whump guide

Whump!

Whump was a sound effect used in some fanfics for when a character collapsed to the floor.  Over time, it became a tag/genre that encompassed much more—[i]pain[/i] in all its forms.

[b]What are the limitations of whump?[/b]
That's the great part—there aren't!  Whump can be physical, psychological, environmental, naughty, disease-ridden, or anything!  Whump can be any level, from full-on slasher to a lovingly-described stubbed toe.  The only requirement to use the term is that someone fictional is suffering—and in a way, isn't that truly inclusive?

[b]Isn't it bad to write bad things?[/b]
The author's morality is not determined by what they write.  Writing whump does not make someone a bad person at all!  It's often a method for a person to safely explore things that they don't want to happen to anyone, a method of dealing with trauma, or just an exercise for their creative muscles.  Writing about something doesn't mean a person wants it to happen, it just means the concept interests them, and writing about it is a safe way to explore without anyone real getting hurt.

[b]I hear whump used interchangeably with "dead dove"![/b]
Technically, they aren't the same thing.  Dead Dove refers to a scene from a television show (which I forget the name of) where a man sees a bag in the company fridge that is labeled "dead dove do not eat" and opens it, only to say "I don't know what I expected."

The label from the bag became a tag in multiple spaces that means the tags are serious—do not read if you don't like what the tags say!  It's often used alongside tags like whump, incest, or horror to indicate that the author is serious about those tags.

[b]What terminology is popular?[/b]
To start, there's the whumpee—the victim.  Caretakers often help whumpees, where a whumper is the one who inflicts the torment.  These can either be situational labels or a long-term role, similar to the hybrid terms like carewhumper, carewhumpee, and whumperee.

[b]How do I write whump?[b]
That's a difficult question because there are many types of whump, but I've found that my personal favorite whump is written with attention to detail.  Let the reader see and hear it in their mind, and you know you've written some good suffering.