(no subject)

[lyssie]

I don't get it. I still think fooling people into reading something with a bad ending by omitting a warning is mean.

...y'know... there's just nothin' I can say to that.

Stark Incomprehension all round, lads?

Comments

[elemental-fey.livejournal.com]

Ok I'm new here but I do have to chime in ::Hates haveing to go against the crowd::

I can see where a warning is a good thing, even a mandantory thing... now don't get me wrong I ♥ angst - hell I writeangst... but there are some out there who can't handel depressing fics.

My mom won't go watch a movie where someone or something dies. Why? Because if she does she will litterly cry for hours... a warning for people like her is just a kindness - an act of common curtosey to those too sensative to handel such things.

It's also a good idea to add warnings because well people like me exist. You know people with clincial diagnosis that include depression. I read something in the wrong mood and it could be just the thing I need to push me from blue to morose. So, a fair warning let's me know to bookmark and go back when I feel stronger.

Just giveing voice to the other side of the coin.

Er.

[nique.livejournal.com]

I still think that doesn't mean the world must be MADE SAFE OMG!

Fic may be depressing. That said, no one is forcing anyone to read it. Seriously.

It's something you participate in at your own risk. I mean, bad punctuation and stupid plots make me homicidal, and I don't see anyone offering to warn for their insipidness.

Re: Er.

[elemental-fey.livejournal.com]

No, nobody is forcing anyone to read anything - however, without those warnings you don't have the option of steering away from depressing fics either.

As far as makeing the world safe, so sue me I belive in takeing care of each other and showing basic human consideratin to my fellow man.

Bad plots, and rotten grammer are something that you can pick up on within the first paragraph. It's not like it's something that you're not going to see coming beyond the first two minutes (give or take). Unlike a sucker punch ending, which takes you by surprise.

Re: Er.

[nique.livejournal.com]

You know what?

The world is not a sanitized, safe place.

Most people are not writing their fic *for* the readers anyway. They're writing it for themselves. They don't owe you a damned thing. Like several people have pointed out on similar threads, if this were a book, you'd be lucky to get a summery of what the story was even about.

Get over it or stop reading. That's all the advice I've got to offer. I'm pretty sure no one's gonna start giving away the whole plot to their fics because a few people whine.

Oh, and that Suckerpunch ending? The one that takes you by surprise?

Guess why it does that?

BECAUSE THAT'S THE ENTIER FUCKING POINT. Get over it.

Re: Er.

[lavidaessueno.livejournal.com]

Word.

*friends you, hopes that is all right*

Re: Er.

[nique.livejournal.com]

*snickers* I don't post much, but I rant well.

Re: Er.

[splash-the-cat.livejournal.com]

It's the sense of expectation and entitlement that has developed among readers that pisses me off about the topic. Many readers now see that it is the writers' responsibility to protect them from things they do not want, and to make their lives more convenient in avoiding what they don't want and finding what they do want.

No, that isn't my responsibility. My job is not to protect the reader. It isn't even so much an issue of consideration. It's a question of accepting one's own responsibility for one's own choices. And pawning that responsibility off on the writer comes across as pretty damn discourteous. I get that side, I get their issue. I just don't see how it is my problem.

And implying that a fic writer is responsible to add a warning that a story is depressing to protect a reader because they might be clinically depressed or because their fic might be a mood trigger? That's just ridiculous. That is putting an unbelievably out-of-line expectation on a writer, and frankly, comes across as a guilt trip.

And too, for every reader out there who wants to be warned about potentially sensitive topics (i.e. character deaths, sad endings, pairings not getting together), there's another reader who doens't want to be warned for it. Why does the sensitive reader have more rights than the reader who doesn't want to be spoiled or warned?

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

...

And, see, I just... I don't get that. At all. If fic makes you sad, go read something else, or don't read it at all.

It just flabbergasts me, that I'm supposed to pussy-foot around just because it might make someone depressed.

Oh, well. I never said I wanted to be the popular girl. ;)

[elemental-fey.livejournal.com]

Why is it pussy footing around to add one sentence to your header? "Warning angst ahead" three little words...

And just because some fic makes you sad, some of the time does not mean you shouldn't read fic. I mean that would be like saying because I'm not always in the mood for sex - I should never have it...

[lavidaessueno.livejournal.com]

Do you make this demand in other aspects of your life? Do you check the ending of every book, every TV episode, every movie? Do you write to book publishers, movie and television studios and tell them they need to give proper warning because some people don't like not-happy endings?

To turn your argument around, just because some readers overreact to a fic, some of the time, does not mean all writers need to label all of their stories all of the time.