make-characters-suffer

[make-characters-suffer]

some of you didn’t spend roadtrips as a kid in the backseat gazing desolately out the window while drip-feeding yourself droplets from a water bottle and pretending you were a wounded knight being carted back from the scene of battle while bleeding furiously from your wounds. and brother does it show

[make-characters-suffer]

WHY YOU SHOULD WRITE HORRIBLY:

1. You’ll never write anything if you don’t

[make-characters-suffer]

Thinking about the 'Whumpee coming back from Whumper looking like a shell of themself' trope but in reverse:

Whumpee who disappears for months, maybe even years, but comes back to the team looking better than before. They're bigger, stronger, less fragile, and more focused on missions. Team view it as a great thing and put Whumpee forward for harder and more dangerous work because they seem to be able to handle it so well now.

What the team doesn't know is that Whumpee's new 'strength' is due to intense conditioning from Whumper. Maybe Whumper was trying to turn Whumpee into a living weapon, but Whumpee escaped before the process was complete. Maybe Whumper succeeded. Whatever the cause, Whumpee's transformation is not rooted in anything good.

But does Whumpee tell them that? Of course they don't. They're finally useful. Finally valuable. The team doesn't need to know that Whumpee is in pain 24/7 or that they execute every order with precision for fear of being tortured if they fail. The team doesn't need to know that, inside, Whumpee is more broken and fragile than they were before they left.

So the team carry on, proud to have Whumpee's skill and efficiency as their best asset.

Imagine their horror when they find out the truth.

[make-characters-suffer]

Former living weapon absolutely dominating at laser tag

[make-characters-suffer]

i feel like an often overlooked downside to 10-episode seasons and the death of the "monster of the week" format is that we get way less whump variety nowadays. used to be that there'd be dozens of opportunities for your fave to get punched or kidnapped or hypnotized or what have you. these days if it doesn't fit into the main plot, it just doesn't happen. this is a tragedy. we should be protesting.

[make-characters-suffer]

i'm gonna talk about my very first ocs because i feel like they deserve it :) when i was a kid i didn't quite have the imagination yet to create whole worlds, so my ocs were often inserts into existing things i was into.

this is a very long post with a lot of useless personal information, and is more a diary entry than anything.

i had many more ocs than what's listed here, but i can't remember most of them, so here are just the ones i remember.

childhood:

at 7, the very first oc i can ever remember making was Maya, a pokemon oc. she was the fourth member of team rocket in the anime canon, and could shapeshift between being a human and a celebi. i remember her being "older" but that could mean anything from a middle schooler to an adult.

also pokemon-related but not quite an oc, i had a lot of fakemon around that time. the only one i remember was a raccoon-like one named Tyco.

at 9, soon after was Tanya, a fairly oddparents oc. she was a little girl who was friends with the main character.

at 10, i really got into oc-making, and the next bunch are all from when i was about 10.

i started getting into "somewhat whumpier" things and made my first "edgy" oc, Deepheart, for warrior cats. she was a black cat with purple eyes and a tragic backstory i can't remember, who eventually got with stormfur.

i was very into danny phantom and continued my tragic backstory experiments with Chelsea. she was a ghost and the younger sister of ember (she was basically an ember recolor) who died in the same fire. she also had fire+music powers, but a polar opposite personality to ember (she was nice).

i can't remember the specifics or names of the ocs i made for a bunch of these, but i also made oc-inserts for the following around this time:

total drama island - multiple ocs, i think i had a whole fancast, which was the closest i got around this time to making an original story.

monster buster club - character existed to be friends with chris, who was my favorite. she was a monster in disguise or something of that nature.

percy jackson - i definitely had one and i was REALLY into it, but can't even remember what god she was a daughter of.

in middle school as i entered early teenhood, i started reading YA books. sadly, my taste was not that great.

preteen:

at 12, i made Chelsea (reused the name from the danny phantom oc because i just rly liked the name), a twilight oc. she was the first vampire oc i ever made, so i guess she was the start of All This. she was the youngest cullen at 14 years old (i do not remember if this was a chronological age or just a physical age and i think i was too oblivious to realize just how significant that difference was), and had a Forbidden Romance with seth, the werewolf kid.

at 13, i realized i could have ocs that were boys! a fantastic revelation! technically i already had ones from the total drama fanseason i had in my head but they were all side characters. made my first main guy, Oliver, a scott pilgrim oc and ramona's 8th ex-boyfriend.

i made a LOT of other ocs for YA books in middle school, but i don't remember much about the others.

teenhood - homestuck:

at 15, i got into homestuck, and that was when things got out of control.

i started with a literal self-insert with my birthname, who eventually got split into 2 alt-timeline versions of herself (i was a girl at the time), one who went with dave and rose during the timeskip and one who went with john and jade during the timeskip. when they met back up, they fell in love and got together, which i think might be the truest expression of self-love i've ever had.

but it didn't end there. i got really into making fantrolls, and made TONS of them. i don't remember their names very well (esp bc they were all made up alien names) but i remember my favorites: a bronzeblood with an eyepatch whose name started with a P, and a violetblood whose name started with an I.

the violetblood was probably my first true whumpee. while violetbloods are normally amphibious, he was born with lungs that don't work, and was forced to remain underwater at all times since he could only use his gills. when sgrub caused the apocalypse, he had a little tank he would stay in on the ship. and when gamzee started killing everyone, he couldn't get away.

this was also where i branched out into creating original characters not tied to an existing IP!!! FINALLY!!! it all started with fantrolls. i made two more significant sets of fantrolls: one centering around an abnormally overpowered purpleblood who had his memory erased and used to be a cruel whumper-type (and a set of supporting characters to go with him), and one centering around a purpleblood who'd been tortured and the lowblood who acted as his caretaker. you can tell i was very much getting into whump at this point, despite not yet knowing the term.

i eventually decided that homestuck's lore was not equipped to carry the stories i wanted to tell for those two, and split them each off into original universes. i am not into homestuck anymore and it's really a relic of its time, but it impacted me quite a lot creatively.

teenhood - original stories:

the amnesia guy came to be named Nova, my first wholly-original character. he existed in a magic/fantasy type universe, and was the most powerful magic-user in his world. he'd previously been extremely evil and caused untold carnage, countless people tortured to death. the heroes, after realizing they could not stop him, decided to try to wipe his memory instead. this did, in fact, work. Nova became a character saddled by EXTREME ANGST about his past wrongs. to make it worse, his pre-memory-wipe evil self eventually started to slowly come back as a separate entity in his mind, essentially haunting him. i daydreamed about Nova for a long, long time, and occasionally still do.

the whumpee-caretaker duo became Dwar and Clobu, members of an original alien species i came up with. unlike Nova's story, which became so divorced from his fantroll beginnings that his origin was basically unrecognizable, this one remained heavily homestuck-inspired. the aliens here were grouped/inspired by the layers of the atmosphere, rather than the signs of the zodiac. Dwar (the whumpee) had skin that looked like the night sky, dark blue with stars all over, while Clobu (the caretaker) looked like a cloudy day. they were pretty :) these guys are a very very early inspiration for the Kane & Jim dynamic.

i also started making non-IP-related ocs without "converting" them around this time. in particular, i became very interested in demons.

first i made Charlie, a teenage demon raised by humans who just wanted to be A Normal Kid. he played the guitar and used tumblr and was all in all very nonthreatening and normal. he was a bit boring.

at about 16, i later made Nicky, a "redo" of the Charlie concept but with more pizzazz. his mother had brought him on a hunt (for humans to kill and eat) while he was an infant, and she was killed by a demon hunter. the hunter couldn't bring herself to kill the baby, so she took him in and raised him instead. Nicky's story is very very long, because he is the only oc from my childhood i still regularly daydream about to this day, and i have been building him up for a decade. some highlights:

accidentally burns his adoptive mom when he's a little boy who's just gotten his fire powers, and it's what makes him realize he never wants to hurt people. she forever has a scar shaped like his tiny little 5-year-old hand.

demons generally need to eat human flesh to be healthy. this is obviously not something Nicky wants to do or even feasibly can do when he's younger. he eats a lot of other meat (mainly pork), and is basically constantly hungry. he carries jerky around with him all the time to snack on.

as a young adult, he and his (human) best friend (mutual pining crush) are stuck in a cave (entrance blocked by rocks) with a bunch of demons waiting to kill them when they leave. Nicky knows he's not strong enough to defeat them, but he could be if he wasn't malnourished. in a moment of desperation, his friend ends up giving him a few fingers to eat so they can make it out alive, and he feels guilty forever that it's the best thing he's ever tasted.

his mom is killed by demons in a fight in his early 20s, and he goes on a ballistic rampage murdering everyone in sight. after this, he runs away and ends up moving to hell.

when he's in his 40s, he sees a little human girl who's been captured and brought to hell, and quickly rescues her. he can't find a way to smuggle her back to earth, so he ends up raising her in his apartment.

when he does eventually get her back to earth years later, he moves in with her dad and they co-parent. becomes a love triangle thing with the dad and his childhood friend who he eventually reconnects with- not for the usual "you have to choose one!" reasons that i hate, but because his relationships with each are honestly very tumultuous.

my other early demon oc was Crimson, a magicless demon who'd been captured by hunters and tortured until a kind hunter rescued him and became his caretaker. this character would later become Kane, but originally there was no "former whumper" backstory, he was just a pathetic little guy.

at 16, my other main obsession as a teenager was dangan ronpa, and of course i made several dangan ronpa ocs whose names i can't remember. one of them was a girl who had a fierce rivalry with togami. i started getting into g/t around this time, and liked to play around with that with my dangan ronpa oc for some reason. i don't know why, it's not like DR had any kind of g/t in it. but i would always imagine a story where togami became tiny and he and my oc came to a begrudging alliance as they tried to fix it.

i also ended up converting this into an original story, taking place in a low-fantasy universe, where a bully character Damien got shrunk by magic, kept in a jar, and was tortured by some of his former victims. his one victim who thinks this is fucked up (can't remember his name) rescued him, and they put aside their differences to fix it. i just love reluctant caretakers and whumper-turned-whumpees.

and that's all the notable ocs i can think of from my childhood! figure they deserve at least a small space on my blog :) and i still might write Nova, Nicky, or Damien's stories someday.

[make-characters-suffer]

Anyways today I had a really cool dream about a whump scenario:

Whumpee is a shapeshifter and Whumper has her captured—perhaps for research? curiosity)—in a very very large house/castle with walls and a huge garden (that is more like an entire forest). In order to escape, Whumpee leads Whumper into thinking she's ran away ans turns into a kitten while she can't. Whumper takes care of the kitty until Whumpee has enough strenght and reveals herself, then turns into a fly and then she actually flees. Whumper is mad and goes after her but the thing is that the castle place is so huge Whumper can't consider herself safe until she leaves the walls. She can't keep herself transformed for long, though, I think, because she has to take breaks + keep herself hidden + slowly get out of the castle and then eventually she manages to fly away.

A few years go by where she's free and makes friends etc and she's changed a bit, to the point where whumper would probably not recognize her if she saw Whumpee out there. One day, a friend of Whumpee presents her to their other friend, a very nice and fancy and proper lady: Whumper. Whumpee is very frightened but she calms herself and tries to remember Whumper can't recognize her like this (maybe her powers even have a finger on that!), until Friend (whom Whumpee trusts so she had confided most things except the awful times she spent under whumper's thumb in that nightmare castle where every day was filled with pain and she had to dodge and predict whumper's every mood to get by and try not to starve or anger her because she could and would snap her like a little cockroach if she wanted to) mentions the fact that Whumpee is a shapeshifter and her blood turns into ice.

Whumper's eyes immediately light up with recognition—there aren't many shapeshifters around, not anymore at least—and she doesn't take a second to snatch her up, perhaps even threatening her friend to do so.

She traces her knife around her throat, as she uses her own powers to supress whumpee's shapeshifting abilities, smilling for finally retrestinf a good long lost. The last words Whumpee hears before having her conscience knocked out are that she will never be left unsupervised again.

[make-characters-suffer]

How to Leave Comments on Fanfiction

So, I recently made a poll to know if people might find it helpful to have a list of things they could talk about when leaving comments on fanfictions, be it on Ao3 or on here. A majority of people were interested in seeing the post so, well, I'm making it. I started writing and posting stuff online when I was a teenager, on a website where leaving constructive criticism was the norm. It's by far the place where I've gotten the most feedback and it was an incredibly formative experience for me as a young writer — and it taught me how to leave detailed comments.

Writing comments doesn't necessarily come easy. It's something that you may need to learn how to do, but the good news is that you can learn how to do it, so don't worry if you don't know what to say at first. Hopefully this list will give you some pointers on how to do that.

This is more or less the list I go through when I want to leave a detailed comment. Even if I don't have a specific idea at first, I'll go through the steps and I never come out empty-handed.

Comment etiquette:

What became apparent with the poll I made was that a lot of people worry about how they'll be perceived by the writers if they leave a comment. Now, obviously, writers aren't a monolith, but 99% of the time writers will be thrilled that you took the time to leave a comment to let them know what you enjoyed in their fic. I cannot stress this enough. We're not going to judge someone based on a positive comment they leave.

As it stands, on Tumblr and Ao3, it's seen as rude to leave negative feedback, unless the author has explicitly asked for it/agreed to it, so that's what I'll be going over here. Since quite a few writers did say on that post that they would like to get constructive comments as well, stay tuned, I'm trying to get something together to do that for authors. Other than that, you're good to go.

The main ways to let an author know your thoughts on a fic on Tumblr are:

reblogging a fic with your thoughts underneath it

reblogging with your thoughts in the tags, which is often less formal

leaving a comment as a 'reaction'

sending in an ask if they're activated on the blog (which means you can stay anonymous, if anon asks are allowed)

Reblogging means that your followers will see the post as well, and is therefore really appreciated on Tumblr.

As a note, you may find different systems work for different fics! Maybe leaving tag rambles works for you when commenting on drabbles, for example for me it's the system I use to leave comments on smut.

General advice:

Everything I'm saying in here is for people who want to be able to leave longer/more detailed comments and don't always know where to start. If, for whatever reason, you're not comfortable or you don't have time to do it at the moment, a simple "I love the fic, thank you for writing it" always goes a long way for an author.

The key thing to keep in mind if you're trying to find something else to say, I think, is to try making the comment specific to the fic you're leaving it on. It shows the writer what you took away from the fic and the fic's strong points, which is both meaningful and helpful to an author.

Comments don't have to be long to be meaningful. Don't stress about writing a ton; a one-sentence comment highlighting the fic's humor or how emotional it made you can be incredibly impactful.

With this out of the way, I'll go through things you can talk about in a comment, starting with what I think is the easiest and moving on to things that could require more thought. You don't have to do all of that. You may never use some of the things on that list. Leaving comments should not be a source of anxiety. So take what you want from the list, maybe come back to it if you need more inspiration, and don't worry too much about it :)

Favorite line(s) : pull from the fic to let the author know what your favorite line was. If you wish, you can expand on that by saying why it was your favorite: did it make you laugh? Did it make you feel something specific? Did the author nail the characterization with it? Was there some incredible metaphor? Did you find it beautiful or poetic even if you can't go into detail? Is there one line in particular at the beginning of the fic that hooked you in and made you want to keep reading?

All of that is very valuable for a writer to know. Some of my favorite comments I've gotten were a list of a reader's favorite lines from a fic with one or two sentences to explain why they liked them, so don't hesitate to do that more than once if you can!

Emotions:  if there’s one thing I know about writers, it’s that we’re thrilled when we’ve made you cry. So tell us: how did the writing make you feel? Did you laugh out loud? If you did, was it the dialogue, or the narrator? Did it make you cry? Which part? Could you relate to one of the characters? Did it make you feel seen? Did the fluff make you feel all fuzzy inside or did the angst twist knots in your stomach? This isn't an exhaustive list, and emotions are great to draw from when you're leaving a comment!

Favorite element of the writing: Is there one thing in the writing that struck you as being particularly good, or what was your favorite thing to read? Is the author a master at writing dialogue? Are their descriptions so good you could see the whole scene? Are they really good at getting in a character's head and describing their emotions? Were you hooked from the start and couldn't stop until you reached the end?

Characterization: Now, this might be less instinctive, but if you've been in a fandom for a while, you'll probably be able to identify these things fairly easily. You can tell the author if you think they've nailed one aspect of a character. Did you have a favorite character in the fic? What did you think of them? Did the author manage to capture their voice? Was the attitude spot-on? Which parts of the character, if you can name them? Were there aspects of the character you particularly enjoyed? Did the author shine a light on something you hadn't considered or on something you don't think is highlighted often enough? Is there one thing from the fic you can actually picture/hear a character doing/saying in your head?

Style: I'd argue this is the hardest part, and you shouldn't feel bad if it's not something you can really comment on. As someone whose first language isn't English, I know I struggle with it. Style can be perceived as the way the author's voice comes through in the text. It can come through in punctuation, in the way sentences are formed, in the choice of the words themselves. If, when you read, you feel something intangible that doesn't fit well in the other categories, it just might be the author's style.

Here are some things (non-exhaustive list, of course) you could say about an author's style: it can be direct, straight to the point. The author doesn't bother with ornaments. Every sentence feels impactful. Maybe the writing feels intense. You're overwhelmed by the characters and their feelings and you feel truly engulfed in the story. Maybe the style is light and airy. It's so easy to read you don't even notice you are reading. Maybe the writing is intricate. Going through it is like piecing a puzzle together, sentences are foreshadowing and metaphors reveal deep truths about the characters. Maybe the style is rich. While not always the easiest, it's a pleasure to read through it, the author has a wide vocabulary, and you might want to compare it to a well-written novel.

If you identify specific elements of that style (metaphors, interesting use of punctuation, etc.), don't hesitate to point them out and let the author know you enjoy them!

That is it for this post, hopefully it doesn't look too daunting — again, you absolutely do not need to do all that in any comment, but maybe going through this list can help you leave comments for authors you enjoy.

I like to end my comments with 'Thank you for writing and sharing this with us', so I'll tell you thank you for reading, I hope this was helpful, and please consider reblogging if you'd like to save this or if you think it could help someone else!

As a bonus, my friend @elidebrey and I (but mostly her) made a 'checklist' for commenting, to help remember all this if that's something you'd like, so use at will!

A big thank you to @elidebrey, @yoongihan and @antoniorhinothethird for their precious opinions on this ���

[make-characters-suffer]

Whenever whumpee disobeys, psychic whumper forcibly mindmelds with them and forces whumpee to "see it from Whumper's point of view." After they're rescued, Whumpee has to contend with lingering thoughts and memories they're not sure originally belonged to them.

[make-characters-suffer]

When Whumper mock-comforts Caretaker about Whumpee or their condition.

“Don’t worry, my dear! Whumpee’s safe with me. Nothing else can harm them!”

“Don’t fret. Whumpee is still alive! They may be missing a few pieces but they’re still alive at least.”

“Oh, Whumpee? They’ve been the best little pet I could have asked for. Very obedient. It took a lot of training but…”

“I don’t think they find you comforting anymore, Caretaker. In fact, it looks like they don’t think they even remember you! It seems that I’m their comfort now.”

“They’ve been a trooper— truly they have! You should have seen how long it took for me to finally break them.”

“They aren’t in pain, Caretaker! I’m hurt that you would think so ill of me! No, no. I didn’t need to hurt them to get them to obey me.”

“I’ve taken wonderful care of them, Caretaker!”

“Not to worry, Caretaker. Whumpee loves it here with me! You should hear the way they beg me not to leave them. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that they are locked away with no food or water when I must leave them alone.”

“You know, it is very nice to have someone at your every beck and call . Even better when they’re just so thrilled to be doing it.”

“Of course they’re with me! The poor thing never leaves my side. They are just so terrified by the cruel and wicked world out there, you see.”

“They’re fine, of course, but I’m not so sure they’re your Whumpee anymore. I believe since I’ve finished my experiments, they’ve become so much more… agreeable to me.”

[make-characters-suffer]

Hurt/Comfort and Whump in Fandom Discourse: A Timeline  (1970′s - 2020)

I’m mapping out hurt/comfort and whump discourse in fandom over the course of 50 yrs. I’m open to revisions! 

Notes: This is probably U.S. / North America centered. I’m a millennial. I’m using Fanlore and other wikis for pre-1990′s times or fandoms I’m not familiar with. In case it’s needed, an overview post about vocab/concepts like “whump” “hurt/comfort” and how I specifically use them. I’m putting this history post together because… Eh, curious. (This is a live project and I occasionally add info!)

Sources:

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Fanfiction

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Get_‘em (link is buggy, search for “get_em” on fanlore’s site)

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Hurt/Comfort

Everybody Hurts: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Hurt/Comfort Fanfiction (Amanda L. Straw, 2015) https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/downloads/4f4752g316

A 1997 review of Bacon-Smith’s “Enterprising Women” (by Anne Collins Smith)

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Whump

https://whumpapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Whump_Resources

Various linked Tumblr posts

OP’s own experiences

Read below the cut for….

1970′s fanfics, the establishment of the tropes of “hurt/comfort”, The Vault of Tomorrow, the growth of the internet and those effects on fandom and fanfiction, academics writing about hurt/comfort in fanfics, 1990′s MulderTorture, the origins of the phrase “whump”, some 2000′s online fandom notes I knew, the start of Tumblr and Ao3, the spread of the phrase “whump” online, and what might be called the First, Second and third Wave of Tumblr Whump Blogs. And more.

Keep reading

[make-characters-suffer]

Thinking about recapture today...

[make-characters-suffer]

We always talk about whumpees with Stockholm syndrome but what if it was like. Totally on accident. Whumper's last intention was for whumpee to adore them so such a degree. And it makes them. deeply uncomfortable.

Whumpee leans into any brief physical touch while he coos and murmurs reassurances for whumper and whumper yanks their hand away and yells, maybe hitting whumpee. Whumpee has to have his hands restrained because he keeps reaching for whumper. Whumpee has to have his fingers broken because he managed to cup Whumper's face one time and they did not like that.

Whumpee, giggling like it's a date night: "Anyone ever tell you that you're pretty? Like insanely pretty."

Whumper: "... Not while I'm breaking their fingers, no. (Please stop)"

Whumpee learns to accept the pain because the only time whumper wants to be in the same room with him is when they're hurting him. Whumper tries to get rid of him, but he keeps coming back like a sewer rat. Whumper throws him out and then at 4 am wakes up to whumpee standing over their bed. Their window is open. They live on the second floor. Whumpee tries to crawl into bed and gets gut punched in return.

[make-characters-suffer]

Innocent, kind whumpees broken into jaded assholes uncaring toward anyone but the whumper they're fanatically-loyal to.

Whumpee's loved one who in their search for Whumpee gets taken by Whumper and faces a cruel guard dog with Whumpee's face

Bonus points if Loved One treated Whumpee unkindly at some point and Whumpee throws it back in their face

[make-characters-suffer]

i hate how non-canon ships have become so controversial nowadays, like i just miss how most people were multi-shippers. we even used to ship characters that were in different fandoms, what happened to that??

[make-characters-suffer]

Whumpee that doesn't know what to do with someone that won't either like them or hurt them so they have a mental breakdown over it.

[make-characters-suffer]

I’m a big fan of characters mistaking others for being ghosts come to take them to (insert after death whatever here).

Like, Whumpee has been missing and presumed dead for a long time, so when Caretaker next sees them, Caretaker assumes that they’re an angel to take Caretaker’s weary soul.

Or when Whumpee has been tortured for so long that they’re on the brink. When Caretaker comes and rescues them, Whumpee believes Caretaker to be an angel come to take them away from this hell.

The point is I like it when characters are like “oh haha ur dead/cant possibly be here so I must be dying.” Then when the mistaken party realizes the truth… super emotional hugging and tears of joy anyone??