poll! KFZ!

[aimeelicious]

So I've been giving a lot of thought to character death in fic, and the fic header warnings that often come with them, but sometimes don't. In the interest of fostering a dialogue on the topic, I've created a poll to gather some general information about reader preferences. This post/poll is UNLOCKED, in the hope that some of you will be willing to PIMP it in your journals and hopefully encourage others to fill it out, as I'd like as much input as possible. ETA: I do plan on doing a results post based on this poll, so please know that your responses will not just disappear into the ether.

Feel free to answer the poll anonymously if you wish, and take over my journal for discussion, just don't get nasty! This has been declared a kerfuffle-free zone (KFZ).

[Poll #450697]

ETA: Sorry for forgetting Smallville as a fandom...it's one of my faves and I left it off! Dang polls, can't edit them.

Comments

[entrenous88.livejournal.com]

Let me see if I can hit all of the reasons I said "other" or gave seemingly contradictory comments. :)

Advance warning for major character death -- to me that means a major character in the fandom. But to other authors that means a major character in the story. So, you know, Giles = major, but I read a fic in which Giles died in the first few paragraphs in a violent way, and there was no warning because he wasn't central to the fic. So that's dicey. That explains my "makes me more inclined" to read when there has been a warning, because I think if someone has warned me, I can prepare in advance for upsetting outcomes, and forge ahead. On the other hand, the writer might only warn for, say, Wesley dying in an Angel/Wes story because he's part of the main pairing, and say "major character death" but if I think they're likely to kill off Gunn as well just as part of the storyline I might hesitate.

Weirdly, I want to reward warnings. I appreciate the warnings. So I'm more inclined generally to take a chance on a fic that has them than not.

With a "dark" warning, I assume anything is fair game, and wouldn't be upset about not being warned for character deaths there in general. By the way, there's not enough dark fic (because when it ends happily, to my mind it's angst). Just sayin'.

Death warnings and the author's prerogative -- that's a tough one, because some archives require it, some archives refuse to even reveal pairing or anything other than a quick summary. So that may be beyond the author's control. But generally, no, I think it's a courtesy, but not something required. I appreciate the courtesy, but...yeah. Not a must-have.

I read an Angel/Xander once in which Xander died horribly! horribly at the end, just when he and Angel had worked things out! OH MY GOD! I still haven't recovered. Even though the fic wasn't that great, I remember it, because of the trauma.

Also, I love gen and slash, and definitely read het -- that seems like it should be a ticky box question instead of an omg, choose one! question. But that's my pov. :P

[starkittyn.livejournal.com]

Weirdly, I want to reward warnings. I appreciate the warnings. So I'm more inclined generally to take a chance on a fic that has them than not

Me. Too. I so much prefer to be warned than not, and if I'm waffling over to read or not to read, at least some of the time, if all other decision makers are considered equal, the warning will make a difference.

[aimeelicious]

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. And you know, the 'fic type' question was almost a ticky box kind, but I ended up feeling like I really wanted people to pick just one. I only put the 'All' option there because I know for some folks choosing one isn't possible.

Someone else who commented mentioned that in his/her fandom (which I'm not familiar with), it's pretty common to put fic warnings, including character death, at the END of the post/chapter/fic/whatever, so people can choose to go read warnings or not. How would you feel about that as an alternative to posting it in the header?

[abbylee]

The 'Chapter Zero' technique is fairly common is some circles too, which makes it very easy for people to choose whether or not they want to see the full header information. I've also seen people use other 'trickier' methods of doing it (via html) so that you can choose whether to read short or long headers.

I too am fairly happy with the 'Dark' descriptor: I know it means a possibility of a character death, but doesn't make it a guarantee. That way, the storytelling isn't spoiled, and I can save it for the day I'm in the mood for something sad.