Trigger Warnings?

[Jason L.]

I am starting several books (I am relentless unfaithful to my books. I don't think I ever have less than two or three going at the same time). And two of them have trigger warnings in them. I've also seen them in beta reader things. Even things I would consider rather petty ("TW: Past infidelity (off-screen)"? Are you kidding me?) Some of it seems almost as if new mothers are babyproofing the house. "OH MY GOD THERE MIGHT BE SOMETHING IN THAT CUPBOARD UNDERNEATH THE STAIRS. SAVE THE BABY." This is completely alien to me and I find myself making some snap judgments about the author's mental state that are neither helpful nor kind nor conducive to a respectful discussion).

This leads me to start this conversation. What do you think of trigger warnings?

Personally, I am not sure if I am there for them. If I read that there is a TW of physical assault, I will be expecting it throughout the novel. I might not like it, but let it surprise me. If I don't like the way it's done, I'll stop--I read a book in the fantasy genre that was torture porn, and I stopped after they were talking about how to remove the fingers. Sorry, but all the nopes there. There was no TW, but I'm a big boy, and it's just not my thing. I don't like horror because it's not my genre. Nothing against the writers, readers, or themes, it's just not a fit.

So those of you who use them, for what would you use them? What specific things? Is this something constrained by certain genres and not by others? When are the TWs going too far? Would you only use them in a beta reader form, or would you use it in a published novel?

 

[Peyton Stafford]

"I tightened the restraints and stuffed the gag deeper into my throat. Gag reflex triggered, I heaved, but nothing came up but a belch of platitudes. OMG! Go deeper.

"No triggers! No triggers! I pled, but underneath denial lay pleasure. But no. No pleasure for me. I am righteous."

Have you read Blue Angel ?

Great novel about a creative writing professor caught up in the no trigger world of neurotic college students.

My father and his colleagues agonized about this in the 1960s and 1970s. Smile at a coed? Instant law suit. Congratulate a dumb jock on writing a B paper? Accusations of homosexuality.

Why I did not become an academic? I prefer the rough and tumble world of business. We can counter-sue and not cave in to sniveling teens who project their crazy parents onto us.

Teaching is like politics. No matter what stance you take, the knives are out for you.

 

[Jason L.]

I was thinking about fiction. I have perfected the feedback loop now in academia. And I don't use them in history. History IS rape, murder, torture, and triggers. to pretend it isn't is to insult the suffering of those who came before.

 

[Bloo]

I won't use them as a writer because they annoy me as a reader.

A few years ago, I was looking at an e-book about a woman drinking her life away. Her addiction was wrapped around the mystery of how she got there. Unfortunately, the big reveal was telegraphed by, "Trigger Warning: miscarriage resulting in still birth." It was obvious that's what screwed up the MC.

The spoiler ruined it for me, so I didn't buy the book.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

I agree. We humans like to imagine we are the children of gods, but we are the descendents of apes, chimps our closest biological relatives. Rape and the rest follow.

If you have figured out how to teach this, then bravo. Let us always remember history as the Holocaust that is was and that it is.

 

[Bloo]

So those of you who use them, for what would you use them? What specific things? Is this something constrained by certain genres and not by others? When are the TWs going too far? Would you only use them in a beta reader form, or would you use it in a published novel?

Oh, yeah...about your question. I'd turn it around asking betas if anything triggers them, and have each respond to me separately. That way, no one gets triggered and no one gets spoilers.

None of the novels I've read came with a TW from the author or publisher. Customer reviews of those novels are a different story. Book review sites should create a filter option for that.

 

[Brayati]

the way the blurb/description of the book is written should be enough to 'warn' those who don't want to read this type of book. It doesn't have to be specific trigger warnings, but to give the tone and context of the content/story (and Blue Angel does give hints for these).
Examples: Thirteen Reasons Why:

You can’t stop the future.
You can’t rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever

That's the warning in those words. Without making it a specific warning, the description of the book should give pause to those who don't want to read on.
In the Amazon categories is the following:

• Best Sellers Rank: 41,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • 1 in Young Adult Nonfiction on Suicide Social & Family Issues
  • 19 in Young Adult Fiction on Suicide Social & Family Issues
  • 28 in Books on Death for Young Adults

Even The Midnight Library:

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?

has a subtextual warning. It may not be enough, as one of the editorial reviews for this book calls it 'uplifting', so maybe, if there are enough complaints, they'll take that one out of the marketing ...

If the cover, title, genre and description don't give enough detail to warn off those with sensitivities, they need to be redone to suit the tone, etc. The warnings should come through in every aspect of the book, not stated as a baldness that takes away from those who want to read for the value of those things.

 

[RK Wallis]

History IS rape, murder, torture, and triggers

When Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaiden's Tale she wrote in her forward, everything in the book has happened in history.

 

[Hannah F]

Apparently, one University in England as written a TW to lit students regarding the monsters in Beowulf. (Give me strength!). The TW should have been, you'll need enormous powers of concentration to read the original Beowulf.

Some competitions, where some of the readers are kids, have asked for TWs. I think that's fair enough as they don't get a blurb.

 

[Vagabond Heart]

I’m undecided.

I think trigger warnings on screen are a good thing, because the visual can grab you suddenly, before you have time to register what’s happening and switch it off.
But when reading something, one usually has the time to suspect if one is not going to cope with this and stop reading.
(That said, there was a Stephen King I got recommended to me that had a scene in it I still can’t get out of my head and which still leaves me feeling sick. ‘Contains graphic content’ on the back cover would have been helpful).

There was a time, when I had actual PTSD after the deeply traumatic birth of my son, when I couldn’t be in the same room as a tv with someone on it giving birth - even a comedy birth - without shaking, and going into a state of deep terror.
(And after my sister was murdered, I had to closely monitor the levels of violence on the kids cartoons - no Ninja Turtles for them at our house, for about a year or two - for the same reasons. I was having the same response.)

I don’t consider myself a snowflake. I was not offended by things: I was triggered. And that is different.

So i think trigger warnings on screen are vital. But on books?
I wonder….perhaps things that relate to child abuse, for instance, things that will have affected a person at an age when it will have led to real trauma, rather than dislike - maybe a warning, carefully worded, might be appropriate?
Just my thoughts.

 

[Becca T]

Ooh, interesting conversation.

Trigger warnings aren't a new phenomenon, and when done right they can be helpful/useful.

Some examples of trigger warnings that don't bother me: The movie rating system. Entering a code on Netflix before watching a show/movie. Blurring out pictures that are sexual or especially violent until clicked on. Articles and websites on the internet with the NSFW tag. Books in libraries and stores are sorted into sections based on age, genre, and having a restricted section.

But, in all those instances, the trigger warnings have a couple of things in common:

- They are general rather than specific.
- They are unobtrusive, some of them we don't even recognize as trigger warnings because they have become normalized.

When it comes to movies, TV, and articles written online I do appreciate a general trigger warning in the form of the NSFW tag, a blurred picture, or a rating system or just mentioning that it contains "adult" content. It helps me quickly decide if I want to read or view further and gives me a warning to keep the context that I am in, in mind before reading. Perhaps clicking on that blurred out picture isn't such a good idea when a bunch of little kid are sitting around me on the u-bahn. Maybe that interesting article I saw pop up while at work should be saved for at home reading. Maybe I should delay and watch that video at a later time, when I am ready to confront the content in a more constructive way.

When it comes to books, that's what the blurbs and descriptions are for, along with knowing the genera. I don't think books need to have trigger warnings and if for some reason they do, they should be simple, unobtrusive, and not give away anything important in the story. Overdoing trigger warnings, in my view, is also not very helpful and might actually be counterproductive.

I think we also have to separate the idea of a trigger warning on content from the triggers that might set off some people. A trigger warning's purpose should be to let people know that the content ahead might be especially violent, espcially difficult, or highly sexual. What triggers people in general or people with mental illness or past trauma is very individual and can often be found in the mundane. Trying to work out all the potential triggers that any person could have is counterproductive, and will fail no matter how hard you try. I am a person who has anxiety. If I expected people to be mindful of my personal triggers then some pretty silly things would come with trigger warnings like phone calls, packs of gum, doctor's offices, closets, and crowds of people. I don't need trigger warnings on such things, avoiding them altogether is counterproductive, and triggers are fickle. One day it's all fine and the next it's not.

 

[Becca T]

I’m undecided.

I think trigger warnings on screen are a good thing, because the visual can grab you suddenly, before you have time to register what’s happening and switch it off.
But when reading something, one usually has the time to suspect if one is not going to cope with this and stop reading.
(That said, there was a Stephen King I got recommended to me that had a scene in it I still can’t get out of my head and which still leaves me feeling sick. ‘Contains graphic content’ on the back cover would have been helpful).

There was a time, when I had actual PTSD after the deeply traumatic birth of my son, when I couldn’t be in the same room as a tv with someone on it giving birth - even a comedy birth - without shaking, and going into a state of deep terror.
(And after my sister was murdered, I had to closely monitor the levels of violence on the kids cartoons - no Ninja Turtles for them at our house, for about a year or two - for the same reasons. I was having the same response.)

I don’t consider myself a snowflake. I was not offended by things: I was triggered. And that is different.

So i think trigger warnings on screen are vital. But on books?
I wonder….perhaps things that relate to child abuse, for instance, things that will have affected a person at an age when it will have led to real trauma, rather than dislike - maybe a warning, carefully worded, might be appropriate?
Just my thoughts.

"I don’t consider myself a snowflake. I was not offended by things: I was triggered. And that is different."

I love this line! I think it needs to be front and center in any discussion about triggers and trigger warnings. Being offended and being triggered are two totally different things that often get conflated, and in some cases are purposefully conflated. Already in this discussion, some people are arguing against trigger warnings on the basis that the purpose of trigger warnings are to avoid offending people. The purpose of a trigger warning is to denote difficult and extreme content, not to avoid provoking people or causing offense.

 

[Barbara]

The trigger versus offence is a good point which I hadn't considered. Ta. That's the good thing about convos like these. They make you look at all angles. You've put me on the fence. I'll go back and delete my earlier post as I'm now on the fence.

 

[Becca T]

The trigger versus offence is a good point which I hadn't considered. Ta. That's the good thing about convos like these. They make you look at all angles. You've put me on the fence. I'll go back and delete my post as I'm now on the fence.

I don't think you needed to delete your post, it had some good points in there. I agree that art is supposed to elicit a reaction and that reaction for some might be offense or other more negative things. I definitely wouldn't want to see trigger warnings used to censor art!

 

[E G Logan]

Dear @Jason L.

This is obviously a very emotive question.

My tuppence worth:
I am planning a book, some of it written, where a character commits two murders, both quite shocking, for different reasons. This character also batters an attacker into insensibility with a marble-based lamp. Finally, this character steps off a very high building.

I, personally, am not planning any trigger warnings. However, if a publisher wanted to add one, presumably a fairly lengthy one, that'd be fine with me.

 

[Dorm Ant]

There are warnings about strobe/flashing lights at the beginning of some TV shows. There are helpline numbers at the end of soaps for people affected by certain issues in the show. So it's not a new concept.

It's a matter of how to do it and how far to go. Calling oxtail soup "beef soup" and blood oranges "ruby oranges" so as not to upset children is plain stupid. As is revealing plot points. Mentioning common phobias and traumatic triggers is fair enough, though. If I was posting a close-up picture of a spider or a snake somewhere, I would give people a heads up, as they're common phobias. A picture of a dog? Nope, because people who are scared of dogs are only affected when in the room with one, not when seeing a photo. It's not a phobia, in the same way.

I once watched a film that had a rape scene that was shown in detail and it affected me for quite a while afterwards. I would have preferred to exercise my right to choose not to expose myself to that. A simple "contains a scene of graphic sexual assault" or similar would have done.

 

[Jason L.]

What a helpful and interesting conversation! @Barbara I am quite glad you did not delete your post. It's very valuable.

I am a child abuse survivor, and I am taking the other tack. If I were to read that, I would stop, and likely have a cry, and think. I am not invisible anymore. Whoever this author is understands that there are some things that you can't erase, no matter how much you grow up. Trigger warnings there aren't for me. They are for the people who fear they have this evil inside themselves and can't stand the sight of it.

That being said, sexual assault is different. Torture is different.

When I discuss it in class, I do it very matter-of-factly: Here's what happened. Here are the statistics. Here's the evidence about these atrocities. I am not covering them for you to weep. I am covering them so they will stick in your mind and you will know that, in real life, this is what people are capable of. The most respectful thing we can do is listen to the stories that their writings, their interviews, or their bones tell us about those terrible final moments of their existence, and then working backwards to ask why? Not an easy why, that puts some inherent evil in slave-owners and Nazis and lynchmobs. A difficult why that asks how an ordinary person who laughs, dreams, and does ordinary things can be motivated to set aside all of that morality to perform these acts, often as a matter of duty. What has warped them along the way, and how can we examine that in a productive way? It often leads to fascinating conversations.

 

[E G Logan]

Below are the views of Anthony Horowitz, well-known YA author, probably germane to this discussion.

I don't know if it's fire-walled; if so, just say and I'll paraphrase for Litopia.

Horowitz says authors ‘running scared’ of halving sales by sharing opinions

Author Anthony Horowitz has said it’s wrong “writers are running scared” due to a fear of offending, elaborating on comments he made earlier this year at Hay Festival “about the fear that all creative people must now feel if they’re going to dare to write”.

www.thebookseller.com

 

[Dorm Ant]

Below are the views of Anthony Horowitz, well-known YA author, probably germane to this discussion.

I don't know if it's fire-walled; if so, just say and I'll paraphrase for Litopia.

Horowitz says authors ‘running scared’ of halving sales by sharing opinions

Author Anthony Horowitz has said it’s wrong “writers are running scared” due to a fear of offending, elaborating on comments he made earlier this year at Hay Festival “about the fear that all creative people must now feel if they’re going to dare to write”.

www.thebookseller.com

I get his point, though citing a very attention-seeking writer as an example doesn't work. If Ms X is going to seek out journalists and spout controversial opinions, Ms X can't then complain about a "laser focus" homing in on her opinions.

 

[Hannah F]

Below are the views of Anthony Horowitz, well-known YA author, probably germane to this discussion.

I don't know if it's fire-walled; if so, just say and I'll paraphrase for Litopia.

Horowitz says authors ‘running scared’ of halving sales by sharing opinions

Author Anthony Horowitz has said it’s wrong “writers are running scared” due to a fear of offending, elaborating on comments he made earlier this year at Hay Festival “about the fear that all creative people must now feel if they’re going to dare to write”.

www.thebookseller.com

Can't read it.

 

[Jason L.]

Author Anthony Horowitz has said it’s wrong “writers are running scared” due to a fear of offending, elaborating on comments he made earlier this year at Hay Festival.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider series as well as numerous other novels, said it is “wrong that writers should have to worry about what they are writing”, and that they’re now “following the agenda rather than setting it”.

He told the newspaper: “It should be creative people who decide what is or is not acceptable. These days, the nervousness, the cancel culture, the fear of offending, of causing a Twitter storm, or the sudden laser-like focus that some writers attract — J K Rowling is the obvious example — strikes me as worrying and saddening.”

In May, the author told the Hay Festival he’d been taken aback by his editor’s notes on his then-upcoming book Where Seagulls Dare: A Diamond Brothers Case (Walker Books, 2nd June 2022), saying: “I have just suffered from my last book notes from my publisher which absolutely shocked me about things that I could or couldn’t say, which is a children’s book, not an adult book.”

Horowitz added that he thought “Children’s book publishers are more scared than anybody.”

In The Telegraph interview he went on to say: "I used to do a lot more political stuff. I was on ’Question Time’ and ’Any Questions?’ and I wrote articles for newspapers and magazines. I don’t do it any more, because there’s no point. Even on the most basic issue, Brexit, if you come out stridently in one direction, there’s a possibility you’ll alienate half your audience. At the end of the day, I’m interested in the world and have a voice, which I’m sometimes tempted to use, but my first responsibility is to my publisher, to my booksellers, to my readers. Why would I want to halve my sales? I’m not saying I don’t admire J K Rowling, although I’m not sure I completely understand why she has allowed this situation to develop. But I admire her courage. Maybe I should be braver."

He went on: “So many of these discussions are couched in ways that mean there’s going to be no outcome other than anger and violence and prejudice. There are some areas that I won’t go anywhere near, not because I don’t have opinions, but because airing those opinions will do me and the world no good."

The author concluded: “I have to try to be a little bit interesting, because that’s the deal. But, these days, it could blow up in my face. I still enjoy it all, I’m just more aware of the dangers."

Horowitz’s comments appear to echo those made by Kazuo Ishiguro last year who claimed young writers are “self-censoring” to avoid an “anonymous lynch mob that turns up online and makes their lives a misery”.

However, Horowitz’s original comments at Hay also led publishers to staunchly defend the use of sensitivity readers among other tools as a vital way of making books more inclusive.

 

[Hannah F]

Author Anthony Horowitz has said it’s wrong “writers are running scared” due to a fear of offending, elaborating on comments he made earlier this year at Hay Festival.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider series as well as numerous other novels, said it is “wrong that writers should have to worry about what they are writing”, and that they’re now “following the agenda rather than setting it”.

He told the newspaper: “It should be creative people who decide what is or is not acceptable. These days, the nervousness, the cancel culture, the fear of offending, of causing a Twitter storm, or the sudden laser-like focus that some writers attract — J K Rowling is the obvious example — strikes me as worrying and saddening.”

In May, the author told the Hay Festival he’d been taken aback by his editor’s notes on his then-upcoming book Where Seagulls Dare: A Diamond Brothers Case (Walker Books, 2nd June 2022), saying: “I have just suffered from my last book notes from my publisher which absolutely shocked me about things that I could or couldn’t say, which is a children’s book, not an adult book.”

Horowitz added that he thought “Children’s book publishers are more scared than anybody.”Thank

In The Telegraph interview he went on to say: "I used to do a lot more political stuff. I was on ’Question Time’ and ’Any Questions?’ and I wrote articles for newspapers and magazines. I don’t do it any more, because there’s no point. Even on the most basic issue, Brexit, if you come out stridently in one direction, there’s a possibility you’ll alienate half your audience. At the end of the day, I’m interested in the world and have a voice, which I’m sometimes tempted to use, but my first responsibility is to my publisher, to my booksellers, to my readers. Why would I want to halve my sales? I’m not saying I don’t admire J K Rowling, although I’m not sure I completely understand why she has allowed this situation to develop. But I admire her courage. Maybe I should be braver."

He went on: “So many of these discussions are couched in ways that mean there’s going to be no outcome other than anger and violence and prejudice. There are some areas that I won’t go anywhere near, not because I don’t have opinions, but because airing those opinions will do me and the world no good."

The author concluded: “I have to try to be a little bit interesting, because that’s the deal. But, these days, it could blow up in my face. I still enjoy it all, I’m just more aware of the dangers."

Horowitz’s comments appear to echo those made by Kazuo Ishiguro last year who claimed young writers are “self-censoring” to avoid an “anonymous lynch mob that turns up online and makes their lives a misery”.

However, Horowitz’s original comments at Hay also led publishers to staunchly defend the use of sensitivity readers among other tools as a vital way of making books more inclusive.

Thanks @Jason L.

 

[Jason L.]

Thanks @Jason L.

You're welcome.

 

[Becca T]

Below are the views of Anthony Horowitz, well-known YA author, probably germane to this discussion.

I don't know if it's fire-walled; if so, just say and I'll paraphrase for Litopia.

Horowitz says authors ‘running scared’ of halving sales by sharing opinions

Author Anthony Horowitz has said it’s wrong “writers are running scared” due to a fear of offending, elaborating on comments he made earlier this year at Hay Festival “about the fear that all creative people must now feel if they’re going to dare to write”.

www.thebookseller.com

I'm not sure if I agree with this article. A few writers and authors here and there get backlash... but is this really something that most writers and authors fear? I doubt it. There are so many writers and authors out there that never get backlash or cause a stir. In the case of the author mentioned in the article, the backlash is not about her books, it's about a personal opinion she's chosen to make public and double down on.

 

[Dorm Ant]

In the case of the author mentioned in the article, the backlash is not about her books, it's about a personal opinion she's chosen to make public and double down on.

Exactly this.

 

[Jason L.]

That is a bit straying away from the purpose of trigger warnings in novels. When are they useful? When are they excessive? Is the back blurb and genre enough? Do we have a duty to protect our readership from being triggered?

If there is a general agreement that fiction can lead us, by the nose, to build empathy by considering other characters' points of view, realities, and traumas, and taking them seriously, then trigger warnings pad our writing with cotton-wool and say, "It's okay. I don't challenge you to consider X if it upsets you." But that is literally part of our job. A well-written book doesn't just entertain us. It also can poke us, make us uncomfortable, upsets us in a way. It asks us, however subtly, to alter our worldview and allow the possibility that entire civilizations can and do collapse (Mitchell: Gone with the Wind); that injustice can and does win (Orwell: 1984); that trauma is sometimes not overcome (Nabukov: Lolita); that unpleasant people are sometimes truly gems (Backman: A Man Called Ove), that people descending into alcoholism and mental illness can fixate on stuff to avoid talking about their own traumas (Hawkins, The Girl on the Train); that truly dystopian futures are possible (Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale); that sometimes death is the only way out (Tolstoy: Anna Karenina); that sometimes one must choose duty over love, (Wharton: The Age of Innocence); that wars are senseless, pointless, and stupid (Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front); and that childish actions can unravel entire lives (McEwan: Atonement).

In some cases, the violence seems gratuitous. Anything that says "serial killer" on the blurb, I've already noped the fuck out. Let's spend five pages mutilating this terrified waitress in her church's parking lot? Aw hell no.

But let's say I was constructing a story about a survivor of domestic and sexual violence? Could I tell the story without the inciting incident? Of course. Would it be stronger and more powerful if I included it? Probably. Perhaps too much so to open a story with someone being assaulted. It could be done in flashbacks once we've started to care about the character and wonder why things have turned so badly so suddenly. Would you put a trigger warning for that? What about if you had someone who survived the medical experiments at Belsen-Bergen? Would you fade to black? Hint at it? Would you warn people about the difficult content if the genre alone wasn't enough to tip you off?

 

[Dorm Ant]

I've never come across a TW in a novel. I've only ever come across it in audio visual media.

 

[Vagabond Heart]

"It's okay. I don't challenge you to consider X if it upsets you." But that is literally part of our job. A well-written book doesn't just entertain us. It also can poke us, make us uncomfortable, upsets us in a way. It asks us, however subtly, to alter our worldview

I see where you are coming from here, but I think the word ‘trigger’ is about more than being upset. It is about unwittingly being subject to revisit trauma, when not always ready or prepared to do that.
I think that people who are ‘triggered’ rather than angered, offended, or upset, already know those things exist - they don’t need their world-view expanded to include that.
By all means make people uncomfortable, if you want them to see beyond the limits of their own beliefs or prejudices. The best literature has that power. But that is not the act of triggering.
But bearing in mind you might be talking about the darker things, perhaps some sensitivity to those whose lives have been broken by those things is worth considering?
I don’t pretend to know what the answer is here, but I know I appreciate when I’ve been warned about explicit content BEFORE I’ve become invested in the characters, and had a chance to step back if that’s my choice.

 

[Jason L.]

I see where you are coming from here, but I think the word ‘trigger’ is about more than being upset. It is about unwittingly being subject to revisit trauma, when not always ready or prepared to do that.
I think that people who are ‘triggered’ rather than angered, offended, or upset, already know those things exist - they don’t need their world-view expanded to include that.
By all means make people uncomfortable, if you want them to see beyond the limits of their own beliefs or prejudices. The best literature has that power. But that is not the act of triggering.
But bearing in mind you might be talking about the darker things, perhaps some sensitivity to those whose lives have been broken by those things is worth considering?
I don’t pretend to know what the answer is here, but I know I appreciate when I’ve been warned about explicit content BEFORE I’ve become invested in the characters, and had a chance to step back if that’s my choice.

I think that's what I'm driving at. I think that some people are using the words "trigger warnings" when they mean "potentially upsetting things." Does the author seriously think that I will collapse into a ball of tears because I am reading a story in which the MC has had an off-screen past of which I morally disapprove? I am trying to feel around that line. On the other hand, if someone has been the victim of certain crimes, it's different. That trauma is not going to just disappear. As someone who has been triggered (and fairly recently), I can tell you that it happened in a way that was so unpredictable that I don't think it could be accounted for or prevented. In fact, having a direct discussion of abusive parenting, or even scenes of it, would be upsetting to me, but never triggering.

 

[izi 出久]

I agree with @Vagabond Heart here. The word "triggered" is used whenever anyone feels offended. But I don't think being "triggered" has anything to do with being offended. We're talking a visceral response to trauma that has drastically altered someone's life.

For that reason, I won't write any TWs about anything except the child s. assault in my story. It's called dark fantasy; everybody better expect violence. But close POV of a child being abused like that--that's a bit different. And I'm not trying to throw someone back down a dark path they may have taken quite a bit of time to find their way out of.

Or that's my two cents.