Writing about pain

In my little stories, the scratch of Amber Jack's claws is as vicious as it gets. All animals have a respect for the dangers of living and the possibility of dying. Pain is endured.

It is the human mind that can concieve of pain without the endurance. I imagine that many novels are written with the idea that the reader can empathetically envision terrible pain, be it mental or physical.

What say you?

Love,

Betty

I think you are right, Betty. Everyone knows someone who has experienced pain and can imagine what it must be like. Describing pain is easier when one has experienced it. It is much like writing non-fiction -vs- fiction. Fiction is much more difficult to make the story credible. I think Don Stephens does it very well in his stories. Dealing with pain is part of the experience and you are currently involved with that aspect. Making the reader feel the pain and the feeling of pain relief, in whatever form, takes skill. Making notes of the feeling as it is experienced is helpful for future reference. Asking someone how they feel at a specific moment is helpful. You are not looking for the standard response, i.e., "Fine" or "Not too bad" but a true response. It is also an indication that you care.
Then there is the difference between physical and mental pain.

I believe we can recall that a particular episode was painful, but I don't believe we can recall (relive) the actual pain! If we could, would any woman have more than one child? I know that last year the pain in my back was so bad I could 't stand, let alone walk, I know it hurt worse than when I got shot, but I can't re-feel it.

I like to think it's one of our Maker's blessings.

JMHO!

Describing Pain.

Can you describe a headache? What kind of headache? Migraine or other?

The best time to describe an ache or pain is when you’re experiencing it. Then there are real pains and imagined ones. Sometimes when a woman says she has a headache, it may be that she just wants to be left alone.

A man goes to the doctor and says, “Doc, when I touch here”, using his finger to press his chest, “It hurts. “And when I touch here”, using his finger to touch his leg, “It hurts. And when I touch here”, using his finger to press his stomach, “It hurts. What do you think the problem is?”

The Doctor replied, “Your finger is broken.”

If someone asked me to describe my heart operation, I could do it fairly well, however to describe the pain and/or discomfort I felt would be difficult. If I were asked how I was feeling at the time of the discomfort/pain, my description would be more exact.

I remember my grandmother describing her arthritis. If one asked her how she was feeling, she went into a detailed description about it. Describing how the pain went from her fingers and hand and crept up her arm, etc. There are some people who have the same pains so often that it becomes part of their daily lives and can give exact details.

As a writer, when I attempt to describe events or feelings, I put myself into the situation and describe how I would (or may have) felt in the same circumstance. Making it believable to the reader is not always easy. When you can make the reader feel the pain or discomfort you describe, you are truly a good writer. That’s what I meant when I referenced Don Stephens. He made me feel the situation described. I felt the angst that the character was experiencing. That is no fluke, it is a talent.

7/20/2012

Betty..

I remember when I had gallbladdeer in 1981, the pain

was horrible and it only happened at night right after you ate.

I had lost over 20 lbs, after 21 days in the hospital and heavy

drugs I felt better and I was my swelt self, I do know the memory

of pain goes away....

Love Joe..

Betty,

I hope your pain is very soon a distant memory.
Good to hear from you again.
I am opposed to pain in others and myself. How to eradicate it is the question for which I have no answer.

Dear All,

I am so sorry to have posted this topic. There is so much more joy to life than there is pain. Please forgive my tunnel vision.



Love, from my heart,

Betty

Betty,

Don't be sorry. If you are in pain, you cannot appreciate joy.
I have never seen a person in pain being real joyous.

Betty, I'm glad you mentioned pain. It stimulated thoughts on how to describe pain for a reader. It is an interesting subject.

I hope your pain is subsiding and that soon it will be just a memory.

William Shakespeare : "Pain pays the income of each precious thing."

Betty, It'll get better everyday!

“...no no no humans, our world is fiction now, that pain belongs to that realm of your reality, together with one's advancing age and the weight of just being a declining whoever one is in an all too tightly fitting dailylife...” bewailed the goblin and then laughed as the young quick goblin who would not be real ever now continued “...besides, our readers didn't come here for all this despondency between us, so to the devil with it, instead they are here to be uplifted by your pens, and how you owe them for reading you still, I mean you are authors after all, regardless of all the sufferings that dailylife can fling at you and isn't that what makes you so different from them...”, where of course the goblin could join Betty and the others in their reality here, but rather instead, he merely asked them once more to join him upon this thread/stage of the most prestigious “published author's” theater here, as the music starts, the curtains go up, and there in front of a packed audience tonight are the greatest author-actors known to the writing world today, the goblin brought a lone finger up to his lips, simply he watched their pens create those wondrous posts once more, for this then, was the them that he so much loved, where the audience was spellbound at the sight

Pain is real. Saying that it doesn't exist is stupid. How to deal with pain varies with each individual. I hate pain. I hate being stuck with needles. I hate when they stick me with a needle to take blood. It is not unbearable, but I avoid it when possible.
If I am writing a story and the character is in pain, describing the pain so that the reader can feel it, will enhance the story.

I have begun to listen carefully to people when they describe the pain they feel. Sometimes the pain is physical and sometimes it is mental. Effectively describing the misery of someone is not easy. To simply say someone is miserable may imply that you find them to be a miserable person, or it can mean that they are in misery. What kind of misery?

Some people are considered to be a pain in the ass. Whose ass? Is the pain really in the ass or is it an expression?

"...yes and no then...replied the goblin, agreeing with the logic disagreeing with the practice, saying "...no, I fight off writing about my own pain and problems until I can't fight it any more, then I let it overwhelms me and out it comes in my writing, but on the other hand if I let in too much of my dailylife self here, one might as well dump forumland altogether for facebook, so no, I find writing more to do with one's alter ego, creativity, fiction, and fantasy, where I guess it just depends on the writer, but I'll compromise with you now, lets say we open a the joys of being miserable thread with our star misery poster each week, complete with wall to wall suffering, yes our readers would love that when they show up here wouldn't they, publishauthors forum catering to everyone's latent goth leanings, btw can someone pass me shelagh's gothic eye-shadow..."

"The joys of being miserable" sounds too much like grumpy old men and women delighting in their own misery. I do, however, like Betty's title, Writing about Pain, so I'll set up a new thread with a similar title in the Writers' Cafe, where everyone is welcome to express their own painful experiences and how they relate those experieces in their writing.