On Warnings; or, Getting Readers Who Actually Like Your Stuff

[puella_nerdii]

I've been avoiding the current warnings debacle not out of fear of reprisal, but because the whole thing makes me nauseous. Quite literally. And until recently, I have not trusted myself to make a post that doesn't consist of the words "FUCK YOU" repeated over and over again

Comments

[puella_nerdii]

I had similar fannish beginnings -- well, not with the "young" part, as most of the people I spent time with were at least twice my age or older, but it was definitely a more conservative climate than the one I'm in now, and warnings were pretty strictly enforced.

I'm mixed on character death, too, mostly because I haven't really written much with it, surprisingly enough. I do have fic -- a lot of it in Hetalia -- where OCs, major and minor, end up dying. But a lot of these fics are set during wars, or during times of political and social upheaval, and I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that a fic set during such times would contain death and violence. The character death isn't the focal point, it's an element of the larger context in which the story's set. Even in those cases, though, I'll make clear in the summary and header what kind of story I'm writing, and that should hopefully give readers an idea of what to expect. But yes, readers absolutely do have a right to know what they're getting into. They can choose to read without regarding the warnings, but at least it's their choice.