Welcome back to another month of Bookish Debates! May is Mental Health Awareness Month! For this month's debate prompts, we asked our dreamers to share their thoughts on what it means to write or read books with heavier content, as well as place that trigger warnings have when interacting with such works. 

Read on to hear that they had to say! 

Note 1: As always, we welcome everyone to share additional thoughts in the comments! However, we kindly ask that everyone maintain respect and patience as opinions may differ, and not everyone may be fully familiar with this topic.

Note 2: Some of the responses below contain information that may be upsetting, triggering or uncomfortable for readers. If that is the case, please skip this chapter! None of the responses below seek to glorify, justify or diminish the topics raised within them. 

In the event that you experience any discomfort, please do not hesitate to reach out to a loved one or seek professional help! 

TWs: References to sexual assault, self-harm and suicide.

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Questions posted on the 11th May 2024

Question for Our Writers: What is your gauge when writing mentally and emotionally heavy scenes that make you think that you should include a trigger warning? Should there be a standardized list of themes or scenes that will automatically warrant a trigger warning? 

Question for Our Readers: How much of a book could you read or are willing to read based on the number of trigger warnings? Would it make a difference if the warnings were explicitly worded over one that is vague (i.e. "this chapter contains mentions of abuse" vs "this chapter discussed emotional and physical abuse to xyz extent)? 

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All answers are slightly modified for grammar and structure.

Winning answer posted by High_Priestess_Elena

So I definitely strayed a bit from the specific questions in my answers. But, oh well, I got a lot of opinions about this topic since I find it almost impossible to write without getting into heavier and emotional topics.

So I'm going to start with what I personally think as a reader, simply because that will be quite short and straight-forward. I don't like trigger warnings, especially not at the beginning of chapters. To me, they are generally spoilers and quite often also feel arbitrary. Like I've read one book that had a trigger warning in the beginning of a chapter for attempted rape but then didn't have a warning for a chapter where the FL, due to magic, is unable to say she doesn't want to have sex but acts like she does, so the ML thinks she wants it, so they have sex. Honestly, reading that book, I definitely thought the chapter without the trigger warning needed it much more than the one that did. Though, like said, I personally don't want nor like trigger warnings at the beginning of chapters.

Now, as a writer, I find this much more complicated. I know there are people that do avoid reading about certain topics for good reasons, and, of course, I don't want someone reading my books to end up reading something they know triggers them and then end up spiraling down a bad path. I still do not add trigger warnings at the beginning of the chapters, but I have a list in the description. Part of this is because of my own personal preference for not liking when it comes in the beginning of a chapter. But the bigger part is that I began adding it at the beginning of the chapters for my first book, only to end up with way too many chapters that I had no idea if I ought to add a trigger warning to or not.

An example of that one is suicidal thoughts. Now that trigger is, for me, specific to one chapter. But as I looked through the book to add trigger warnings at the beginning of the chapters, I ended up with quite a few that had me asking: how "bad" and explicit do the thoughts have to be to be considered suicidal thoughts? Is thinking, "I wish I had never been born," considered bad and explicit enough? How about "Maybe my death would give life, since my life only gave death"? Or "I was done with everything. With life"? Not to mention that if I had to provide trigger warnings for all anxiety and self-destructive thoughts, I'd have to provide warnings for almost every chapter from one of the character's POV. So I opted to simply have the trigger warnings in the description but then none in the actual book. I also don't think this is something that will be solved by there being a list of topics and types of scenes that need trigger warnings because there's so much with heavier topics that ends up in a gray area.

To some extent, this also comes down to the reader taking responsibility for their own mental health as well. If you come across a book that states a topic you don't want to read about as a topic that will be in the book, then I do think the reader has a certain responsibility to realize themselves that maybe this book isn't for me instead of starting to read and then plan on just skipping the triggering parts because also, if triggering topics are isolated to specific chapters that can easily be skipped, then I would say that topic often isn't dealt with in a good way. 

I have a book that is yet to be published that has one character being raped. I will have the trigger warning in the description, and for that one, I'm planning on also adding what specific chapter it occurs in. However, after it has happened, there are so many mentions of it since that character's character arch is focused on learning to live with it and the other traumatic things that happened to her. She'll think back on it; she'll dream about it; and if it is a topic that a reader doesn't feel comfortable reading about, then that book will not be for them. It won't be possible to simply skip the scene it occurs in and then not risk being triggered later. 

For me, trigger warnings and such come down to that. I think it's my responsibility as the author to ensure a reader can make an informed decision about whether a book is for them or not, but it is the reader's responsibility to know themselves and what might potentially trigger them and make the right decision for them about whether they should or should not read a book.

Second place response by chaosxpersonified

Personally, trigger warnings might also draw me closer to the book, in a way that I or someone I knew had experienced something like this, or I may be curious about those scenarios. It informs me that what occurs in the book could have been and probably has been experienced by real people, and that this text delves into that. It provides this sense of comfort, or discomfort, when you get to understand what it's like and what goes on with the people around it. It helps raise awareness and brings us closer to understanding one another's perspectives. However, I definitely agree with @Elena | High_Priestess_Elena since they can spoil the atmosphere of the story when used incorrectly. To this end, I'd prefer if the warnings were more vague (not delving into the plot directly) and were used upfront, since it really doesn't make sense for a book to just have one chapter labelled as tw, since it will most certainly have some details that would be used throughout the book, and a reader would just be wasting their time as they struggle to understand the scenario and the character since they are missing a key scene from the story.

I mostly write to relieve myself, to get out of my own head in some way. So, I'd refer to a lot of emotionally painful and deeper topics that have affected me or someone I know, but it'd depend on how it's executed; for instance, if it's a direct recollection or something that does directly reflect the trauma and pain of the characters, there has to be a trigger warning. Especially when it's something quite serious and could cause unintended consequences for the reader's mental health, as @Sandy | sandydragon1 stated. Yet, how the scene is executed, such as how detailed it is, whether it's lightened by a relieving scene, and how the topics are approached, all matter in gauging the reader's reaction. Ultimately, it relies on the writer's preparation and the reader's responsibility to handle these topics in writing.

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That's all for now! We appreciate all that those took a moment out of their lives to participate in this discussion and congratulations once again to all the winners!