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I don't warn for character death. Here's why. I think it's silly that basically I have to print up a warning list of every little bad thing somebody out there decides makes them uncomfortable. Pretty soon we're going to be writing warning lists longer than our stories. On television, the rating system will warn you for sex, sexuality, mature language, mature situations, etc, etc. And it's rather vague, you know what you're getting into, but not what is going to happen to whomever and who is going to die on that episode. So why am I required to show you what event happens in mine? If you're going to make me rate my writing like a TV show (which is silly, you can get away with a lot more in prose, I'm looking at you FFN ratings system... a R-rated fanfic is not equivalent to an R-rated movie.)
If I put a character death label on a fic, you don't really value the characters as much as you should, because you know one of them is going to be killed off by the end of the story and instead of enjoying the story, you're trying to figure out who that character is. But... if I make you get connected to the character and share their journey, I've achieved the proper emotional impact when I kill them off. Because you didn't see it coming. Do you think any of the character deaths you see on TV or the movie would be as impacting if they warned for it in the little ratings box? No. A character's death a major plot point and it doesn't make sense to reveal what is meant to be a surprise for the reader in the warning.
Somehow, I think this warning was concocted by either people far younger or far less mature than I am. Either way, this whole character death warning makes me feel like I have to hold your hand to the whole way.
Bad things happen in my story to good people who never deserve it, but such is the way of the story. To list them would take forever and most people skip that list of warnings and then complain about the content. Either way, you can't win. So... bad things happen to the cast in many of my stories, the NC-17 and Darkfic label should have been a dead giveaway.
If I put a character death label on a fic, you don't really value the characters as much as you should, because you know one of them is going to be killed off by the end of the story and instead of enjoying the story, you're trying to figure out who that character is. But... if I make you get connected to the character and share their journey, I've achieved the proper emotional impact when I kill them off. Because you didn't see it coming. Do you think any of the character deaths you see on TV or the movie would be as impacting if they warned for it in the little ratings box? No. A character's death a major plot point and it doesn't make sense to reveal what is meant to be a surprise for the reader in the warning.
Somehow, I think this warning was concocted by either people far younger or far less mature than I am. Either way, this whole character death warning makes me feel like I have to hold your hand to the whole way.
Bad things happen in my story to good people who never deserve it, but such is the way of the story. To list them would take forever and most people skip that list of warnings and then complain about the content. Either way, you can't win. So... bad things happen to the cast in many of my stories, the NC-17 and Darkfic label should have been a dead giveaway.