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

[http://users.livejournal.com/_sharvie_/]

came over by way of the su_herald

I think a vague warning that there will be a character death is massively important in the warnings. It doesn't have to be all spelled out of who is going to die and how but, just a reference, that way the reader has a choice to decide if that is within their comfort levels. I don't think it ruins anything, if the reader is watching one of their characters die and thinks, "Oh! So this is what the header referred too." The author is doing something wrong.

For example: I had to put in a header of one of mine, "brother!kink", since a lot of people are squicked by it. But in my first chapter I do everything I can to avoid bringing that up, so that when it is revealed at the end it is a surprise. I know that a lot of people are not going to be surprised, but one person has commented that they got so wrapped up in the chapter that they did forget all about the brother angle and it was a surprise to them.

That is exactly what I wanted to hear! And I had no reason to worry that anyone reading it would have been upset about where the story went. If they read the headers, they know what they are getting, even if it isn't all the details. I treat character death the same way.