that's... not how it works. you can't guarantee that your work definitely won't squick anyone. what do you think you're saying?
"squick free" someone writes on their wholesome family fic about married characters expecting a baby.
I read it and am extremely squicked.
You do not know what squicks other people. "Squick" is not a category of elements, it is a description of a reaction.
Squick is literally a personal thing, you literally cannot know what squicks another person.
Same goes for triggers, by the way. You can't guarantee something is trigger-free because literally anything can be a trigger because the human brain can be weird like that sometimes.
No no, actually there's a perfect way to write an absolutely squick free fanfic! Plenty of writers do it successfully every day!
Here.
Blank documents squick me out because they remind me of all my unstarted writing projects. :/
guys. c'mon.
oh my goddd
Okay, for anyone ACTUALLY unsure and wanting to learn: "squick" is an old fandom term. It means something that grosses you out or makes you deeply uncomfortable, but doesn't give you as intense negative reactions as a trigger. They are incredibly personal, though often times, just like with triggers, you can tag relatively common squicks.
For me, mpreg is a squick. It makes me deeply uncomfortable, but it doesn't send me into a panic spiral, a deep depression, or make me angry like reading about eye trauma does.
My cousins in Lannister, ‘squick’ didn’t even originate in fandom.
Also useful to note that ‘squick’ is specifically used to mean “this isn’t for me, personally” without adding a moral judgement to it. A simple easy way to say ‘no, thank you but you do you’. Unlike ‘cringe’ which has negative connotations. Squicks are also more than just uncomfortable.
Daddy kink makes me uncomfortable
Degradation squicks me out
Hand trauma is a trigger
First known usage of "squick" was in 1991. It's not some new term that was made up for this post.
And if you want an actual definition and etymology, here. It’s also in the Oxford English Dictionary but that’s paywalled so less useful to link.