How to Write Pain

I have never been shot. I have never broken a bone. I have never been in a car wreck. At worst, I have stubbed my toe on a table leg — hardly what any reader would want five pages of.

So — pray tell — how do people like us, who are always indoors, describe things we’ve never experienced? Here are tips I’ve picked up as a fanfic writer.

Less is More

The first draft of your story is meant to be chaotic, messy. After the second or third draft, you should be unwriting most of your filler — and that includes pain scenes. More often than not, you’re repeating yourself too much:

“Agony surged through his delicate, trembling form like a thousand molten lightning bolts ripping through the fibers of his exquisitely shattered being. Each wave of torment cascading endlessly across his soul in a ceaseless tsunami. His anguish burned brighter than the sun itself and — “

You get the idea.

After the first sentence, your eyes start to glaze over. Because at that point, the writer’s shaking your shoulders and yelling, “It hurts!”, again and again.

Readers don’t need twenty metaphors for the same sensation. They need one good one, placed exactly where it matters.

Elaborate on the Effects

Don’t tell us they’re in pain. Show us how the pain affects them. If they were shot in the lungs, show them having trouble breathing. Gunshots to the arm are not only painful; they make it hard to defend yourself and use weapons.

You see, it’s not always about the pain — it’s what happens because of it.

Describe how they stumble and catch themselves on a countertop.

Describe how they wince, grab their side. Breathing too-hard and too-fast because their chest feels tight. Maybe they’re out of breath and can’t cry for help.

Or you can describe the emotional reactions of pain.

Maybe death is something your character never thought would happen to them, and now every mistake they’ve made in their life replays in their head.

Pain is a great motivator. It can change how your characters fight, think, and act. Give it purpose.

The Type of Wound Matters

If they were stabbed:

Was the knife dull or sharp; serrated or straight?

Dull blades rip and tear more than sharp ones. Straight sharp blades leave smooth cuts. Serrated edges shred and tear the cut, which causes more bleeding and trauma.

If they were shot:

Was it the head/neck area? -> Numbness then a burning sensation, heavy bleeding, almost always fatal. Survivors usually lose an eye or sensation on one side.

The leg? -> Sharp stinging pain, heavy bleeding, potentially crippled. If the femoral artery was shot? -> Death in ~2 min.

Were they shot in the chest? -> Coughing up blood, pneumothorax (collapse of the lung), lightheadedness, sharp pain. But get specific — were they shot in the lung? The ribs? Those matter.

Location controls how they move:

Leg injury -> Limping

Torso injury -> Breathing difficulty, coughing up blood

Arm injury -> Weak grip, slow reloads, impaired blocking

I could go on and on, but in sum:

Do your homework. A realistic wound will add an extra layer of tension to your scene.

Hope this helps!