The term, “trigger warnings,” is a recent invention prompted by feminists, abuse survivors, and veterans of war. According to Grok: “(In) 2013–2014, the practice jumped into university literature classes. Students asked for warnings on assigned texts—The Great Gatsby, Mrs. Dalloway, Things Fall Apart, Ovid, Shakespeare. The New York Times covered the campus debate in May 2014. Slate called 2013 “the year of the trigger warning.” It actually started earlier with Catholics providing an Index of Prohibited Books. A later use, but still early on, was the phrase, “viewer discretion advised,” which was applied to films.

Recently I was excoriated for not providing trigger warnings for readers of my book, The Children of Raven’s Reach. My first thought was, “I screwed up.” My second was, “I write to imitate life. Does anyone give a trigger warning for life? Aren’t trigger warnings just a way of avoiding things in life that will upset you, things you have not but should deal with?”

The current list of trigger warnings includes sex, drugs, violence, and language. Even though the topics in my book were handled in a tasteful and professional way, were not thrown in for the sole purpose of titillation, and were essential to the story, the full list above was covered. The story could not be told if the elements above were not added to it.

I was led to reflect on something my upset reader said, “When I read the book and I came to the parts that triggered me, I was hurt as it brought up painful old memories.”

I don’t write to hurt people. I write to entertain, inform, and try to get people to think in a different channel than they normally do. I certainly don’t want to hurt anyone. It made me feel bad that because of my writing someone had an episode of PTSD. But then I started thinking about all the trigger warnings that we would need if we were to keep from hurting other people who might have different triggers

I knew a man who would involuntarily start to throw up if he saw or heard someone talking about spinach. As a little boy, he was adopted into an abusive family and was made to eat spinach which caused him to throw up. His adopted parents then made him eat what he’d tossed up. Another person I knew had a bad reaction to any writing or discussion about politics. It would literally make them go into a frenzy. So, how many trigger warnings should we have? Should all the above and any that might occur be included in anything I write?

I have decided to try to write a scene that reflects real life but does not need trigger warnings. Well, it needs at least one, “TRIGGER WARNING FOR THOSE WITHOUT A SENSE OF HUMOR.”

“No chocolate tunnel,” she told him as he caressed her melons.

“Oh, but I must,” he said.

“No you will not,” she answered staring at his salami.

His hand roughly touched her face. “I can do whatever I want,” was his reply.

She reached for the fully loaded corn cob she kept in the drawer of the nightstand and emptied it into his chest. Ketchup flew everywhere as he rolled off the bed onto the floor.

“Go to habanero,” she yelled at him.

Her next thought was, “What a mess I have to clean up! All this ketchup everywhere!”