I think we all have doubts about the guidelines and what’s permissible, so let’s use this thread to share our concerns. I don’t want to create a new thread every time I have a question regarding this topic, so I hope this is useful.
My first question is… can I have one of the characters “shaming” MC for being “easy” and “stupid” by having relationships with him? I would include a big trigger warning and an option to skip that scene, but basically, MC’s ex-boyfriend humiliated her for having relationships (I won’t explicitly mention or show s*x related stuff).
Just to clarify: it was all consensual, but sometimes ex-boyfriends treat women like this. He will say something like “you will never forget that I was your first time because you were stupid enough to believe I loved you”.
Sorry if it’s a difficult topic, but it’s part of MC’s story and I wanted to ask this.
I’ve read stories that deal with this stuff and they do what you said in terms of a trigger warning and option to skip. I often see them trending in the top 100 so they were definitely reviewed and approved. Based on that, I think it’s okay.
Can I mention that a mafia/gang does horrible things without being explicit about it? I’m not referring to robbers, assassins, dr*g dealers, etc. I’m referring to the shady stuff I can’t mention but I will just give hints about it.
Example:
“They take advantage of vulnerable people, I can’t even mention the things they do without feeling sad and angry”.
I agree with what @fake_bananas said! I think you’d be okay covering these topics, as long as there’s a trigger warning. I feel like this is an important thing to talk about… especially since a lot of people have had someone say something similar to this to them. I know I have
I think that would be okay since other trending authors have mentioned stuff about voilent mafias. As long as you don’t get too graphic/explicit I’m sure you’d be okay!
The same applies to political discussions. I won’t mention any ideology and I even created a fake country to avoid conflicts, but one of my characters loves philosophy and likes to discuss power, freedom, corruption, etc.
Example:
“Consumerism is a way of controlling people, that’s what the people of this country want. No one questions them, they are comfortable having people competing against each other”.
And yeah… I could avoid having the characters discussing these topics, but I just don’t want to say “Fulanito loves to discuss philosophy” without actually showing him talking about it.
As I said, I won’t mention any political party, nor things like BLM, feminism, etc. The corrupt politicians don’t resemble any real person and their beliefs won’t be shown.
that’s the thing! this is common to women (being shamed for being “easy” and having people shaming you for trusting someone).
I will include a version of the scene without the s*xual part (well, it’s only mentioned briefly) because I don’t want to “punish” people for not wanting to read an offensive scene.