god just. give me a whumper who does literally ANYTHING even slightly nice or domestic or mundane for/with their whumpee and i go feral. absolutely lose it. the rare and precious moments of fragile peace, the ‘good parts’ to the relationship that whumpee looks back on, either with rose-colored lens or just bittersweet nostalgia once they’ve escaped…I LOVE IT RAAAUGH

No real menace behind Whumper’s actions, just genuine normal human interaction that isn’t tainted with the whump, if you will. Works best if to Whumper it’s not even worth mentioning, yet to Whumpee it means the literal world

YOU. YOU JUST REACHED INTO MY BRAIN.

“there were moments I thought I was too mean to think you were a monster. I was never wrong to think you were anything but a monster, but you were damn good at acting like it”

Nothing like a more experienced whumpee quieting a newer whumpee almost violently when Younger breaks and begins to cry with need for something completely natural to them (food, water, sleep). Older slapping a hand over Younger’s mouth hissing angrily- or, really, desperately- that they know it hurts, but they can’t.

Older shooting an apologetic glance, barely hiding their panic, at the rescuers. Unable to hold in stutters as they assure the rescuers that they’ll be good, Younger was just a little scared, he swears they’ll be good. Managing to keep their voice somewhat calm despite the stutters, muted panic in their tone as they try to defuse the situation. Subtly positioning themself between the rescuers and Younger, hoping and praying they’ll be spared and given another chance. 

Just something about Older being protective over Younger despite being just as or even more scared than Younger of anyone near them. Being forced to be rough with Younger to shut them up so they might survive.

That post that's like "stop writing characters who talk like they're trying to get a good grade in therapy" really blew the door wide open for me about how common it's become for a character's emotional intelligence to not be taken into consideration when writing conflict. I remember the first time I went to therapy I had such a hard time even identifying what I was feeling, let alone had the language to explain it to someone else. Of course there are plenty of people who've never been to therapy a day in their life who are in tune to their emotions. But even they would have some trouble expressing themselves sometimes. You have to take into account there are plenty of people who are uncomfortable expressing themselves and people who think they're not allowed to feel certain ways. It also makes for more interesting conflict to have characters with different levels of understanding.

Gushing under the cut

so like. obviously it's an immensely tragic route to take but sometimes it's just so satisfying for a story to go "there's no happy ending this time. resistance is futile in this scenario. the 'good guys' can't win. this is a pointless last stand. so for their final act, our beloved characters are going to rock the antagonist's shit so fucking hard it makes you stare at a wall struggling to process what just happened and how you feel about it for hours afterwards."

i simply think that sometimes it's the best possible narrative decision to allow characters to become supernovas, imploding on themselves but taking as much with them as possible. "you can't save anyone" "maybe not, but i can hurt you". fuck yes. if you can't beat them, tear them apart.

首引き恋慕

mmmm when a beaten whumpee is being held back by the arms, either manacled to the wall or manhandled, and their head is hanging down, chin to their chest, their hair obscuring their face, blood dripping heavily from their nose and mouth to the floor below them: pretty.

From a Nonbinary Writer:

I’ve been wavering back and forth on whether or not I should post this because it’s very personal and possibly not as informed as I would like it to be. And it requires a little prefacing.

I’m nonbinary.

I write nonbinary characters. (I don’t have a single story which doesn’t include at least a protagonist or love interest who’s nonbinary, usually with a number of nonbinary supporting characters.) 

And these nonbinary characters come in all forms and styles and pronouns and self presentations, from humans who believe they aren’t defined by anyone else’s perception of their gender, to characters whose entire society doesn’t differentiate between male and female, to agender demi-gods who use gendered pronouns because they feel like it and their to genderfluid parents who wear dresses to the opera.

Through the process of writing these characters I’ve subjected them to quite a few beta readers. And what I see in my feedback is a consistent trend of binary readers worried over whether my portrayals of nonbinary character might come off as offensive, while nonbinary readers don’t bat an eye. 

Now, I’m certainly not saying that it’s bad for people of binary genders to be critical of how nonbinary characters are portrayed, because I love having people watching out for me and my nonbinary fam.

But I’m also worried.

I’m worried that binary writers aren’t writing nonbinary characters because they’re afraid of getting it wrong.

If binary writers are worried a nonbinary writer is getting their own representation wrong, then how much more are they criticizing themselves for perceived flaws in their own nonbinary characters?

Please: Write nonbinary characters. Specifically, write nonbinary protagonists and love interests.

There is such a broad scale of nonbinary identifying individuals, who’ve all had very different experiences, who all present themselves in different ways, with different pronouns, for different reasons. We are more diverse than you can imagine.

And yet we have essentially no representation. We are dying, dying, for characters in fiction who’s similar to us. The most devastating way you can mess up is to not care enough to try in the first place.

Edit: 

I’ve had this post sitting in my drafts for a day because I needed to edit it and boy. Boy am I pissed.

Just fucking pissed.

After having a binary person (one who only writes a nonbinary villain no less) attempt to call out my #ownvoice representation, I couldn’t be more angry. 

(I mean, I could be more angry, as proven by that time a TERF broke into my personal messages to write me two essays on why my identity isn’t real and I actually just hate myself enough to pretend it is, but that’s a different story altogether.)

So I amend this:

Please, please write nonbinary characters. But please, for the love of all things good, don’t try to tell other writers how to write these nonbinary characters if you aren’t also nonbinary. 

Write us characters but don’t fucking step on us in the process.

#If you’re binary, please reblog this!

My two cents as a fellow nonbinary person: dont be afraid to write HUMAN nonbinary characters. Aliens and monsters who “dont get gender” are cool and fine, but normal, everyday humans can be and are nonbinary too. I’d love to see a character where they’re nonbinary because they’re nonbinary, not because they’re a shapeshifter or an alien or have some Other Plot Reason for it. Let their nonbinaryness be like have brown hair or being left handed or being tall. Something that just is.