I've got a question that may or may not have been raised before. What do you all think of the practice of putting something like "WARNING: Character Death" in the summary of a fic? I'm of two minds on this, personally. Sometimes, I don't want to read something that's going to depress me. Other times, the shock of a character's death adds to the HSQ of the fic, and I know I would have enjoyed the story more if I hadn't been spoiled.

Ooh, I hate plot warnings of all kinds. It's the equivalent of putting "and at the end you find out that the ex-boyfriend did it" on the back cover of a mystery, and I rarely read stories that have them.

I'm weird about it. I'd rather the warning not be there--I'd rather get into the story and see what happens, accept that the death is a part of the story. But if there is a warning? More often than not I'll pass it by. It's not that I mind character death. I just usually don't want to be depressed as hell over a fic.

See, I'm not skipping those stories because I don't want to be depressed over the character death. I'm skipping them because there's a warning.

I won't read fanfic that doesn't have some sort of a blurb unless it comes recommended. Other than that... I sympathize with the authors who don't like to put up warnings, and I understand that there are some fandoms that get really nuts with what you have to warn for. (Is it true or apocryphal that there were required haircut warnings in Sentinel? I've never quite believed it, but I know I've seen that claimed.)

That said, when reading fanfic I do tend to prefer situations where I know basically where I'm getting into - for instance, I prefer to know a pairing ahead of time, because I tend to have very limited numbers of pairings I'm interested in reading about. I generally prefer to know whether I should expect sex or not. I don't actually feel the need to know whether or not a character dies, or whether there's a happy ending, anything like that.

Mostly I guess I like to have enough information to make a vaguely informed choice as to whether the story's likely to be enough to my taste at that moment to be worth reading. All that goes out the window once I've got an author I trust, though.

... and I should clarify, now that Katie's posted, that I'm making a distinction between a summary/blurb (which all stories should have, I think) and a warning (which is generally listed on a separate line that says "WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH. AND NO, IT'S NOT CONNOR." or the like).

See, I'm not skipping those stories because I don't want to be depressed over the character death. I'm skipping them because there's a warning.

It annoys me when people warn for everything under the sun. But on this issue, I've seen cases where an author didn't warn for character death and the flood of angry emails and abuse they get is way over the top. So I take CD warnings as more self-defense than anything.

I do like to have some idea what I'm up for when I go into a story. Pairing, for one. I don't want every story twist spelled out in an author's note, but I do like to have some idea of what the tone of the story is likely to be. Fluffy and funny or angsty and dark is all the level of detail I need, but I do want to know at least that much because sometimes I'm really in the mood for one or the other.

Personally I don't want to know if a character is going to die, with a warning I'll spend most of the story wondering who's going to die. Unless the characters start off dead.

Sometimes it's frustrating because someone will put a death warning and the character that dies isn't a main character--either in the show or in the story. Which is totally frustrating because I wonder who's going to die and then it's really anticlimatic.

It's weird though because sometimes the authors won't put a warning on the story but a person recommending the story will. I wonder how the writers feel about that.

Ooh, I hate plot warnings of all kinds. It's the equivalent of putting "and at the end you find out that the ex-boyfriend did it" on the back cover of a mystery, and I rarely read stories that have them.

Yes. This.

On balance, I'd far rather not be told that someone's going to die, or turn into a weregoldfish. I'd rather let the plot develop and surprise me. If it's well done, fair enough. If it's badly done, then that will piss me off - the badness, rather than the particular plot point.

I'd also be perfectly happy if we didn't have the whole pairing convention, actually. I mean, sure, I read Clark/Lex. But it's nice to not know what's going to happen, I think. To be fair, I mostly just read stuff on the basis of either knowing the author's previous work (and thus trusting the quality will be good) or else on the basis of a rec. So it's not like I'm looking for stuff that's Clark/Lex, or Chloe/Lex, or Lana/Lex, or Clark/Mercy, or whatever - I'm generally reading something because it's by Hope or Thamiris or Te, and I trust them.

But it's hypocritical of me to say this, because it's not like I don't ever read things on the basis of pairing. Te's response to that pornalicious Wolverine/Nightcrawler comicbook cover design, for example - I read that because I wanted to see her take on Logan/Kurt, and I'd happily read Magneto/Wolverine by any damn person in the hopes that they could write well, because I want to see someone use that potential.

Okay, ignore me wrt pairings. But in terms of key plot points (and sometimes the pairing is a key plot point, and that's when I'd rather not be spoiled) I'd rather just find out as I read. It's like those damned book blurbs and film ads that give it all away, and then however clever the writer or director have been, you're not going to fall for their red herrings.

I hate warnings. I only use them when they make me giggle, like putting Character Death/Non-Con in my warning for Xander On Top. I was a heartbeat short of adding "comedy" for the genre.