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- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
- Total Posts: 1379
Hey y’all! So I recently wrote out a content guide/trigger warning for my novel, Where Faith Remains. Trigger warnings are a priority for me because I believe they’re incredibly important to ensure the health and well-being of readers, also that they’re completely informed before they choose to read my book. I’m looking for 2 or 3 people to read over the content guide and just let me know if it’s too detailed or not detailed enough, if it’s confusing or otherwise unclear, etc. And also, is it too long? It’s 2,000 words 😅 But as aforementioned, it’s very important to me that I make sure readers are informed. But if you think it’s too long and have suggestions on how I could shorten it, that would be much appreciated!
Here’s the link to the content guide. Let me know if it doesn’t work (links can be troublesome on the forum sometimes lol), and feel free to make comments directly on the doc.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O_jsXl93hIOZAuJVckgHaWLHXeDoNx83MIAQZYeiBrE/edit?usp=sharing
Tagging a few people, but don’t feel obligated to critique if you don’t want to/don’t have time, and if you’re not tagged and do want to critique, please do! 🙂
@queen_of_alvastia @freedomwriter76 @koshka @issawriter7 @maryg3 @nova21 @keilah-h @elishavet-pidyon @anyone-else@joy-caroline
Hiya Joy! It’s awesome to see you here!
Okay, I read through it, and I do have some things to say! Quick warning, this is all my personal opinion based on CWs I’ve read, and that have been helpful to me! I do think it’s an amazing idea that you want to include one, it’s something I really appreciate in books and more authors should definitely do it!
And also, is it too long? It’s 2,000 words 😅 But as aforementioned, it’s very important to me that I make sure readers are informed. But if you think it’s too long and have suggestions on how I could shorten it, that would be much appreciated!
Short answer, yes, I think it’s rather too long. If your content warning is too long, readers will be inclined to skip it, which is the exact opposite of what you want. You want to make it easy to read or even skim. If in any way possible, getting it down to one page would be absolutely ideal.
As for how you could shorten it, I think you need to think about your purpose for writing it! You’re giving a very brief idea of what will happen so readers know what they’re getting themselves into. After that, it’s for them to decide whether to read it or not, and they’re coming into it with the expectation that you’re a Christian author and that you’ll write according to that. You don’t need to explain any of your choices in the content guide, your writing itself will make that clear enough because you did put a lot of thought and prayer into it!
Now, that said, I always check out content/trigger warnings before reading books, and the most useful ones to me were the ones in a list format.
So, it would have several categories, like “Social issues”- “Mental health”- “Language”- “Violence”- “Sexual content”- etc
And then within that, you want to put down what you already have as briefly as possible. In my opinion, you don’t need much or any detail except if it’s out of the norm in some way.
I usually divide content into a few categories. Detailed, On-screen, Off-screen, and implied.
So detailed would be from a POV character or something with all the emotional showing that makes it graphic and potentially triggering.
On-screen is something that happens, but perhaps without the deep emotional showing, or that cuts off before the most triggering parts.
Off-screen is something that is mentioned, or even described, but isn’t currently happening or isn’t shown.
Implied is something like a brief mention or strongly hinted at.
So, you can think of your CW less as a piece of writing and more of a list. So, to give you an example, the part about Russel from your CW might look like this:
“POV character with PTSD and depression from war experiences, detailed panic attacks, survivor’s guilt, semi-graphic nightmares, and flashbacks. Could definitely be triggering.”
As you can see, it’s way briefer and easier to read but gives you a good idea of what it’s like.
I hope this was helpful in some way! Again, this is just my opinion, and you should follow your own judgment on this!
- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
- Total Posts: 1379
ROSEEE!! It’s been a while since we chatted! It’s great to see you, too! 😄
Ooh, thank you for all the amazing tips! Yeah, I definitely agree that the guide is too long, and I hadn’t considered that that might make some readers skip it, so thank you so much for pointing that out!
Putting it in list format sounds like a wonderful idea. I think I’ll rewrite it that way. And make some of the details briefer!
Thanks for taking the time to read and give me feedback! It really helps!
- Rank: Chosen One
- Total Posts: 8156
@joy-caroline. There’s nothing else for me to add. @rose-everdeen put it perfectly. 🙂 But I do agree…it was a little long. Personally, I’d read it anyways, because if a book has a content guide…I’m going to read it.
But for most people…like Rose said, they’d probably skip over it.
But otherwise, I cheer you on for tackling such tough subjects in your book, and I’m glad God has led you through that. 😊🙏
And now I’m thinking I maybe should have one for my book…or…well…books…🤔
- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
- Total Posts: 1379
@rose-everdeen @freedomwriter76
Thank you both so much for the feedback! It helped a lot. I now have a new and improved (and shortened, lol) content guide.
- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
- Total Posts: 1379
@freedomwriter76
Thank you! Also, I’d totally recommend having a content guide for your books. It’s so important to make sure readers are fully informed!
- Rank: Chosen One
- Total Posts: 8156
@joy-caroline. You’re Welcome! 😀 I’m glad to hear it!
And yeah, I think it’ll be a good idea. Though not very graphic, some of them are about the Holocaust, and a few feature MC’s that have flashbacks to childhood abuse…so…content guides will be good for those. 🙂
- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
- Total Posts: 1379
@freedomwriter76
Definitely! And if some of your characters have PTSD, a trigger warning would likely be good for that too.
- Rank: Chosen One
- Total Posts: 8156
@joy-caroline. Ahh, true, that too. As many of my characters do have PTSD.
@joy-caroline
I don’t really have much input to add, except that first, I agree with everything suggested, (I like the list format very much) and thank you so much for writing this for your book! I would absolutely want to know about all that before heading into it. Especially about the immorality, graphic content, and domestic abuse.
I didn’t know that Content Warnings we’re a thing, but now I wish everyone at least considered using them.
You have listened to fears, child. Come, let me breathe on you... Are you brave again? -Aslan
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