The Do's and Don'ts of Writing a Story

HOW TO: Writing pain

1.) Don't write paragraphs about it. I know it's tempting You want to convey to the reader how much pain the character is in, and you think that the pain will be emphasized the more you write about it. 

This however, is a lie. 

As a reader, when I'm reading a book or fan fiction where, whenever the writer uses agonisingly long paragraphs to describe when a character is hurt, I skip it. Entirely.

It's boring and, quite frankly, unnecessary, especially during a fight or he battle, which are supposed to be fast paced. When it comes to writing about pain, it really is about quality not quantity. 

In my own writing, I stick to short, quick paragraphs, some of them which are barely a line long. this gives it a faster pace and sort of parallels with the scattered, spread out thoughts of the character as they suffer. 

2.) Describe it right. Many times, usually in fan fiction, writers over-exaggerate certain injuries. This partially has to do with the fact that they've never experienced that injury before and are just thinking about what it might feel like. A punch is not as painful as you think it is. 

However, it does depend on the area, as well as how hard the punch is, on top f the fact that you have to take into account whether or not punch broken bones.

When describing the pain of an injury or the injury itself, you have to take into account:

 - What object was used to harm the character.

 - Where the injury is.

 - How long the character has had the injury.

 - For blades, how deep the cut is.

 - For blunt force trauma, how hard the hit was. 

 - Whether or not the wound triggers other things e.g. concussions, vomiting, dizziness, infection, internal/external bleeding etc. 

There's also the fact that when some authors describe wounds caused by hades such as knives, daggers and swords they never take into account the anatomy of a person and which places cause the most blood flow. 

Obviously, a cut on your cheek will have less blood flow than a cut on your wrist, depending on what the blade hits, and I hope that everyone consults a diagram of veins, arteries and capillaries etc. when they're describing blood flow from a certain place. 

There's also the fact that you have to take into account where the blood is coming from. Veins? Arteries?

The blood from arteries will be a brighter red, like vermillion, than the blood from veins which is the dark crimson everybody likes to talk about. 

3.)Different injuries have different kinds of pain. A punch feel different from a slap. a broken arm feels different from getting stabbed. A fall feels different from a dog bite. 

Punch/blunt force trauma.

How it feels: aching, numbness in later stages, a single spike of pain before fading into later ache, throbbing.

Effects: vomiting - if the character is punched in the gut, swelling, bruising, broken bones, unconsciousness - blow to the head, concussion - head injury, internal bleeding, death - in the case of concussions, internal bleeding and broken bones - ribs can pierce lungs. 

Stab wound/cut.

How it feels: stinging - only shallow wounds have just stinging, burning, with stab wounds describing the effects can make it more powerful to the reader. 

Effects: bleeding - consult chart of circulatory system beforehand for the amount of blood flow that should be described and what colour the blood should be, dizziness - heavy blood loss, unconsciousness, infection - if left unattended, death. 

Gunshot.

How it feels: depends on the calibre bullet, from how far away they were shot (point blank range is nothing like being shot from a distance), and in what place. Do careful research then make your decision. 

Effects: bleeding - consult chart of circulatory system beforehand for the amount of blood flow that should be described and what colour the blood should be. Also take into account the variables of blood flow as well. Dizziness - heavy blood loss, infection - if left unattended, death. 

Some things a character may do when they're injured:

 - Heavy/harsh/ragged breathing 

 - Panting

 - Making noises of pain: grasping, grunting, hissing, groaning, whimpering, yelping - when the injury is inflicted, screaming, shrieking, wailing. 

 - Crying, weeping, sobbing etc

 - Clenching their teeth

 - Unable to speak

 - Pressing their hands against the stab wound/cuts to try and stem the bleeding

 - Eyesight going out of whack, vision blurring and tilting, the room spinning, black spots consuming sight. 

 - Eyes rolling up into their head

 - Trembling/shaking

 - Ears ringing - from gunshot