Words To Use In Whump Scenes (other Than Agony)

words to use in whump scenes (other than agony)

Blunt force

Ache

Throb

Dull

Pulse

Clench

Gasp

Crack

Beat

Slam

Crunch

Numb

Stabbing

Slice

Burn

Fire

Tear

Twist

Pry

Rip

Recoil

Cradle

Ooze

Pour

Gush

Shudder

Shaky

Gunshot

Crack

Pulse

Burrow

Blinding

Dull

Throb

Stretch

Spread

Cramp

Coil

Numb

Ache

Whipping

Slice

Crack

Tear

Rip

White-hot

Numb

Shock

Burn

Tazing

Shock

Burn

Fire

Jolt

Cramp

Paralyze

Tremble

Gasp

Douse

Stutter

Blinding

Broken/dislocated bones

Crunch

Crack

Slide

Tense

Freeze

Numb

Shock

Pull/push

Throb

Pulse

Spike

How would someone take care of an injured person without going to a hospital and any over all tips for writing characters with medical knowledge.

This is a massive question, but lucky for you I have today off and formally teach lower-resource medicine, so sit back and enjoy:

For the purposes of this post, I’m going to first assume that 1) there are no legal or insurance barriers (or a disregard for the existing legal or insurance barriers) to a medical professional practicing outside a licensed facility and 2) they don’t have access to any special equipment or medicines that would require a prescription.

We should probably start with why hospitals are important for medical care:

Hospitals have equipment that is otherwise inaccessible to the average person (imaging machines, monitors, ventilators, etc…)

Hospitals have specialized environments (such as operating rooms, negative pressure rooms, oxygen sockets, etc…)

Hospitals have round-the-clock nursing care available (the saying being that you don’t admit someone to the hospital for medical care, you admit for nursing care)

Hospitals have specialized knowledge available quickly across many disciplines

Hospitals have (or can relatively quickly acquire) most drugs that would be needed to care for any of their patients

Assuming you have the people and knowledge, some of these things can be improvised.

For example: Got a nurse? You have nursing care at least some of the day. Got a doc? You have medical care at least some of the day. Doc was trained in decent physical diagnosis (basically, was trained either before the 90s or after like 2015)? You can at least get most of the information you need to treat this person, even if it’s not as precise as an ultrasound, CT, or MRI). Got a window and a box fan? Boom you can make a negative pressure room. Read this post and have a surgeon? You can probably assemble what you need to do basic surgery. Got antiseptic, something sharp and sterile, and some really hot water and two wash cloths? Can treat most skin infections.

Assuming access to a standard pharmacy/medical supply store in the US (but without access to anything requiring a prescription) and unlimited money, you have the following equipment:

Keep reading

*slams table* yOU wHUMP CREATORS

*breaks off table leg* aRE JUST SO

*whacks a whumpee with it* FREAKIN 

*smacks them again when they’re down* TALENTED

*bodyslams the incoming caretaker* ACCEPT MY PRAISE

I thought you guys might find this to be a good visualization for your writing. Here’s some of the medical equipment that CLS (Combat Lifesaver) qualified combatants (and medics of course) would be expected to be proficient in using. Note that CLS qualified combatants are nonmedical personnel.

Individual First Aid Kits should be on the body of every combatant. Buddy Aid bags should only be cracked open at last resort.

Do you have any advice on how to write a noncon scene? I kind of want to try writing one as an experiment, but it’s not something I’m used to writing at all. I really don’t know where to start. I’m worried that it will just end up being cringy.

CW: Discussion of writing noncon under the cut, will not be graphic exactly but it will discuss emotions, resulting trauma, physical effects, etc

So, my first piece of advice is this: do not be afraid of the first go-round being cringy. Do not fear this. It will probably happen, because your first time writing out of your previous comfort zone will often end up feeling stilted or difficult! That is TOTALLY normal, don’t feel bad.

Secondly, let’s talk POV. Because a noncon scene from the whumper POV will be very different than from the whumpee POV. Your whumper can be intimate - they can be forcing some kind of affection into the moment, playacting at this being something other than what it is, etc. They may be sadistic and chasing their own pleasure without any regard for how it hurts the whumpee, or enjoying their pain. 

The whumpee may be frightened. They may be angry. They may get sick, or feel sick. They may be defiant or freeze up (fight, flight, or freeze is a good place to start thinking this through - would my OC fight back? Would they try to get away? Would they just freeze up and go still?)

Some super quick pointers:

1. It is very possible or entirely inevitable that your whumpee WILL be injured unless the whumper takes specific care to take steps to keep them from being physically injured by the process. The process of preparing them is often good for building tension and dread into a scene, but it’s not necessary if it doesn’t fit your whumper.

2. If your whumper is an intimate or romantic whumper, they may spend time trying to make the whumpee ‘enjoy’ themself, or convincing them they want this, or they made it happen in some way, etc. If they are sadistic, they may instead delight in emphasizing how much the whumpee does NOT want it! An overlap may be discussing how beautiful their tears are, etc. 

3. Your whumpee’s thoughts will likely fragment and become disjointed or panicked, but also they may begin to dissoci@te, feeling ‘separate’ from themself and what’s happeing to them. 

4. You don’t need to use a lot of flowery terminology for the body parts involved. I’m a big fan of cutting to the chase. Call a cock a cock, if you will. Euphemisms can be incredibly distracting for the reader and take them out of the scene. But also, if your creepy whumper is like my Savvie Marcoset, maybe they use those euphemisms to build even further dread and disgust in the whumpee without even realizing it. The flowery language may be part of how the whumper hurts them.

5. Noncon is a traumatic event. Your whumpee may try to set it aside, to keep going. Some survivors can rationalize or talk themselves through it long enough to push through the immediate danger. Some can’t. Take some time to think through your OC and what their post-noncon response would be. Every single person who survives a traumatic event is an individual who may have a different response both in the moment and afterward.

Examples: 

Kauri tends to turn it around, because of his own trauma and conditioning, and convince himself he wanted it. He pursues unhealthy physical connections with men for a long time as a way to more or less feel in control of a body he lost any agency over. With Owen, in the moment, he tries to please him and is frightened of not being able to do so well enough to keep Owen happy. 

  @whumpiary’s Cassius Bergen outright seeks out echoes of his own trauma to take control of it, and in the moment even when frightened forces himself to feign being into it, cracks jokes, etc.

@evermetnotforgotten’s Lev often dissoci@tes heavily and simply feels less present during his assaults. 

Danny Michaelson slips into a headspace of eager-to-please to make his experience less horrifying in the moment only to let his emotions out when he’s alone. 

Chris, you’ll notice, even in his memories primarily thinks of what happened to him with Oliver in metaphor and very vague allusions and doesn’t think about it with detail - until his breakdown, when finally you see him remember and acknowledge how absolutely horrifying his experience was, the terror and pain. In the moment, when he is facing it, he freezes up, goes still, and can’t fight back or even run.

  @moose-teeth’s B is a fighter, who defies and fights until literally injured badly enough that he can’t anymore.

  @whump-tr0pes’s Isaac names it what it is but also folds it into his existing struggles with self-loathing.

Antoni simply represses it entirely and refuses to acknowledge it ever happened. Even in the moment with Mr. Davies, he refused to name what was happening to him, because it would make it ‘real’.

6. For writing in the moment - if whumpee POV, keep in mind that as the scene unfolds, the whumpee’s thoughts will likely get shorter, interrupted, cut off. Show, don’t tell - the scratchy cheap sheets under their back, a cold chain around their ankles, the overheated warmth of the whumper, how sweat feels dripping onto skin. Disgust. Nausea. Their movements. Describe it all. Rather than saying, “Whumpee laid on the bed and thought they would throw up”, consider some details that feel more immediate:

Whumpee’s eyes locked on the ceiling fan, lazily circling, clicking softly with each full circle of the blades. The rhythmic click of the fan matched the way Whumper moved, his every rock forward briefly blotting out the sight of the fan, revealing it again. 

His stomach twisted, lurched, and he felt bile rise up his throat. When he coughed, dry and sounding more like a sob, the Whumper clapped a hand over his mouth and whispered, “Don’t you dare ruin this moment.”

7. For writing the aftermath - does your whumper pretend to comfort them? Do they clean the Whumpee up, provide aftercare that is a mockery of affection? Do they simply leave them to clean themself up, or even leave them somewhere where that isn’t possible? Are they injured, requiring first aid?

8. Finally, I want to reiterate my first bit of advice: the first time you write noncon, it will probably be cringy. It’s your first draft! Oh man. The first noncon scene I ever wrote was the actual fucking worst. It was SO BAD. But I reused details from it later on in a much better-written scene! 

Get the writing out, then reread and edit as you go, working through bits you’re not sure about. Consider how you can make the moments connect and flow together.

My biggest advice for a successful scene here is to remember that you are writing an act which will be traumatic to the Whumpee. Don’t throw that aside or ignore it, and to focus on sensory details of the experience to make it more immediate and grounded. 

WRITING ADVICE!!!

"Pain is Plain."

Let's face it; saying " it was very painful," falls just a little flat. You want something that will empower your writing, enrichen it. Using words that vividly describe a situation or feeling will help your readers "visualize" the scene. It will make them wonder " How is the main character going to survive this?" Or, if the hero is inflicting rightful pain on the antagonist, it will cause them to cheer and anticipate what their favorite character will do next. But none of this will work if you describe a deadly wound as "It really hurt." Here are some alternate words for "painful."

Excruciating

Seering

Stabbing

Ripping

Blood-curling

Paralyzing

Unimaginable

Writhing

Twisting

Shot

Shredding

Tearing

Agonizing

Indescribable

Intolerable

Harrowing

Torturing

Torturous

Aching

Cramping

Dull aching

Burning

Cold sensation

Electric shock

Nagging

Intense

Pins and needles

Sharp

Spasms

Splitting

Tender

Throbbing

Tingling

Tiring

Exhausting

Acute

Burning

Chapped

Nauseating

MILD PAIN: PAIN YOUR CHARACTER NOTICES BUT IT DOESN'T DISTRACT THEM.

Pinch

Sting

Smart

Stiffness

MODERATE PAIN: PAIN THAT DISTRACTS BUT DOESN'T TRULY STOP YOUR CHARACTER.

Ache

Throb

Distress

Flare

SEVERE PAIN: PAIN YOUR CHARACTER CAN'T IGNORE.

Agony

Anguish

Suffering

Thoes

Torment

Stabbing

OBLITERATING: KIND OF PAIN THAT PROHIBITS ANYTHING BUT BEING IN PAIN. (AND DOING ANYTHING TO ALLEVIATE IT.)

Ripping

Tearing

Writhing

Got other ideas or something you'd like to ask me? Go right ahead! I'd Love to hear from you!