Whump and Hurt/Comfort: How to Write the Tropes

If you’ve been on the writing scene for a while, you may have heard the terms “whump” and “hurt comfort” floating around.

What do these words mean? And how can you use them in your writing?

Whump and hurt/comfort are primarily fanfiction terms. They don’t show up very often in the traditional writing sphere.

You won’t see Writer’s Digest publishing a five part article series about how to break a whumpee. That conversation belongs on tumblr.

But I still think it’s important for all different writers to know how to use these two (closely related) tropes, and why you should consider using them in your story.

You can use elements of these tropes in any story, from historical fiction to high fantasy.

Quick Disclaimer

I’m not condoning violence. I’m not condoning torture. I’m simply here to explain the tropes and how to write them well. You do not have to use these tropes if you don’t want to.

Let’s start off with our first trope of the day, Whump.

What is Whump?

You know when authors say they like to torture their characters? Well, the most literal version of this is whump.

Simply put, whump is the hurt/comfort without the comfort.

Whump is when a character, called the “whumpee,” is severely hurt, tortured, or punished by another character (the “whumper”).

This can include physical torture, emotional torture, starvation, being left in extreme temperatures, etc. It could last for a scene, or it could keep going throughout the story.

The goal of the whump trope is for us to see the whumpee fight back, in spite of their constant suffering.

This trope can be awfully sadistic in some scenarios. However, it can also be a great way to reveal the deepest parts of the whumpee’s character.

I’ll admit, most of my characters have had some level of whump in their life. I’m just a writer who’s curious about how much my OCs can take, okay?

The key is to show your character never losing hope completely, and fighting back in a way that suits their personality. And of course, they (hopefully) get rescued in the end.

There is an effective way to use whump in your own story. We’ll talk about that in a minute.

But first, let’s discuss the nicer version of whump, the Hurt/Comfort trope.

What is Hurt/Comfort?

Hurt/comfort is just what the name suggests.

One character is hurt, and another character comes in to comfort them.

You would not believe the kind of power this trope has. It’s gotten to the point where I see writers advertising their story as a “quirky rom com WITH HURT COMFORT” or “high fantasy with dragons, fae, and HURT COMFORT.”

I’m telling you, fangirls love this trope.

Hurt/comfort (also called H/C) can include bandaging the character’s wounds, giving them medicine, convincing them to eat something, and wrapping them up in a big fluffy blanket.

This is a great trope if you want to bring two characters closer together, or if you want to show how deep their relationship goes.

So we’ve discussed the definitions of whump and hurt/comfort. But how do you use them in a story? And how does it relate to your story?

How to Use Whump in Your Story

I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to even talk about whump, since it is quite literal torment and torture. However, there are ways to use whump in your story, regardless of your genre.

If your character experiences any injuries, look to the whump community for advice.

These people know way too much about how to write character injuries and pain.

You’ll find a lot of advice in the whump community on how to write about character injuries. Use this to your advantage.

Here’s a post about how to write whump properly:

https://99point9percentwhump.tumblr.com/post/184422178462/so-i-dont-know-how-to-write-pain-like-what

As well as this post about writing injuries:

https://www.bryndonovan.com/2016/05/25/serious-injuries/

Whump is great for your main character’s lowest point.

Whether you write fantasy or historical fiction, sci-fi or contemporary, physical pain will always be a part of your character’s story.

What is the lowest point in your character’s journey? What’s the moment where everything has gone wrong?

Whump is a great way to showcase your hero’s darkest moment. If you can incorporate whump into the darkest moment of your story, it does two things for you:

• It gives us another reason to be afraid of the villain
• It shows how the story goal is still 100% worth pursuing, since the hero does not quit after being tortured.

Of course, use your intuition, since this might not be good for your story specifically. However, if you decide to use whump in your character’s darkest moment, it can be extremely effective.

Now let’s talk about how to write H/C, hurt comfort.

How to Write Hurt/Comfort Well

Hurt/comfort is the emotional happy ending, or at least, the part that makes you say, “awww” with the little teary eyed emoji.

It can happen after the whump. After one character is tortured, the caretaker has to step in and… well, take care of them. This could be a friend, parent, significant other, or even an acquaintance.

Another way to use h/c is after some earth-shattering event, where all of the good guys are injured and shaken. All of them are hurt, but they all take care of each other and help their friends.

H/C can fit in any genre.

While you could technically work whump into any story, hurt/comfort is much easier to use.

As long as you have two characters who are close, and one of them gets hurt or sick, you can write hurt/comfort.

Hurt/comfort is a great way to bring characters together.

H/C can take on many forms, but the main goal is to have two characters share an emotional, vulnerable side of themselves.

These characters might already be close, such as a husband and wife. By having one comfort and take care of the other, it reinforces their bond and makes their relationship stronger.

Or, the classic buddy hurt/comfort. Two friends go through a traumatic experience together, and they have to nurse each other back to health.

And of course, if you want to try something new, maybe the main character is severely injured, and the only person nearby is an acquaintance. One of their classmates, or a neighbor they’ve barely met.

As time goes on, we see them forming a closer bond, maybe even becoming best friends.

It follows the whole healing journey, not just one event.

After your character is hurt, especially if they’re tortured, the journey doesn’t stop there. They still need to heal.

One of my favorite h/c prompts is to show one character soothing another who’s just woken up from a nightmare. They might also help the character calm down after panic attacks, pain flareups, and flashbacks.

Don’t let it stop after one scene.

There are a lot of ways to use hurt/comfort in your story, but the main purpose is to bring out an emotional side to the characters that the reader hasn’t seen before. A lot of that will happen during the healing process.

Links to Help You Write Hurt/comfort

This article is an opinion piece about H/C, with advice on how to write it well:

https://superhero-muses.livejournal.com/41586.html

The TV Tropes website gives a little more definition to the term Hurt/Comfort, as well as some common setups and examples:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HurtComfortFic

List of One Word Writing Prompts to Use in Your Story

There are a lot of writing prompts for both whump and h/c out there on the internet. My favorite place to find writing prompts is Pinterest. You can also find a lot of writing prompts on Tumblr.

Here’s a quick list of one word prompts to get you started.

Whump Prompts

• Blood
• Knife
• Freezing
• Burned
• Strangled
• Chain
• Locked
• Manipulated
• Magic
• Hungry
• Alone
• Headache
• Light
• Fever
• Bone
• Bruised
• Shouting
• Escape
• Fire
• Dehydrated
• Drugged
• Cell
• Rats
• Suffocation
• Drowning
• Hair
• Rescue

Hurt/Comfort Prompts

• Bandages
• Embrace
• Blankets
• Flashbacks
• Calming
• Nightmares
• Reassure
• Soup
• Gentleness
• Hospital
• Rehab
• Therapy
• PT
• Tears
• Home
• Rescue
• Mentor
• Bedside
• Medicine
• Encouragement
• Steady
• Reunion

In Conclusion

Whump and hurt/comfort are both somewhat controversial tropes, but you can use them to your advantage in your own writing.

What are your thoughts on these tropes? Have you used them before? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you guys next time with a new post!

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