wince mag

Calling all whump writers! The Whumpy Printing Press is looking for stories for its third anthology, to be published in paperback and ebook formats in 2024.  

Theme: Lab whump. For this anthology, we’re looking for whumpy stories that involve a laboratory. Maybe your whumpee is a lab rat. Maybe they’re on the run from the ethically questionable organization that has been holding them prisoner. Maybe the whumpee has finally flipped the script on their whumper. As long as a lab is incorporated into the story in some way, it counts!

We take a broad view of whump- it can be physical or emotional. Your stories can be hurt no comfort or comfort no hurt, just as long as they touch on whump in some way.  

Word Count: Up to 17,500 words

For this anthology, we are looking for stories in the following categories:

Micro-fiction: 250 words or less

Flash fiction: 251-1,000 words

Short Story: 1,001-7,499 words

Novelette: 7,500-17,500 words 

Compensation: ebook contributor’s copy, one free paperback, and discounts on additional paperbacks

50% of proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to charity.

Submissions Open: October 28, 2023 Submit Here!

Submissions Close: May 31, 2024 (hard deadline)

Expected Publication Date: October 2024

The Nitty-Gritty

Dear Wince readers,

Over the past few months, both Claire and Ari have been spending less time on Tumblr and in whump spaces in general. As a result, we’re making some changes to Wince’s publication schedule. We’re no longer publishing twice a month – moving forward, our schedule will change according to the submissions we receive.

We look forward to reading your reviews, meta, listicles, and round-ups, and we’ll still get back to you as quickly as we can. If you have questions that require a quick response or would like to let the editors know that you’ve sent in a submission, you can drop them a line at @withalittlebitofwhump (Ari) or @aravenwhumper (Claire).

All the best as we finish out 2021!

I think my earliest experiences with whump come from way back when I was about five or six. I remember little stories written in pages torn from one of my sister’s school jotters, with characters from my favourite shows being captured or injured.

In the days before pretty much every movie with any kind of hype behind it was delayed by a year, Uncharted was supposed to be out in cinemas by now, thirteen long years after it was first announced. But now we have to wait another EIGHT months for its release in February 2022 - which is, fun fact, the film’s seventh announced release date since 2016. It’s been a long wait for fans of the series but if the film is anything like the games, it’ll be worth it in the end - for whumpers, at least.

Tumblr deleted my personal account for “adult content” (which I don’t post) and took all of my sideblogs, including my whump blog, with it.

I’ve contacted support about what caused them to delete my account, and hopefully they’ll restore everything and provide me with an explanation.

I don’t want to put on my tinfoil hat prematurely, but I am nervous that they might have terminated my account because of either my whump sideblog or my horror/folklore/true crime sideblog. If this turns out to be the case, I’ll be sure to let you know. In any case, now might be a good time to check your settings.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about whump.

Well duh, I hear you say (and you’d be right to, haha).

But what I mean is that I’ve been thinking about what whump — the word, the genre, the community — means, as opposed to, say, hurt/comfort or sometimes to angst. And I’ve come to the realisation that for me, whether something ‘counts’ as whump or not — whether it can or should be stamped with that label, seems to rest on the creator’s motivations (or sometimes, what I assume of the creator’s motivations).

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about whump.

Well duh, I hear you say (and you’d be right to, haha).

But what I mean is that I’ve been thinking about what whump — the word, the genre, the community — means, as opposed to, say, hurt/comfort or sometimes to angst. And I’ve come to the realisation that for me, whether something ‘counts’ as whump or not — whether it can or should be stamped with that label, seems to rest on the creator’s motivations (or sometimes, what I assume of the creator’s motivations).

Sarah does such a wonderful job of defining and writing about whump, and how the term whump’s existence in fan culture helps readers to categorize and understand the intentions and works of the author. She does an especially fantastic job of differentiating between “whump” and “hurt/comfort,” both of which I struggled with separating until today!