Regarding this, I've considered whether broader cw could work for that a bit. A problem I've hit upon myself though is that the appropriate content warnings can vary from person to person, kinda?
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There's a (short, unfinished) story I wrote, for instance, that I call body/psychological horror. But the first person I showed it to told me it wasn't horror at all, that for them it was extremely chill.
aug 12, 2025, 7:43 am • 1 0 • view
Then I showed it to someone else, telling them it was body / psychological horror, but that it seemed it was pretty light and that person complained to me that I hadn't warned them properly, because that was extremely heavy horror for them.
aug 12, 2025, 7:43 am • 1 0 • view
Anyway, end of the day I think my conclusion was that content warnings are just an indication, and will never be perfect.
aug 12, 2025, 7:43 am • 1 0 • view
Regarding what you mentioned though, I think some stories do need cw, especially those that go (bad/hard) places you wouldn't expect. If I go into a story that seems chill and doesn't have any cw, I actually go in prepared for nothing more than a chill time ^^'
aug 12, 2025, 7:43 am • 1 0 • view
(also of note, the genre, title, cover, sinopsis and introduction to a story help serve some of the purpose of cw. If I'm reading a story about vampires, a cw about blood might not be necessary, so I'd be prepared for *that* with no cw)
aug 12, 2025, 7:43 am • 1 0 • view
But I also think using broader cw (such as "body horror" or "explicit content") is ok when you're unsure of the specifics or don't want to go too much into details.
aug 12, 2025, 7:43 am • 1 0 • view
(then again, iirc, most of what I've read from you is just good and happy, so it's probably fine to worry less about content warnings)
aug 12, 2025, 7:43 am • 1 0 • view
Most of my writing is fluffy, but I have a few more serious stories.
aug 12, 2025, 10:52 am • 1 0 • view