Expressing Pain in Your Writing

...pain is the world we live in...

Some people write to cope with pain, or to ignore the pain. Pain is part of everyone's everyday lives and so it's a given to write pain. It's like normal to make our characters suffer with despicable ailments and wounds to cause them the hardest journey they can possibly have. We do this to mold them into the characters they are meant to be. We (writers) do this to try and help them along and to learn.

It's how we ourselves learn lessons. It's how we as the writers become who we really are. So it shouldn't be any different when we write our beloved characters.

~

There's a difference between stubbing your toe kind of pain, and a gunshot wound kind of pain. There's a difference between sharp intense pain that lasts for only a few minutes, and chronic pain that never goes away.

With pain comes so many other symptoms that some writers miss.

Hardly ever does someone just "feel pain".

A few years back I got bit by a dog. It was pretty deep. There was so much blood. I don't remember much of it, other than falling in the street, grasping my leg to try and stop the pain. Not the bleeding. I can handle blood. But there was so much pain that shot through my entire leg. I remember a few tears falling out of my eyes, but my throat went dry and I couldn't breathe. I was taken to the ER and the doctor gave me some pain reliever. After that I remember feeling more relaxed. They fixed my leg and I went home. I couldn't walk very well without a lot of pain shooting through my leg. However, there wasn't just pain in my leg. My head pounded. I was dizzy for a couple days. My stomach was nauseous. I had other symptoms that came along with the pain.

So many times I see this in novels and short stories: "Adrenaline pumped through my body. It  was the only thing keeping me going. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to stay awake this long, or keep running.
The wind blows through my hair and I creep through the forest, trying to stay hidden. And then I felt it. A sting in my shoulder. The adrenaline seemed to stop all the pain, but when I reached back to feel my shoulder, I felt blood. I had been shot.
I keep going, trying to not get caught. I can't stop now.
Another gunshot and my leg goes out from underneath me. I fall, landing on a sharp stick. My head pounds with blood and noise, and yet, I am still able to get up and keep going."

The power of adrenaline is something crazy, y'all. I get that it blocks a lot of the pain and helps us keep going when we otherwise would not have been able to. I've never been shot by gun, or broken any bones, but I know that it has to hurt, even through the adrenaline. There's something about "oh, look, I've been shot" that turns me away. I want to see their pain to know that they are still human...

Phil Coulsen gets shot and this is a painful moment for everyone involved. He's got adrenaline pumping through his body no doubt, and yet you can see the pain on his face. You can see the effort he puts into just picking up the blaster gun thing-y (it's been awhile since I've seen Avengers, I don't remember what it's called exactly) and shooting it. You watch him feel the pain, and in turn you feel it as well and you can sympathize with him, right? You can empathize easier. That's the kind of emotion that needs to be brought in.

Like I said, adrenaline is amazing stuff. So even if your character doesn't feel the whole extent of the pain at that moment, don't forget to add it later.

What about chronic pain or sickness?

When writing chronic pain and sickness, it is very important not to downplay or overplay it. Too many cancer stories just want to make you cry. And cancer stories are sad. They are not a pretty thing, they are not a glorious thing. It shouldn't be something that we look at lightly. But somehow the writers miss that even though the people are in pain they still have hopes and dreams and joys. One of my favorite cancer stories is about a little boy who LOVES Christmas, but the doctors said he wouldn't live to see another one. The mom and dad started to put Christmas lights up and decorate for Christmas. Soon the entire town heard about what was going on and put on a Christmas in October for this little boy. It was so sweet. It showed that the little boy was sick and that he was in pain. But he still had things he loved. He still had dreams. And it showed that even through the pain he was able to be happy. There's happy moments, there's sad moments... That's how you really get across the pain to the reader.

It's easier to write chronic pain and sickness when you've been through it. No one truly know how to express it unless you've lived through it. It's like that with anything we write. It's hard for me to write a gunshot wound when I have no idea what it feel likes. It's easier for me to write a cut because I've experienced that. I think everyone has experienced being cut before. Not so easy for me to write being stabbed, because I've never been stabbed.

A few things to remember when expressing pain:
Keep it real. If you've never experienced it then ask someone who has, or do research on it. The worst thing is reading "fake" and unrealistic pain where you just don't feel bad for the hero.

Don't ever let the dreams fade when someone is in chronic pain. Dreams are what people with chronic pain hang onto. They may never be able to fulfill their dreams, but it's something they never let go of.

Give each character a way of coping. Some cope with listening to music and being alone, others want to be around people. Some draw, write, or play an instrument. But everyone has a way of coping with pain.

With pain comes other symptoms. In excess amounts of pain your character may also get sick to the stomach, or feel dizzy for a while.

Don't just tell the pain, show it... Express it.

I found this quote earlier and fell in love with it:
"Writers don't write from experience, although many are hesitant to admit that they don't... If you wrote from experience, you'd maybe get one book, three poems. Writers write from empathy." ~Nikki Giovanni

We will never be able to write all pain from experience. Ever. We have to write from empathy. We have to be able to research or to observe someone in the kind of pain we are writing, so that we can get across the right emotions. It's like that with all things we write in our novels, short stories and poems. Some things we will never be able to experience, therefore, we have to look a little deeper to accurately express what we wanted express.

How do you express pain in your writing?  How do you get your readers to feel the pain right along with your characters?