then that might be a skill issue. I’m not sure I agree with this, as surprise can be a very effective tool, like any other kind of narrative device, if used well. Similarly, though, if it’s used as a crutch to deliver a kind of narrative sucker punch, then perhaps. There are certainly ways to make emotional beats hit hard even if the reader knows it’s coming. In fact, sometimes a spoiler can help increase reader enjoyment (depending on the story, the reader and the spoiler, I suppose). I often reread stories, and it’s a bad day indeed if I ever stop crying at all the spots that made me cry the first time (same for movies, to be frank). A story done well will survive spoilers.
Still, being spoiled really does suck for those who don’t want it, and the risk for spoilers is very high when offering content warnings. I should note, though, that no one is forcing anyone to read the content warnings. They’re not usually on the same page as the first chapter, from what I’ve seen (which, granted, is very little).
When it comes to the inclusion of content warnings, I’m of no particular preference as either a writer or a reader. Since the discourse has come up, though, I think I will be including them in the future. They’re skippable and don’t really do much harm. They do, however, let people take control of their own mental health and avoid something that might send them spiralling or, at the very least, brace themselves for what’s to come. I would hope that my writing is strong enough that any surprise lost by the warning would matter little; that I have skill enough to still deliver the emotions I want from any scene I write.
But I don’t particularly feel strongly about it either way. What about you? Where do you fall on the argument?
When S.M. Carrière isn’t brutally killing your favorite characters, she spends her time teaching martial arts, live streaming video games, and cuddling her cat. In other words, she spends her time teaching others to kill, streaming her digital kills, and a cuddling furry murderer. Her most recent titles include Daughters of Britain, Skylark and Human.