What's allowed in a story?

Community General Chat
1

So basically i’m starting to write a chapter in one of my stories which talks about homophobia and suicide…

I would like to know if:

  • Homophobia: Words: What words are considers LGBT slur words?
    Violence: What would be too explicit for the LGBT community?

  • Suicide: What can we say and what can’t we say?

The reason why i’m asking is because i’m concerned of violating Episode’s guidelines

If anyone can give me advice on including triggering topics in stories, that would be helpful!

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Hmm well you should always have a warning at the beginning of the chapter and when it’s about to happen. As for suicide you can’t show if/when the person is actually gonna do it. You can’t talk about it a lot in a story coz that would be breaking the guidelines. Idk about homophobia coz you have a limit of slur words to use in every chapter. In the guidelines Manual or whatever then they’ll say you can’t include words you would not say in school or something.

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Have a skip choice option.

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There’s a limit of five slur words in each chapter. Homophobic slurs would be any existing slurs that people have used to verbally ridicule/harass a homosexual person.

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Yes. Also I would recommend a warning card right before scenes that talk about stuff like this, with the options to skip or continue.

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So what slur words would be considered homophobic?

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I will do that for some scenes

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I am aware that we can’t show a character committing suicide nor show the body but when talking about it, how much detail would be considered a violation?

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I can’t think of any at the top of my head other than faggot. But its best to research homophobic slurs a bit more.

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You can’t show it as a way of escape. You must show it as something bad and wrong (ideally without stigmatising it and showing the victim off as bitchy and selfish or whatever). Have you read the guidelines?

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Hmm like showing how much ‘ounces’ of something the character is taking or describing what she’s doing in detail like saying. The way this _____ made me feel good. You need to have a lesson behind it and show it as something wrong and not a good thing.

Sorry for replying late I was asleep

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I have (even though Episode guidelines aren’t very clear), what if there was a scene when a person is doing something then a gunshot is heard, the person goes to investigate and finds the body (of course the body won’t be shown due to the guidelines) and runs out of the room to get help…

Is that all right or would it violate the guidelines?

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What if a character said “I thought that if i died, i could be free of the pain…But now i realised that it was stupid of me to do something like that”

Will that be too much to the point of a violation?

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I hope not, because that’s pretty close to what I’m trying to do for my story… (sweats)

I’d definitely, definitely include a mature themes warning at the beginning of the story, and the option to skip the most sensitive parts (like the one where someone finds the body, and any descriptions of how sad the character felt and their exact thought process toward the act). I’d say that the most important part is to properly convey the seriousness and wrongness of the act.

So I’d say you’re in the clear, but then again, I’ve never pushed the rules. Maybe, rather than “stupid,” it could be “…but now I see that it caused so much pain to the people who loved me all along” or “…but all it did was keep things from ever getting better for me.” But idk. :confused:

Some specific cases of stories with lots of reads that include these sensitive topics
  • Various mentions of “fairy” as a homophobic slur, usually no more than once per scene, because it’s potent enough
  • To a trans man: “It’s good that you’re still a girl,” “I liked her better as a girl,” etc.
  • Suicide of a minor character and you could see the feet hanging, therefore it wasn’t too emotionally painful because the reader didn’t have a strong connection with him
  • Suicide of a major character (mean girl) with something along the lines of “why does no one ever choose me?” body isn’t shown but tombstone is, and the aftermath is approached with sadness from all, even the protagonist (Yes, this is I Married a Prince)

Point being, I’d say to do two things: 1. Avoid things being too graphic/traumatic, and 2. Guide the reader toward a good morality and sense of right/wrong. :+1:

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No actually I think that’s good since ur going against it

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I know it’s been a while since this topic was updated but i’m thinking of putting suicide hotlines at the end of the chapter

Just one question, can i put the names of the suicide hotline companies or would that violate episode guidelines?

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Yeah, don’t do that…

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But can I put suicide hotlines at the end of the said chapter?

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don’t risk it. Also, I think it’s really out of place and Episode is worldwide, likely it won’t even apply to most people either way.
And also pretty sure it violates the content guidelines.

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I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t violate the guidelines, have you read Speak (Limelight)?