Trigger Warning: This Post Is About Trigger Warnings

This post may upset you, so please proceed with caution. (Joking!)

Does the title of this post make you want to crawl into your beloved ‘safe space’, wrap yourself up in cotton wool and retreat from life?

If it doesn’t, great — you’re one of the sensible ones. If the perfectly innocent title of this post does make someone crave their ‘safe space’, I despair for them. And ignore them, as others should. 

That might sound harsh, but as a self-published writer, I haven’t got time for trigger warnings.

They’ve grown in popularity in recent years and have become quite commonplace. There’s clearly a demand for them. Some people feel the need to use trigger warnings and willingly put them into practice.

But not me!

I don’t believe in trigger warnings and will never use them. Life doesn’t come with trigger warnings and neither should writing. It’s as simple as that.

Life is full of unpleasant things we’d rather not deal with, but dealing with them can build character, strength resolve and improve confidence. Trigger warnings shut things off and dissuade people from opening themselves up from experiencing things that they might not like, but might actually benefit them in some way.

I will never put any sort of trigger warning on any of my e-books.

Never, ever.

If you don’t like what you’re reading or you think something you’re not going to like is coming up, just do one simple thing. Stop reading.

It’s as simple as that.

There are certain scenes in some of my horror e-books that are disturbing, shocking and disgusting. I do think these scenes would qualify for trigger warnings, but they remain pleasantly free from any advance notice that there’s something upsetting to come.

Some of my horror scenes are unsettling, but they’re just words on a screen. That’s all they are. Words on a screen.

Yes, words can be powerful and they can have profound effects on our lives and the world around us. But the thing us, words are only powerful if you let them be that way.

What you read on a screen doesn’t need to have a lasting impact on you. There’s no need for trigger warnings for writing when it’s words on a screen that you can stop reading at any time. You’re in control.

Why have trigger warnings when they put people off and could reveal quite big spoilers about what’s to come? There’s no good reason to have trigger warnings.

Readers should open themselves up to both positive and negative experiences and shouldn’t shut themselves off from certain things they don’t like the sound of just for the sake of it.

Reading can be wonderful. Don’t get into the mindset that trigger warnings are beneficial because they’re the opposite.