Thoughts on a "warning" in a story foreword?

[KeithD]

I don't do or support using defensive proslugs on stories. Many here do, though, so there's no agreement on what to do.

 

[MyBareTorso]

I think the intro would be a good idea. Also, very easy for readers to skip if they don't like such intros...

 

[Devinter]

Issues arise when we get into broader genres.

I write mostly NC/R, but the stories in NC/R range between "me and my SO just bought some pink feathery handcuffs" to full on non-con torture, so clarifying what a reader who just browses the daily new nc/r page is in for is just decent behaviour.

I agree with this. I start all of my work with a foreword - generally, a type of warning. They don't explain the plot but they do mention if there's going to be some sexual aspects to the story that a reader might find off-putting. I also try to use the tags to warn sensitive readers about potential problems, whilst at the same time attracting those that might be into the particular fetish or whatever it may be that the story in question contains.

For me it's a matter of being polite. I don't want a reader to waste their time reading something that they would find displeasing. I'd rather be honest and upfront from the start, even if it would cause certain readers to click out of the story right away. If the stories I wrote would be more "vanilla" then maybe this would be excessive, but by now it's a habit so I include the forewords even on stories that perhaps wouldn't truly need them.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Well, I think this site exists in one sense to give readers stuff they enjoy reading while at the same time giving authors a bit of positive feedback for their efforts.

There are things which please most of us, things which please some of us and things very few people enjoy. Picking one of those last at random, let’s use water sports - pee play - as our example. Certainly we would tag a story involving that and it would probably go in Fetish to boot. Yet there could be times when water sports might be mentioned in passing in an otherwise very vanilla story. Is it possible a ‘normal’ reader might find unexpectedly stumbling in that distasteful? Yes, certainly. And right there we have a displeased reader and, possibly, bad feedback. There are many other examples, if you think about it.

As I said earlier, I am about to submit a story without any sex in it. It’s erotic, so the Non-E category isn’t suitable, IMHO. Yet I am very aware that, by and large, this is litEROTICA and readers come here with the reasonable expectation of seeing people getting it on in one form or another. To save the shrill ‘where’s the meat?’ comments, I will indeed be giving such a readers a heads-up. To me that’s not only simple courtesy, but also serves to get me better feedback by helping the readers to choose a tale best suited to their tastes. Win-win.

Think about a normal bookstore. All the books have either a dust jacket or a back cover giving some idea of the contents - again, to help would-be readers make informed choices. This is no different.

There are those who dismiss such with ‘I write what I please and if readers don’t like it, too bad!’. I can only encourage them not to make a career in the restaurant industry. Their menus would read only, ‘Plate du jour- and we ain’t gonna tell you what it is; you’ll find out once you’ve eaten it’.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Imagine the following:

[Deep voiced announcer] Previously on Star Trek: The Next Generation...
[Shots of the Enterprise engaging in battle] "The Borg have taken the Captain"
[Shots of the crew looking stunned on the bridge. Borg Picard appears on the view screen] "We are Borg now. We will assimilate your civilization. Resistance is futile."
Data: "We can get the Captain back if we set off a phase-modulated harmonic resonance in the dilithium matrix of the Borg ship warp core."
[Shots of the away team boarding the Borg ship and engaging in a heated phaser battle]"The Captain's safe and we can change him back from Borg"

[Deep-voiced announcer]
Now in tonight's episode...nothing very much! No, really. Picard is going to hang around in his vineyard for pretty much the whole forty-five minutes. No phaser battles. No hand-to-hand combat. No aliens with weird foreheads. It's pretty much all going to be character stuff. Patrick Stewart is going to be carrying this episode hard. Which he can totally do, by the way. But we just wanted to make the point that the Cap had a pretty bad week last week and needs time to recover. It's pretty essential for the series going forward especially as we're going to be calling back to it every time we want dramatic gravitas over the next thirty years. And, to be completely honest we blew all the budget on that episode last week. So maybe just skip this one and tune in next week. There'll be Klingons then, we promise.

[Stirring strings]Space...the final frontier...

Yeah, don't do that. If you're worried your story is boring, have another go at making it not boring. If you think it's worth sharing, share it without apology.

 

[tenyari]

I'm all for putting in things like that.

I use tags to note things that people might want to filter out just as much as I do for things to filter in.

I'm not here to "enlighten my reader on the joys of some weird kink they are extremely turned off to." Nor do I want to be casually reading a nice happy erotic story only to land in something really weird or unpleasant to me. This is not where I go for "difficult reading" such as that.

"Back in the old days" of usenet and asstr there was a notion of tagging and then warning about common 'squicks' - things that are extreme turnoffs to many readers.

Like it or not; some of these are things like sexualities. So tag those: FF, MF, MM. Thankfully this is literotica so we don't have the 'lowercase' versions of those tags...

Any mix of violence and sex should be warned about. Even a story that is just heavily violent on it's own should be warned about since this is an erotica site not an action-genre site.

And then of course, since it's an erotica site I'll warn if the chapter / story is going to be particularly lacking in erotic content.

I like to also note if there's likely to be a strong socio-political slant.

A weird one I also have had to add in the past due to writing in genre fiction where a lot of amateur writers are writing fanfic like stories where the protagonist can solve any problem is to note that my protagonist is deeply flawed and the reader is only getting their perspective. Basically warning my reader that the story they're about to read won't read like fantasy wish fulfillment, but might read a little closer to amateur Greek tragedy...
- That may seem an odd one, but I had to put that as a note in some stories years ago when I started getting angry letters because my characters were making too many mistakes...

 

[EmilyMiller]

Thoughts on a "warning" in a story foreword?​

Nowadays I only include forenotes (save for a special reason, e.g. the story being based on song lyrics) if they are advisory. For example if a story in Lesbian Sex also includes some Fetish elements.

Emily

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Yeah, don't do that. If you're worried your story is boring, have another go at making it not boring. If you think it's worth sharing, share it without apology.

This.

 

[nice90sguy]

My other nine stories have all been pretty cock full of sexy situations

Yes, a pretty cock full can be a sexy situation.

Not sure it needs a warning to the reader tbh

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I don't believe in warnings or disclaimers.

 

[AchtungNight]

Complaints because the protagonist makes too many mistakes? I’ve never had that issue.

 

[luv2custrip]

I only include “warnings” if the story—for example—starts out as E&V then ends up with some B&D… or other taboo goings-on.

 

[Sinstories]

I wrote one warning, sort of, it was more an instruction to the reader in the final chapter of Not Quite the Brady Bunch..

When you read the ending, please picture a 60s or 70s TV sitcom ending (the freeze frame as the characters laugh over dramatically while the cheesy laugh track plays in the background).

I thought the ending was clever and tied back to the opening of the first chapter...so I wanted to make sure the readers got the joke. Yes, I know, if you have to explain it, it's not really very funny. Maybe it was a warning that cheese was coming.

 

[KeithD]

I don't believe in being defensive in anticipating that some readers won't like something in my story and I need to warn them off from hyperventilating over finding it on their own. I want my readers to be adults and to take responsibility for their own reading/fetishes/turnoffs.

The closest I come to doing this is that the first chapter in a series run on Literotica will have a proslug declaring that the whole work is finished, how many chapters there are, and that the last chapter will be posted b XX date.

 

[Codoc24]

Every book on every website that sells books has a book description so the reader can have a little idea of what to expect. Here on Lit's website, I think a foreword or author's notes can serve the same purpose IF the author wants to. If they don't, then that's ok too. Sure, you can get a little idea from the tags what the story is about, but I don't see anything wrong with a foreword. I do believe that an author should at least consider listing trigger warnings depending on what their story is about.

 

[Yogma]

Because I'm fairly new at writing, I tend to jump around genres quite a bit as I tackle stories and situations that interest me. Therefore, I do tend to put a line or two as a forward, just to let the reader know what they are getting into, as it isn't always easy to tell just based on my previous stories.

That said, it doesn't always work. I've just had a comment complaining about the "disgusting gender bender" aspects of my story, despite it being called A Man called Susan, and the forward describing it as a man temporarily being transformed into a woman by magic, so that he can make his wife's fantasy come true. Sometimes people will just ignore what you tell them

 

[dadadadiox]

A note is fine but I suggest keeping it simple. I’ve used the movie rating system in the past. A simple note stating this chapter is rated PG is warning enough.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Go fucking postal on me. I'm not afraid. I'm sure as hell not going to put any sort of foreword or disclaimer on the top of my work that tells anything about how the story goes. The whole point is to read because you don't know how it goes. You want to find out how it goes.

For those who like to know some idea of how the story goes before you start reading, well then are you really wanting to read someone's story or do you just want someone to recite some version of your own fantasy back to you? Be honest.

I see your point, but to me, our ‘job’ as writers is to entertain, to please. Given that everybody has their own tastes, I think a short note up front can help readers choose. It is, IMHO, no more ‘cheating’ than a back cover blurb on a real book - something to tweak interest if suitable and steer away those readers for whom it isn’t.

 

[Britva415]

Sometimes people will just ignore what you tell them

Sometimes you save them the trouble of reading the story, so that they can jump straight to the flaming, which is what they're really interested in.

 

[mildlyaroused]

Go fucking postal on me. I'm not afraid. I'm sure as hell not going to put any sort of foreword or disclaimer on the top of my work that tells anything about how the story goes. The whole point is to read because you don't know how it goes. You want to find out how it goes.

For those who like to know some idea of how the story goes before you start reading, well then are you really wanting to read someone's story or do you just want someone to recite some version of your own fantasy back to you? Be honest.

Yeah, don't do that. If you're worried your story is boring, have another go at making it not boring. If you think it's worth sharing, share it without apology.

I wouldn't do it, but I don't do forwards. If I wrote a story I felt I had to explain before the readers read it, I think I would rewrite the section that I felt had to be explained.

I think comments like these are kind of missing the point.

The OP's story doesn't need explaining to readers, and they aren't worried that it's too boring. They aren't spoiling the narrative or telling the readers how the story will go.

It's purely a matter of there not being much sex in the chapter, despite being an erotic series on an erotica website. It's not a lack of confidence or dissatisfaction in their writing: it's an acknowledgement to readers (searching for erotica) that this specific chapter doesn't have that much sex.

In mainstream publishing you wouldn't put a disclaimer at the start of a book which says "this is a slow-burn", but this is Literotica. Gently telling readers there isn't that much erotica present is not the same as not having faith in what has been written.

A foreword is useful, since it lets readers who are after sex temper their expectations.

 

[TheRedChamber]

In mainstream publishing you wouldn't put a disclaimer at the start of a book which says "this is a slow-burn", but this is Literotica. Gently telling readers there isn't that much erotica present is not the same as not having faith in what has been written.

Ultimately it's just one sentence at the start of the story, so maybe it's not a huge issue.

Still, increasingly, I feel like the more you feel the need to explain or excuse your writing, the less confident you appear about the quality of your work to the people reading it. I put several disclaimers on my earlier work that I probably wouldn't include now that I've got some experience under my belt. As I said before, if you are genuinely concerned that your readers are not going to enjoy what is coming, well it's on you to make it more interesting. If you've written four chapters with hot sex and interesting characters, but you're suddenly worried that just interesting characters aren't going to fly - well, maybe the characters aren't as interesting as you thought.

But again, this is just my take on things. Some authors love having a conversation with their readers at the start of a story - explaining what's up with the story and how it turned out the way it did, and I guess some readers like that. My preference though is for letting the story/chapter stand or fall on its own merits.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I add the warning, CHECK THE TAGS to every story. There are enough "default" categories that you never know what you'll find in a particular story.

 

[mildlyaroused]

As I said before, if you are genuinely concerned that your readers are not going to enjoy what is coming, well it's on you to make it more interesting. If you've written four chapters with hot sex and interesting characters, but you're suddenly worried that just interesting characters aren't going to fly - well, maybe the characters aren't as interesting as you thought.

I agree with you in the sense that your story should stand on its own merit, and I respect your perspective, but I still think this is an entirely different scenario.

If you've written a chapter of just interesting characters and don't think it's going to fly, it's not because they aren't as interesting as you thought - it's because most readers on Lit don't want (only) interesting characters.

You could write the next Pulitzer prize winner and still have doubts. It has nothing to do with how interesting the characters are. "Doesn't fly" is entirely in the context of Literotica. The audience here expects sex, so if your Pulitzer-winning characters don't have a lot of it, a cautionary foreword is a good idea.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I agree with you in the sense that your story should stand on its own merit, and I respect your perspective, but I still think this is an entirely different scenario.

If you've written a chapter of just interesting characters and don't think it's going to fly, it's not because they aren't as interesting as you thought - it's because most readers on Lit don't want (only) interesting characters.

You could write the next Pulitzer prize winner and still have doubts. It has nothing to do with how interesting the characters are. "Doesn't fly" is entirely in the context of Literotica. The audience here expects sex, so if your Pulitzer-winning characters don't have a lot of it, a cautionary foreword is a good idea.

Put it another way. We're four (or whatever) chapters in. What are you readers supposed to do with the knowledge that this is a sexless episode? If they can just skip this chapter and on to the sexiness in chapter six, then is this chapter really necessary for anyone? If you are that worried about not carrying readers with you, then the solution surely is to work on your plot and submission divisions so that you are including 'sexiness' at appropriate intervals. Action beats are important in erotic stories, and just having an apology for not pacing things properly isn't really a fix. If you can't fit sex in here, at least have the plot flowing so people can see how the new status quo allows for new and interesting sexy times in the upcoming chapters.

Besides, if you don't mention it, there's always a chance (some) readers won't notice.

 

[RetroFan]

RETROFAN IN MAY 2019: Figures that Incest/Taboo readers who want to read stories about people who share lots of DNA having sex would not be bothered about scenes involving women using the toilet and having their periods, so starts off a comedy series with a story that contains scenes where the bitchy, bossy drama queen sister/daughter makes a huge scene about the toilet seat being left up and inadequate toilet paper when she has a bathroom emergency; and where the bad-tempered wife/mother sits on the toilet having a bad case of period shits and changes her sanitary napkin with no prior warning of this content.

INCEST/TABOO FANS: Make it very clear to RetroFan that they are bothered by this content and mind very much, especially with no prior warning.