Building a Whump OC

By Envy Throw aesthetic choices out the window.  Pick random colors out of a hat when they’re needed.  There are only four shades of eye colors anyway.  Besides, does it really matter if your OC is tall or short when they’re always on the ground?  Does their weight matter if they’re always being carried around? 

Neurophysiology of Whump: A Research Proposal

By S.E. Klein A note from the author: “I wrote this paper in the format of a formal scientific research proposal as part of a project for an undergraduate-level psychology class last year, and have since touched it up a bit. I first got the idea to study the neuropsychology behind the whump fandom about

On Defining Whump, and the Motivations of Creators

Note: In this essay, I’ve largely used the terms ‘creator’ and ‘author’ interchangeably, as most of the transformative whump content I personally interact with is written fiction. I’m also using ‘whumper’ in the traditional sense as a real person who enjoys whump, like me and — presumably — you reading this. I’ve been thinking a

Why I Don’t Write Stabbings

Whump can be (and let’s be honest, it usually is) a beautiful thing. It’s one of the few places in popular media today where the consequences of injury, suffering, and hardship are really explored and lingered on. People enjoy every kind of whump under the sun: sickfics, torture, environmental whump, pet whump, and anything you

(Whump Meta Archive) To Slay or Not to Slay: Why We Write ‘Get-em’ Stories — & Love ’em!

Editor’s Note: This is one of the earliest pieces of meta on the whump constellation of tropes, focusing on an angst/deathfic/whump subgenre known as “get-em”. It was written by Connie Faddis and Becca Oroukin and was originally published in Interphase #3 in 1976. We’re so excited to share it with our readers as the first