# How would you rate your writing? R, PG-13, PG, G?



## HLGStrider

I just wrote my first G-rated book, if you don't count the stories about ducks and mice I write for my three-year-old sister. 

I was just looking over the end of the book and I thought, "Gosh, nobody died." I thought for a moment. No, I at least killed the dragon . . . no, wait, I turned him into a gadfly instead. Even the dragon didn't die. I went back over it. There was no sex, one or two kisses at the most. There was no langauge (I never use cussing in my books. Modern swear words take away from the old atmosphere, so I replace them with something "older."). There are two sword fights and one dragon fight, but if you made this book into a film, it would be a G-rated movie. 

Generally my books have enough people dying or enough sensuality (I don't do overt sexuality) in them that I would consider them PG-13. Even those that avoid fatalities are dramatic-scary-intense enough to merit. This one, while not all sweetness and light, you could read to a ten-year-old. 

So, I am curious, how would you rate your books? 

I know not everyone here is American, so the American rating system may be uncomfortable for some, but I'll let you struggle over it because I am a furry fury.


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## e.Blackstar

My stories of course contain dire peril (what's a story without it?) but it's not much more scary than a PG, I would think.

As far as everything else goes...the blood and gore are not usually too graphic, though some battle/exceution/fight scences are a little dark. Sex isn't explicitly described, but there are implications, of course...one of my stories has several pages that deal exclusively with whores. *winks at Hammer* Swearing is present but not gratuitous.

Probably 13, I'd think...


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## Hammersmith

I'd say PG13
I have some very low key sensuality, but I also have death, DEATH! Blood, death blood and DEATH!
*Ahem* Sorry there. In some of the more unpleasant scenes good characters are executed in cold blood, while the evil characters are diced in increasingly imaginative and graphic ways.


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## HLGStrider

My deaths are normally pretty clean cut. In deaths I don't find it pays to be imaginitive. 

However, my novel before this one _The Three Isles_ involved my first real use of torture, and while the way I wrote it would get it pg-13, if it was made into a movie, that one scene would get it an R unless it was done off camera. It was just a bit much. . .necessary, but much.


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## Zale

Mmh, I voted PG-13, but I'm not sure. I don't know who my target audience is yet (well, me) so what I include is sort of what I feel like. I don't think I've ever left a definitely explicit scene in, but I have enough inferrence (I think I just made that up; what am I looking for?) that I wouldn't want really young children reading my stuff.


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## Lomin...

I vote PG, but when I _really_ think about it I'm not sure. There is violence, and I plan on having rather detailed murder in the latter part of the book, but I have no swearing or sex. So, I don't know, how bad is blood and gore?

In general, I think the story would appeal to all age groups.


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## Nenya Evenstar

I probably write mostly PG-13. My latest was G (because it is a children's picture book).

However, I have written something R. There was this one very short snippet of a story (some of you probably remember it) that was a total massacre. I was depressed when I wrote it -- go figure. Yeah, that was rated R for blood and gore.


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## Daranavo

I can get real gothic in my writing. Very dark and even twisted at times. I also like to write sensuality and sexuality into my stories. Definately would have to say R. However, I am learning how to tame out some from the RP's here.


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## Wraithguard

I have yet to vote for I must check the majority, and because there is no choice involving Elgee's cats. I shall post later.


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## Wraithguard

By majority I meant of my literary work. A good many could be considered R for the grafic violence but my newer and some of my old could be considered lower. Averaged I'd be a PG-13¼.


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## HLGStrider

Elgee mumbles something about Wrai under her breath and flexes her retractable claws.


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## Wraithguard

I's sowwy massa! Iy bees a gewd boi fo now ons!


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## AraCelebEarwen

*bumps into thread; reads through options and all posts; thinks for a while*

I think my writing style depends on how I feel at the time. I have yet to really do enough to say what it would be rated, though I have played with things that have covered a rather wide range. 

There are times when putting together a kids book is as easy as thinking up a few insane rhymes but I've never really bothered to put anything like that down; there are times that a scene leans into horror *twisted grin* though I have a hard time thinking where to use them; I do try to avoid too much in the way of 'make-out' scenes, I like to be able to let my folks read what I do. 

I would have to say that I like to do PG13ish. I like a good mix of horror, romance, mystery, fantasy, history (in a way)... There is a lot that goes into some of my favs. Yeah, PG13. That would be about right. (as long as you can make a few exceptions at times)


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## Uminya

*throws his shovel out of the grave and breaks open the casket*

PG-13. I don't put much detail into what violence I have, and I stay away from "gorror" (gory horror, that is). 99% of the time there won't be so much as a kiss in my stories, though if I felt that it suited the situation, I would take it as far as neccessary, though I wouldn't feel comfortable with anything "pornographic".


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## Halasían

Mine are written with no rating in mind to allow for complete creativ freedom. Usually they are in the PG-13 to R range.


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## infernumflame

Lomin... said:


> I vote PG, but when I _really_ think about it I'm not sure. There is violence, and I plan on having rather detailed murder in the latter part of the book, but I have no swearing or sex. So, I don't know, how bad is blood and gore?
> 
> In general, I think the story would appeal to all age groups.



Your writing doesn't appear to be any worse than Tolkien's work, so I wouldn't go beyond pg-13 at the very highest, and even that's iffy.

My stuff tends to be PG or PG-13. I have written a couple pieces that could probably scare the younger folk, but in general, I tend to stick to PG (violence, but not much in the way of blood and gore).


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## Varokhâr

My only publushed fanfic (Devil's Plaything) was a decent PG-13, but I am considering sequels (maybe a prequel) which would walk the line at least, if not be R-rated outright.

Generally, I write somewhere between PG-13 and R. Either works fine for me.


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## Mike

I find these rating to be somewhat hard to use in categorizing some of my short stories. They may not have blood or sex or swears, but some of them are still not suitable for children.

I can categorize my novel fragment from a while ago, which I am now expanding, as PG, I guess, in content...though it seems to be slowly building in intensity, and from some of the prestory I've been writing it's turning into something much more mature.

The novel I wrote at 12 would be considered "R". Imagine that! But, of course, overactive preteen imagination (and teen imagination, in what was the beginning of a rewrite) gave it lots of blood, gore, swearing, and--of course--later on, blatant sexual overtones. Which is one reason I canned it.

The short stories I've been writing recently are generally not suitable for anyone under 13, and I frankly don't know if younger audiences would understand them. I don't like tackling comfortable themes, is all, and even without sex and violence, a story can still be uncomfortable and downright creepy.

Or so other people have told me.


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## Hobbit-GalRosie

I honestly don't know. At one point it likely would have been G or maybe PG, and now...well, most of what I have actually written I'd say is PG, but what I plan to write...I'd say in many cases isn't for kids at all. I think children in general could understand a lot more than their often given credit for, but...my characters tend to have very serious mental issues. Really, really scary ones. It's not the treaditional gore/sex/swearing that would be an issue, it's just...I like to take my chars to very, very dark places at times, and they can't realistically come out healthy. And the way they'd be thinking at that point I think would be too much even for most teenagers in some cases and definitely too much for the younger ones in most.

Of course not all my stories are like that, but a great many are leaning pretty strongly in that direction now.

So yeah...it goes anywhere from PG to R, and I just don't know how to vote.


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## Neumy

I could not classify all my writings with just one rating. Generally, I probably am a PG guy, but one character was so fun being bad, he gets me a PG-13 rating.


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## Mali

I never write my stories with ratings in mind. I go where it takes me. However, my writing tends to be PG-13, but originally R in my mind, but I tend to tone it down when it goes on paper.


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## Firawyn

I tend to run in the PG zone, sometimes PG13. 

When I'm writing, I keep "would my mother ground me for writing this content" in the back of my mind, and usually stick in those parameters. 

Usually, mind you. I do a bit of YRV as well (that usually deals with alternative lifestyles).


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## Mali

Yes! I think that a lot too! my mother has a tendency to search through my garbage and my private papers, and my father has a tendency to hack into my computer and go through my files and internet, so almost everything I do is censored because I know I do not want to get in trouble--and I'm in college, how pathetic is that? However, it does keep me out of trouble from time to time.


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## Firawyn

Gosh, Mali, are you sure we don't have the same parents!? That post explained my mom and dad, exactly. _Creepy._


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## Mali

I think most parents are the same in that area.


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