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unspeakablehorrorHave been thinking about the rating (currently Teen) on my Heart of Shadow fic in regards to future scenes. There's a scene that I've written that I may or may not include which may or may not merit raising the rating of the story. Now, maybe I will ultimately decide not to include this scene anyway, as sometimes happens when I'm writing. Sometimes I just decide I'm going to go a different direction, and a scene no longer works with the new direction. However, even if that happens, I could easily encounter other cases where I think of a great scene for the story that I feel uncertain fits the Teen rating.
So I think I must again contend with the questions of 'What do ratings mean, anyway' and 'should I err on the side of rating consistency above all, or err on the side of having the impact I want to have'? Like, I think at most this scene would raise the rating to Mature because I don't tend to go into explicit detail in any event. But also, does it really *need* to be Mature if the actual offending events are only referred to/implied and not directly depicted, even non-explicitly?
Maybe some people would just set the work at the highest rating they anticipate writing at, or change it as needed, or make it nonrated but also I just kind of like the challenge of pushing to the edge of the Teen rating without going over it? This is kind of why all my longfic are currently rated Teen. Also because if you rate your work any higher, people assume you're going to give them a (non-fade to black) sex scene, and so even if it wasn't false advertising, it...would feel like false advertising.
A dilemma!
So I think I must again contend with the questions of 'What do ratings mean, anyway' and 'should I err on the side of rating consistency above all, or err on the side of having the impact I want to have'? Like, I think at most this scene would raise the rating to Mature because I don't tend to go into explicit detail in any event. But also, does it really *need* to be Mature if the actual offending events are only referred to/implied and not directly depicted, even non-explicitly?
Maybe some people would just set the work at the highest rating they anticipate writing at, or change it as needed, or make it nonrated but also I just kind of like the challenge of pushing to the edge of the Teen rating without going over it? This is kind of why all my longfic are currently rated Teen. Also because if you rate your work any higher, people assume you're going to give them a (non-fade to black) sex scene, and so even if it wasn't false advertising, it...would feel like false advertising.
A dilemma!