Trigger Warnings and Owning Recovery

If you're recovering from sexual assault, it's been a rough couple of weeks. Again. This week saw the #MeToo hashtag sweep social media. There were no trigger warnings. And yes, people were triggered - people who are in the midst of attempting to recover their sense of safety and their sense f of self. Seeing all the #MeToo hashtags brought their trauma roaring back at them. Some were women. Some were men. Some were nonbinary. It didn't matter. Their only option for protecting themselves was to swear off social media for the week and pray the rest of us moved on in that time. As we usually do. If these folks are lucky, they have someone they can trust who can tell them when it's safe to tread the social media water once more. If they aren't lucky, they have to dip a toe in the water to see if Jaws is still down there waiting to chomp bits off of them.

Bringing awareness to the depth and breadth of the sexual assault issue in this society is a worthy goal. The problem is the cost of that awareness is blood squeezed from the already broken bodies and psyches of those abused in the first place. Do I believe that those of us who've been assaulted regain our power when we can stand up and say 'hey, this is a thing?' Yes. But it isn't my call to make. I don't get to drag someone else healing in their own time, in their own way through a simple hashtag. I guess I'm saying that a few people are realizing that every female, a few males and a few nonbinary folks they know have been assaulted. Yay. More eyes on the issue. I'm also saying that maybe there should have been a trigger warning somewhere.

On the other hand.

Most of you know I've had my issues with depression - the kind of depression that bottoms out in suicidal ideation. Translated: I get depressed and stare Death in the eye. He's not a bad dude. He does promise you won't have to feel any more and that can be mighty damned attractive. However. I have a firm grip on what we say to Death. So I sought treatment. It worked. It worked well enough that I no longer require treatment.

However. I know my limits and I own them. It's on me to take care of my mental health all day every day. I do not require or ask for trigger warnings. My issues are my issues and it's on me to handle them the same way I handle food triggers for migraines. If I don't want to wind up in an ER, I read ingredients and quiz the wait staff. Peanuts anywhere near this dish? Cheese? How about wheat? No? Woot! I get to eat! Mental health gets handled the same way. Post a graphic animal or child abuse video to my social media feed and get your ass blocked. My health. My responsibility.

So. Am I going to post trigger warnings to my fiction? Probably not. Simply because there are too many triggers out there in the world and I cannot possibly encompass them all. I will always alert readers to graphic sex scenes so parents can decide who gets to read what. I will also do my damnedest in the book descriptions to make it clear EXACTLY what kind of read you're going to get. Because let's be real. If you're writing trying to purposefully ambush readers with awful, you aren't edgy. You aren't an artist. You're just an asshole.

Trigger Warnings, i.e. DIscussing 'That' Scene from Jovienne, again

NEWS: I'm starting a newsletter soon, so if you want to be in on the updates concerning the Persephone Alcmedi series, the Immanence series, or just want to be in on the fun, check out my website today. Note: It's a double opt-in, so there'll be an email to confirm. Thank you, kindly!

HALLOWEEN is coming (squee!!!!!) so I thought I'd offer a fun drink suggestion in this week's post.

http://www.momnoms.net/blog/vampires-kiss

VAMPIRE KISS

8 oz. blackberries

2 lemons, juiced

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup water

Ice

4 shots of rum

Splash of Sprite

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small sauce pan simmer blackberries, lemons, brown sugar, and water over medium high heat for 10-15 minutes.

2. Use a colander to strain out the blackberries

3. Put juice into a metal cocktail shaker, add ice, and rum.

4. Shake for about 20 seconds

5. Pour glasses 3/4 full and then add a splash of Sprite to each drink

I know what you're thinking, "...sounds good but that's too much work for a drink." But I'll be trying it before the holiday.

On to the topic...

Trigger Warnings: When Subject Matter is Controversial

I've struggled with whether or not my latest novel, Jovienne (Immanence Series, #1) should have a trigger warning.

On one hand, there is a rape scene. Flat out, it's easy to say, yes it needs a trigger warning. I've tried to put the word out there by blogging about it, posting and tweeting.

On the other hand, before that scene arises, I established these four things in the text: 

1.) all demons needed to feed on energy soon after they arrived in this world

2.) they fed two ways:

       a.) by killing and partaking of the death energy

or 

       b.) by a sexual exchange 

3.) if a specific type of demon physically touched a human for an extended time, they could pull images and thoughts from that person's mind

4.) those specific demons could shape shift

When I wrote the scenes for Jovienne's test, I didn't originally have a plan for getting her out of it alive. It wasn't a planned novel, but more of a short story exercise for me so I wasn't invested in making her live through it, as I was exploring what would happen if I tried to kill that character. How hard would she fight to finish her story?

I'd also established that her family was dead and that her father had been a hostile, brooding, bullying, belittling, tantrum of a man. She hated him. He gave her no kindness and allowed her no happiness. 

As an author, having her face him --or rather one of those specific shifting demon's wearing his face-- was the worst thing I could do to her. But that demon gained a position of power over her. Having the demon attempt what evil was already established as it's prerogative and do that horrific deed as her father... it certainly seemed a demonic act to me.

So yes, I pushed hard and I did so on purpose. It was not ever my intention to trigger anyone, so I have put the word out as best I know how.

I can hear you asking, "Why not cut the scene, then?"

Because her reaction and subsequent actions establish her character so strongly, so unrepentantly, that I could not do her the disservice of removing it. I accept that hers is not a journey everyone will want to read, but I must say that, for me, it has been an inspiration to write.

Trigger Warnings & The Delicate Flower

Trigger warnings for controversial material in fiction, particularly genre fiction, particularly speculative fiction. Yea or nay?

Nay.

Controversial material is a cornerstone of spec-fic. Good spec-fic should make you uncomfortable even as it entertains you. It should expand your horizons.

Part of the joy of reading is experiencing new things, strange things, and unpleasant things from the safety of the printed page. As a reader, if I'm freaked out by a scene, I can flip forward in the story or I can stop reading. No one is forcing me to read that book. And, if some authority was attempting to force me to read that book, my issue would be with that authority, not the book.

I write stories for mature audiences. Adults. Grown-ups. I don't include trigger warnings on my books. I don't include explicit sex warnings. I don't include graphic violence, foul language, or abundant gore warnings. My books may contain some, none, or all of the above.

There are reviewers out there who rate books on those categories. Subjective ratings. More power to them. Completely their prerogative. They are helping inform the consumer while raising awareness of the book. Awesome.

As a writer, if I'm penning a scene that I recognize as a controversial issue, then it's on me to write it as responsibly as I can. Yes, it's possible I will write scenes that do a disservice to survivors of similar real-life events. I'm fallible. There is always room for me to improve. Yes, my villains will do and think completely reprehensible things. My heroes might too. The only thing I can promise is that events happen to develop the plot and/or the character. Squick is not gratuitous. Trauma is not for titillation.

If I wrote Young Adult (or younger) stories, then okay, sure, I could understand including a caution about controversial themes. I imagine it'd be helpful for librarians and parents.

I don't support the idea of trigger warnings on adult content because we slide very quickly into the trap of thought-police, gatekeepers, and morality judges dictating what is an isn't appropriate along with what is and isn't 'responsibly' written. If the publishing house has a standard, then great, good for them. Hopefully, the author is aware of that standard before they sign the contract.

Yes, there are horrible, horrible people out there writing horrible, horrible stories about horrible, horrible acts for purely obscene pleasures that appeal the prurient interest. Want to protect yourself from those? Read the cover copy. Read the reviews. Read the opening pages. All that will tell you if you're about to stumble into a niche market that you want to avoid.

I don't write grimdark and I don't write cozy. I write second-world and urban fantasy for adults. If I do my job right, my stories should make you feel something. If I do it really well, you'll hate and love characters, laugh and cry during their struggles, all while staying up way past your bedtime to finish just one more chapter.

Delicate flowers have to be shielded. Readers, by their very nature, are running toward the storms of adventure.

Trigger Warnings - Do We Need Them?

The first SFWA Fantasy Story Bundle has been selling like hotcakes! Which...how DO hotcakes sell, anyway? Maybe fast before they cool off too much. But these stories will keep. For only $5 you get four full-length novels and for $15 total, you can get all twelve. Keep them forever and read at your leisure! A great way to discover new-to-you authors while supporting both those authors and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, who does so much to advocate for the genre and the profession. The first book in my Sorcerous Moons fantasy romance series, Lonen's War, is a part of the bundle.

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven is Trigger Warnings: When Subject Matter is Controversial.

This topic itself has become somewhat controversial in recent years, almost worthy of a trigger warning right there. The thing is, "controversial" doesn't equate to an actual trigger. The term comes from mental health circles, where "triggers are external events or circumstances that may produce very uncomfortable emotional or psychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety, panic, discouragement, despair, or negative self-talk." (Reference) Thus a "trigger warning" is intended to advise people with mental health issues of this variety that they may want to steer clear of the content. For example, a fictional rape scene might come with a trigger warning to advise victims of rape that reading could adversely affect them.

However, the term - as can be witnessed by the wording of our topic - has come to be associated with anything controversial in any way. The term "triggering" has become part of the modern lexicon for any topic that elicits a strong reaction. Or even a response that's out of the ordinary.

The thing is... art SHOULD elicit a reaction. Certainly out of the ordinary. Hopefully a strong one.

Otherwise, what's the point?

Sure, a lot of our entertainment is designed to be soothing, to lull us back into a level of numbness where we don't have to think or feel. With that sort of thing, mild is best. TV sitcoms strive to be amusing without being controversial in any way. The edgier comedies have more divided audiences, with equal numbers hating the show as love it.

Genre fiction is often escapist, yes - but I think the best kind also stirs grand emotions and ideas in us. That's what I love best, when a book moves me and makes me think about things I normally don't. But that's not being triggered.

I'm blessed enough to be more or less trigger-free. I have my hot button, sure, but I know what most of them are and I'm able to manage my responses for the most part. For people with actual triggers, I do try to be aware of what those might be and warning people appropriately. That's the compassionate thing to do.