#whump definitely isn't for everyone but goddamn do I find it fun

[paradoxlemonade]

I have a question:

What is "whump"?

I saw in the tags of a post you are a "whump writer" and i've never heard that phrase before?

(I really don't mean to be disrespectful, and im so sorry if im coming off that way!)

You're good :DDDD you're not being disrespectful at all! I love getting asks about whump :D [you have turned me into an unskippable cutscene]

Whump is allllllll about characters in immense pain. It has significant overlap with angst and hurt/comfort as fic genres, though there are a few differences. Angst has a general lean towards psychological issues/trauma/mental health (there are varying degrees of angst), whereas whump is more active torment/torture/traumatic event in the current moment, and it tends to be darker or extreme. Whump almost always has some sort of physical aspect, but it's not an absolute requirement. Some newer fandoms just use angst as a catch-all for angst and whump, but I prefer to separate them.

Hurt/comfort, as the name implies, must be a character getting hurt followed up with comfort (either a little or a lot). Whump and angst can also be hurt/comfort, but they don't require any comfort if the author doesn't want to write any. I tend to prefer comfort, but some of my favorites don't have any!

The term is said to originate from the Stargate fandom in the late 90s as an onomatopoeia for the fan-favorite character Daniel hitting the ground, though this is disputed and the term may be older. Source: the Whump fanlore page (also contains further reading on the topic!)

I like whump for the same reason a lot of people like horror: it's fascinating and visceral. There's this one Tumblr quote I utterly adore that sums up my feelings on the matter: "Characters are like geodes—in order to see their inner beauty, you have to break them."

People like whump for a lot of different reasons and like different facets of it. For example, I prefer either a prideful/stoic whumpee (character getting whumped) who is broken down during the fic, or an absolutely pathetic wet cat that the universe itself seems to bend to hurt. My favorite whumpers (character doing the hurting) are either cold and methodical (big big fan of medical whump!) or environmental whump (natural disasters, stranded, exposed to the elements, sickfic, etc.). That said, I'm much less picky with my whumpers than I am with my whumpees!

Current favorite whump tropes: nonconsensual body modification (!!!! Big on this one, ties into medical horror), scarification, head injuries/concussions, character forced to hurt a friend, hostage situations, psychological conditioning, and hypothermia :D (I am normal I promise lmao)

TL;DR: Whump is torturing characters for the funsies, comfort optional. Being my favorite character is a threat to that character's well-being! <3