Trigger Warnings on books?

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Cobalt Jade

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I was hanging around Twitter earlier today, where they has been a debate about including trigger warnings for readers in books -- by which I take to mean either in the book itself, or as part of the promotional material. Younger and YA authors seem to have no problem with it. I do know that some book reviewers, mostly under 30, include them in their reviews. And triggers have been included in fanfic for years and years now.


Opinions?
 

Coddiwomple

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Trigger? Did I hear someone mention my friend — oh wait. Wrong Trigger.

(I'll see myself out. At a gallop.)
 

Cobalt Jade

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Heee. But I'm serious after reading two authors, one a Princeton Fellow, of YA books go into deeply into it.
 

cornflake

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pingle

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My WIP could definitely qualify for trigger warnings, but tbh so could a lot of books, and I'm mainly thinking literary stuff, not the more obviously darker genres. Personally I wouldn't want to add a trigger warning but I would be happy with databases existing, or maybe an app, that lets people put a book name in and check that it won't upset them if there are themes they would like to avoid.
 

lizmonster

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I have no objection to voluntary warnings (I include one-line content warnings when I post shorts on my web site). But books have an awfully long history of censorship, and as we've seen in the music industry, it's pretty hard (maybe impossible) to avoid abuse with any kind of blanket content warning system.

My first book had reviewers who tagged two incidents as triggering. I wouldn't have thought to flag them myself, but I'm not bothered that the reviewers did. If my publisher had? Or I'd been asked to? ...Yeah, no. History shows us pretty clearly that particular road to hell.
 

KBooks

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I don't believe putting trigger warnings on books should be required. That said, I put trigger warnings on every review I write, and I also seek out reviews before I read a book that I believe might be questionable to see if I can find one with trigger warnings. Reviews that point out highly triggering events (and I appreciate that sometimes what the author considers triggering is different than what is triggering to the reader) can be helpful to other readers. I have seen some YA books where either the author posts a GR review from the author noting trigger warnings, and in one case, a really triggering book where the publisher listed (like literally 30 things) in the foreword at the start of the book.
 

ironmikezero

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Nope, in general no trigger warnings.

Stretching the definition,I can think of one possible exception: spoiler warnings in reviews.
 

lizmonster

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Nope, in general no trigger warnings.

Stretching the definition,I can think of one possible exception: spoiler warnings in reviews.

See, I think reviews should have carte blanche here. If a reviewer wants to write "Here are the 9 things people might find triggering in this book" I think that's actually quite helpful.
 

ironmikezero

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Ah, I see, Liz . . . you have a valid point with reviews. However, I must confess that I might still consider divulging such details that some might deem to be triggers constitutes spoilers to some degree. I concede it may be helpful for some readers.
 

lizmonster

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Ah, I see, Liz . . . you have a valid point with reviews. However, I must confess that I might still consider divulging such details that some might deem to be triggers constitutes spoilers to some degree. I concede it may be helpful for some readers.

I do agree reviews should say up front if they have spoilers, whether or not they're listing potential triggers.

Having said that, I like "trigger" reviews in two contexts:

1) When I'm looking up books for The Kid. I do this less and less now as she gets older, and I never avoided a book she actually wanted, but she had some strange triggers, especially as a child, so I appreciated reviews that gave me a lot of detail.

2) When someone's trying to warn me off a book and ends up actually selling it to me. :)
 

KBooks

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Regarding the factor of spoiling... I tag all my reviews for spoilers, whether or not we're talking about TW or just regular spoilers. But the fact is that reviewers are not always consistent. So if you're sensitive about being spoiled, you probably should not be reading reviews of the book on sites like Amazon or GR. I know in one GR group I belong to, it doesn't matter how many times the mods go over it, a few members just can't seem to master the spoiler tag!
 
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A.P.M.

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I wouldn't be annoyed if I saw trigger warnings. However, their inclusion leaves the door open for people to get angry about any little thing that may trigger them that wasn't included in the list of trigger warnings, which then raises the question of what actually warrants a warning, which is where I think things can get potentially problematic.
 

Polenth

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I have content notes for each book on my website. If people don't want to see them, they don't have to read the end of each book page. If they do want to know, it's there. What I don't do is call them trigger warnings, because I don't believe something has to trigger someone to be something they might want to know about in advance or avoid. Nothing triggers me in books, but there's plenty of stuff that will make me not want to read a book (or that I'd rather know about in advance if I decide to read it anyway).

The terrible things people think will happen when authors tag books are not things that actually happen in my experience. It has not become mandatory to tag books, it doesn't mean the books get banned, readers aren't forced to read the notes, and it's not expected that the notes will include everything. The most common reaction is simply for readers to say thank you.
 

SWest

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...that it won't upset them...

A psychological trigger is distinctly different from a personal distaste for a particular theme.

**********

Reviews? Sure. Lists? Probably useful to many.

Book 'ratings'? I don't think ratings are wildly successful at whatever they're alleged to do for prospective movie audiences. I hate when music albums are re-recorded to remove 'objectionable' vocabulary. (Nobody wants to hear how much swearing there is when I accidentally spend money for a censored track.)

No, it's not really practical to warn about each and every scene in an entire book that may or may not set off a flashback.
 

Mary Love

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Instead of listing every possible trigger, why can't books have a rating system similar to movies? In romance there's often a sensuality rating for how explicit the romance is. Couldn't the same be true for other genres? I mean, we expect certain things from our preferred genres, like getting scared from horror, or coming of age bumps-in-the-road for YA. Just put a 1-5 rating so people know how casual or intense of a read to expect. Perhaps an internet detabase can expound on the ratings (like imdb does for movies) in case people are looking to weed out certain triggers.
 

KBooks

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The trouble is with triggers, they're highly individualized. A rating system may not give all the information needed for someone who has 3 things they know trigger their flashbacks/anxiety to know they need to steer clear.

Person A be triggered by rape and kidnapping. Person B might be triggered by references to infertility. Person C might be triggered by references to the death of a child.

A book might be otherwise mild except for a story line with infertility, but be triggering for Person B, which is why specific TW can be helpful.
 

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Instead of listing every possible trigger, why can't books have a rating system similar to movies? In romance there's often a sensuality rating for how explicit the romance is. Couldn't the same be true for other genres? I mean, we expect certain things from our preferred genres, like getting scared from horror, or coming of age bumps-in-the-road for YA. Just put a 1-5 rating so people know how casual or intense of a read to expect. Perhaps an internet detabase can expound on the ratings (like imdb does for movies) in case people are looking to weed out certain triggers.

Movie ratings are kind of a joke, at least in the US, and they absolutely affect marketing and distribution of creative work. I'd hate for books to go the same way.
 

thethinker42

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I won't tell reviewers what they can and can't put in a review (though spoilers annoy me to no end), but I do put trigger warnings on a lot of my books. I don't break down every single unpleasant thing in the story, but if (for example) domestic or emotional abuse are significant themes, I'll mention it. PTSD (especially combat-related) comes up commonly in my books, and it's not unusual for a character to have flashbacks, panic attacks, etc., and I know that can be difficult for someone with PTSD to read.

Basically, I'm not looking to traumatize anyone. If there's potential for some content to blindside someone and cause them undue distress, then I don't think it's too much to ask for me to warn them ahead of time. I mean, if it's a thriller where the characters are pursuing a serial killer, I'm not going to warn you about graphic violence because....thriller where they're pursuing a serial killer. If it's a contemporary romance, and there's nothing in the blurb/theme/etc to signal that the first person narrator is going to give you a beat-by-beat account of a flashback/panic attack, then yeah, I'm gonna add something so that one of my combat vet readers knows what they're getting into.

One of my old publishers had a great approach on their website: there was a tab you could click if you wanted to see warnings, but you didn't have to if you weren't interested.

So TL;DR: I prefer to err on the side of trigger warnings.
 

cornflake

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Instead of listing every possible trigger, why can't books have a rating system similar to movies? In romance there's often a sensuality rating for how explicit the romance is. Couldn't the same be true for other genres? I mean, we expect certain things from our preferred genres, like getting scared from horror, or coming of age bumps-in-the-road for YA. Just put a 1-5 rating so people know how casual or intense of a read to expect. Perhaps an internet detabase can expound on the ratings (like imdb does for movies) in case people are looking to weed out certain triggers.

Movie ratings are an infuriating joke, and run (in the U.S.) by a bunch of old, white men with very specific ideas about things.

Also note, movie theatres actually use those ratings to keep people out of theatres.

I don't want bookstores or libraries saying some kid can't have a book until they're X age. That way lies madness and tyranny.
 

lizmonster

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Basically, I'm not looking to traumatize anyone.

This is a good goal, and I absolutely support any author who voluntarily provides trigger warnings.

The problem I have is I don't know what's going to traumatize someone. There are things that may seem obvious to you and me, but a) there are people who aren't bothered by the obvious, and b) I will miss things. (I have missed things.) A useful, generalizable system is, it seems to me, both impossible and prohibitively problematic.
 

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However, their inclusion leaves the door open for people to get angry about any little thing that may trigger them that wasn't included in the list of trigger warnings, which then raises the question of what actually warrants a warning, which is where I think things can get potentially problematic.

I have never seen that happening. Everyone I can think of who has to deal with PTSD triggers, myself included, appreciate what we get. We expect suggestive covers, well-written blurbs and opening pages, and content warnings for the most common triggers.

Those of us with uncommon are more careful about checking reviews first or asking a friend to pre-read. That doesn't make the common content warnings less useful.

The fear that people will demand authors to accommodate everyone all the time is based on the actions of different groups than those of us looking out for "cw: child neglect, drug addiction, explicit rape" or whatever a particular readership base needs to do.

Each publisher can ask readers what's most helpful and consider the most frequent answers. That's good business. It doesn't have to be argument. It almost never is between content warning proponents.

From what I've seen, it's the gun-ho ratings enforcers and book burners who start the aguments about what's worth listing in a warning. Maybe they see content warnings as paint on trees, or something.
 

amergina

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I've started putting content warnings behind a spoiler cut on my own "reviews" for my books on GoodReads, then I link to that from my website. (My reviews of my own books aren't reviews. Often they're little bits of info about the book.)

I don't think of them so much as trigger warnings as "here's a heads up on things that might potentially be problematic for some folks." In many cases, my readers just want a heads up so the *know* and can be in a good place or steel themselves for something like a parent dying of cancer or mentions or abuse. If they know ahead of time, they can prepare.

I thought about putting a warning in the beginning of my soon-to-be release about the stalking that occurs in it, but the whole plot revolves around a stalker (it's a take on The Bodyguard, essentially) so, it seemed to me that would be overkill? I still mentioned it in my review on GR, though.
 

shadowsminder

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Instead of listing every possible trigger, why can't books have a rating system similar to movies? In romance there's often a sensuality rating for how explicit the romance is. Couldn't the same be true for other genres? I mean, we expect certain things from our preferred genres, like getting scared from horror, or coming of age bumps-in-the-road for YA. Just put a 1-5 rating so people know how casual or intense of a read to expect. Perhaps an internet detabase can expound on the ratings (like imdb does for movies) in case people are looking to weed out certain triggers.

Heat ratings don't negate the need for notes about triggering content. Romance is where I see the most content warnings. Those don't appear to cause any major problems for Romance readers or authors.

As for Horror, sub-genres act as a type of intensity rating, don't they? I expect different content in in Dark Fantasy than someone would in Splatterpunk (which I know to avoid ).

YA had databases. The ones I knew of were on Tumblr. The "Oh, no, think of the children!" scheme by Verizon appears to be shutting the databases and lists down in the place teens felt comfortable checking.
 

Roxxsmom

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This is a good goal, and I absolutely support any author who voluntarily provides trigger warnings.

The problem I have is I don't know what's going to traumatize someone. There are things that may seem obvious to you and me, but a) there are people who aren't bothered by the obvious, and b) I will miss things. (I have missed things.) A useful, generalizable system is, it seems to me, both impossible and prohibitively problematic.

This. Some people may be triggered by the presence of dogs in a story (say someone was mauled by one as a child), or by a portrayal of living through a natural disaster. This isn't to trivialize the experiences of people who are triggered by the kinds of things more commonly associated with trigger warnings, like rape, torture, but it's also true that I can't say or dictate what people will be, or should be, traumatized by. It's a rare book indeed (at least in the genres in which I read and attempt to write) that contain nothing potentially traumatizing for some people.

The only option I can see is a very general warning, not unlike the ones used on television, "Reader discretion advised," or akin to the very general and broad movie rating system we use in the US. Such a system is pretty vague and not useful to someone who is, specifically, triggered by dangerous wild animals attacking humans but not by rape, or vice versa. Sometimes the blurb on the back can give the reader an idea of what kind of stuff is in a story, but what if the triggering event is in a scene that wasn't central enough to be alluded to in the blurb?

And that doesn't even get at the issue of where the line is between content that is merely upsetting or repellent to some sensibilities without actually triggering more severe reactions in those readers (say someone dislikes sex scenes or swearing for religious or other personal reasons, but not because they find them traumatizing). People often argue against trigger warnings with the assumption that some readers (or students or whatever) are simply being special snowflakes who don't want to be challenged or exposed to ideas they find repellent. But there's a difference between making someone relive a personal trauma versus simply making them angry.

Heat ratings don't negate the need for notes about triggering content. Romance is where I see the most content warnings. Those don't appear to cause any major problems for Romance readers or authors.

As for Horror, sub-genres act as a type of intensity rating, don't they? I expect different content in in Dark Fantasy than someone would in Splatterpunk (which I know to avoid ).

YA had databases. The ones I knew of were on Tumblr. The "Oh, no, think of the children!" scheme by Verizon appears to be shutting the databases and lists down in the place teens felt comfortable checking.

I think that with romance it probably works better. For instance, we all know that romances sometimes have rape scenes or scenes of rough or violent sex (that may be consensual, but still triggery for some readers). That kind of thing is pretty easy to mention in a general content warning. But other genres may have a much wider range of potentially triggery things.

For SF and F, I'd be fine with letting readers know if rape, torture, or graphic violence are included in the story, but again, it would be impossible to mention every specific subtype of violence that could be a problem for every reader. You're right that the subgenre will give hints too--grimdark versus high fantasy, for instance. Still, there is a lot of crossover, and libraries and bookstores don't tend to shelve by subgenre.
 
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