Essay: Ratings and Warnings in Fanfiction
Hello!
I sort of let some thoughts get away from me while I was doing some other writing this morning. I figured since I had already worked so hard on it, I might as well put it up here. Read if you like, but it is a bit long.
Ratings and Warnings in Fanfiction
-or why Fanfic writers are setting literary trends for the next wave of digital publishing-
There comes a point in every writer’s process when he or she must compose a synopsis - that little blurb that convinces other people that they want to read this book. It is an art in and of itself that one could spend a lifetime mastering. The synopsis is a delicate form of flirting. You give a little. You show just enough juicy detail to catch the reader’s eye, but nothing too scintillating. You don’t want to be thought cheap and easy. A good synopsis tells the reader what the story is about without actually telling the story.
For fanfiction writers this issue is complicated by a host of issues. Not only are they bound by the same need for flirtation that the traditional author is, they also must make decisions based on their content about the labels they place on the work. In the age of the internet, what truly matters is visibility. Knowing how to tag, how to place key words and elements so that a reader can find the work is just as important, if not more so, than actually being able to write.
This is not a new struggle. Even back when traditional publishing was the only option, there were classification systems. The two most common shelving systems today, the Library of Congress and the Dewey Decimal, organize nonfiction by subject. You can browse the biography section or the religion section. Still, for the majority of fiction, we are relegated to sifting through by the author’s last name.
This makes sense. Fiction is just that, fictitious. Someone made up that story. It might have overarching themes, but it is inherently different from say, a cookbook or a book on astronomy. To try to classify a fiction book by genre in a library is a dangerous thing. A single book could end up with two or three separate shelf locations and what might be science fiction to one reader could be fantasy, or even horror to another. In the end, it makes more sense to shelve by author’s name and create database searches based on other criteria for organization.
Yet, fanfiction is obsessively catalogued based on dozens of complex categories, a system made possible by the intangibility of fic. In some ways, these writers are at a disadvantage because most post publically through archive sites or blogs. They do not have the luxury of seeking out publishers that deal primarily within a genre and have an entire marketing team standing by to promote a book. They have to do it themselves by cross posting to fandom specific communities and growing readerships within their chosen areas. Things get lost in the deep pages of the internet, never to see the light of a Google search again.
In other ways, this is freeing. There are no specific genre codes that must be upheld in order to meet current publishing standards. In fact, fanfiction is notorious about break the rules. If there is a genre specific requirement, it has been broken at some point, probably multiple times with varying levels of success.
What does that mean for fanfiction writers as opposed to traditional authors? It means that the art of seduction goes so much further. The game gets more complicated. There is a delicate balance between offering too much information and too little. Too much, and the tag list ends up longer than the fic. Too little and no one will be able to find you.
In other words, “with great power, comes great responsibility.”
Take the overarching classification of fandom, for example. This is the first decision the reader makes. At first glance it is a simple system. Does he want to read a new story in the Harry Potter universe, or is Marvel more what she’s in the mood for? At the most basic level, this works. You pick a fandom and search for it in whatever site you are currently reading from. Yet things get complicated quickly, even at this level.
That is because of the crossover. There exists a whole subset of works whose primary characters come from not one, but two or more different sources. All of those stories must be cross referenced for both fandoms, plus whatever other labels the author might choose to use.
Some are simple. I can, in all likelihood find a story in which Harry Potter runs away from his aunt and uncle and is adopted by Sherlock Holmes, who raises Harry to understand the importance of careful observation while experimenting on him to test the limits of magic, probably becoming the foremost expert on magical theory despite being a muggle.
But that is one of the most basic types of crossovers a reader is likely to find. Some of the truly enthused fans have provided the world with SuperWhoLock (Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock). There are those that take it even further throwing in some Harry Potter as well as some Marvel characters to spice things up, maybe even some Star Trek just for good measure.
And suddenly classifying even the broadest category becomes hopelessly convoluted.
The typical answer is to classify by the dominant fandom and tag for all the rest. And this is where fanfiction has an advantage over regular writing. Because fanfiction is a form of derivative work and the legality of it is lost somewhere in the grey area, at least within the view of American copyright law, it finds its home primarily on the internet where it can be found free of charge (an important legal point), and distributed across political and cultural borders with relatively little censure. By living on the internet, suddenly the possibility of classifying a work as Firefly/Doctor Who/Twilight/Naruto is not only possible, but relatively easy. A quick tags search or sift through an archive site based on fandom will turn it up, assuming it has been properly labeled.
Therein lies the beauty of the way fanfiction is presented. It sprawls messily across hundreds of websites, and yet the basic infrastructure across all of them remains the same. It is the unexpected offspring of the old fashioned card catalogue and the internet database. We now have the power to search across hundreds of criteria at a time, which is a necessary tool when the number of works out there ranges easily in the millions.
This presents the issue of how to label works and what systems need to be in place in order to support those labels. Often, beyond the standard author, title, fandom, and occasionally genre classifications, there are other, broader categories that most fanfiction uses. These labels raise questions that while seemingly unique to fanfiction, have much broader applications in the world of fiction.
Fiction is special...
Fiction, and writing in general is unique in terms of the entertainment industry in that it is our only form of mass produced, consumer driven entertainment experience that is not strictly regulated by a series of ratings. As we’ve already discussed, fiction is organized through an indexed system, but is relatively free of the ratings and viewing guidelines that other forms of media are bound by. Video games, movies, even television shows adhere to strict viewing and rating guidelines. Each one is classified and released under a carefully monitored system with criteria for each level within that system.
This is not to say that fiction is entirely free of restrictions. There are censures and boundaries on writing just as there are on other forms of entertainment. Items with explicit adult content, as decided by the cultural climate, are generally sectioned off and access is restricted. There are also the gatekeepers at the publishing houses that screen the work going out into the market. But generally speaking the method of classifying reading level has more to do with vocabulary and language complexity than it does with content.
As we grow, our emotions become more complex and our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to the world evolves. More complex stories reflect a more complex understanding of life. What the best children’s writers have grasped is that childhood emotions and experiences are not any less poignant, they are simply different than those experienced later in life. They are not colored by the same experiences and expectations of adulthood. While there is still censure about what is age appropriate, emotional maturity and life experience constitutes a large part of that censorship.
There is also a sense that writing is an art form. Telling a story, building complexity and symbology requires a certain level of finesse and the arts have always been at that strange border where censorship is an uneasy issue. There is always a difficult balance in trying to regulate intellectual products.
This less regulated approach is something that fanfiction both embraces and discards with the spontaneous contradiction that defines it. Again, the very nature of fanfiction is to defy. It is a reworking and reimagining of an idea. It takes one author’s concepts and multiplies it, recombining elements in infinite ways.
This freedom allows for play and for a certain disregard and deviance from norms. Exploration becomes a central goal for the writer. Yet, with the rise of fanfiction, there is a rise in applying a stricter rating system to fiction.
Fanfiction and Rating
The appearance of ratings in fanfiction, when it is so prevalently an open medium, at first seems like a gross limitation and contradiction of the idea inherent in writing fic. To limit, or label something that so cleverly defies labels, seems to perhaps be counterproductive when in fact it has two very important roots.
First, let’s consider where fanfiction comes from. I’m not speaking of the long history of when it began and who the first fandom really was. Let the Sherlock Holmes folks sit in the corner and flex their muscles threateningly at all the other fandoms. Instead, consider where the base material comes from for all these things. Yes, a fair number of fandoms are based on books. Harry Potter had a strong fan base long before the movies were even considered. So did Lord of the Rings and Twilight. These fandoms began with writing. It makes sense that they would continue with writing.
But a growing number of fandoms are based on other mediums. Harry Potter has its own films. Sherlock is now a BBC television show. So was Merlin. Star Wars was a movie. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Star Trek, all very popular source material, all began as television programs. The various books and graphic novels came later.
More and more, the source material comes from media that are packaged and presented in a particular way. That influences the way the fic about them is presented as well. Writers working from a film are more likely to present fiction that reflects the same tropes and ideas inherent in film.
We also need to consider the cultural climate and the nature of fanfiction. Because fanfiction tends to break boundaries, it is understandable that the reader would want some kind of idea what they might stumble across and a summary can only go so far. Take for example the hundred uses of tentacles that can be found in fan works. They can inspire reactions that range from oddly enchanted to mortified and confused. It is best to think of fanfiction like snooping through someone else’s house. You wander through rooms and sometimes you open the door and wish immediately you had a way to unsee what you walked in on.
Culturally speaking, the current desire is for prepackaged entertainment. There has long been a tendency to want to know, and a belief in the right to know what to expect from any given form of entertainment. It is always important to know if a movie might scar a child for life. After all, as we have already said, children and adults view events differently and experience helps provide perspective on those events. Not every story is appropriate for every audience.
While we often have the obsessive need to rate and understand a work before we partake of it, perhaps the extreme zealousness of the need to rate is pushing things a bit too far. After all, we have a fairly lax system for original fiction.
Never, in any lifetime will we be able to completely control what we encounter in daily life, the experiences that shape us. There are too many factors. It makes sense that we want to take control and decide these things for ourselves. In many ways, especially for people who are raising and working with children, the right to know is important.
In some regards, it is plain lazy. Ratings, regardless of their intentions, allow for a cherry picking of experiences that only came to be so prevalent in the last century. We can plan our days based on the experiences we want. We can watch only those things that do not upset us, engage in those things which only excite us the right amount. In doing so, we actually lose the ability to cope with those things that go beyond our control. Perhaps then, the right to choose is actually the desire to not be offended. The only problem is that never being offended does not challenge us to think. If we are only ever emotionally aroused a pleasant amount, we miss the opportunity to expand, to grow, to learn.
The right to choose would be better reflected in the decision to leave or continue with a story, at the very least in the case of fanfiction. In a digital age, removing oneself from an uncomfortable or unpleasant situation is not difficult. With a little tap on a button, we can leave a page behind us. Nothing is lost.
However, ratings have their place. Considering all the variation and sheer amount of fanfiction in the world, as well as knowing that there is a wide readership ranging in age from pre-teen to post-menopausal, using some sort of rating system makes sense. Of course, the choice to provide ratings is completely at the discretion of the author when posting on their own blogs, but is often required within a community or an archive. It has become common practice in most fandoms, and expected by readers, and it is that expectation that is alarming.
The true problem arises when considering the variance in rating use. There are very few set guidelines for rating a work, and those that do exist are general and leave it to the author’s discretion to choose the appropriate label. Most will adhere loosely to the MPAA rating scale, but of course, personal bias will ultimately make itself known. Many archive sites now offer guidelines on what is appropriate for each tier, but there is little policing and what enforcement does exist is typically done by the community.
Still, on the whole, rating labels appear to be at least somewhat effective and fulfill a specific purpose. That the need for a more explicit rating system is something that only seems to appear within the fanfiction community rather than in wider fiction-reading audiences is intriguing and points to just how strongly mass culture has influenced the way in which fanfiction is presented and the expectations surrounding it.
Warning!
Warning tags, likewise pose complicated problems. They are meant to provide information about the content and suitability of the work to the reader. However, there are large discrepancies in the way warnings are utilized and their function.
One side believes strongly in warning for potentially distressing material within their works. They feel that warnings are necessary for any mention of an issue and that they should always be included, regardless of how graphic or violent a fic might be in reality.
The other side is comprised of those who feel that warnings give away the plot or ruin the story. Assuming that the reader knows how to read a rating label and understands that a fic can contain explicit content, warnings are redundant and unnecessary.
Most authors fall in between on this spectrum. Many will disclose somewhere in a blog or profile what exactly they will warn for and how much of that content must be present before a work warrants a warning. However, there are zealous supporters on both sides.
In an age when porn and literature appear side by side, almost indistinguishable by their descriptions, it does make sense to warn about graphic content or for psychologically distressing themes. However, they can lose effectiveness when not used with moderation and consideration. The ultimate question becomes what function the warnings serve in their standard use.
Perhaps the most contentious argument is that warnings are meant to be used for potentially triggering material. The thing that makes trigger warnings so tricky is that triggers, particularly for PTSD and similar issues, are notoriously specific to the person and their situation. There is not one particular thing that could trigger an episode and the elements that do serve as triggers are often small details that would be benign to the majority of readers. It is ridiculous to assume that everyone is triggered by the same thing, especially broad mentions of larger issues. While these issues can be distressing, and it shows generous fair play to warn for them, it is largely an ineffective gesture in preventing an episode for potential readers.
Beyond the regular function of providing ample notice of unpleasant content, warnings also act as something of a branding tool. Some people actively seek out certain types of stories. Others are very sensitive to difficult issues. Reading through the warnings tells them what sort of story they are looking at and whether they should pursue it or not. This use of warnings as simple tags can be frustrating because the actual content that should be warned for gets buried under irrelevant information that provides little or no valuable information on the actual issues within the story.
A paradox arises, one that fanfiction writers must navigate with care. There is an expectation to be warned against any truly difficult content, yet often that gives away the meat of the story. Should the author warn for potentially difficult material and spoil their own story, or should they assume their readers can make an educated decision based on the provided rating and the summary?
This is a balance the writer must strike and one that is tricky at the best of times.
And this means...
Ultimately, the use of any of these features is a personal choice for each writer. Their decisions on what and how they label their stories is as unique as the works themselves. Each of these choices contribute to building a vaster, more intriguing network of stories and authors that grows each day. Careful study of this web can lead to not only interesting insights into the stories being told, but also into the very nature of how these communities interact and, on a much larger scale, how fiction works.
It is the free play of ideas and the open agreement that none of the rules really matter that makes fanfiction such an odd and intriguing specimen. Even when an agreement is reached on an issue, it only lasts as long as no one else comes up with something he or she likes better. It is an open, uncensored playground where the next generation of literary standards are being made today. Soon, it may become common to see these same issues being debated in wider literary circles. Meanwhile, the fanfiction communities will have moved on to other, more interesting ideas having come to a tacit, likely unwritten agreement on the general handling of these issues.
I sort of let some thoughts get away from me while I was doing some other writing this morning. I figured since I had already worked so hard on it, I might as well put it up here. Read if you like, but it is a bit long.
Ratings and Warnings in Fanfiction
-or why Fanfic writers are setting literary trends for the next wave of digital publishing-
There comes a point in every writer’s process when he or she must compose a synopsis - that little blurb that convinces other people that they want to read this book. It is an art in and of itself that one could spend a lifetime mastering. The synopsis is a delicate form of flirting. You give a little. You show just enough juicy detail to catch the reader’s eye, but nothing too scintillating. You don’t want to be thought cheap and easy. A good synopsis tells the reader what the story is about without actually telling the story.
For fanfiction writers this issue is complicated by a host of issues. Not only are they bound by the same need for flirtation that the traditional author is, they also must make decisions based on their content about the labels they place on the work. In the age of the internet, what truly matters is visibility. Knowing how to tag, how to place key words and elements so that a reader can find the work is just as important, if not more so, than actually being able to write.
This is not a new struggle. Even back when traditional publishing was the only option, there were classification systems. The two most common shelving systems today, the Library of Congress and the Dewey Decimal, organize nonfiction by subject. You can browse the biography section or the religion section. Still, for the majority of fiction, we are relegated to sifting through by the author’s last name.
This makes sense. Fiction is just that, fictitious. Someone made up that story. It might have overarching themes, but it is inherently different from say, a cookbook or a book on astronomy. To try to classify a fiction book by genre in a library is a dangerous thing. A single book could end up with two or three separate shelf locations and what might be science fiction to one reader could be fantasy, or even horror to another. In the end, it makes more sense to shelve by author’s name and create database searches based on other criteria for organization.
Yet, fanfiction is obsessively catalogued based on dozens of complex categories, a system made possible by the intangibility of fic. In some ways, these writers are at a disadvantage because most post publically through archive sites or blogs. They do not have the luxury of seeking out publishers that deal primarily within a genre and have an entire marketing team standing by to promote a book. They have to do it themselves by cross posting to fandom specific communities and growing readerships within their chosen areas. Things get lost in the deep pages of the internet, never to see the light of a Google search again.
In other ways, this is freeing. There are no specific genre codes that must be upheld in order to meet current publishing standards. In fact, fanfiction is notorious about break the rules. If there is a genre specific requirement, it has been broken at some point, probably multiple times with varying levels of success.
What does that mean for fanfiction writers as opposed to traditional authors? It means that the art of seduction goes so much further. The game gets more complicated. There is a delicate balance between offering too much information and too little. Too much, and the tag list ends up longer than the fic. Too little and no one will be able to find you.
In other words, “with great power, comes great responsibility.”
Take the overarching classification of fandom, for example. This is the first decision the reader makes. At first glance it is a simple system. Does he want to read a new story in the Harry Potter universe, or is Marvel more what she’s in the mood for? At the most basic level, this works. You pick a fandom and search for it in whatever site you are currently reading from. Yet things get complicated quickly, even at this level.
That is because of the crossover. There exists a whole subset of works whose primary characters come from not one, but two or more different sources. All of those stories must be cross referenced for both fandoms, plus whatever other labels the author might choose to use.
Some are simple. I can, in all likelihood find a story in which Harry Potter runs away from his aunt and uncle and is adopted by Sherlock Holmes, who raises Harry to understand the importance of careful observation while experimenting on him to test the limits of magic, probably becoming the foremost expert on magical theory despite being a muggle.
But that is one of the most basic types of crossovers a reader is likely to find. Some of the truly enthused fans have provided the world with SuperWhoLock (Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock). There are those that take it even further throwing in some Harry Potter as well as some Marvel characters to spice things up, maybe even some Star Trek just for good measure.
And suddenly classifying even the broadest category becomes hopelessly convoluted.
The typical answer is to classify by the dominant fandom and tag for all the rest. And this is where fanfiction has an advantage over regular writing. Because fanfiction is a form of derivative work and the legality of it is lost somewhere in the grey area, at least within the view of American copyright law, it finds its home primarily on the internet where it can be found free of charge (an important legal point), and distributed across political and cultural borders with relatively little censure. By living on the internet, suddenly the possibility of classifying a work as Firefly/Doctor Who/Twilight/Naruto is not only possible, but relatively easy. A quick tags search or sift through an archive site based on fandom will turn it up, assuming it has been properly labeled.
Therein lies the beauty of the way fanfiction is presented. It sprawls messily across hundreds of websites, and yet the basic infrastructure across all of them remains the same. It is the unexpected offspring of the old fashioned card catalogue and the internet database. We now have the power to search across hundreds of criteria at a time, which is a necessary tool when the number of works out there ranges easily in the millions.
This presents the issue of how to label works and what systems need to be in place in order to support those labels. Often, beyond the standard author, title, fandom, and occasionally genre classifications, there are other, broader categories that most fanfiction uses. These labels raise questions that while seemingly unique to fanfiction, have much broader applications in the world of fiction.
Fiction is special...
Fiction, and writing in general is unique in terms of the entertainment industry in that it is our only form of mass produced, consumer driven entertainment experience that is not strictly regulated by a series of ratings. As we’ve already discussed, fiction is organized through an indexed system, but is relatively free of the ratings and viewing guidelines that other forms of media are bound by. Video games, movies, even television shows adhere to strict viewing and rating guidelines. Each one is classified and released under a carefully monitored system with criteria for each level within that system.
This is not to say that fiction is entirely free of restrictions. There are censures and boundaries on writing just as there are on other forms of entertainment. Items with explicit adult content, as decided by the cultural climate, are generally sectioned off and access is restricted. There are also the gatekeepers at the publishing houses that screen the work going out into the market. But generally speaking the method of classifying reading level has more to do with vocabulary and language complexity than it does with content.
As we grow, our emotions become more complex and our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to the world evolves. More complex stories reflect a more complex understanding of life. What the best children’s writers have grasped is that childhood emotions and experiences are not any less poignant, they are simply different than those experienced later in life. They are not colored by the same experiences and expectations of adulthood. While there is still censure about what is age appropriate, emotional maturity and life experience constitutes a large part of that censorship.
There is also a sense that writing is an art form. Telling a story, building complexity and symbology requires a certain level of finesse and the arts have always been at that strange border where censorship is an uneasy issue. There is always a difficult balance in trying to regulate intellectual products.
This less regulated approach is something that fanfiction both embraces and discards with the spontaneous contradiction that defines it. Again, the very nature of fanfiction is to defy. It is a reworking and reimagining of an idea. It takes one author’s concepts and multiplies it, recombining elements in infinite ways.
This freedom allows for play and for a certain disregard and deviance from norms. Exploration becomes a central goal for the writer. Yet, with the rise of fanfiction, there is a rise in applying a stricter rating system to fiction.
Fanfiction and Rating
The appearance of ratings in fanfiction, when it is so prevalently an open medium, at first seems like a gross limitation and contradiction of the idea inherent in writing fic. To limit, or label something that so cleverly defies labels, seems to perhaps be counterproductive when in fact it has two very important roots.
First, let’s consider where fanfiction comes from. I’m not speaking of the long history of when it began and who the first fandom really was. Let the Sherlock Holmes folks sit in the corner and flex their muscles threateningly at all the other fandoms. Instead, consider where the base material comes from for all these things. Yes, a fair number of fandoms are based on books. Harry Potter had a strong fan base long before the movies were even considered. So did Lord of the Rings and Twilight. These fandoms began with writing. It makes sense that they would continue with writing.
But a growing number of fandoms are based on other mediums. Harry Potter has its own films. Sherlock is now a BBC television show. So was Merlin. Star Wars was a movie. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Star Trek, all very popular source material, all began as television programs. The various books and graphic novels came later.
More and more, the source material comes from media that are packaged and presented in a particular way. That influences the way the fic about them is presented as well. Writers working from a film are more likely to present fiction that reflects the same tropes and ideas inherent in film.
We also need to consider the cultural climate and the nature of fanfiction. Because fanfiction tends to break boundaries, it is understandable that the reader would want some kind of idea what they might stumble across and a summary can only go so far. Take for example the hundred uses of tentacles that can be found in fan works. They can inspire reactions that range from oddly enchanted to mortified and confused. It is best to think of fanfiction like snooping through someone else’s house. You wander through rooms and sometimes you open the door and wish immediately you had a way to unsee what you walked in on.
Culturally speaking, the current desire is for prepackaged entertainment. There has long been a tendency to want to know, and a belief in the right to know what to expect from any given form of entertainment. It is always important to know if a movie might scar a child for life. After all, as we have already said, children and adults view events differently and experience helps provide perspective on those events. Not every story is appropriate for every audience.
While we often have the obsessive need to rate and understand a work before we partake of it, perhaps the extreme zealousness of the need to rate is pushing things a bit too far. After all, we have a fairly lax system for original fiction.
Never, in any lifetime will we be able to completely control what we encounter in daily life, the experiences that shape us. There are too many factors. It makes sense that we want to take control and decide these things for ourselves. In many ways, especially for people who are raising and working with children, the right to know is important.
In some regards, it is plain lazy. Ratings, regardless of their intentions, allow for a cherry picking of experiences that only came to be so prevalent in the last century. We can plan our days based on the experiences we want. We can watch only those things that do not upset us, engage in those things which only excite us the right amount. In doing so, we actually lose the ability to cope with those things that go beyond our control. Perhaps then, the right to choose is actually the desire to not be offended. The only problem is that never being offended does not challenge us to think. If we are only ever emotionally aroused a pleasant amount, we miss the opportunity to expand, to grow, to learn.
The right to choose would be better reflected in the decision to leave or continue with a story, at the very least in the case of fanfiction. In a digital age, removing oneself from an uncomfortable or unpleasant situation is not difficult. With a little tap on a button, we can leave a page behind us. Nothing is lost.
However, ratings have their place. Considering all the variation and sheer amount of fanfiction in the world, as well as knowing that there is a wide readership ranging in age from pre-teen to post-menopausal, using some sort of rating system makes sense. Of course, the choice to provide ratings is completely at the discretion of the author when posting on their own blogs, but is often required within a community or an archive. It has become common practice in most fandoms, and expected by readers, and it is that expectation that is alarming.
The true problem arises when considering the variance in rating use. There are very few set guidelines for rating a work, and those that do exist are general and leave it to the author’s discretion to choose the appropriate label. Most will adhere loosely to the MPAA rating scale, but of course, personal bias will ultimately make itself known. Many archive sites now offer guidelines on what is appropriate for each tier, but there is little policing and what enforcement does exist is typically done by the community.
Still, on the whole, rating labels appear to be at least somewhat effective and fulfill a specific purpose. That the need for a more explicit rating system is something that only seems to appear within the fanfiction community rather than in wider fiction-reading audiences is intriguing and points to just how strongly mass culture has influenced the way in which fanfiction is presented and the expectations surrounding it.
Warning!
Warning tags, likewise pose complicated problems. They are meant to provide information about the content and suitability of the work to the reader. However, there are large discrepancies in the way warnings are utilized and their function.
One side believes strongly in warning for potentially distressing material within their works. They feel that warnings are necessary for any mention of an issue and that they should always be included, regardless of how graphic or violent a fic might be in reality.
The other side is comprised of those who feel that warnings give away the plot or ruin the story. Assuming that the reader knows how to read a rating label and understands that a fic can contain explicit content, warnings are redundant and unnecessary.
Most authors fall in between on this spectrum. Many will disclose somewhere in a blog or profile what exactly they will warn for and how much of that content must be present before a work warrants a warning. However, there are zealous supporters on both sides.
In an age when porn and literature appear side by side, almost indistinguishable by their descriptions, it does make sense to warn about graphic content or for psychologically distressing themes. However, they can lose effectiveness when not used with moderation and consideration. The ultimate question becomes what function the warnings serve in their standard use.
Perhaps the most contentious argument is that warnings are meant to be used for potentially triggering material. The thing that makes trigger warnings so tricky is that triggers, particularly for PTSD and similar issues, are notoriously specific to the person and their situation. There is not one particular thing that could trigger an episode and the elements that do serve as triggers are often small details that would be benign to the majority of readers. It is ridiculous to assume that everyone is triggered by the same thing, especially broad mentions of larger issues. While these issues can be distressing, and it shows generous fair play to warn for them, it is largely an ineffective gesture in preventing an episode for potential readers.
Beyond the regular function of providing ample notice of unpleasant content, warnings also act as something of a branding tool. Some people actively seek out certain types of stories. Others are very sensitive to difficult issues. Reading through the warnings tells them what sort of story they are looking at and whether they should pursue it or not. This use of warnings as simple tags can be frustrating because the actual content that should be warned for gets buried under irrelevant information that provides little or no valuable information on the actual issues within the story.
A paradox arises, one that fanfiction writers must navigate with care. There is an expectation to be warned against any truly difficult content, yet often that gives away the meat of the story. Should the author warn for potentially difficult material and spoil their own story, or should they assume their readers can make an educated decision based on the provided rating and the summary?
This is a balance the writer must strike and one that is tricky at the best of times.
And this means...
Ultimately, the use of any of these features is a personal choice for each writer. Their decisions on what and how they label their stories is as unique as the works themselves. Each of these choices contribute to building a vaster, more intriguing network of stories and authors that grows each day. Careful study of this web can lead to not only interesting insights into the stories being told, but also into the very nature of how these communities interact and, on a much larger scale, how fiction works.
It is the free play of ideas and the open agreement that none of the rules really matter that makes fanfiction such an odd and intriguing specimen. Even when an agreement is reached on an issue, it only lasts as long as no one else comes up with something he or she likes better. It is an open, uncensored playground where the next generation of literary standards are being made today. Soon, it may become common to see these same issues being debated in wider literary circles. Meanwhile, the fanfiction communities will have moved on to other, more interesting ideas having come to a tacit, likely unwritten agreement on the general handling of these issues.