Introductory Post
Welcome to the 2026 Disabled Whump & Hurt/Comfort Writing Challenge!
This is a 30-day writing challenge for original and fan fiction in the whump and hurt/comfort genres which centers on characters with disabilities. One general writing prompt is given for each day, and participants post a piece written to fill the prompt (any length) on that day, tagged appropriately (see rules 3 and 4).
The challenge runs through May 1-30 2026, but late submissions tagged for the event will be accepted and reblogged to be featured on this blog. Prompts are posted now, so feel free to write things ahead of time, as long as they are posted on or after May 1.
All writers are welcome! This challenge will uplift the work of disabled writers, but you do not have a disability to participate.
There is a post with resources for writing disabled characters respectfully and learning more about disabilities here.
The moderator is Mod K (she/her), and can be contacted via the ask box or messages.
2026 Prompt List Here
The Optional AO3 Collection for the event is here
Please read the rules and goals before sending asks as they have many FAQs in them!
Rules:
This event will be centered on characters with disabilities and chronic conditions, visible (ex, paraplegia; limb differences) and invisible (ex, migraines; CFS) mental and intellectual (ex, Down Syndrome, schizophrenia). Stories about characters from adjacent communities where not everyone in them identifies as disabled, such as characters who are Deaf/HOH or autistic, are welcome too. The bottom line is that the character(s) should have a condition which is impairing for them. For writing to qualify, please have one or more disabled/chronically ill characters as the focus of your story, rather than a side character/cameo in a story about nondisabled characters. Prompts are meant to facilitate stories about disability and disabled characters in the genres of hurt/comfort and whump (also known as hurt-no-comfort).
"Disability" can have a broad definition, and many conditions can be disabling. The moderator will not be filtering or rejecting submissions based on what medical conditions "count"; the only parameter is that the central character lives with a chronic condition of some type which is disabling for them in some way. Disabilities which come about in a fantasy or sci-fi setting are welcome as long as they are portrayed as being disabling in some way which is analogous (eg, a permanent problem caused by magic, or vampirism as a fantasy-disability). In fanfic it does not have to be canonical - headcanons and AUs are fine.
Please do not TAG your posts/links with the names of disabilities you are writing about (eg tagging a story about an epileptic character with “#epilepsy”,) or with “#disability” or “#chronic illness”, as those tags are used by disabled folks to talk about our RL disabilities and in the past there have been issues with writers inadvertently clogging those tags with fiction/writing advice.
Please DO tag your posts and links #disabledwhc2026 and, in a second tag, the day (eg, #day 1: established disability) so the mod can find and reblog them to the blog!
Original work and fanfic are both welcome; anything goes in terms of settings and genres (fantasy, sci-fi) as long as it’s h/c or whump.
You do not have to write for every prompt (that’s why there’s a mix of hurt and comfort!) or every day to be featured. If you don’t have time for 30 days, do as many as you feel like. If you only write either H/C or Whump, you can do a 15-day challenge, reinterpret the hurt prompts to include comfort, and/or find a whumpy spin on the comfort prompts.
If you write prompts out of order please still tag which day you are writing for and the title of that prompt set. So if you decide to post the prompt “frustrated ambition” from the set “Loss”, which is day 21, on May 3, please still tag your May 3 post “day 21: loss”.
There are no restrictions on what content can be posted, but please use content notes for the following topics: "Rape/Noncon" "Underage Sex" "Graphic Depictions of Violence" (ie gore), and "Major Character Death" before the start of your piece. You can also use the warning "Creator Chose Not to Use Content Warnings" if you do not want to spoil fic. Please use a "read more" for these pieces.
Please tag any NSFT works (explicit sexual content) as "NSFT". Please use a "read more" for these pieces.
Challenge Goals:
Help destigmatize writing about disability in the whump and hurt/comfort genres. Complete recovery is not the only way to have a happy ending, and whumping already-disabled characters is a valid option for stories. So is having disabled characters doing the comforting, or the hurting!
Highlight disabled characters, canonical in media or original, in the genre.
Make disabled creators visible! A lot of us are drawn to hurt/comfort partly due to our disabilities.
Encourage nondisabled creators to try writing about disability, and dispel fear or anxiety about being “allowed to”.
Expand horizons of who disabled characters are. Headcanons or AUs about a character having or acquiring a disability are entirely welcome.
Other Ways to Contribute:
Do you want to participate but don't have the spoons (energy) to write anything? Here are some other ways to be a part of this event!
Make a reading recommendation list of works with disabled representation in whump and hurt/comfort. Please make sure that these are tagged #disabledwhc2026 and have "reading recommendation" somewhere in the post title. Please only do this with works whose authors have tagged them as whump, hurt/comfort or related terms. If you find a work on tumblr which you really, really want to recommend which you feel fits the genre and criteria but is not tagged as such, please ask the author if it is OK to include on the rec list before doing so, as some people may be uncomfortable with the genre tags being applied to their work, and ask or message mod K with a screenshot of the permission you received.
Like, reblog and comment on others' works! By following this blog you will see featured works and can give some love to the people who made them.
Reblog the prompts or otherwise spread the word about this event.
