A Big Red Sign: My View on Content Warnings in Writing

Content warning: this blog post contains the words of a sleep-deprived writer and may include typos. Be warned.

Cue evil laugh.

Welcome, lovely writers! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

Since our last blog post, I have survived my first year of college, finished the first draft of a book (TSS), began writing another (TWR), acquired a dog (who most of you have likely seen on my instagram), and somehow made my sleep schedule even worse.

Hooray!

Anyways, for my first blog post back, I decided I wanted to talk about content warnings.

This is something everyone will likely have a slightly different opinion on, so I thought I’d throw my own opinion—as both a reader and a writer—into the mix.

When I think of any type of warning, I usually picture a big red sign containing the word "warning" in bold. This can sound kind of intimidating or off-putting. I mean, if I were to see that sign on a book I may think twice about reading it, right?

Well, content warnings are not like this.

They're not some "big red sign" meant to scare readers. They're meant to protect the readers from reading anything they're uncomfortable with.

I personally think content warnings are great. They are not required in fiction, but they are very helpful for readers.

As someone who tries to avoid explicit scenes in books, I will say I usually don’t buy books without combing reviews for information about their content. Many readers do this—and not just to avoid explicit content. Sensitive topics, language, and other mature themes are things that can affect readers when they read your book. So content warnings have been invented. These give readers a general overview of what to expect in the book they've picked up. Is there excessive swearing? Depictions of sexual assault? Explicit content? Heavy violence?

Content warnings allow readers to know about all of these things in advance so they aren’t surprised midway by an overly gory scene they weren’t prepared for or a character dropping f-bombs every other page.

Should authors create content warnings?

I think authors should absolutely include content warnings for their books. I don’t necessarily think this has to be in the book, but it should be accessible and online where people can read it—either on the author’s social media or in the book’s online description. This allows the reader to see it before buying the book, and it makes it so they don’t have to sift through reviews to know what they’re getting into.

Of course, not all authors do this, but I think it's considerate to your audience and prevents people from disliking your book just because it contains content they didn't want to read.

YA books and content warnings.

Another reason content warnings are good is specifically for the YA genre. This genre usually focuses on readers from ages 12-18 which is quite the range. A 12-year-old is likely not going to be comfortable reading everything an 18-year-old is reading. This means the content for YA books has a pretty big range as far as violence, language, and sensitive/mature topics go.

Content warnings can really come in handy, allowing the 12-year-olds and even the parents of these 12-year-olds to know what content books contain before they read them. It prevents a young kid from being exposed to something such as a depiction of suicide or drug abuse or even death that they may not be ready to read—or that may even be triggering for them.

Overall, content warnings are extremely helpful for readers, easy to create, and are something I would definitely recommend for any author.

Trigger warnings.

“Trigger warnings” have become more popular online and even in fiction with authors providing warnings if their books hold content readers may find “triggering.” Basically, this just means their writing is going to touch on sensitive topics that may have a negative affect on, or “trigger” a reader.

Topics that trigger warnings are used for are things like suicide mentions or depictions, substance abuse, death, domestic abuse, rape, mentions or depictions of eating disorders, etc. These are specific topics that readers are likely to find “triggering” based on personal experience (example: someone who struggled with an eating disorder reads about a character struggling with bulimia and is triggered by their behavior).

Trigger warnings vs. content warnings.

“Trigger warnings” and content warnings are both different. One is more general and the other is specific to content readers will likely find triggering. Trigger warnings can be used on specific chapters to warn readers in advance of specific triggering content. On the other hand, content warnings are more broad and usually cover the entire book.

Do authors need these too?

Since we’ve established that trigger warnings are different than content warnings, it’s only fair to discuss my view on these in literature.

Overall, I think the content that is mentioned in content warnings can work as a sort of trigger warning, however, trigger warnings often show readers exactly when this content is so they can avoid it.

Many people don’t want to put trigger warnings in their book. Maybe it doesn’t feel professional or doesn’t fit with the design they wanted. While I think that there are always ways to incorporate these in and that they are not unprofessional, there are other options.

If you don’t want to include these in your book, the best choice would be to include them online somewhere—just like with the content warnings. If you can give your readers a non-spoiler-filled rundown of which chapters include triggering topics or scenes, this can work just as good as in-book trigger warnings. You could even dedicate a page in the front or back of the book to specific instances of triggers throughout.

The Way He Broke Me by Larissa Gault is a book that deals with the content warning in a great way. The author included a page at the front that gave a general content warning but also included a mostly spoiler-free rundown of the specific types of content and when they occurred in the back of the book. I would consider this more of a trigger warning style content warning.

Are trigger warnings absolutely necessary in writing?

No.

They’re also a newer idea, so they won’t be found in most books.

However, if you’re writing a book that deals with some especially sensitive subjects, I’d say it’s a good idea to at least post something online (on a social media platform or your website) that mentions when and what triggering topics arise. This is just considerate to your readers and prevents anyone from reading about any topics they did not want to or that could cause them harm.

Overall, it really depends on what you're writing. Be considerate towards your readers.

It’s your choice.

Just like anything in writing, I totally believe it’s up to the author whether or not to include content or trigger warnings. However, I would absolutely encourage them—content warnings if nothing else.

Speaking from experience, it’s helpful for readers.

Use your judgement, guys! If there's anything in your book that may not be appropriate for a kid to read (especially if you're writing in the YA genre) or seems like a sensitive or triggering topic, add a content warning. Let your readers know what they're getting into.

As always, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them in the contact box below!

Happy writing!

- Jocelyn