Content warnings for a memoir workshop

[fandomnumbergenerator]

I manage a memoir workshopping group, and a new member wants a more formal content warning policy (not because of specific triggers she wants to be warned for, but because she was an instructor at small liberal arts college for a semester and felt they were very useful). A long standing member of the group who has been a professor for decades is opposed to requiring trigger warnings (she has more of a 70s liberal take on most social issues, and also has seen trigger warnings used as a way to manipulate the administration into censuring adjunct professors).

The current policy is:

Writing presented in the group may contain references to or descriptions of death, illness, abuse, unhealthy family and relationship dynamics, sexual assault, racism, sexism, or homophobia, as well as explicit sex or drug use. We do not generally use trigger or content warnings, though specific warning requests will be taken seriously.

Elsewhere in the guidelines, it says that people need to briefly introduce their work before they start reading, so there should never be a situation where a potentially triggering topic is a total surprise. But the way the topics are addressed might be more graphic in one section than another.

I am working on a project about my boyfriend's death when I was 24, and the piece I brought to the group last week included a description of a dead body, and so I warned people in an email. Everyone appreciated the warning, but none of the people who actually attended the in-person meeting wanted to change the policy (the new member who wanted the change the policy wasn't there).

We are looking for new members and I am trying to craft policies that will work for people we don't already have a good working relationship with.

None of the workshopping classes I took included content warning requirements, so I feel like I don't really know where to start.

I also feel like triggers are incredibly personal. I usually use "Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings" on AO3 because almost every story I write has some fleeting reference to the character having sex when they were under 18 or some past traumatic experience.

And in my memoir writing, I'm still grappling with what to call things. Like what level of creepiness on my father's part requires a trigger warning? When I am still trying to come up with a stable way to frame my experiences for myself.

Comments

[shy_magpie]

I think starting by expanding how you describe what the summary should be is a good way to start. I think with the exception of the shock jerks most people will understand that in a work shop its reasonable to ask for more info than a reader would normally come in with. Your policy on trigger warnings makes it clear that you don't have a moral opposition to the idea, but that a check list is not the right way to do things in this environment. Ask that people make a good faith effort to warn for things most likely to cause problems (not sure on phrasing); then specify the most obvious and fence post from there:

As a starting point for discussion what do you think about:
"unfortunately it is all too likely that more than one person in this class will be (actively harmed? triggered? have trauma associated with) unwanted sexual contact, violence, and or hard drugs, so we would like to emphasize things in that area when deciding what to include in the summary. While its not always possible to draw a clear line, it would be better to include it in the summary needlessly than not include it when needed. It is an absolute must for scenes with on screen (unwanted sexual touch/rape/forced kissing), physical violence, injection of drugs or drug use resulting in (passing out?hallucination? not sure on what would be the trigger for most people since I usually have to tap out around slurred speach or needles existing which is probably too tame for most)"

[fandomnumbergenerator]

Yes, you're right that I should talk about the overview in the Content Warnings section, and make clear that the overview should alert readers to sensitive topics the work deals with. Because, up to this point, it was more about orienting readers to where the chapter you're presenting fits into the larger project.

I added an option for people to reach out to the group admin (currently me) to make trigger warning requests anonymously. It's a pretty small group, so I'm not sure how that will work in practice. But I can at least make the option available.

I listed a bunch of other common triggers -- both trauma-based (e.g. pregnancy loss) and compulsive-behavior-based (e.g disordered eating). So that people can have a starting point for what I mean by "sensitive topics"

I introduced the topic by talking about accessibility for people with a history of trauma, so I hope that helps frame the stakes for people who are dubious of trigger warnings.

I'm sending it out to a new group of people who are interested in the group, so I'll just have to see how it goes, and revise as necessary.

[shy_magpie]

Sorry if I was rude, it wasn't until today I realized that was monologue rather than dialogue! I was just about to send you an apology and follow up with questions to help you think about what you wanted instead of me telling you what I thought. I got kinda over excited, in part because this sounds like a great workshop! There was a memoir class at my community college but it seemed to be aiming for Lake Woebegone stories of an idealized youth not a place where you could dig into real issues.

[fandomnumbergenerator]

No worries!

It has been incredibly helpful for me to open up the topic to discussion.

The thing that I've realized is that in all the workshopping I've done, the people most likely to have something that looks like a panic attack are writers after a bad critique. And so I'm starting to think of trigger warnings in this very specific context (memoir about traumatic events) as being different than e.g. a college course.

But on the other hand, as I understand it, trigger warnings started in forums for the discussion of sexual assault. So not totally dissimilar. But also, a forum post is something you can mute without the poster having any negative impact.