Let’s Talk Trigger Warnings

Firstly, what's a trigger? In mental health terms, a trigger is something that affects your emotional state by causing you to feel overwhelmed or distressed.

Secondly, what's a trigger warning? It's a note to readers, either in the blurb or at the beginning of the book, that the story might contain a particular situation that certain readers might find disturbing.

I recently noticed a reviewer who was concerned that I didn't use trigger warnings on a book, and complained that this was “underhanded,” so I thought it might be useful to address this. The definition of “underhanded” is “acting or done in a secret or dishonest way,” so while I'm not being deliberately dishonest with the omission of trigger warnings, I am intentionally keeping the contents of the book a secret. Personally, as an avid reader myself, I hate trigger warnings. I want to be surprised by a plot, to have it unfold as I read and make me gasp, cry, recoil in horror, and melt with happiness at the end. I want to experience the emotions as the characters do. I don't want to be told what happens beforehand, not even a hint–for me, it spoils the adventure.

There's also a difference between discomfort and trauma. True triggers cause trauma, and those triggers could be something as small as a phrase or action that reminds a person of a traumatic event. Sounds and smells can be triggering too. A particular cologne or a specific song, for example. There's no way as an author that I could know and address every trigger with a warning.

Other topics cause discomfort, and yes, my books are meant to do this. They're meant to make readers feel uncomfortable with certain parts of the story. There are so many situations that people might find unsettling, and yet they're part of the world we live in. An unpalatable part, but a part nonetheless. To list all of them would make the warnings longer than the blurb itself, as well as giving away chunks of the story, and I'd still miss out those smaller triggers because I just don't know what they might be.

None of my writing is particularly graphic, and I prefer to focus on the characters' emotions rather than physical details, which is another reason I don't use warnings on my blurbs.

I write romantic suspense, and the suspense elements are often gritty and deal with real-world situations. For information, my books might contain references to any of the following:

• Murder
• Rape and other forms of sexual violence
• Animal abuse or death
• Emotional abuse
• Racism
• Political viewpoints
• Sizeism or fat-shaming
• Bad language
• Military conflict
• Child abuse
• Domestic violence
• Homophobia or transphobia
• Climate change
• Suicide
• Religious topics
• Self-harm
• Loss of a loved one
• Eating disorders
• On-the-page sex
• Pregnancy-related issues
• Stalking
• Incest
• Homophobia or transphobia
• Nudity
• Insects
• Blood
• Substance abuse
• Medical issues
• Bodily waste, such as vomit, faeces, or urine
• Pineapple on pizza
• Guns
• Other miscellaneous violence

It's also important to note that my books are works of fiction, not my autobiography. I am not my characters, and their views do not necessarily reflect my own. Part of the challenge as an author is to give each character their own personality, and to have that personality grow and sometimes change throughout a book or series. No matter now many gun-toting characters I write, I don't personally condone assassination, for example.

But I also like to keep my readers happy. I even wrote a version of the Black Trilogy with no swearing after some readers complained about Emmy's potty mouth, lol. If enough people want lists of the situations a book might include, I can easily include the bigger topics (those from the list above) on the book pages on my website, although it's still unlikely that I'll list them at retailers. What are your thoughts?

I'm also happy to address any specific worries a reader might have about their own personal triggers – if you'd like to know ahead of time whether a particular trigger is included in a book, just drop me a message and I'll be super happy to let you know whether a book contains it 😁