trigger warning noun noun: trigger warning; plural noun: trigger warnings
Over the last few months, debates have arisen (once again) about the use of Trigger Warnings for literature. I got involved then and I find myself once again wading into the conversation because, over on social media, a newspaper article has started being shared around on the very such topic and an acquaintance not only shared it but said how ridiculous it is that a book would need a trigger warning. I tried to engage in conversation with him, to explain why it is important for books to have trigger warnings but he didn’t want to know. He was close-minded and ended the conversation with “then they shouldn’t read horror”. Before that useful tip, he even said that if books need Trigger Warnings then so does pornography. After all, what if a homophobe clicked on some porn and was treated to a close-up video of a penis. At both comments, I rolled my eyes so damn hard that I actually saw my brain. And what a magnificent specimen it was too. Before I explain Trigger Warnings (and why they’re needed) let’s take a look at his answers. First, pornography. With pornography there are multiple categories to choose from. You can type in what you want to see and you can find it easily. It’s very rare that an unwanted surprise will invade your chosen show. There is even the choice of softcore and hardcore to choose from so, again, you really can tailor what you expose yourself to (no pun intended). For the more “extreme” categories, there are even websites dedicated to such “likes” (for example, shit-eating) and you won’t find such content on the bigger, more mainstream sites. I explained this to my “friend” and he dismissed it. I turned to his other comment about how people shouldn’t read horror if they don’t like it. Keep in mind, by this point of the conversation I had explained the different types of horror you can (to him) get but we will get to that in a minute. Now, from his argument, if people dislike certain aspects of horror then they should not read horror. Well, okay. That means if you dislike gross-out comedy because it offends you, you should avoid all comedy, right? After all it is easy to pick up such content given it is kept next to the more generic content (such as slapstick, or even romantic comedies). So, with how he views trigger warnings, if you don’t like a certain sub-genre then you should just avoid that entire genre to save yourself from accidentally stumbling on something you don’t like. A stupid outlook if ever I heard one but, then, engaging with this individual on social media was very much like talking to a brick wall. They were right, everyone else was wrong. At this point I walked away because life is short and I felt myself ageing every time he opened his mouth. So, why do I believe Trigger Warnings are essential? Simple: The world is a cruel place and some people have lived lives which would break some of us. They have experienced a kind of pain and trauma that we could not possibly begin to imagine and the last thing they want is to accidentally stumble across such themes in the books they choose to read. You see, not all blurbs explain about (for example) graphic rape scenes, animal cruelty, child abuse, miscarriages and so on and so forth. In fact a lot of the time such topics can simply be a sub-plot which takes the reader by surprise. Even if you have no empathy for people who have suffered these things in real life, consider it from a business point of view: If they hate your book, they will leave a negative review, they will tell their friends to avoid it, you will lose a reader for life. If you show compassion and give them fair warning then - oh well - there’s nothing else you can do if they chose to read it and still review it negatively but, then, it’s them who look ridiculous. They’ll leave a bad review, someone will read it and the first thing they’ll wonder is, Why did they read the book given the warnings? Another tip for business? Treat someone’s triggers with respect. Only the other week there was a reader on Twitter looking for more extreme horror. My name was mentioned by a good friend and the reader commented they were worried about stumbling on material which triggered them. I saw the post, I reached out and I said that they can contact me at any time, about any of my books, if they want to know if it is safe to read. I don’t want to add to their trauma. I want them to read my work and enjoy it. My reply was re-tweeted a number of times. One comment came back with the tweet: Great first impression with the author who tried to help me as oppose mock my triggers. Because, yes, in some cases authors have been mocking people who have certain triggers. These authors are simply known as “assholes”. Now we need to take pause for a moment so I can explain that not all horror books need trigger warnings. There are lots of sub-genres of horror but for the sake of this piece, I’m going to ignore them all and break “horror” down to mainstream horror and underground horror. Stephen King would be considered mainstream, as would Dean Koontz. Whilst I write in multi-genres with some books aimed more towards a mainstream audience, I got my big break in writing with extreme horror and splatter-punk. Both of these sub-genres I would put in the underground horror camp. The difference between the two of them? Simple: In Stephen King’s book “Pet Sematary” the cat gets run over. The family is sad, they bury it. Obviously this is a rather simplistic view towards that particular part of the book and I’m certainly not making light of King’s work, or abilities as a wordsmith. But if you take that section of the book and re-write it as though writing an extreme horror story then we would know the colour of the guts, how far they stretched down the road and we’d no doubt hear the cat’s last “meow”, probably have its eyes rolling around and fixing on the owner just as they get to the mangled body. Please be aware the next paragraph contain strong sexual imagery and words that may cause offence If someone gets raped in a mainstream horror, the scene doesn’t tend to linger. It tells the story it needs and concentrates on other plot points. Same story but done with underground horror? We linger. How tight is the woman’s cunt? What does it taste like, the smell, the stickiness of the semen as it dribbles from between her labia, the pain she felt, the joy the rapist felt, explicit details of how the hard cock tore up her dry insides etc. You get the idea. Now it used to be fairly easy to avoid underground horror but ebooks have really taken off since Amazon made writing accessible to anyone with half a braincell and something to type upon. Anyone and everyone is writing and it seems every week there are new authors out there (in all genres) looking to outdo people who’ve been writing before them. They want to get read, they want to get heard and it readers of the extreme want grossness, these authors want to be considered the grossest out there. Herein lies the problem though: The easier it is to publish to mainstream sites (such as Amazon), the more chance someone will stumble across the work. Now in some cases it is very obvious what would be considered an extreme book just in how the cover is created. It could have a graphic image or it could have a nasty title. In my case - my really nasty books have a black cover with an over the top title and nothing else but a red-written warning explaining there is graphic content within the book. Mainstream readers will tend to move on when they see this. Occasionally, as shown in some reviews, some will give the work a go and then realise it isn’t for them and that’s fine because it is their choice to do so. They knew what they were getting involved in when they read the title, the warning and even the blurb (which contained another warning to the content). However, not all extreme horrors are presented in such a way. The blurb describes the story as (for example) some kind of revenge plot. The cover looks classy and the title could be as innocent as “A Day at the Beach” (actually, I might use that now). So a mainstream horror fan comes along and reads the blurb. The book sounds good. They like the cover, the title is intriguing and - funnily enough - they’re off on a beach holiday so it really does sound like the perfect reading material, right? Only once they start reading do they realise that it’s graphic in content. The book upsets them, they can’t finish it, they leave a negative review, they tell their friends you’re a shit writer and you lose a customer (and potentially more). If only you’d put a little warning there that some scenes might offend then they could have swerved the book and they would have been pleased that you took the time to make such a statement for it saved them unnecessary upset and money. Before we move on: Do not make the mistake of thinking “negative reviews will just attract more readers”. Whilst the one star reviews moaning about how disgusting a book is can be beneficial, these reviews need to be balanced with good reviews from people who love the type of content you write. More people are likely to complain than to sing praises (anyone working in a retail environment will tell you this) and if you land in the wrong marketplace and get bombarded with one star reviews before you manage to get good reviews then your work is going to sink fast. I speak from experience. Anyway, if after reading this you still think it is ridiculous for a trigger warning on books, cast your mind back to the seventies when horror films came with both the BBFC certificate (English certification) and a warning on the cover to the “shocking content”. Many Faces of Death”, “The Evil Dead”, “I Spit on Your Grave”. Die hard horror fans flocked to such titles whilst those who preferred more mainstream horror stayed clear and yet - during these trigger warning posts, no one ever mentions videos from yesteryear? Why not? Why is it acceptable for a video to carry a warning but not a book. How are readers who are sensitive labelled as “snowflakes” but those who could have been offended by such films not? You can’t say it is because one is moving pictures and the other is simply words. Not when the imagination can be a powerful tool and nine times out of ten, you’d imagine a scene far worse in your own head… With regards to the topic of trigger warnings, I’m giving up in talking to people about it. If I see ignorant comments on social media again from people who just don’t understand them, or see the point of them, then really it says more about those individuals than those who use trigger warnings, or those who appreciate them. Knowing how long this argument has been burning away for, I have yet to hear a solid reason as to why trigger warnings should not be used and - for those who say they damage sales - they don’t. I’ve been using warnings on my hardcore books for almost ten years now and my biggest sellers are those which carry such a warning. The one star reviews those books have? Complaints about the book being disgusting but, again, that not only helps with sales for those who want disgusting content but also shows the reviewers ignored my warnings and that is down to them. Do keep in mind what I said earlier about having a healthy balance of those reviews and ones from people who love your work though! I cannot stress this enough, not all books needs to carry such warnings. If you write for mainstream audience then it is very rare that you would put in a scene so graphic it would upset people. Sure you might touch upon a sensitive subject but, it’s all about the detail used. If you consider your work to be “tame” then chances are you don’t need a trigger warning. If you’re chuckling away at what you write, because you know how disgusting it is then - you probably need to slap a warning on it. Anyway, in the words of Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that.” Matt Shaw Author of Sick B*stards, Rotting Dead F*cks and The Octopus Trilogy. Find Matt Shaw’s work: Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Matt-Shaw/e/B0034OVM56?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1628592452&sr=8-1 Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Matt-Shaw/e/B0034OVM56/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1  Biography Born in 1980, MATT SHAW is the award winning published author of over 200 stories. His work has been translated into Japanese, Korean, German and French - as well as being adapted into graphic novels. In 2018, Matt Shaw directed and produced his first feature film, MONSTER (available on Amazon) and, in 2019, he went on to produce and direct his second feature, NEXT DOOR. * * * *. * LINKS: www.patreon.com/TheMattShaw https://www.buymeacoffee.com/NYJCF6q?fbclid=IwAR0Mhj85waWYR-wQ6wQMmcSJySNbnoI1YfAiZ46HdLp6z5zff3_9TENZNwo facebook.com/mattshawpublications TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE[BOOK REVIEW] UPMORCHARD BY R. OSTERMEIER THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR FEATURESComments are closed.
|
Archives
April 2023
|
RSS Feed
|
|