I don't know if this is the right spot to post this here, if not the mods can delete this post or move it.
Anyways, this topic is about self-censorship and I want to know everybody's opinion on self censorship here. For me personally, I don't really like censorship but I don't really make it a habit of trying to offend anyone either.
In my story, I was planning on writing some jokes that could be seen as inappropriate by some (nothing too offensive mind you, but just a little edge). 

Well, I released the new chapter of my story, and a character told a particularly nasty joke. A person who had given me a five-star rating dropped it to a 3.5-star rating. Eventually, they just deleted it altogether. Now, I have no idea if it was the joke that made them change the rating. However, as I was writing it, I knew in the back of my head that someone would have issues with it. The reason I went ahead and wrote it is that it showed how much of a repulsive individual the character was. He is not a nice character. He is not someone to like and the joke fits his personality perfectly. I think that people shouldn't judge a writer by what they write. I think that if the joke fits your character, then you should do it and be a writer. The thing you have to remember is that as a writer, you will always offend someone somewhere. It just comes with the territory.

I have a bit of a history with self censoring. I used to self censor myself in pretty much every field possible. 

I worked rather hard on this habit. Went from pretty much not being able to even hint about sex, gore, or a single swear word, to writing a full on dark fantasy with very dark themes. (That being said, I still self censor details when it comes to sex, just because I can't help but cringe when I try to write them.)

My general advice to you is this: Don't overthink who you're going to offend, it's not a way to live nor write. 

Yes. Some people will always get offended no matter what you write, don't revolve your whole writing around potential offended readers. There'll be plenty of others who'll smile at the same material that offended another type of readers. Readers are just people. Everyone got their own taste and their own experience as to what is considered offensive or funny. 

Just write for yourself, and be yourself. Stick to your style and be consistent about it if you can. The readers who like it will greatly enjoy it. And those who don't... well, there are plenty of books out there, yours or mine isn't going to be the only one to read. 

I understand that it seems scary to just not think about it. I'm also scared that my work might offend someone who reads it, and it probably will sooner or later. Yes, I'm afraid they'll take it out on me, and I know it'll happen sooner or later. A mean comment or a bad rating. It's the internet, right? So I'm just trying to accept it while waiting for the other shoe to drop... So far it hasn't, people don't find my work so offensive after all... for now... 

What will I do when it happens? Probably continue writing. I might take it to heart if the criticism is on point, depends. 

The first negative criticism I got from a beta reader pretty much broke me. I couldn't write for months. That critique was based on politics, which at the time, I wasn't even aware of. (I'm not from the west, and I was unaware of western politics at the time. To this day left or right don't matter much to me. Has nothing to do with me. I did learn enough to avoid offending people in conversations though, I do my best. Mainly in order to be tactful and polite.)

But you know what? That critique was one of the best things that happened to me. Yes I hate the person who gave me that critique, sure. But in hindsight, it made me realize that I'm writing for myself first and foremost. If someone else happen to enjoy it on the way, all the better.

Write for yourself. Do whatever you feel right for your story. (Just don't cross the website's rules about offensive material, but that's obvious. You also have to go pretty far to do that.) 
And sure. You're probably going to offend someone along the way, whether you try to or not. It's no reason to make significant changes to your work. 

Good luck!

By the way... Jokes always offend someone, because jokes have to be about someone or something. And that someone will be offended, or they'll be offended for the thing they hold dear. So maybe you shouldn't write jokes at all...
I'll stop here, before I say something too political and offend someone... oh dear... I'm afraid I've done it already... 
*Opens the tears umbrella* 
*Run for my life*

I don't necessarily censor, but I've definitely left a few things on the proverbial cutting room floor. I realized they were things that weren't really contributing anything of value to the story and I don't really enjoy things that only exist for the shock value. As soon as I noticed I'd done it inadvertently while caught up in the writing moment I removed it from the draft. 

I write with no filter, I think it would ruin my creativity to do it any other way, but when I edit I remove anything offensive that does not have a necessary function in my story. That being said, I only learned this after writing 60 chapters of my current story, so my book is highly offensive to many, and I didn't expect that. I had no idea that a sex joke was more offensive than a chapter about murdering a three-year-old child, but now I know. 

So if you are someone who likes to write as close to the line as you can get away with, then you are probably going to need to cross the line a lot just so you can get some feedback and know where the line actually is, and you can make more informed decisions on censorship later.

There have been a few times when I cut stuff that might offend people (though honestly it would have probably triggered the folks who don’t usually consider themselves triggerable). I don’t really care about offending them in itself; the reason I cut those parts out were because they were superfluous to the story and didn’t really add much. Basically, I decided it wasn’t worth the potential reaction because it wasn’t that important an addition anyway.

That said, if it’s something that actually contributes to the story you’re trying to tell, gotta keep it. Fuck them haters. 

I am chaos. I am Duck.

There's a lot in writing that already feels like censorship, the fact that you can't always write things the way you want to without tripping some landmine of proper literary method can already feel limiting, but if you're not concerned with any of that then sometimes you have to consider who is the audience you're writing for and whether they can accept the lack of any type of a filter. What's the age range you hope to reach, what's their temperament? Do you want teens with fairly broad minded tastes or are you writing to a specific demographic?

From a reading perspective, I think if you suddenly read something that feels out of character for the fiction you've reading for a while it will take you out of it. If you have one character with a filthy mouth from the beginning then there's not going to be a surprise later when people see them say something filthy. If readers don't like it they simply stop reading or maybe at worse leave a review saying what they didn't like (I suppose worse than that is a bad review that doesn't say.) I remember reading a manga that started out fairly silly and jokey, but then by the third chapter the main character became an opportunistic sex fiend. That kinda turned me off even though I don't particularly hate that type of character, they just didn't fit the story that I was initially promised and the personality change wasn't reflected by the story in anyway.

From a writing perspective, I think you write what the story needs. Does it need this character, does this character present themselves as necessarily suitable element? If so then continue. You want people to hate this person? You make them disgusting and show people feeling the same emotion you hope the reader will also feel. If you're just adding the character because you want to shock someone or you just wanted to include the joke without a good reason or without feedback from the setting then it's probably going to be seen as being written in poor taste by the author rather than a character the reader should dislike.

I don't ever censor myself. But then again, I'm not really that offensive with the things I'm saying. At least I think I'm not.

The most potentially offensive thing I've written was a trans joke that I wrote last week for Food For Thaught

Quote:"You are working for them!" Caterpillar continued.

"Them?"

"Them."

"Ahh, them. Wait, who's them?"

"You are working with 'Catie', your friend."

"Cattie is them? I thought she identified as a 'she'. Wow, my bad."

"What? No! I mean... I don't know, maybe. But that is not what I'm talking about. You are working for the same people your friend is!"

This is an topic that has been bothering me for a while. I don't necessarily want to sell anything, so I don't pay attention to whether someone might feel offended. Still, I have to censor things because in some cases I'm not sure if I'd be breaking the terms of use. I leave out the sentences/paragraphs or chapters and mark that I had to censor it.

RR is rather lax in its guidelines, but of course it's still a matter of interpretation. No hate speech, but what is hate speech? A character that is racist is just a racist character until you realise that the story is proving him right, then you know it's the author's opinion. 'Uploading sexual artwork or images will result in an immediate ban.' My third book has a cover where the main character is bathing in a river. Of course she bathes naked. I'm from Germany. In Germany, that's how it would be in bookstores, due to it not being sexual. The atmosphere is more whistful. So from my pov, I could upload it here. But I have a strong feeling that I should not. "w"

Vikka Wrote: This is an topic that has been bothering me for a while. I don't necessarily want to sell anything, so I don't pay attention to whether someone might feel offended. Still, I have to censor things because in some cases I'm not sure if I'd be breaking the terms of use. I leave out the sentences/paragraphs or chapters and mark that I had to censor it.

RR is rather lax in its guidelines, but of course it's still a matter of interpretation. No hate speech, but what is hate speech? A character that is racist is just a racist character until you realise that the story is proving him right, then you know it's the author's opinion. 'Uploading sexual artwork or images will result in an immediate ban.' My third book has a cover where the main character is bathing in a river. Of course she bathes naked. I'm from Germany. In Germany, that's how it would be in bookstores, due to it not being sexual. The atmosphere is more whistful. So from my pov, I could upload it here. But I have a strong feeling that I should not. "w"

I'd imagine in cases like that the moderators would like you to check with them.

Sexual imagery, I take to mean explicit content (people "inserting tab A into slot B" as opposed to say, a renascence painting of a nude body.) Obviously not every country is as caught up about it, but you do admit your own country is a bit loose with those standards so plan for the rest of the world accordingly. With hate speech, I'd think if you wrote "I hate all (Insert an actual human ethnicity)." you're gonna get slammed by readers even if you didn't get banned from the site for it, that's just common sense. Avoid directly using derogatory or triggering phrases just out of the decency for other's sake. If you absolutely have to have a person from one race that has to hate a specific other one, show it in their actions.

I don't consider it so much as censorship as it is being considerate of the fact that you're putting this out for public consumption and as such you're subject to public opinion.

Laughing "with" versus laughing "at" is always a good way to judge jokes for me.

That being said, from a logistical standpoint I would just write whatever you want to start then do an assessment in your editing phase.

Are you writing primarily for yourself as a hobby or are you trying to build an audience and a brand? If it is the latter you actually do need to consider what peoples reactions will be to your use of words / scenarios / humor. That is not to say you need to cut the material in question, just that you should really put yourself in the readers shoes and consider if it will be worth it to include this. 

When all else fails ask yourself: does it serve the story?

MnBm Wrote: In my story, I was planning on writing some jokes that could be seen as inappropriate by some (nothing too offensive mind you, but just a little edge).

Are you an artist? Then be an artist. Offend people. Do it on purpose. If you have nothing to say, you're boring. Don't be like everyone else that just fits in with the pack and doesn't think for yourself. Say whatever you want.

I really like Harlan Ellison for this reason. That man was downright cantankerous about this subject, and he was freaking rude, too, but you know, it's every person's right to say what they want, because if we can't say what we want, we must all conform to whatever someone else makes us say, and that's a form of slavery.

Don't be a slave.

Now more than ever we need to fight any and all kinds of censorship, no matter what.

Be an artist. Offend people. It's fun. ; )

"Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice."

- Henry Louis Gates Jr.