Ref Recs For Whump Writers

Ref Recs for Whump Writers

Violence: A Writer’s Guide:  This is not about writing technique. It is an introduction to the world of violence. To the parts that people don’t understand. The parts that books and movies get wrong. Not just the mechanics, but how people who live in a violent world think and feel about what they do and what they see done.

Hurting Your Characters: HURTING YOUR CHARACTERS discusses the immediate effect of trauma on the body, its physiologic response, including the types of nerve fibers and the sensations they convey, and how injuries feel to the character. This book also presents a simplified overview of the expected recovery times for the injuries discussed in young, otherwise healthy individuals.

Body Trauma: A writer’s guide to wounds and injuries. Body Trauma explains what happens to body organs and bones maimed by accident or intent and the small window of opportunity for emergency treatment. Research what happens in a hospital operating room and the personnel who initiate treatment. Use these facts to bring added realism to your stories and novels.

10 B.S. Medical Tropes that Need to Die TODAY…and What to Do Instead: Written by a paramedic and writer with a decade of experience, 10 BS Medical Tropes covers exactly that: clichéd and inaccurate tropes that not only ruin books, they have the potential to hurt real people in the real world. 

Maim Your Characters: How Injuries Work in Fiction: Increase Realism. Raise the Stakes. Tell Better Stories. Maim Your Characters is the definitive guide to using wounds and injuries to their greatest effect in your story. Learn not only the six critical parts of an injury plot, but more importantly, how to make sure that the injury you’re inflicting matters. 

Blood on the Page: This handy resource is a must-have guide for writers whose characters live on the edge of danger. If you like easy-to-follow tools, expert opinions from someone with firsthand knowledge, and you don’t mind a bit of fictional bodily harm, then you’ll love Samantha Keel’s invaluable handbook

The 2000s Batgirl Suit

It would be really funny if it was just the same suit the whole time and had just been patched up well enough that it didn't been to be replaced.

But also narratively it holds a story. A story that not many know about or choose to think about. It was a suit made during a time where there was no Batman, no Robin, and no Batgirl protecting the city. It was made specifically with the symbol that being a Bat meant, the good that wearing the symbol could bring.

Helena has her own moral and vigilante code, but she respected the symbol and the code that came with that symbol when she wore it. She made the suit with the goal to step into the shoes and the role that Batman left behind, and when Batman showed back up in the city she became another one of the Bats (only for a little bit.) When she quit because the pressure Batman had to uphold a perfect standard, and the suit moved to Cass?

For the suit to have remained the same suit would hold so much meaning, and history. Barbara officially passed the Batgirl mantel to Cass, and Steph picked it up in the spot that had been left behind.

Looking at it from the Point of View of Helena and Stephanie's connection. The stepped into a role that had been left behind. One couldn't succeed and the other did.

It's a cycle that starts with the symbol the bat and brings a whole legacy together in a cycle of fulfilling the shoes that others have left behind.

They all set out with their own goals putting on the suit and whether unintentionally or intentionally became a Batgirl in their own era of Gotham.

Unlike Robin, which is a symbol with its own legacy. It is one that each of the wearers can better mold for their own. Some succeeded in molding it better than others. Robin will always be connected to Batman, they are a duo, bit Batgirl will always be weighed by the symbol of the Bat.

Batgirl is separate from Batman, better able to act on their own. They are never sidekicks, always allies and partners. But they will never be separate from the legacy that the Bat brings, has, and demands of the wearer.

What this all boild down to is that having the suit Helena have worn to have ended with Steph would have a powerful narrative story.

Because Helena made the suit when Bruce was gone, and the suit ended when Bruce was gone. The suit helped start a new era for Gotham, and ended with a new era of Gotham.

Sometimes I wonder just how well Cass's Batgirl suit was made because like. Helena handstitched the thing in the middle of no-man's-land, it got passed to Cassandra for her time as Batgirl, she kept it for a few years before finally passing the thing off to Stephanie. Like. How much combat has that thing seen? It should be more patch then suit at this point. Helena needs to go into design because those are some incredible skills

Me wanting to have a DM/PM conversation with a mutual. 'I'm going to seem weird. How do I ever start a conversation. Do they even want to talk about what I want to talk about. What if by trying to talk to them they feel pressured to talk back to me when they really don't. What if I'm one of those people others can only stand in a group context. What if they only put up with them because they pity me. What if by reaching out I look desprite to have a conversation. What if when I reach out they don't reply until I can't for a couple hours and they think I was messing with them when in reality I was busy. What if I just mess it up by talking about a trigger of theirs without knowing and I lose a mutual?'

Me closing the opened chat. 'Better regret than to have fucked up so much I lose what I have.'

Here’s a list of state songs if you’re curious.

One day I swear to god I will write an essay on the potential of Cass and Helena's relationship