Behind the Scenes

How to Write Whump

Who shamelessly loves a good whump fic? I know I do. Over the course of my fanfiction experience (dare I call it a career?), I've developed tastes and preferences in what fanfiction I'm willing to consume. It's like ordering steak. Personally, I prefer my whump fanfiction to be platonic, close to canon, heaping with angst, not overdone, well written, and as close to realistic as possible. I've been writing fanfiction for over four years now and have learned much on the art of writing whump. Thus, this behind the scenes post was born.

According to Urban Dictionary, whump is "A fandom term, commonly used by fan fiction authors, to describe physical and/or mental abuse laid on a character in a story." 

If you are writing a story and the main plot is hurting a character, mind the length. Dragging out your story and agony too long, people will get bored. I recommend no more than fifteen chapters if it is a whump story and not a one shot. Personally, I would rather write a pain-filled one shot instead of full on books. Set the stage with the first five chapters or so, gradually hurt your "whumpee" in the next few chapters, rescue or start healing him/her at around chapter ten, by the time you reach chapter fourteen, your character should be fully healed and you can use the last chapter to clean up the plot and close the curtains.

I personally prefer to have a different plot and hurt my characters along the way. I also prefer to read and write whump one shots rather than multi-chapter books. A ten chapter story on one character getting shot isn't going to keep my attention span for long.

So how much is too much? Depends on where your plot is going. If your whumpee is being tortured for information and you want him/her to escape on their own, you should probably make sure you don't hurt them too much. Don't break their legs or make them loose too much blood. Maybe your character is being tortured for info, but he's waiting for a rescue. Then be aware that the villain probably wants him alive, and make sure he can be moved when his friends arrive. Just make sure you pay attention to details like that. I don't want to read a fanfic where the character gets shot, a few chapters later gets shot again, then catches a cold while bleeding out, heals for all that, then is stabbed the first time they get back on the field. *Long suffering sigh*

To continue my point, I've even read that you shouldn't write paragraphs about your character's pain. It's boring to read long series of paragraphs about pain. Some readers, including myself, would just skip to the action. Battles and action scenes, where your character is most likely to be hurt, are fast paced. Long paragraphs on one topic will slow the intense scene. Also, don't exaggerate the pain. Being punched doesn't feel like a gunshot wound. Do your research and know your stuff. If you hit an artery, it will bleed much more than a vein. Did you hit something important? What kind of injury was delivered? This takes me to my next point:

Every writer has trouble writing pain they never experienced. How can one write an angsty interrogation scene if they were never tortured? Luckily, we have the internet and Pinterest. Do your research or you might write a fanfic where you stab a certain character in the stomach with a lightsaber, have her survive, and then realize about two years later that said character should have died from that injury. That was suspiciously specific... *Hides certain Star Wars fanfic* One time I read a Pirates of the Caribbean fan fiction where Captain Barbossa did slit Will Turner's throat, but then Will, bleeding profusely, actually lived! I almost threw my phone because nobody can live from a deeply slit throat! 

Platonic or romantic (I personally prefer platonic), the relationships in whump stories are what make them so intriguing. We want to read how the others' hearts ache at the sound of their friend's painful moans. We want tears to be shed at the whumpee's cries of agony. We want the character with training to work feverishly to save the life of their lover. We want the teacher to feel guilty for their young student's pain, even if it isn't their fault. We want the child to panic over a parent's injury and not know how to treat it. It makes the whump story much more dramatic and engaging, especially if it's fanfiction with characters we already know and love. Make sure you keep them in character, original or not. An additional tip, you should give your other characters some attention, too. Switch to their point of view, make them worry to a point where they are not taking care of themselves properly, or mildly injure them as well.

Who should you bring the pain to? Anyone you want! For both original works and fanfiction, writers tend to enjoy hurting their favorite character. If you still don't know who to bring the pain to, take the advice of the Goblin King from The Hobbit: "Torture the youngest!" That brings the most anguish to your reader. 

If you need ideas, my favorite type of whump fanfiction to write are fillers. How did that character get that scar? When did that character heal from that injury? Who cared for that character's wound? Why does that character limp? What happened after that torture scene? What happened during that interrogation we weren't allowed to see? On the other hand, if you want to add whump to an already written story as a what if, I'd advise against removing any limbs or organs if you want to keep it canon. If you're not going by canon, by all means.

Elves, speedsters, werewolves, and more, many creatures or enhanced humans have a special healing factor that makes whump stories more difficult to write, or just more intense. If you want to make your works longer when hurting those kinds of characters, you need to do the opposite of what I told you earlier. Injure them more before they can heal properly or force them to push themselves, which slows down the healing process. Poison them first before torturing them so they can't heal at their normal rate. Lastly, if they have a weakness, exploit it! For example, both Barry Allen from the Flash and Deputy Jordan Parrish, a Hellhound, from Teen Wolf are weakened by extreme cold.

When writing about whump, you will use the word pain often. "He cried out in pain"; "She arched her back in pain"; "The pain lessened"; "All he felt was pain." It can get repetitive and annoying to the writers and readers. I'm sorry to say that there's no perfect solution to this and just try your best to space it out. You can throw in the words agony and anguish a couple times. Also use adjectives to help the reader imagine what kind of pain it is and how extreme. Excruciating, agonizing, painful, stinging, throbbing, and burning, for example.

Warning! While I am not really fazed by blood in real life, some people have weaker stomachs than me. Same thing in whump stories. You may need to put a warning if your story can trigger some people as some mental and physical abuse stories can do.

I hope this was helpful. Have fun tortu– I mean, writing!