Writing About Pain: Three Stages of Awareness

If there’s one thing we like to do as we write, it’s show a character’s pain. Emotional, physical, spiritual, existential…we are all about bringing forth pain and crisis. Is it because we’re a little messed up, and torturing characters is, well, kinda fun? Or do we do conjure painful situations to show the universal truth that life hurts sometimes?

Ah, it’s probably both.

No matter what our reasons for holding our character’s figurative (and possibly literal) feet to the fire, we need to do a bang up job of describing it well. And this is where this series on pain comes in. So join us for a deep dive on all things painful, starting with…

Pain & Your Characters: Three Stages of Awareness Before: Anticipating Pain

Sometimes our characters don’t see a threat coming, but when they do, we gain a terrific opportunity to draw readers into the moment and heighten their emotions alongside the character’s. The anticipation of pain is something we all know, and so it’s an effective way to generate empathy for characters experiencing it.

A character may only have a heartbeat or two to steel themselves: their muscles tense, teeth clamp down, the head draws back, and their eyes shut. To narrow themselves as a target, they might try to make themselves small, a full body cringe. Or they’ll duck, jerk back, pull away, or attempt to flee. This is their instinctual fight-or-flight response, and ultimately they’ll do whatever they believe will protect them (or those they love) in the few seconds they have.

Other times, the threat is farther out, giving the character’s brain time to churn. They have knowledge and experience, and so flashes of what will happen and likely wounds and injuries hit in rapid succession. Memories of past pain assault the character, too, along with the inescapable weight of dread.

Their adrenaline surges, and if they can do anything to escape what’s to come, they do: respond, act, fight, or flee. If there’s nothing they can do, their skin crawls in expectation of the painful sensations to come.

Pain isn’t always physical, of course. If an event is approaching that will hurt your character emotionally, they may fall into a depression or try to avoid it however possible – staying in bed, refusing to go out, avoiding people, staving off the situation by lying, or something else…all things that line up with flight. They could also grow anxious, obsess about what’s going to happen, and force a confrontation before they’re fully prepared to deal with it (fight).

Is the source of pain a secret about to be uncovered? A marriage about to completely unravel? A hospitalized child’s condition degrading? Mental and emotional pain are just as debilitating (or more so) than physical wounds.

TIP: Whatever type of pain your character is experiencing, think about their personality, coping methods, and personal fears. This will help you determine how they will respond to threats that bring pain.

During: Physiological and Psychological Processes

When discomfort happens, it’s felt in different ways. When there’s a physical component, pain receptors pick up on the type of sensory input that’s at work: heat, friction, tension, cold, pressure, etc. and sends signals to the brain about the area affected, the type of pain, and intensity level. The instinctual response is to flee pain, so unless there’s a compelling reason why they must not, a character will seek to pull away and escape. This is especially true when they can see the damage happening (a gash, a broken bone, blood, etc.), and the gravity of what’s happening to them hits home.

Your character’s emotional state will also influence how much pain they feel. If the source of it is tied to a fear, emotionally wounding experience, or their anxiety is triggered, the discomfort they feel is intensified. Other emotions can actually help them weather it better: anger, rage, determination, etc. Pain levels can become so excruciating that a character passes out or enters a state of shock. This is where the body systems slow and they become distanced from their agony.

A character can use coping mechanisms to handle their discomfort, turning to meditation, breathing exercises, self-distraction, talk therapy, etc. or numbing it with medications, drugs, or alcohol. In cases where they are attempting to manage pain through mind over matter, if the threshold reaches a certain point, continued exposure will no longer be possible.

Characters will also experience a stress reaction to pain, meaning their heart rate and blood pressure can rise, their body becomes increasingly tense, their breathing may change and tears may form.

TIP: Using POV visceral sensations to show what they’re experiencing is a great way to communicate the strain they’re under.

After: Recovery and Aftereffects

After an injury or event that causes pain, your character may have a hard time with mobility, balance, and cognitive processing, so keep this in mind when you show readers what happens next. Your character may have to protect the injury, hunching over as they walk, cradling an arm, limping to overcompensate a strained muscle or broken bone. They might have a loss of energy or motor control, have a delayed reaction time, and seek to distance themselves from others so they can process what happened and heal in private.

Everyone copes with pain differently, especially pain that scores an emotional hit. Time will be needed to fully process what happened, and if the emotional hurt is far too painful to examine, characters try to bury it rather than work through it in a healthy way, leading to personality and behavioral shifts that change how they interact with the world and those in it. Unresolved emotional wounds are sources of ongoing pain, so a bit of research here on what this looks like for the type of wound is key.

If your character suffered a physical injury or illness, the healing process can include different types of pain – tenderness, strain, headaches, itchiness, and the like. They may need to rest or sleep more, and if this is impossible because the danger in ongoing, their energy may drain further. It could slow their healing, and open them to infections and more injuries.

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After an injury heals, your character may have scars, less range of movement, or suffer debilitating migraines or other internal reactions. Depending on what they experienced, they may also carry new fears, anxieties, a decreased ability to take risks, and even PTSD or other conditions that they will carry with them. Each new encounter with pain will make your character more wary and watchful for any circumstances where it might reoccur, so remember that as they move forward in the story.

Realistic Fiction Sometimes Means Ignoring Hollywood

Because movies only have so much time to show everything they need to, the stages of pain awareness are sometimes skimmed over. Often there’s a split-second awareness of danger and then the camera focuses on the character being injured, whether it’s a gun shot wound to the thigh or a six-pack of punches to the gut. They falter briefly, then rally to win. But when we see them again after the climax, they are usually not as in bad shape as they should be, or are miraculously fine (I’m looking at you, Jack Ryan, and your ability to be perky and ready to go after several rounds of boiling water-and-salt torture!).

Movies and TV can sometimes get away with this, but books, not so much. Readers want to share the character’s experience, so this means showing things that are true-to-life. You don’t have to go overboard and show every detail, but make sure to convey enough of the before-during-after chain that readers feel the character is responding realistically to pain and injury.

If you need more ideas on how to show pain, this is one of the entries in our Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus.

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