check-in day 28

[lilly_c]

Apologies for the lateness with today's check-in. We're still on an orange weather alert for wind here and could be for a few hours yet :(

How is it going for everyone?

Poll #8917

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

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how's it going today?

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good
4 (66.7%)

not so good
0 (0.0%)

er no
2 (33.3%)

What have you got done?

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writing
3 (50.0%)

editing
2 (33.3%)

off to beta
1 (16.7%)

posting
1 (16.7%)

researching
1 (16.7%)

having a break
3 (50.0%)

Discussion topic: content warnings.
Last night I couldn't sleep I decided to read some fic on my phone and one thing that I came across a few times was warning: slash and for some reason it started to annoy me a little bit and I think that's because the fics were on a website that is solely for slash pairings. It seemed a bit trivial to me really because the author had written a slash pairing but was also warning for it.

When I need to write a warning for a fic I tend to read through my outline, notes and .docx file first then decide what specifically needs to be mentioned in the headers.
I will always warn for things like rape, drug use, self injury and anything else that could be potentially triggering for my readers and when I (occasionally) write smut I'll add a warning for things that are considered to be kinks rather than just sex.

What do you warn for/about in the fics?

Comments

[crowdog66]

I find it useful to never make assumptions about where my fic is going to end up. When it's on a dedicated slash site, of course a warning for slash is redundant, but if somebody C&Ps it into a document on their own hard drive, or gets to it via a link that bypasses the main page of the site in question, that warning might prove very useful indeed.

Often just a note concerning the pairing suffices IMO ("Garak/Bashir", for example, signifies something quite different than "Garak+Bashir"). And if something is rated NC-17, the reader can reasonably be expected to guess that they're in for either graphic sex or graphic violence (usually the former, at least in my experience).

Triggering stuff should, I agree, always be warned for out of courtesy to those who might find it terribly upsetting. What I find the most difficult is being aware of my own kink blind spots and the things that I may see as innocuous/sexy but that others might find offensive in some way. As a result, on AO3 I tag my fics with just about everything that comes to mind related to the story. In posting to LJ or DW, alas, I'm often not that diligent.

[littlebutfierce]

I got my yuri_challenge assignment & love it. I did a little bit of noodling around to start seeing what might work for that. I also posted two eastasianfandomgiftbag ficlets, hooray!

I think warning for slash is homophobic, personally, no matter what kind of archive it's in. & I rarely read will fic that "warns" for such.

I've warned for self-injury in a fic; I don't think I've written anything else that needs a warning, but I appreciate warnings for things like rape or major character death.

[crowdog66]

But if I like slashfic, it's much more convenient (for me, anyway) to have slashfics clearly marked as such in an archive. Saves me a lot of digging around through all the het fics I'm not interested in reading. :)

I agree that "warning" for slash implies that it's icky, and should be avoided. But notification of slash? I'm all for it.

[littlebutfierce]

Right, there are things like on AO3 you can tag by relationship & that is v. common. You can also use warnings, which is completely different. I have seen way too many people write things like, "Warning: boys kissing!!!" To me, that's not a notification of the pairing in a fic -- well, it is, but it also implies that it's something deviant or disturbing (no one says "Warning: Guy & girl having sex!!").

[crowdog66]

I like archives which permit easy tagging by relationship, because it makes for easy location of fics one is interested in.

I agree that "Warning: boys kissing!!!" is equivalent to "Warning: EWWWW THAT'S POTENTIALLY GROSS!", and while I do think that people are entitled to their sexual tastes (for example, the prospect of a het kiss doesn't do much for me personally), I do think that "warning" for slash content is a slap in the face to the reality of gay relationships.

In short, it sounds like we're on the same page. :)

[xpaperplanex]

I agree, warning for slash is extremely homophobic. You can tell by the pairing if a fic is slash or het. If it's on FFN, where characters and pairings are usually one and the same, you can list the pairing at the start of your fic (I always do LJ/DW style headers for my stuff at FFN. They just don't give you enough room to properly label things in the summary), but having it as a warning is hurtful. Warnings are for things that are unpleasant or upsetting; slash is neither unless you're homophobic.

Congrats on posting! And that's great that you love your assignment. That sort of challenge with assignments has always frightened me.

[littlebutfierce]

It might be because I actually started posting at AO3 before posting at ff.net, but I find their interface really counterintuitive. They never seem to have the characters I want to tag w/, etc. ^^;;

& thanks! I hope this wellspring of creativity lasts a while, heh.

[haruka]

I'm kind of holding off on writing this week since the challenges I signed up for don't start until 2012. XD

As for warnings, back when I started sharing fic, before 'trigger' was anything more than something that made a gun go bang, I used to put big honking warnings on everything, just to keep from getting any flak. A lot of my fics were more daring then, so I guess there was a lot more to warn about. XD I never _liked_ doing it, though, because sometimes it felt like spoilers for the fic. These days, I've changed direction and really the only thing I usually write that might offend anyone is yaoi, and honestly, I don't care anymore if someone is offended by that. I don't particularly like reading het sex, but no one warns me about THAT ....

[jagnikjen]

I wanted to write today, but never got around to it. I got sidetracked by fic and then movies...

Discussion topic...primarily, I warn for (like crowdog66 termed it) triggers (rape, miscarriage, etc), though I don't write many of them. If I wrote kinks I would probably include warnings for them. I agree it's redundant to "warn" for slash when you stipulate a male/male pairing.

[pinstripefedora]

Oops. I wrote yesterday but forgot to check in. It was less than a hundred words, but at least they came freely and naturally and didn't sound like something out of a technical manual when I reread them. Today was not very productive because I am exhausted, but I did get a little bit out, plus edited some of what I wrote yesterday.

As far as warnings go, I usually warn for common triggers like rape/non-con, self-injury, and torture. Actually, there's one certain character in one of my fandoms that is a walking bucket of creepy consent issues, so if she's going to be featured at all I let people know up front so that they're aware of where things could possibly go. Also, there are a few things I warn for just because they're the kind of thing I would want to know were in a fic in advance rather than just have sprung on me - things I have to be in the right frame of mind to read about, like infidelity or certain depictions of bigotry. I don't expect anybody else to warn for those sorts of things, though. I guess I figure that it's better to over-warn then to accidentally trigger somebody.

I also have a second line for other things that might attract or dissuade people from reading, like whether it's an AU or if there are any OCs or anything. I still don't think I'd include whether the pairing was slash, femslash, or het, just because I figure that's obvious from the pairing. Well, I might if there was some sort of genderswap going on, but then it would be more to alert people that their OTP might have a different dynamic than they're used to, not "ewww, gay people/straight people/poly people/whatever, look out!"

[bay_alexison]

No new words today, but I posted a short ficlet today and did some edits on another one (will be posting that in a couple of days). Haha, also what was suppose to be relaxing rereading one of the mangas I saved in my harddrive turns into suddenly finding a couple extra special chapters that I could use as reference while I edit my Big Bang fic.

As far as warnings go, I mostly warn for sex and violence as there as those that aren't comfortable with those and to be on the safe side. A couple times I also warn major character death also. Haven't done any material that would be considered trigger warnings yet, but if that happens I'll warn for those too.

[psyco_chick32]

I'm posting as regards to yesterday (I work overnights, so my "today" is everybody's "thsi morning" LOL)

I FINISHED MY CHALLENGE ONE-SHOT. <3 <3 <3 Sorry but I had to celebrate somewhere.

Now, only two more gift-fics to do *facepalm*

Warning for slash frustrates me, because listing a pairing should be enough. If it isn't (for example, I'm genderbending the guy of my OTP for a fic), then I would warn for such things (warning: genderbending). But if somebody clicks on Jason/Tommy and then is shocked when the pairing is male/male... I don't thin ki want the reader anyway.

I tend to warn for kinks, character death, triggering stuff... I'm angsting right now about what to warn for in my gift-fic I just shipped off to beta. It's very depressing - has somebody acknowledging he'd be okay with having killed himself, but not being actively suicidal...

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for finishing your challenge fic!!! (& this comm is definitely a place to celebrate, so no worries!)

Re: warnings for your gift fic, I think something like "warning: discussion of suicide" could be appropriate perhaps?

[sharpiefan]

It's been a long while since I wrote any fic needing a rating higher than about PG. About the only thing I can think of specifically that I've needed to warn about was a character death, and it was minor and happened off-screen anyway.

Anything potentially triggery (like rape or non-con) would definitely get a warning... though I'm really not the sort of person to write stuff like that. Or, well, I might write it, but I don't think I could post it. I'm not known for writing triggery stuff.