Content and trigger warnings are great for authors to include alongside their work as they show readers that mental health is something you value, and you’re willing to sacrifice readership in order to be transparent about difficult topics your work may include.
Why bother including content and trigger warnings?
In short, we address this topic because we care for and about our readers. Even if your story ends in a happily ever after (HEA), it's still important to address the process in which they arrived there, if it isn’t smooth sailing.
For instance, your story may include a character arc of learning more about a heavy topic (such as same-sex relationships), which the character was initially judgemental of, but later finds themselves understanding or even defending the topic at hand. These initial reactions (such as homophobia, transphobia, deadnaming, “just get over it” remarks about mental health, etc.) are something readers will appreciate a warning about, as often times readers who are part of a minority have experienced similar bullying, bigotry, or plain uneducated assumptions. This could stir up painful memories in such a reader and cause distress.
This should, in turn, matter to authors because these unintentional triggers may lead to negative reviews, or worse, the reader blaming themselves for having an emotional reaction because you, as an author, didn’t think it was important enough to include a warning about the subject. No one can help the reactions they have, and no one deserves to feel like they’re “overreacting” if they have a rough history with a sensitive topic.
Content warnings
Content warnings (CWs) are topics which may make a reader – any member of society – uncomfortable to read about. They simply may not be a reader’s cup of tea when they sit down to read a book, often to relax. On the other hand, there will be a lot of readers who aren’t bothered by this sort of content, and don’t mind if that goes on in a story they’re reading.
It could be that they’re even reading your book for this content specifically, as a trope. A good example of this is in coming-of-age stories where gender identity, sexuality, or sexual exploration may be a key component of the story and the main drive for readers to pick the book up. However, we need to acknowledge that these won’t always be topics everyone will enjoy.
Some examples of CWs may include:
Age-gap relationships
Bullying of someone who identifies under the queer umbrella
Depictions of mental health struggles
Arranged marriages
Trigger warnings
Trigger warnings (TWs), on the other hand, are specifically written for people who have mental health struggles and/or trauma in their past. They’re more specific than CWs and may include spoilers. Because of this potential for spoilers within TWs, it is recommended that authors leave it up to the reader to decide if they want to check the TWs for a book. (See ahead for more details on placement.)
Usually, anything traumatic that happens on-page is included in this list, and it’s not up to the author to police what is and isn’t “severe enough” to be listed, nor is it an author’s job to decide what “can” or “should” trigger someone. We, as writers and authors, tell the stories we feel called to tell, and if that causes someone else distress, we should respect that. Only the individual can know their own triggers and how far is “too far”. It’s a case of “better safe than sorry” when it comes to this topic.
Note: it also helps readers if it is stated whether the trigger happens on-page or is spoken of as a memory or a dream, etc.
Some examples of trigger warnings may include:
Domestic violence of a spouse in front of children
Experiences of conversion therapy spoken about in past tense
Police shooting of a POC without provocation, on-page
Forced, non-consensual vaginal penetration, as victim experiences it
How to include content and trigger warnings
There are a few main ways in which most authors will list these. The first is to list them on your website, on a page specifically for the book, and then on social media and in the front of the book, direct readers to this page. This is a bit complicated in my opinion and doesn't come across as being all too accessible.
The second way can be seen below (in A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson), where they're listed with a kind note from the author, right at the front of the book. This is a transparent way to make sure your readers are aware, before going in, that some potentially distressing topics are covered.
The third option is the one I recommend, which is to have a page in the front, probably opposite the epigraph if you include one, which simply states "Content and trigger warnings are listed on the last page of this book". You can see an example of this above (in Who Could Love You, Astor Price? by Amy Jane Lehan). This is then where you'll then list those relevant to your book under the respective heading/s. This way people who don't care or are concerned about spoilers can easily ignore them, however they're accessible to those who would rather go in prepared.
Where to draw the line
As stated earlier, it is not up to authors to police or decide what is and isn’t a potential trigger for their readers. That being said, not everything uncomfortable is going to need to be stated. This is far easier to illustrate through an example.
Take queer relationships as a story’s topic. For starters, when writing a queer fic, you’ll probably be using this as a selling point for queer readers to find themselves represented in media. You may have already listed M/M, F/F, poly, or NB representation in your tropes used to draw readers in. But representation doesn’t always mean it’s done well. Once you’ve consulted a Beta or Sensitivity/ Accuracy Reader who identifies as the characters in your story do, and gotten the go-ahead that your characters are accurately portrayed, the next step is to think about the context within your story.
Perhaps your queer-umbrella character is struggling with internalised homophobia from growing up in a religious home? Or maybe they have no struggles with identity, however doubt themselves for not being in a stable relationship at their age? These character arcs are what will determine whether you have content or trigger warnings requiring disclosure.
Internalised homophobia from a first-person point-of-view, directly related to religious trauma, is something that could quite easily become a trigger, depending how deeply this topic is explored through your character. However the societal expectation of having a steady partner by a certain age, whether it’s a queer relationship or straight, is often not overly distressing. It may cause one to question their own life (as books are often supposed to), but there is no trauma that could conceivably stem from this topic without taking it a step further to non-consensual relationships or arranged marriages.
The most important thing to note here, however, is that queer relationships are not a content warning. They are a part of life, and not something which could trigger intense distress in someone, as a broad topic. The way the topic is dealt with is the clincher.
Terminology cheat sheet for this post
Deadnaming: calling someone who has changed their name (often a transgender or nonbinary person) by their birth name, or “dead name”
POC: person of colour
M/M: male/male homosexual relationship or intimacy
F/F: female/female homosexual relationship or intimacy
Poly: polyamory; three or more people of any sex in a consensual relationship or engaging in consensual sexual intimacy
NB: non-binary; someone whose gender doesn’t fit the binary of male or female, but falls elsewhere on the gender spectrum
Beta reader: often the first member of the public to read a book (completed, but still in draft stages) and provide structured feedback to the author
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