On reviews and warnings...
I post on several sites, so this does not just apply to LJ.
I had someone demand that I add warnings for triggers on my latest fic. I posted according to community guidelines and made sure that it was obvious that I was choosing not to warn for certain ambiguous things.
My problem is this: The action in the fic is emotional. The reader only sees the aftermath of violence, and hears it discussed. Most of the discussion talks around it, with very little graphic description when you compare it to the rest of my writing. There is no main character death. There is no rape of a main character. Rape is only mentioned briefly.
What the story boils down to is a character coping with a long ago trauma. And since that is the basis for a great many novels, I don't think I have to warn for that.
Since this is in the Sherlock fandom, which canonically has serial killers, bombers, assassins, and a host of other unpleasantness because THE ACTION OCCURS AT CRIME SCENES WHERE BAD THINGS ARE GENERALLY KNOWN TO HAPPEN, I don't think I should have to warn for that.
It's not like I'm writing deep emotional drama in the My Little Pony fandom now is it?
I think I am quite obviously a writer that does not write the happily OOC Sherlock and his BFF John who decide to play spin the bottle on Christmas Eve in a bid to mend fences with Sherlock's beloved brother Mycroft, Mycroft's adorable son, and the silver-fox Detective Inspector who loves them all dearly, the end, and happily ever after.
Bleh.
Is the story painful? Some of it. Are some parts uplifting? I tried to be. Is it still a romance? Yes, but love isn't easy.
Some reviewers say my fiction is dark. I don't think so. Some have said that they don't quite know if they like my fic because it is dark (but compelling), as if unrelenting happiness or two dimensional fake roadblocks that are easily overcome are the be-all end-all of successful writing. I say they are living in a fantasy land and need to watch the evening news, because I think I am writing pretty damn realistically. The first truth of Buddhism is that life is suffering. I think that it is what you do to become compassionate in the face of that suffering, and the moments of happiness that you find to negate that suffering that are important. That is what I want to write about.
Not Sherlock and John adopting a puppy.
I can't warn for every potential trigger.
Hell, even the puppy fic might trigger someone who was bitten as a wee tot.
I guess my next fic will be about Sherlock and John making rice pudding. Rice Fucking Pudding.
Happy?
Me neither.
I had someone demand that I add warnings for triggers on my latest fic. I posted according to community guidelines and made sure that it was obvious that I was choosing not to warn for certain ambiguous things.
My problem is this: The action in the fic is emotional. The reader only sees the aftermath of violence, and hears it discussed. Most of the discussion talks around it, with very little graphic description when you compare it to the rest of my writing. There is no main character death. There is no rape of a main character. Rape is only mentioned briefly.
What the story boils down to is a character coping with a long ago trauma. And since that is the basis for a great many novels, I don't think I have to warn for that.
Since this is in the Sherlock fandom, which canonically has serial killers, bombers, assassins, and a host of other unpleasantness because THE ACTION OCCURS AT CRIME SCENES WHERE BAD THINGS ARE GENERALLY KNOWN TO HAPPEN, I don't think I should have to warn for that.
It's not like I'm writing deep emotional drama in the My Little Pony fandom now is it?
I think I am quite obviously a writer that does not write the happily OOC Sherlock and his BFF John who decide to play spin the bottle on Christmas Eve in a bid to mend fences with Sherlock's beloved brother Mycroft, Mycroft's adorable son, and the silver-fox Detective Inspector who loves them all dearly, the end, and happily ever after.
Bleh.
Is the story painful? Some of it. Are some parts uplifting? I tried to be. Is it still a romance? Yes, but love isn't easy.
Some reviewers say my fiction is dark. I don't think so. Some have said that they don't quite know if they like my fic because it is dark (but compelling), as if unrelenting happiness or two dimensional fake roadblocks that are easily overcome are the be-all end-all of successful writing. I say they are living in a fantasy land and need to watch the evening news, because I think I am writing pretty damn realistically. The first truth of Buddhism is that life is suffering. I think that it is what you do to become compassionate in the face of that suffering, and the moments of happiness that you find to negate that suffering that are important. That is what I want to write about.
Not Sherlock and John adopting a puppy.
I can't warn for every potential trigger.
Hell, even the puppy fic might trigger someone who was bitten as a wee tot.
I guess my next fic will be about Sherlock and John making rice pudding. Rice Fucking Pudding.
Happy?
Me neither.