I am still in recovery from the flu. Honestly, this whole year has had me either ill or looking after someone else who is ill. Not a great start to 2026.

This is also why I’ve not been replying to messages and emails. Sorry about that, I will reply too.

Anyway, I am here, showing up for week 3 of The Writer Blog Prompt Project, with today’s topic of Content Warnings.

Let’s go!

Quick reminder, if you join this project and write an article about this week’s topic. Let me know and I’ll link your article at the bottom of mine.

C Is For Content Warnigns

I have a love-hate relationship with Content Warnings.

Before I get into that, I should say, I personally view Content Warnings and Trigger Warnings as two separate things.

For me, trigger warnings are exactly what they say. Warnings about actual triggers. Many people seem to use the word trigger to refer to “discomfort” and “things I don’t care for”, whereas, for me, it means real triggers.

Triggers were things that affected a traumatised person by bringing back memories of their trauma and making them feel as if they were reliving it. Triggers could be sights, sounds, smells, or thoughts.

Big triggers were usually things connected to what that person went through – such as news reports of assaults, or for those in the armed forces, things like loud explosions. While small triggers such as a song, a smell, even the sound of rain could affect someone with trauma.

So, Trigger Warnings were a list of big things that were featured in a book or movie that could possibly trigger someone’s trauma and affect them in a mental and physical ways. The main ones mentioned were assaults, deaths, suicides, etc – especially if these were shown or described in detail.

These warnings gave people, who suffered, the choice to opt out of reading/viewing such content were they maybe even have a visceral reaction if they read it.

Now, Content Warnings, again, in my eyes – are different from Trigger Warnings. For me, content warnings are more about personal preference.

For example, if you want a story without spice then a content warning that states the book includes open door spice scenes tells the reader “this book might not be something you like.”

Content warnings can be useful, as they help your target audience find your book. I’ve read lots of reviews were people left negative reviews because the book had bad language. If that’s not something you want to read, then it may put you off enough to leave a bad review.

Now, back to my love-hate relationship. One of the reasons I’m not a fan of content warnings, is that I’ve seen so many that actual spoil the book (for me).

I see content warnings that state it’s a Happily Ever After. (Again, in a content warning NOT in a trigger warning).

I get that some people need to know that, but to me, I like to be surprised and some books HAVE surprised me – were I thought they were going in one direction and then ripped the rug out from under me.

I like the possibility that I don’t know how it ends. Not to mention, that there is such a thing as Genre Expectation. For example, if you are writing a standalone romance book – the expectation is that the main character will end up in love and happy by the end.

But if it’s a dark gritty fantasy, I don’t want to know it’s a HEA. I want that to be something I discover and if it ends without a HEA, then I want to experience that.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand WHY people want to know if it’s a HEA. But for me, that ruins a little of the story.

Maybe it’s because I’m a child of the 80s and 90s who grew up reading and watching Old Yeller, Plague Dogs, Watership Down and the Animals of Farthing Wood series.

Tragedy and heartache were in almost everything I consumed and I love stories that can make me feel things so intensely – even the sorrow.

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Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this article. If you aren’t joining the Project, let me know your own thoughts about book trailers in the comments below!

Next week’s topic is the Drop Caps

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Below are articles from other participants of The Writer Blog Prompt Project

None yet – check back later. 🙂

Thanks for reading

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