prodigy: A parody Choose Your Own Adventure book cover with the title "Gay Viking Holiday." (darcy - fuck a doodle do)
So, AO3 users, I need help again.  In the continuing adventures of Kinda Damning Questions About Tags And When To Use Them, does anyone have a simple rubric of what qualifies as "Graphic Depictions of Violence?"  Properly using the archive warnings is pretty important to me, you see, but it's occurring to me trying to label something new that... what constitutes "graphic" exactly?  Like, the others are fairly self-explanatory -- "Major Character Death," "Rape/Non-Con," "Underage," okay, those should probably do what they say on the tin, if your story contains one of these things you check the ticky box and move on.  But the archive warning doesn't say "Depictions of Violence."  It says "Graphic Depictions of Violence."  It's like a double frigging rainbow.  What does it mean?

I am starting to sound like I'm trying to evade the violence warning.  I'm really not -- I'm happy to slap it on, I just don't want to misrepresent what my fic actually contains.  Like, obviously not every fic where one person punches another person gets this tag.  On the other hand, my one AO3 story so far that's warranted it had a vivid description of what someone's head looked like after multiple gunshots, which seemed like a -- ... no... brainer.

... anyway, Graphic Depictions of Violence: what gives?  Does it matter how grievous the damage resulting?  Would a loving description of a papercut count?  What about a cursory one of a decapitation?  (There are no papercuts or decapitations in my story.)  I've heard a "if it could trigger someone" standard put forth, which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot, frankly, triggers are as wide-ranging and personal as anything and I'd be arrogant to try to set forth a universal bar for it.  However, barring that, I'm really not sure what the going standard is.  So would someone more active in fandom, or AO3 fandom, care to help me out? :D

Also, why do I keep writing things that need goddamned archive warnings?

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prodigy: A parody Choose Your Own Adventure book cover with the title "Gay Viking Holiday." (Default)
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