Warnings Readers Will Find on Kynx_Fic & Why
The following metaesque rant is the subjective opinionated opinion of Kit84 and Jynnxx, we have next to no interest in telling other people what to do or how to do it, this is how we do it and why. Questions, alternate opinions and discussion is welcome.
( Cut for length )
( Cut for length )
The difference, or one of the differences between published fiction and fanfiction is that published fiction is reviewed, critiqued, has amazon reviews and all the other places that do reviews. So no, they don't label their novels the same way as we label our fic, but neither do they have the kind of personal relationship and direct contact that we do with our readers.
Well fuck, that has a lot to do with everything. The fact that we can all get personal here should actually make things easier for both the authors and for the readers. For the authors, you tend to know what your readers like and don't like, so as you get to know them and write more, you can sense what needs to be warned and what doesn't.
It makes things easier, or at least should make things easier, for the reader. As an avid reader in a certain bandom, you start to see a trend in what kind of themes certain authors like to write, whether it's dark!fic or fluff, and you should be able to make your own responsible decision about reading certain fics. If you already know that someone writes alcoholic!Shannon a lot, and if you don't like it, then you should know not to read their stuff, especially if Shannon is a main character and there's a warning for anything like angst. Those are pretty fair warnings. If you don't like it yet you decide to read it anyways, you forfeit your right to criticize the piece and should go die in a fire, kthx. Your opinion on the fic no longer matters because it becomes biased to the fact that you just don't like the subject matter.
I've learned over the last few years the kinds of subjects you like to write, so I've come to the point where I don't even need to read the warnings before I read one of your fics. But I still read them just so that I can get an idea of what I'm getting myself into and then I start to wonder if I can predict what's going to happen based on just the warnings and then I get a big headched because I start to exaggerate things in my head and erm...not the point... Even still, I read the warnings just in case you do write something that's not all that common for your style because we can't really expect authors to stick to only one thing. And that's when the author's experience with their readers comes into play, and you know that if your fic involves supernatural things like Jared and Tomo switching bodies, you know to warn us because it's not every day you write that and so you can't be sure what kind of effect it'll have on your readers.
Warnings really shouldn't be a problem, and it's really fucking sad that it is. As a part-time author, I know that if I have something like drug abuse or rape in one of my fics, I will warn for it because those are some major issues that are pretty common in today's culture. But I'm not gonna go warning about trees being in my fic just because one person doesn't like it. It's not every day trees freak people out, so it shouldn't be a problem. It seems like since some people are getting so specific about warnings, authors should just put "lots of triggers" as their warning and end it with that for every single one. Because let's face it, the world isn't one big happy family, and even if in the fic it were a happy family, if something small like a tree is going to freak one person out and have them go on a rampage of "why didn't you warn me?" it would be sooooo much easier to tell them to shut the fuck up in the warning before they even read the fic.
So erm...yeah I think you guys made a good point with that, and I think all I did was elaborate on it, haha. Still, I don't think this should be an issue in fanfiction, but since it is, I'm glad you all brought it up.
Reply
Exactly, can forgive a lot when someone is writing first/second/third fic and maybe touching on topics new to them, but there is a core set of warnings that really go without saying, rape, non-con, character death, abuse, self harm, dub con, angst, kink, physical harm, gore, even if fandom doesn't come with an instruction book, which really, it should, it doesn't take a lot of experience to know that these are triggery topics.
Warnings shouldn't be a problem, but we included the links at the top of the post to kinda show it's a pan-fandom issue. So yeah, agreed again, it shouldn't be an issue but it is and it's not just us, hopefully discussing it will help.
LMAO at the trees, and exactly, you could watn for every dam thing and the warnings section would end up being longer than the fic, not really a good idea either. And the person with the irrational triggers (lets use me again :D) is the one with the responsibility, so they make their writing partner read things first to check they can handle it :p
It's not even a fine line between warning for too much and too little, it's imo a good deal of common sense added to experience in the fandom and what is generally the 'norm' in fic communities. Ditto with author familiarity, cuz there's a reason Shannon's always usually an alcoholic in our fics :p
I also don't think there's anything wrong with authors who don't want to be part of the community, maybe they don't read fic at all, don't visit coms unless they are posting, but in those cases, they're kind of posting at their own risk. Really trying not to compare fandom to a cult, but heh. Community, not cult, norms rather than rules *nods* ♥
Reply
Leave a comment