you canât call something a crackship if they have multiple scenes together and insane sexual tension. not even if only a few people ship them. thatâs just a rarepair. the line must be drawn here.
it's really gross how you can be self aware enough to know what's going on in your head but you can't actually stop it from happening. i need to grab it like a pigeon that got stuck in a house and throw it out the window. be free
I just reada really good fic but halfway through I realized "oh shit this is really familiar.... didn't I write something like this once?" And as I kept reading I kept predicting what happened next and the further I went the more convinced I was that they'd ripped off my story-
like, copied the ENTIRE plot and re-written it, just better than I had? The characters were more fleshed-out than mine were, and the POV was more interesting, and the pace made more sense- but it was MY STORY?
So close to the end I was like "holy shit.. do I message them? Ask if my story inspired theirs? Should I be angry? Flattered?" Cause their tags and description didn't mention me AT ALL, which, sure, it's fanfiction to begin with, but if you're using my work than at least credit me as inspo, right? Just to be courteous?
But I get to the end of the final chapter, and it's not finished, and I'm kind of disappointed cause I never finished my story and I was really immersed in their version now and had been looking forwards to seeing how they tied up my loose ends- so I scroll to the bottom to leave a comment, and.
It's MY URL.
IT WAS MY STORY THE WHOLE TIME.
THE ONE *I WROTE*.
In *2013*.
And FORGOT ABOUT
BECAUSE I WAS SO INSECURE ABOUT MY SLOPPY, SHALLOW, AMETEUR WRITING
And I'm just sitting here now staring into space thinking about every shitty story I've ever written now like
Listen my dudes Ancient Egypt existed for a really fuckass long time. Literally just Pharaonic civilization lasted 3,000 years. Thatâs not even including predynastic civilization and Roman rule. If you lump that in youâre looking at more like⊠5,000 years.
Like. If you want a comparison of how long that is: THE YEAR IS CURRENTLY 2018. TWO THOUSAND. TWO-THIRDS OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PHARAONIC CIVILIZATION HAVE HAPPENED SINCE THE âBIRTH OF JESUS CHRISTâ
We comparatively just entered the Third Intermediate Period. The Greeks will not take over for another 700~ years. Cleopatra will not be born until the year 2931.
Anyway look. Listen. I sat my ass down and wrote out a timeline of âwhen shit happened if you started at 1ADâ because I know backwards numbers are hard to process but hereâs an abridged version.
If the first Egyptian Pharaoh came to power in 1AD thenâŠ
300: step pyramid built
450: Great Pyramid at Giza built
815: Pepi II dies and civil war breaks out
950: Egypt re-unified
1350: Middle Kingdom ends
1450: New Kingdom begins
1520: Hatshepsut is on the throne
1650: Ahkenaten switches to monotheistic religion and builds a new city
1680: Tutankhamun dies
1720: Ramesses II âthe greatâ ascends to the throne
1740: Worldâs first peace treaty signed
1790: Ramesses II dies leaving way too many children
1920: Egypt breaks into 2 states again
And now we get to ~~~~the future~~~~. If we started at 1AD all of this stuff hasnât happened yet
2050: Briefly re-united as a single state
2180: Civil war
2250: Nubian kings take over
2335: Assyrian conquest
2665: Alexander the Great conquers Egypt
2930: Cleopatra VII born
2970: Cleopatra VII dies. Egypt falls to Rome. Fin.
And thatâs just starting with the Pharaohs. If you wanted to start with Predynastic Egypt, you can go ahead and ADD ONE THOUSAND YEARS to all of those dates
I hate that this is still getting notes but that itâs getting notes *without the timeline addition* like câmon, man. I had to do MATHS for this. I DID MATHS FOR YOU PEOPLE AND ALL I GOT WAS A BUNCH OF RACISTS
sherlock holmes deduces you are trans before you've figured it out yourself and refers to you with those pronouns and then when you look confused is like "ah...had you not arrived at that conclusion yet?" and wafts away in his dressing gown to smoke seventeen pipes, leaving you in a gender crisis
Hercule Poirot deduces you are trans by accident because he suspected you of murder and broke into your house and searched your stuff then puts 2 and 2 together when Hastings makes an innocuous observation about your fashion sense or something and he jumps up and cries âmon dieu!!!â before striding over to you kissing you on both cheeks and saying âah, cher ami, you must live as you choose!â and then running off to confront the real culprit while you stand there in befuddlement
Columbo deduces you're trans from context clues while he's talking to you about the area, immediately uses your preferred pronouns and starts telling you about his cousin, who's also transgender, and how they got this job doing security, and how they told him that a security guard always locks up, and asks you if the guard locked up last night, and isn't it weird the place was open? And you're like, well, someone else must have opened it up. Maybe the guy in charge? He has a spare key. And then he nods and goes "the guy in charge has a spare key... well, how about that?" And then he offers you a cigar and wanders off, and a day later your boss gets arrested for murder.
Miss Fisher learns youre trans and simply gives you hormones, and a little cocaine as a treat. she also invites you out to a club to meet like minded individuals. at the club you watch as she seduces the bartender and then the next day the bartender is arrested for the murder.
These are all so accurate also Angus McDonald boy detective from TAZ deduces you are trans because he recognizes a bunch of similarities between your perspective and stuff Lup discussed about eggs. He then gets told off by Taako for pointing this out and says "Oh sorry sir I just thought she'd like to know".
Welcome to Whumptober 2024 â Seventh Time's a Charm!
Please make sure to read the Event Info and FAQ below carefully, as most of your questions will be answered there already. For everything else, you are welcome to come to our ask box or ask questions in our Discord server here.
This yearâs AO3 Collection can be found here.
This year's playlist can be found here.
The 'Anatomy of a Whumptober Prompt' post can be found here.
And our 'Resources for Writing Sensitive Topics' post is here.
Weâre very excited to see the community come together for another year of Whumptober! Go wild with the prompts, and support your fellow creators - we wish you all the fun!
Best of luck and happy whumping,
Mods Vanne, Yenn, Kitty and Surro
(Text versions of the prompts, as well as event information, rules and FAQ are posted below the cut!)
Whumptober 2024 Prompt List
No. 1: RACE AGAINST THE CLOCK
Search Party | Panic Attack | "If only we could hold on.â (Icysami x Renegaderr, Strangers.)
No. 2: TRUST ISSUES
Amusement Park | Role Reversal | âYou got away with the crime while the knife's in my back.â (Charlotte Sands, Rollercoaster)
No. 3: SET UP FOR FAILURE
Fingerprints | Wrongfully Arrested | "I warned you."
No. 4: HALLUCINATIONS
Hypnosis | Sensory Deprivation | âYou're still alive in my head.â (Billy Lockett, More)
No. 5: SUNBURN
Healing Salve | Heatstroke | "If my pain will stretch that far." (Lottery Winners, Burning House)
No. 6: NOT REALISING THEY'RE INJURED
Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms | Healed Wrong | "It's not my blood."
No. 7: ONLY FOR EMERGENCIES
Unconventional Weapon | Magic with a Cost | "It's us or them."
No. 8: SLEEP DEPRIVATION
Isolation Chamber | Forced to Stay Awake | "Leave the lights on." (Coldplay, Midnight)
No. 9: OBSESSION
Broken Window | Bruises | âFrame me up on the wall, just to keep me out of trouble.â (Fall Out Boy, Irresistible)
No. 10: BLOW TO THE HEAD
Slurred Words | Passing Out from Pain | "I can't think straight."
No. 11: SEEING DOUBLE
Convenience Store | Loneliness | âLeave no trace behind, like you don't even exist.â (Taylor Swift, Illicit Affairs)
No. 12: STARVATION
Underground Caverns | Cannibalism | "Just a little more."
No. 13: TEAM AS A FAMILY
Familial Curse | Multiple Whumpees | "Death will do us part." (Set It Off, Partner's In Crime)
No. 14: LEFT FOR DEAD
Hunting Gear | Blackmail | âBecause I want you to know what it feels like to be hauntedâ (tiLLie, kooL aiD mAn)
No. 15: CHILDHOOD TRAUMA
Painful Hug | Moment of Clarity | "I did good, right?"
No. 16: NECROSIS
Swamp | Wound Cleaning | "No, I can't feel anything."
No. 17: NOWHERE ELSE TO GO
Ruined Map | Shipwrecked | "We had a good run."
No. 18: REVENGE
Unreliable Narrator | Loss of Identity | âI see what's mine and take it.â (Panic! at the Disco, Emperor's New Clothes)
No. 19: BLOOD TRAIL
Abandoned Cabin | One Way Out | "Is there anybody alive out there?" (Bruce Springsteen, Radio Nowhere)
No. 20: EMOTIONAL ANGST
Shoulder to Cry On | Giving Permission to Die | "It's not your fault."
No. 21: BODY HORROR
Body Horror | Tattoo Gun | Spirit Possession | âLet the bedsheet soak up the tears.â (Apparat feat. Soap & Skin, Goodbye)
No. 22: BLEEDING THROUGH BANDAGES
Tourniquet | Reopening Wounds | "Oh that's not good."
No. 23: FORCED CHOICE
Public Display | Broken Pedestal | "I'm doing this for you."
No. 24: RADIATION POISONING
Collapsed Building | Equipment Failure | âI never knew daylight could be so violent.â (Florence + The Machine, No Light, No Light)
No. 25: SURGERY
Stitches | Being Monitored | "It's for your own good."
No. 26: NIGHTMARES
Breakfast Table | Parting Words of Regret | âI'm haunted by the lies that I have loved, the actions I have hated.â (Poe, Haunted)
No. 27: VOICELESS
Laboratory | Muzzled | âI have no mouth and I must scream.â
No. 28: DENIAL
CCTV | Exposure | "They caught me red handed."
No. 29: FATIGUE
Labyrinth | Burnout | "Who said you could rest?"
No. 30: RECOVERY
Hospital Bed | Holding Back Tears | "What have I done?"
No. 31: ASKING FOR HELP
Therapy | Making Amends | "I'm alive, I'm just not well." (Elliot Lee, Alive, Not Well.)
Alternatives List:
Body Swap
Communication Barrier
Finding Old Messages
Forgotten
Friendly Fire
Motion Sickness
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown
Regret
Secrets Revealed
Shivering
Survivor's Guilt
Time Loop
Used As Bait
Venom
Vermin
Event Info & Rules
WHUMPTOBER is a month-long, prompt-based creation challenge (think: Inktober, but whumpier). There are 31 official themes this year - one for each day of the month - which can be used, skipped, or combined in any way youâd like. They are meant to serve as inspiration without being taken literally (e.g. you donât have to include the exact wording of prompts into your work). Feel free to run rampant on interpretation. For example, if the prompt is âflame", you could create something with reference to a candle/campfire, your character could have suffered a burn, or the flame could be a reference to an âold flameâ - an old relationship. Itâs truly down to you!
In total, there are 4 prompts for each day. These are optional suggestions and can be used in conjunction with the theme, or as options/alternatives. We want to give everyone as much creative freedom as possible, as well as increase event accessibility for folks with triggers and squicks. There is also a list of 15 alternative prompts that can be subbed in for any day, again to give participants as much creative freedom as possible.
Creators can PRODUCE work in any media they choose, including but not limited to: writing, visual artwork, photo/video/audio edits, paper crafts and elaborate recommendation lists (not just a list of links). Creators can PARTICIPATE as much or as little as they want (i.e. you donât have to do ALL the prompts if you donât want to) and prompts can be used in any order. They are also free to use even after the event ends.
When uploading Whumptober content to your blog, be sure to tag it with:
#whumptober2024 âŠ..(the event tag)
#no.1, #no.2, #no.3, âŠ..(theme number)
#bruises, #stabbing, âŠ..(the theme or specific prompt you chose)
#altprompt âŠ..(if you use an altprompt, tag the post with the number of the prompt you replace)
#fandom or #OC, âŠ..(ironman, original content, oc, etc.)
#medium âŠ..(gifs, fic, podcast, art, etc.)
#teeth, #etc âŠ..(trigger warnings & any additional tags. Keep in mind not to add âtwâ in front but only use the word/trigger itself)
#nsfwhump âŠ..(only for nsfw content)
#your own tags go here
PLEASE BE DILIGENT WITH YOUR TAGGING. Only properly tagged posts are considered for archiving on the official @whumptober-archive blog. They must be tagged in the order above. An elaborate post about our tagging system can be found [here]
Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of participants in recent years, we cannot guarantee your work will be archived. A random selection of properly tagged posts from all genres will be reblogged each day.
Whumpers who produce content for 31 total theme days are considered event completionists and will be tagged in a masterpost at the end of the month. A form will be published at the beginning of November asking you to tell us if you completed. This is based on trust and we will not check this.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please read this before you send an ask!
TIMELINE
July: Trope voting form released.
Late August: Prompt list is released for at least four weeks of preparation time. Tropes cannot be posted earlier than August 25th because of Moderator obligations in real life. (But, you know, go ahead and start writing/drawing, and add the themes in later, if you want!)
September: Do as much or as little on your works as you want. You can prepare everything in advance or let September go by with vibes and start working in October. Itâs up to you.
October 1st: Challenge begins! A storm of whump breaks upon us all! During this time, some posts will be reblogged to the whumptober archive blog. We open the yearly AO3 collection for posting (optional).
November 1st: The challenge is officially over! Completionist form opens for those who want to be included in the hall-of-fame.
Early November: We release completionist and participant badges, solicit feedback, and post a hall-of-fame list of completionists by the 10th.
PARTICIPATION AND COMPLETION
Q: What counts as participation?
Create or continue at least one work inspired by one of this yearâs prompts.
Q: What counts as completion?
Creating work(s) inspired by at least one prompt from each day (or alts), for a total of 31 unique prompts.
Q: Do I need to create 31 works?
No. You can, if you want. Or you can create one work that you add to every day with a new prompt. Or several works that combine prompts. You can also update an existing work by adding new material with the current prompts.
Q: Do I need to post my works somewhere to be a completionist or a participant?
No.
Q: How do you know I actually completed the challenge?
Weâll take your word for it!
Q: Do I have to finish my work(s) to be a completionist?
No, you can post WIPs. And youâre not obligated to finish them in October, but if you want it to count towards being a completionist, you must have completed 31 prompts by the end of the month. So for example, if youâre writing a long fic and you fit 31 different prompts into the writing you did in October, itâs okay if that fic isnât finished by the time October ends, youâll still be a completionist.
Q: Is co-writing/illustrating allowed?
Yes, absolutely, and it would count towards being a completionist for both/all of you.
Q: Is there a min/max limit on word count for written works?
No.
Q: Is there a min/max limit of quality for art?
No.
Q: Do I have to do something each day to be a completionist?
No. You can skip days whenever you want, and as long as 31 daily prompts (or alts) are in your works done in October, you can be a completionist. For example, if you wrote a 1000-word ficlet that covers prompts in days 2, 3, and 17, you can check all three days off your list even though itâs only one work.
Q: Is this challenge just for fics?
No! Artworks, GIFsets, headcannons, rec lists, poetry, moodboards, or any other creative work is encouraged.
Q: Can I combine Whumptober with other creation challenges?
Absolutely, as long as the other challenges allow it too.
PROMPTS
Q: How do the prompts work?
There are FOUR prompts per day: a theme and three ideas. You can use one, two, three, or all four prompts for each day. If you donât like any of the daily prompts, you can substitute one of the ALT prompts instead.
Q: How strictly/literally should we interpret the prompts?
As literally or as figuratively as you want. For example, if the theme is WATER, that could mean drowning, waterboarding, raining, swimming, take place underwater, be lost at sea, construct a metaphor about a characterâs mood that changes like a flowing river, crying, or whatever else you can think of that fits that theme.
Q: Can I combine prompts? Is there a limit on how many?
No limit and combine as many as youâd like. If you create a work that checks off multiple prompts, that work will count for a fill of multiple prompts. You need to address 31 different prompts to be an official completionist, but you donât have to produce 31 separate works.
WORKS
Q: Whatâs whump?
Hurting a character, whether thatâs physically, emotionally, intellectually, psychologically, or any other way you can think of. Comfort afterwards is optional. Angst is emotional whump, so it counts.
Q: How do I know if itâs whumpy enough?
If your character is just mildly inconvenienced, it probably needs more whump. However, no participant has to prove whumpiness to the mods. Whatever you write is up to you.
Q: What kind of characters can I create for?
Anything. Generic âwhumpee,â OC, PC, NPC, major characters, minor characters, or whatever you want. There are no limits.
Q: Does it have to take place in a specific fandom?
No, you can create works for your own worlds or for fandoms or for both. You can also create more generic or pan-fandom works. You can do cross-overs or use OCs, whatever you want.
Q: Can I create AI-created works?
We will not reblog or promote any works we know to be generative AI-created.
Q: Is there anything weâre not allowed to write?
As long as it contains whump and is based on our prompts, itâs fine. Please courtesy tag your works if you post them so people who follow the #whumptober2024 tag can filter according to their preferences.
Q: What about sex, minor characters, and potentially disturbing content?
You can create whatever works are legal in your country and post them accordingly. Please courtesy tag anything you think might be objectionable if you post to Tumblr so people who follow the #whumptober2024 tag can filter according to their preferences.
POSTING
Q: Where can I post my work?
Post where and how you want. You donât even have to (cross)post it to Tumblr. Just keep in mind if itâs not on Tumblr we will not be able to add it to the blog archive. There is an AO3 archive for Whumptober 2024, as well as the parent collection for works completed outside of the event.
Q: Can I start posting early?
You can, but this is an October event and wouldnât it be more fun with everyone doing it at the same time? We wonât be reblogging any work predating October 1st.
Q: Can I post late?
Yes. For the sake of our hardworking Post Fairies, only a dayâs themes will be reblogged to @whumptober-archive each day of October. But you can post whenever. Some of us are still working on and posting Whumptober fics from years ago.
Q: Do I have to use your tags?
Only on Tumblr and only if you want us to reblog your work on @whumptober-archive.
Q: How do I have my works reblogged to the archive?
Properly tagged posts will be reblogged to @whumptober-archive. If you want the official archive blog to reblog you, post on Tumblr and tag correctly (see this FAQ link for more info on tagging). Please note not all posts will be reblogged each day.
Q: Can we @ you?
For questions and comments, of course. Weâll be getting a flood of notifications, so if you really want us to see something send an ask.
Q: Can I cross post on other blogs?
Yes, multiple platforms and blogs are perfectly acceptable, as long as they allow cross-posting (to us). You can also post different works to different accounts under different names, without posting them everywhere at once. If you post some works under your main and others under an alt blog, thatâs fine for completionist purposes.
Q: Can I upload/repost my Whumptober content to other social media platforms?
Of course! Weâve created an AO3 Collection to archive any fics posted there, which can be found here. The blog is the official archive, so please respect the personal boundaries of any whumpers in your social circle (donât out anyone as a participant who would prefer not to be outed).
Most importantly, have fun, create, and enjoy all the whump posted this October!
This probably took this person 3 seconds to do but it immediately told me that they liked my story enough to come back and read it again and they liked it again the second time.
Your favorite writers Do Not Know that you think about their stories after you read them. I generally assume that my stories make people happy for the few minutes theyâre reading and then they never think about it again. To know that thatâs not the case and that someone has returned just makes my little heart swell with joy.
I needed this today. If youâre the person who left this comment (or if youâve ever commented on any of my writing) I love you.
Well this is the most popular post Iâve ever done by an order of magnitudeâŠ
The best part has been the people putting tags on their reblogs along the lines of âIâm totally going to do this nowâ and âI didnât think authors would like something this simple but I can do thisâ and authors saying how much this type of comment also means to them.
The second best part was the person who went and read Worship because of this post and then commented on it.
An interesting part has been seeing what a kind of popular post does to your notifications.
Iâm really glad this post took off, especially if it means a few more authors get this kind of comment.
If posting fic online has taught me anything, itâs that I have no idea how the reader will react to anything. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Not the faintest clue.
Fics that I think I scribbled off just to get them out there get the kindest, most rapturous feedback. Fics I slaved over, agonized over, bled my soul into get a couple tepid replies. Fics I thought were me revealing the darkness and weird kink that lives in my brain, scared to even post it for fear of judgement, get, âAaaw thatâs so sweet!â replies. Baffling.
My conclusion? You just never know. You really just canât know. When I did a workshop with 20 other writers I would try to guess what their critique of my story would be and I was right maybe 1 in 20 times. Only one other writer would have the same critique for my story that I had. And it wasnât even always the same person.
The encouraging part about this is, if self recrimination, the fear that you know what people wonât like about your story, is holding you back, just say fuck it! Youâre almost certainly wrong! All you can do is make it the best story you can for the energy you have. And yeah, sometimes that means scribbling it out in an evening and kicking it out to the void of the internet before you can change your mind or worry about editing it more than once because then youâll never post it.
Itâs all chaos, man. You donât get to decide what the audience thinks. All you can do is create it and put it out there for them to decide.
it's really weird having a first dog be blind and then getting a second who can see...like how was I supposed to be prepared for this.
this creature can perceive when I put the treats up on the high shelf. or when I hide stuff behind my back. I can't fool her!! she's always watching me and she shouldn't have this much knowledge!!!
I walk around at night and I shine my flash light directly into her eyes and I'll just be standing there staring at her weird blue orbs for like 5 seconds until I realize it's probably extremely annoying to her, because she has eyes!! I'll turn on the light in the room and she gruffs and grumbles like ?? oh right!! light wakes you up!! the fuck??
the absolutely wild implication of this, that god was previously playing fast and loose with his own acts of good and evil but then had to start being considerate about what he was doing because now mankind is watching and we know.
that last comment is one of those things that'll wind up on a graphically designed poster and people will wonder who said it, was it shakespeare, was it martin luther, was it euripedes, but alas no, it was tumblr user @villainessbian on a post about blind dogs
"just write the story you want to read!" they said. well, guess what, now i have 14 unfinished drafts because apparently, i want to read 14 different stories at once.
[scrolling through a fandom tag] wrong. wrong. incomprehensibly wrong. wrong but harmless. nice style and color palette but I don't care about that ship. mildly entertaining liveblog update. they whitewashed my girl :( . good joke, reblog. wro--well that's my mutual so I will politely look away. fifteen posts in a row by an innocent rp blog that I don't have the heart to block. take I agree with but op was annoying about it. chapter twenty-eight of a longfic wip. !! GOOD POST !!, instafollowed. bot. technically correctly tagged but uses this acronym for something completely different. museum worthy art piece by a sixteen-year-old from the philippines. wrong. wrong but in a new and exciting way that provokes thought.
nothing unsettles me more than like a good fic on ao3 with no opening notes and no end notes. nothing but story. who are you? where are you writing from. are you ok. who hurt you
#i click onto the authorâs dashboard and open all their other fics looking for notes on them#they are all similarly blank#i go to the author profile. it tells me the author joined in 2014 and nothing else#they have no bookmarks. they have one gift and itâs a bts fic from orphan_account. none of their own fics are bts fics.#this fic has altered me. i leave an unhinged comment then bookmark it and go stare out the window // via @elegantlyloquacious