creative writing description of headaches

29 Ways to Describe a Headache

A note: These are for inspiration only . They can’t be copied because they’ve been pulled directly from an author’s copyrighted manuscript (intellectual property is immediately copyrighted when published).

Here’s my list:

• It all made her head ache
• The world’s spinning and I want to vomit, but yeah, I’m okay. His head pounded, sharp and heavy.
• Migraine threatening at the back of his head
• Head throbbing
• A headache ground into her temples
• Concussed by a headache
• Awakened with a monster headache
• Said without interest
• Jane rested her head in her hands and began to rub her temples, trying to massage away the headache.
• He laughed. The pain in his head flashed hard and hot.
• If only her head would stop pounding.
• She closed her eyes, fighting off nausea. Trying, even through the pain, to remember how she could have arrived at this strange, dark place where nothing seemed familiar.
• Stomach heaved
• Wave of nausea
• A headache flared

• Hangover gathering strength like an oncoming storm
• a throbbing headache was developing beneath his temples
• muscle in his right cheek flexed
• Living with her headache
• My headache had returned
• Thrumming/buzzing/purring/vibrating/drumming headache behind her temples
• She winced, brows furrowed tight with pain
• A needling headache behind his right ear
• The rhythm of blood throbbing in my temple
• Skull pounding
• Stick hot needles in her eyes
• temple twitched
• She finally got to the edge of her headache
• Head felt like it was filled with straw
• her heartache had gone numb
• belligerent hangover
• aspirin bounced off his headache like it was armored

More descriptors:

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49 thoughts on “ 29 Ways to Describe a Headache ”

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Reblogged this on quirkywritingcorner .

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These descriptions actually help me for real life. Thanks.

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I will never run out of words now! Thanks Jacqui. Great post, Aquileana ⭐

I have a headache right now so I’m running through the list. “Winced” Check. “Needling” Check.

Ooosh, and eina as we say here in South Africa .. the ‘eina’ word that is. I’ve heard that a half a baby aspirin taken daily can help prevent migraine?

All very descriptive phrases thank you!

I start each day with 3 regular Bayers. Too much? Hmm…

‘Eina’–never heard that. I’m off to Google it.

In the past few years I’ve had longer headaches mingled with nausea. Not fun. I’m pretty sure I’ve given some characters headaches.

Oooh, not good. I hope they’re occasional, rare, and responsive to OTC drugs.

“Head full of straw.” That’s vivid imagery. I love when descriptions paint an unmistakable picture. I’d actually never thought about giving a character a chronic headache. It’s true to life and distinguishes that person. Great idea!

The ‘head full of straw’ fits perfectly as a side-affect to some of the pain meds available. Which is worse–pummeling pain or inability to focus. Hmm…

Cluster headaches = suicidal pounding on the psyche. There are men (for some reason they are more prevalent with men) with cluster headaches who have committed suicide.

I didn’t know that. Interesting. I have rarely felt that far gone from mine, though I do remember one afternoon, as we were having a pool party, and I couldn’t get out of bed… Thank god for wonderful husbands.

Great list as usual Jacqui. I do like the detail touch of giving characters real life problems. My characters have all suffered headaches at one time or another, though I haven’t written a character with chronic migraine.

It does make them human, and flawed, and as thriller writers (you and I), that’s important.

I’m familiar with headaches as I’m sure most people are. Have you heard about the cluster headache. They’re as much fun as a migraine.

I think they’re worse. Thankfully, I’ve avoided them. There are so many physically maladies worse than headaches. It just doesn’t feel that way in the middle of one!

My first husband suffered from migraines, so all of these terms sound familiar. I find it interesting that you’ve cursed your characters with this known malady. I’m a celiac, but so far, I’ve not been tempted to so afflict any of my “people.” My sister says I should, even if only to raise awareness. I am not so sure.

Well, since I continue to survive headaches, I don’t quite see it as having no upside. I’ve learned to work through pain, to recognize what’s big and little in life, and to swear like a sailor when the time is right. Not bad, hunh?

Damn, and I got the sailor talk without the pain of headaches!

Reblogged this on georgeforfun .

Thanks, George!

My pleasure indeed ));<)))))

As a teenager I popped Darvon like they were jellybeans. Sometimes not more effective. The one nice thing about me being old is that the migraines from which I suffered all my earlier life (starting at age 7!) rarely make an appearance now – thank heaven. I guess hormone depletion has some good aspects. Jacqui, I wish I could offer you something substantive to cure your headaches, but all I can suggest is to try the acupuncture again, or maybe the acupressure. Drink lots of water of course, but you probably do all the right things anyway. I know you eat consciously. Any chance that the headaches are related to the medication you take? Thanks for the list of headache descriptions – this is one area I think I have down pat – unfortunately. BTW: Darvon is no longer available, and I’d stopped taking them years before before I got pregnant. The headaches continued but I turned to milder anodynes, eventually finding that drugs geared to ending migraines worked for me.

7! That is awful. What child can understand that sort of pain. I feel awful when I see students struggling with that horror. I’m glad to hear they’re mostly gone for you, Shari.

I recommend to prevent a headache or get rid of it fast using acupressure (with your own fingertips)..

I have tried acupuncture, with zero results. You think this would be better?

With acupuncture you relied on somebody else, with acupressure YOU LEARN and YOU WIN.

This is another inspiring list, Jacqui. I used to have terrible headaches in my teens but have been lucky the past number of years. ❤

I thought menopause, and then old age, would cure them. NOT.

Sigh. I don’t know why I had all those terrible headaches late teens and early twenties. Gone now. Hope you’re take a hike as well. ❤

I suffer too, and I tend to share the pain with my characters! I like this list, but then I like all your lists because they get the creative juices flowing. Sometimes, if I’ve had a particularly bad migraine I get a little dramatic and I let my characters go to town on the descriptions – using humour to blow the cobwebs away!

I like the humor approach. Have you posted that sort of scene on your blog? I want to read it! Memorize it maybe.

I’m sure I have at some point. I’ll track back and see what I can find 🙂

A migraine will start with my eyes going fuzzy Jacqui, they are the worst.

…and nausea. Pepto works better than my prescription stuff for that.

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Describing a Headache in Writing: Physical Sensations and Sensory Language

By Happy Sharer

Introduction

Headaches are an unpleasant but common experience. A headache is defined as a “pain in any part of the head” that can range from mild to severe. In this article, we will explore how to describe a headache in writing by looking at the physical sensations associated with headaches, sensory language to evoke the experience, effects on other parts of the body, comparing the pain to familiar objects, using metaphors and similes for added effect, and illustrating the intensity of the headache with a pain scale.

Physical Sensations Associated with Headache

The physical sensations associated with a headache can vary from person to person. Common physical sensations that may be experienced include throbbing, pounding, and aching. Throbbing is typically described as a pulsing sensation that radiates through the head, while pounding may feel like a hammer hitting inside the skull. An aching sensation is usually a dull, persistent pain.

Sensory Language to Evoke Experience of Headache

Using sensory language is an effective way to evoke the experience of a headache in writing. Words such as sharp, stabbing, or burning can be used to describe the pain of a headache. To evoke a more persistent ache, words such as dull, throbbing, or heavy can be used. By combining physical sensations with sensory language, a more vivid description of the headache can be created.

Effects on Other Parts of the Body

In addition to the physical sensations felt in the head, headaches can have effects on other parts of the body. Nausea, light sensitivity, and fatigue are all common symptoms of a headache. These can be included in a description to give readers a more complete picture of the experience.

Comparing Headache to Familiar Objects

Another way to describe a headache is to compare it to familiar objects. For example, a headache may feel like a vice around the head or a hammer pounding away inside the skull. This type of comparison helps readers to better understand what it feels like to have a headache.

Metaphors and Similes for Added Effect

Using metaphors and similes can add an extra layer of effect to a description of a headache. For example, a headache can be described as a “symphony of pain” or a “thousand needles pricking the brain”. Such descriptions can make a description of a headache more vivid and interesting.

Illustrating Intensity of Headache

Finally, illustrating the intensity of a headache with a pain scale can help readers to understand the severity of the headache. A pain scale is a numerical rating system, typically ranging from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain imaginable). For example, a headache could be rated as an 8 out of 10 or a 10 out of 10. This helps readers to better understand the severity of the headache.

In conclusion, there are a variety of techniques for describing a headache in writing. By exploring physical sensations, sensory language, effects on other parts of the body, comparing the pain to familiar objects, using metaphors and similes for added effect, and illustrating the intensity of the headache with a pain scale, writers can create a vivid and accurate description of the experience.

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Hi, I'm Happy Sharer and I love sharing interesting and useful knowledge with others. I have a passion for learning and enjoy explaining complex concepts in a simple way.

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How To Describe A Headache In Writing

By dakota kellermann.

As writers, we know how important it is to be able to describe different sensations and emotions in writing. And one of the most common physical sensations that people experience is a headache. Whether it’s a dull ache or a pounding pain behind the eyes, headaches can have a profound impact on our mood, productivity, and ability to concentrate.

So how do you effectively describe a headache in writing? In this expert article, we’ll explore some common strategies that writers use to capture the feeling of this ubiquitous sensation.

1. Identify the type of headache:

There are many different types of headaches that people can experience, each with its own unique symptoms and characteristics. Some common examples include tension headaches (which feel like pressure or tightness around the temples), migraines (which often cause intense pain on one side of your head), sinus headaches (which are characterized by congestion and facial pressure), and cluster headaches (which occur in cycles over weeks or months).

Before you start describing your character’s headache, take some time to think about what kind of pain they’re experiencing. This will help you create more specific sensory descriptions later on.

2. Focus on physical sensations:

When trying to describe any kind of bodily sensation in writing, it can be helpful to focus on concrete physical details rather than abstract concepts such as “pain” or “discomfort.” For example, instead of saying “my head hurt,” try describing exactly where the pain is located (“a throbbing ache just above my left eyebrow”), how intense it feels (“like someone is squeezing my skull from inside”), and whether there are any accompanying symptoms such as sensitivity to light or sound.

3.Use Metaphors

Using metaphors can also be an effective way to describe a headache more vividly — especially if you’re trying convey complex emotions associated with the feeling . For example:

– “The pain felt like tiny hammers were pounding away at my brain.” – “It was as if a band of steel had been wrapped tightly around my skull.” – “The throbbing behind my eyes was like a low hum that wouldn’t go away.”

4. Consider the character’s emotional state:

In addition to physical sensations, headaches can also elicit strong emotional responses such as anger, frustration, anxiety or even depression. As you’re describing your character’s headache, think about how they might be feeling emotionally at that moment — are they anxious about an upcoming deadline? Stressed-out from dealing with difficult people in their personal life? Frustrated by ongoing pain that never seems to get better?

Being able to convey these emotions effectively can help make your description more powerful and resonant.

5.Use Foreshadowing

One effective way to use headaches in writing is by using them as foreshadowing for future events.The head-pounding hangover or pressure building in the temples has long been used to evoke impending disaster or hint at danger lurking just beyond the horizon.

Finally , it’s worth noting that ultimately there is no one “right” way to describe a headache in writing; different writers will have their own preferences and strategies depending on what effects they want to achieve . However by drawing upon some of the techniques discussed above — including focusing on concrete details, using metaphors and conveying emotion–you can create evocative descriptions that truly bring this common sensation to life on the page. As writers, we know how important it is to be able to describe different sensations and emotions in writing. And one of the most common physical sensations that people experience is a headache. Whether it’s a dull ache or a pounding pain behind the eyes, headaches can have a profound impact on our mood, productivity, and ability to concentrate.

That’s why it’s crucial for writers to be able to effectively describe this ubiquitous sensation. In this article, we’ll explore some common strategies that writers use to capture the feeling of a headache.

1. Identify the type of headache

Firstly, it’s essential to identify what type of headache your character is experiencing as different types have their unique symptoms and characteristics- tension headaches (pressing tightness around temples), migraines (intense head-pain confined to one part), sinus headaches (causing pressure on face) and cluster headaches (migrating through cycles). Knowing which one your character has helps you write more accurate sensory descriptions.

2. Focus on Physical Sensations

When trying to depict any sort of bodily sensation in writing, focusing on concrete physical details over abstract concepts such as “pain” or “discomfort” helps create depth in description example; describing exactly where the pain is located (“a throbbing ache just above my left eyebrow”), what intensity feels like (“like someone squeezing from inside”) with accompanying symptoms like sensitivity help concretize scenarios more vividly.

Using metaphors can also be an effective way to describe the complexity surrounding pain increased by feelings for instance:

4.Consider The Character’s Emotional State:

Aside from physical sensations associated with headaches can elicit strong emotional responses such as anger, frustration, anxiety or even depression in the character experiencing them. Describing the feeling from this perspective offers depth to characterization becoming resonant with readers.

One effective way writers use headaches in writing is by foreshadowing future events. Repeated headaches can be a warning of impending disaster or hint at danger lurking just beyond the horizon.

There’s no right or wrong way to convey headaches in writing ultimately- different writers will have their own preferences and strategies depending on what effects they want to achieve. However drawing upon techniques discussed above like concrete details, using metaphors, and emotive language creates evocative accounts that truly bring this sensation alive between words on a page.

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How To Accurately Write About Your Character’s Pain

February 9, 2017 by ANGELA ACKERMAN

The best thing about this online world of ours is you never know who you are going to meet. I don’t know about you, but one of the areas I struggle with is writing a character’s pain in a way that is raw, realistic…but not just “one-note.” So when I crossed paths with a paramedic-turned-writer, I got a little excited. And when she said she’d share her brain with us about the experience of pain, and how to write it authentically, I got A LOT excited. Read on, and make sure to visit Aunt Scripty’s links at the end. Her blog is full of more great medical info for writers.

Writing About Pain (Without Putting your Readers in Agony)

Pain is a fundamental part of the human experience, which means that it’s a fundamental part of storytelling. It’s the root of some of our best metaphors, our most elegant writing. Characters in fiction suffer, because their suffering mirrors our own.

In good writing, physical suffering often mirrors emotional suffering. It heightens drama, raises the stakes, adds yet another hurdle for our hero to jump before they reach their glorious climax.

So why can reading about pain be so boring?

Consider the following (made-up) example:

The pain shot up her arm like fire. She cringed. It exploded in her head with a blinding whiteness. It made her dizzy. It made her reel. The pain was like needles that had been dipped in alcohol had been jammed through her skin, like her arm had been replaced with ice and electricity wired straight into her spine.

For your characters, at its worst the pain can be all-consuming.  For your readers, though, it can become a grind. Let’s be honest, you gave up reading that paragraph by the third sentence.

In another story, a character breaks his ribs in one scene, then has, uhhh, intimate moments with his Special Someone in the next. Where did the agony go‽

There’s a fine line to walk between forgetting your character’s pain, elucidating it, and over-describing it.

So I’m here today to give you a pain scale to work with, and provide some pointers on how to keep in mind a character’s injuries without turning off your readers.

How Much Does It Hurt? A Pain Scale for Writers

Minor/Mild: This is pain that your character notices but doesn’t distract them. Consider words like pinch, sting, smart, stiffness .

Moderate: This is pain that distracts your character but doesn’t truly stop them. Consider words like ache, throb, distress, flare .

Severe: This is pain your character can’t ignore. It will stop them from doing much of anything. Consider words like agony, anguish, suffering, throes, torment, stabbing .

Obliterating: This is the kind of pain that prohibits anything else except being in pain (and doing anything to alleviate it). Consider words like ripping, tearing, writhing .

Metaphors, of course, are going to play somewhere on this spectrum, but I would suggest picking one level of pain and targeting it. For instance, don’t  mix stinging with searing when finding a metaphor to build.

How Often Should We Remind Readers of a Character’s Pain?

Most pain that matters in fiction isn’t a one-and-done kind of a deal. A gunshot wound should burn and itch and ache as it heals. A broken bone should send a jarring blast of lightning into the brain if that bone is jostled or hit.

Injuries need to have consequences. Otherwise, what’s the point?

There are three main ways to remind a reader of your character’s suffering: show them suffering, show them working around their suffering, and a third, more advanced, technique that I’ll mention in a moment.

If you want to show their pain, the easiest way is to tell : “her shoulder ached”; “she rubbed her aching shoulder”; “she rolled her shoulder subconsciously, trying to work out the aching stiffness” all convey what we want.

For frequency, try to limit those mentions to once per scene at the most, and perhaps as rarely as once per chapter.

However, we can choose something closer to the show route, by watching the character work around their injuries: “she opened the door awkwardly with her left hand to avoid the burn on her right”; “she led each step on the staircase with her good leg”; “Martin fiddled with his sling irritably”. That can be a little more frequent. It’s a reminder, but it’s also a small challenge that they’re solving before your very eyes. Huzzah!

For a breakdown of possible conflict scenarios that can lead to your character experiencing pain, go here .

One Final Technique: The Transmission of Agony

My best friend is a paramedic. She’s also had spinal fusion, has multiple slipped discs, and takes a boatload of pain medication. And yet I can see how much pain she’s in when we work together by the way she walks, talks, and carries herself.

Her pain isn’t constant. It changes . It ebbs and flows like the tide. It can be debilitating in one minute, bearable the next. So, too, can the agony of your characters:

“The agony had faded to a dull throb.”

“The pain in my shoulder ramped up the from stiffness all the way to searing, blinding agony faster than I could blink.” 

“ And, just when the pain was at its worst, it dissipated, like fog off some terrible lake .”

Go forth. Inflict suffering and woe upon your characters!

If I can offer one more piece of wisdom, it’s this: research the injury inflicted upon your character. At the very least, try to get a grasp on what their recovery might look like. It will add a level of realism to your writing that you simply can’t fake without it, and remind you that they should stay injured beyond the length of a scene.

Looking for a deep dive on pain, and how to describe minor, major, mortal, invisible injuries and more? This series on How to Write About Pain is a huge help.

Aunt Scripty is a veteran paramedic and author of the ScriptMedic blog at scriptmedicblog.com . In just three short months, her blog has attracted several thousand followers and accidentally started a writing advice blog revolution on Tumblr .

She lives in an undisclosed location with her beautiful wife and imaginary pibble, Steve, and can be found @scriptmedic on Twitter. If you’re not careful, she’ll sneak up on you in a dark alleyway and give you a free ebook .

TIP: To describe a character’s pain, visit this descriptive database :

Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers , a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.

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Reader Interactions

October 4, 2021 at 7:08 am

This post is so timely! One of my MC’s suffers with chronic pain from an automobile accident, and I am portraying him using several ways to alleviate it, such as opiates, alcohol, weed. He also has manic depression. Can you direct me to specific resources regarding how such a person “rehabs’? I have him entering a holistic facility, but I’m also wrestling with whether he can ever come off the other stuff completely. Because, they work, even if temporarily. I feel like pain mgt is so poorly understood and not done well for most folks. And the judgment! I have a pharmacist friend who was loathsome of people desperate to get their opiate scripts filled, calling them “street trash.” Any help portraying my guy accurately “healing” would be most appreciated!

October 4, 2021 at 10:20 am

Hi, Ellen. I’m so glad this resource is helping you with your WIP. It sounds like you’re got a good handle on exactly what your character is suffering with, which is important for getting the information you need. To find that information, I would suggest speaking with a doctor. You can talk to your own physician the next time you go in or even put out a call on social media for doctors or nurses who might be willing to answer a few questions about your character’s situation. I’ve found that people love talking about what they do and their areas of specialty and as long as you’re respectful of their time, you can usually get a professional’s feedback for free.

Best of luck to you!

March 10, 2021 at 10:19 am

Ok so my character is being tortured and she got kicked HARD in the chest but I can’t find a good verb to describe how she went back. I also can’t find a way to describe the pain she felt.

November 29, 2021 at 3:45 pm

Probably start with her not recognizing the pain because of the Adrenaline and then explain how the pain escalates… “The pain exploded in her stomach; the dull ache turned into a searing pain” Just some stuff I’ve seen authors do.

March 1, 2021 at 5:16 pm

I have a character that is badly beaten, (injuries consist of the standard bruises and cuts, she has a rather large gash over one eye, and has also been flogged. she has managed to escape her captors only to loose her footing in a pothole and fall to the ground, she cracks a rib in the process.) she is fortunate that a passer by finds her and takes the time out to clean her up ( he is a surgeon) my issue is describing the wounds as he treats her injuries. I’m trying not to put to much description here at this point as she feigns amnesia and he counters her lies with her injuries. i don’t want to repeat myself if that makes sense.

Many thanks in advance.

February 3, 2021 at 2:30 am

My Character is being hunted by a man and finds out that its the same man that killed her mother. How do I describe the pain that this will cause her to feel?

February 4, 2021 at 2:32 am

Now, I’m not a therapist, and what you’re talking about is an emotional wound more than anything. But you’re probably going to want to start with the processing of shock; denial and numbness to kick things off, as the brain struggles to even process the information Next, this is going to rip open any hurts surrounding that loss, which I’d expect she never got proper closure for in the first place if he’s still at large to keep hurting her/her family; that’ll mean a reliving of the grief, and whatever predominant emotions she has left around it (was she mainly angry at the loss? Did she blame the killer more, or did someone else’s choices put her mother in the killer’s path? Was she left lost and confused, did she feel trapped, were there any things she used to find pleasure in that lost their joy due to associations following the event?) your character’s primary coping mechanism? (Everyone has them, don’t lie.) Does she throw herself into projects looking for distractions? Does she get angry and lash out? Does she hide her hurts away from the world? Depending on how she’d normally handle such a horrifying discovery, the knowledge someone’s actively out to get her might deny her that small comfort, which will exasperate the issue even further. Finally, does she know what this killer wants? Do you? Why is he specifically after her? Why did he kill her mother? Can she hide in a crowd, or will reaching out put the people she cares about in danger? These questions should help you identify the TYPE of pain she’ll be feeling (boiling anger might keep the actual hurt at bay until the problem is dealt with, while self-imposed/protective loneliness can drive someone into a depressive spiral) from whence physical descriptions can be relatively easily found by looking up psych studies or other advice articles. (To stick with those two examples, anger is hot, clouds in the head and fists, can induce very similar symptoms of crying such as a tight throat or burning eyes; meanwhile, that kind of loneliness tends to be cold and clear-eyed, hard to choose but frightfully easy to maintain with a forced smile and a quick deflection, and leaves you feeling listless and hopeless while struggling alone.) It comes down really heavily to the type of person your character is, how she copes with adversity and how she copes with loss. No one but you is deep enough in her head to really know what kind of reaction this’ll induce in her, so no one but you can know what kind of reaction you should be describing. I’ve never been in the situation you’re describing, but I’ve dealt with several intentional deaths before (mostly suicides,) and looking around the room for weeks after the fact, not one person was processing the same emotions at any given point in time. Death and grief are messy, even more so when death and/or pain were the intended outcome of the events. And beyond the simple fear for one’s own life (which once again, everyone would deal with differently; both actually trigger fight-flight-freeze in us, grief just takes a brief stop at “oh shit, I feel vulnerable” before turning INTO fear on the way) those are the associated emotions she will have with this man.

February 4, 2021 at 9:06 am

I think MSF has answered your question nicely, Aldre. It truly does depend on the person (their personality, backstory, support system, what other difficulties they’re dealing with, etc.), since different people respond to the same wounding event differently. So doing the background work on your character to really get to know them is super important in figuring out their response.

January 1, 2021 at 3:40 pm

quick Q: how would one care for a stab wound to the left side of the abdomen, directly under the ribs? its a classic fantasy setting, taking place in approximately the middle of the medieval age, and it is a healer treating them, i’m just not sure what exactly he would do, and other websites aren’t the most useful at the moment. thanks:)

January 2, 2021 at 10:56 am

You might want to visit Scriptmedic’s site listed in the post as she has many different scenarios at her site which might help answer this question. 😉

January 3, 2021 at 2:13 am

thank you:)

November 3, 2020 at 6:55 am

my characters have all gone through something that has changed them , the way they think , the way they do things and their judgment in general. but what I’m basically struggling to do is tell their stories in a way that relates to what the story is about which based on what my characters went through that caused them pain and in a way that will convince readers to want to continue reading and continue to want to get the readers to want to get to know each character better

October 17, 2020 at 8:14 pm

I’m writing a story that sets the “Snow White” fairy tale in the modern world and in my version, she eats a candy apple laced with a paralytic drug. What should the actress be displaying upon ingesting it?

October 19, 2020 at 8:29 am

Hi, Marie. It’s good that you’re looking for ways to write this response accurately, since we always want our stories to read as realistic and authentic to readers. I’m unschooled in paralytic drugs and their effects, so you’ll need to research this. A Google search can get you started and help you find some credible sources. You also could talk to doctors own nurses who may be able to give you some good information. Good luck with your story!

June 21, 2020 at 10:09 pm

Here’s a problem I’ve run into:

Character A has been seriously injured in a hostile environment. Character B —a setting-appropriate medic/healer— discovers A and attempts to save A’s life. Functionally, this is a non-combative action scene (a short but vital moment, every choice and instinct raised to the highest stakes, no time/ability to get outside help, this is where the music-director in a movie puts the really intense bits of the score, etc) BUT as a writer, I now have to convey A’s injuries and B’s emergency examination/assessment, how/why this is such a big deal, the moment B chooses (consciously or not) to attempt to save A despite any/all risks, and at least a PORTION of how that treatment is applied, since, you know, the fight to save A’s life is the meat of the scene… without killing the pacing by stopping dead and becoming a textbook. Cutting away to A’s recovery, I’ve found, is good for building up B’s mysteriousness, but risks downplaying the injuries and leaving the audience confused about their repercussions (especially if B tries to comfort A by obfuscating just how serious it was.) Showing B’s struggle to save A’s life is a great character-defining moment for B and gives payoff to the initial trauma, but risks descending into jargon if the steps aren’t explained. Describing A’s injuries in detail really conveys the serious danger A is in, but also brings the momentum to a shrieking halt; keeping the injuries vague once again risks downplaying/confusion.

No one on the internet has written about this problem that I can find; it’s either advice on writing fight scenes, advice on writing injuries (even though emergency treatment is part of dealing with that, right?), or advice on writing actual medical documents.

Challenge modes include: • A is unconscious [and cannot contribute dialogue.] • A and B have never met [this is a character introduction scene.] • B’s healing abilities are beyond current science (either magical or tech,) and have their limits established/reinforced by this scene. [The audience must understand some basic rules of this ability by the end of the scene.] • Scene is from B’s perspective, [meaning B has experience/context the audience might not.] • This is one of your opening scenes, [so you don’t have much time for setting up context before it starts.]

BONUS ROUND! • Be a dumbass like me, and use all challenge modes at once! …Someone please help me…

May 13, 2020 at 10:03 pm

How would you describe someone being in pain because someone they loved was hurting? I am basically transcribing a TV show for my blog/website and one character is being forced to listen to her grandmother dying (On tape) at the hands of a sadistic “Angel of death” They are both handcuffed to a poll so he’s frustrated he can’t physically save her and he’s screaming to get the guy to stop because he’s torturing the woman he loves and he can’t stop him. He just screamed for the angel of death to stop and my heart skipped a beat. It was just well done. He’s trying to get out of his handcuffs. I am not a writer, at all. I usually just transcribe and post screencaps but because this scene would be difficult to do that I am trying to describe what is going on and I don’t have the talent for that.lol Thanks 🙂

May 4, 2020 at 3:33 pm

My character is an animatronic. He’s been captured and tortured by being destroyed and he barely has enough strength to stay conscious. How can I describe his pain?

Sorry if this isn’t a very good question.

May 7, 2020 at 7:28 pm

I would say something along the lines where he could feel his metal structure being torn apart slowly. He probably would have dents in his structure if his body if fully metal. If he has fur/skin/feathers etc with blood and bodily organs like living animals, I would take notice on blood seeping out of wounds, as well as bruises. I’m not the best with animatronics hope this helped fellow writer 😀

November 3, 2020 at 6:33 pm

Thank you! Yes, this helped a bunch!

(Sorry for the late reply-)

March 17, 2020 at 2:52 am

How should I describe someone falling on their back?

March 20, 2020 at 1:04 am

We talking falling from a height?

I’d say winded, it would probably take a few seconds to catch their breath again. Seeing as it’s sorta a heavy feeling of a “Thunk” I would try not so much to describe the pain, but get the reader to relate maybe by describing how hard the surface is so that the reader can infer by their own experience that it hurt. Describe it to make the reader feel uncomfortable or want to rub their back at the thought of it.

You could say that the pain is sudden and maybe include a whip lash effect of their head throwing back and how it pulls up from their shoulders in sudden pain. Maybe some teeth jitters from the head trowed back.

I don’t know that’s a hard one.

February 11, 2020 at 1:58 pm

So in my story there are two times that my main protagonist experiences physical pain. The first would be closer to a physical attack; punched, kicked, the whole nine yards that could be classified as physical abuse. As for the 2nd time, it’s a split second decision as she runs over towards someone to protect them from harm and in turn my protagonist ends up getting stabbed through the chest. I’m having a bit of a hard time describing the sensation from the protagonist’s perspective during the 2nd time of being injured.

March 20, 2020 at 12:52 am

Hello there! I’m quite young and I’m only really here for help with a school thing. I have had personal experience with shock like situations and nerve damage so I figured I would give you some pointers.

Shock is really strange and it honestly takes a lot longer then you would think for your brain to process the situation. Seeing as it’s a split second situation I see this coming into play. Before you understand the full situation you tend to try and move around or look to see what happened to the best of your ability because your body is going through completely unfamiliar sensations. Attempting to move only to then find a sudden pain or you are unable to move as a whole.

As for pain my situation was directly nerve based. Lot’s of numbness and stinging, think someone hammering your funny bone except it shoots throughout your whole body. Seeing as it’s in the chest I would turn to throbbing pain of her heartbeat. The sharp pain comes afterwards when it sinks in and you try your best to move. Shaking is also very important. Think adrenaline and anxiety, your body goes into shock so the thought process isn’t too great. Not a lot of speaking either, it’s hard to make up any sort of conversation.

Passing out because of pain isn’t uncommon either, even more so at the sight of their own blood.

When I was going through shock I asked a bystander to tell me a story to try and distracted myself from the sharp tingly pain and the muscle spasms. Don’t know if any of that helps but I figured I’d say it anyways

January 29, 2020 at 11:27 pm

This was some really helpful information to know! It did help me cover with the light stuff, but I was wondering for times where the scenarios get really gory?

As if the character were to get stabbed, how should it be expressed?

Also, how would it be like if the character just woke up from a coma?

Last question! Do you have a separate page for writing out battle scenes?

November 9, 2019 at 4:42 am

How can I show pain from burning? Like someone was forced to literary walk on fire. I don’t know how to show it to readers. Help please!!!

November 9, 2019 at 12:44 pm

Tara, have a look here: http://www.scriptmedicblog.com/?s=burns

September 10, 2019 at 11:47 am

In my story i am the 1st person and someone is paralyzed because if my ignorance and now he is in the hospital so how should i write that i am in utter despair and agony. And i want him to forgive me. Can you pls help i want a really nice description on that😊

September 10, 2019 at 11:51 am

And yeah i want a description on inner and spiritual pain but not on physical pain. I would really appreciate if someone help me! Thanks

September 10, 2019 at 11:54 am

what you’re looking for is the Emotional Wound Thesaurus: https://writershelpingwriters.net/the-emotional-wound-thesaurus-a-writers-guide-to-psychological-trauma/

September 10, 2019 at 11:57 am

Hi there, as I mentioned in the other comment, you’ll want to dig into the character’s emotional wounds and think about how their behavior will be unique to the character and the situation they are in. The Emotional Wound thesaurus can help with that. For setting description, you’ll want to look at the Urban Setting Thesaurus where it contains different hospital settings and the sensory description to go with them so your setting seems realistic. (Sorry, I wasn’t sure which area of description you meant you were struggling with here.)

April 23, 2019 at 10:23 am

What is the body language of someone in extreme pain?

One of the characters in my work is, for a bunch of reasons: mute. The only way that she can communicate with my POV character is through actions and body language. She’s been injured so badly that, if not for magic she would be dead in seconds, but she’s conscious, unable to scream.

I’ve described her injuries (with words like ‘mangled’ and ‘twisted’, and descriptions of shards of bone poking out where her knees should be), but I really want to hammer home the nightmarish nature of her situation. Magic is involved, healing magic in the setting is not simple or even kind.

April 23, 2019 at 10:37 am

Hi Steve, One of the Amplifiers in our ebooklet, Emotion Amplifiers is “Pain.” That might help you? https://writershelpingwriters.net/emotion-amplifiers/

January 27, 2019 at 9:45 pm

Thank you so much! This was very helpful but am wondering about how to write about an infection?

January 28, 2019 at 9:15 am

Ryan, I would advise you to do some research on the kind of infection so you’ll know what it looks like and how the character will physically respond. You could also talk to medical practitioners for practical information. Best of luck!

January 28, 2019 at 11:48 am

Also, if you go to the site of this guest poster, you’ll see she had more articles on different types of injuries and how to write them, so I would be shocked if she didn’t have something on infections. Just poke around and I’m sure you’ll find some help there. 🙂

January 1, 2019 at 9:18 pm

I have write a character who as cut their feet on rocks and branches. Luckily I have not experienced that first hand, but that makes it hard to write about.

The character is running away for danger and can’t stop to address his injury. I really don’t know how to describe how that feels, and what it does to the body.

Do you think you could help me with some descriptive words?

I would appreciate it,

Cheers, Bella

November 5, 2018 at 2:29 pm

How do describe a flying elbow to the stomach?

November 5, 2018 at 3:07 pm

Hi, Hayden. While I’m thankful this has never happened to me, it unfortunately doesn’t give me any reference for answering your question. But I do remember times when I’ve had the wind knocked out of me and when I have been knocked painfully by someone else. You’ve probably experienced these things too; use those memories to write about how it would feel. Think about things like localized pain, but what other physical sensations it may trigger, like nausea, losing one’s breath, or what happens to the person if the impact causes additional pain, such as them falling down or stumbling backward and hitting their head, etc.

August 8, 2018 at 11:05 pm

My character fell on his face. Not scraping his palms, just his face.

June 23, 2018 at 11:34 am

How would you write a character who is unable to feel pain? (Or hunger, thirst, tiredness, etc.) This is not congenital insensitivity, this is a light fantasy setting where this is paired with moderately increased endurance as a power/mutation. The character in question is a 12 year old girl.

November 5, 2018 at 3:12 pm

Hi, Georgia. I’m sorry, but I’m just now seeing your comment here. For this, you’ll have to show, through the character’s response, that they’re not feeling pain, and whether or not this is normal for her. For instance, you could show her being knocked down, getting up and dusting herself off, and her fingers coming away bloody. Maybe she’s gashed her leg or impaled it on something, and she didn’t notice. And now that she does, she doesn’t respond normally. Maybe she treats it like an inconvenience, bandaging it up or yanking out the offending shard of glass, then trotting off without a limp. Or maybe she consciously affects a limp because she knows that would be normal with such an injury and she wants to avoid notice. Maybe she mentally recalls that a year ago, this would have hurt like you know what, and that’s how her mutation is a blessing in disguise. The important thing here is to know your character’s state of mind regarding her mutation and having her respond accordingly so it doesn’t come off as unrealistic or explanatory to the reader. I hope I’m not too late and you’re able to use this information.

March 18, 2018 at 5:59 pm

How can I describe a knife across the face?

March 19, 2018 at 8:28 am

Hi, James. I’m afraid you’ll have to do some research on this since I’ve had no experience here. Think about times when you’ve experienced a wound to the face, or a cutting wound and apply that knowledge to your character’s situation. You may even be able to Google the question and find some information. Best of luck!

February 25, 2018 at 9:56 pm

I love causing pain to characters (but don’t do it for no reason) and I legitimately could not stop grinning unless I covered my mouth with my hand……. There’s something wrong with me. Anyway, THANK YOU for this, it’s super helpful!

November 22, 2017 at 2:32 pm

My character has a knife slash across her face. She also lives on the streets after fleeing the hospital. Expert your article helped me with: The voices blurred together, mixing into a haze through the pain as they got her to the hospital. She had gotten the impression that a simple cut would have less medical needs. Looking back on it, Ellen thought she was overwhelmed by it all. She was in searing pain, the force of it ripping through her mind like a bomb, after all.

February 17, 2017 at 4:33 pm

So helpful and timely! Thank you!

February 10, 2017 at 4:05 pm

I love this article!! I have a question. I have an alpha male hero who is an amputee. He’s been through therapy and it’s been about four years since he lost his leg. My question involves phantom pain that I’ve read a lot about with amputees. How bad does this kind of pain get in relation to your Mild, Moderate or Severe pain? I have the scene where when he wakes up and it’s throbbing and it’s swollen so he can’t put on his prothesis. I read this in another book. Is that accurate? I have him taking some pain meds. How long does it take before the pain goes away approximately? I mention that he’s been using accpuncture for the pain as well with some success. Is this even accurate??

Thanks, Janice

February 11, 2017 at 10:48 am

Hey Janice! Thanks for your question!

Phantom pain comes from a number of different causes, including damage or pressure on a nerve, especially if scar tissue is putting pressure on it.

While I’m certainly not a pain management specialist, and nothing here is to be considered medical advice — my disclaimer is here ( http://www.scriptmedicblog.com/disclaimer ) — I have a couple of great resources to send you.

The first is an article from the Amputee Coalition, talking about pain and possible treatments, here: http://www.amputee-coalition.org/limb-loss-resource-center/resources-for-pain-management/managing-phantom-pain/

WebMD has a fairly decent article here: http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/guide/phantom-limb-pain#1-4

And Mayo Clinic, my personal favorite resource on the whole wide Webiverse, has a great article here: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/phantom-pain/basics/treatment/con-20023268

It seems, from reading these sources, that a combination of medical therapy (including opioids like Vicodin / hydrocodone or Percocet / oxycodone, anticonvulsants such as Neurontin / gabapentin or Lyrica / pregabalin, or tricyclic antidepressants including amitryptaline or tramadol) and non-medical therapy (such as mirror box, applied heat, massage, and, yes, accupuncture etc of the affected leg).

You might think seizure medication or antidepressants are a strange thing to give for phantom limb pain, but they interrupt the way neuropathic pain signals are transmitted and received in the brain. Science: It’s Kinda Neat Sometimes, Huh? (TM).

There’s a GREAT TED talk that, among other things, touches on mirror box therapy here: http://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind?language=en

(It helps that that guy has one of the best accents I’ve ever heard in my whole life, by the way, and the talk is fascinating even before dealing with this.)

As to how bad the pain gets, I think that’s up to you to decide, though I’ve heard it *can* be severe; however, he’s been dealing with this for four years now.

Swelling of the stump is certainly possible. In fact, after an amputation, it takes weeks for the swelling to go down enough to even fit an amputee for a prosthesis! This far along it may be irritated skin, or your character may have developed an infection in the site. But just like any area, irritation breeds swelling, itching, and pain.

I hope this was useful! I’d say you’re already headed down the right track, and I would personally like to say I would LOVE to see more amputee heroes in fiction!

Best of luck with your tale.

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

February 10, 2017 at 11:34 am

Excellent post. Thank you Angela for sharing. Like you books, too.

February 9, 2017 at 8:06 pm

This is wonderful information! I find when I write about pain that I fall into the problem of trying to over share the pain of my character. When I go back to read it, I stop reading after the first two sentences (like in the example here). Thank you for sharing this! I appreciate the different levels of pain and the descriptive words to help illustrate them.

Cheers, Jen

February 10, 2017 at 12:10 am

Hi Jennifer! I’m so glad you found it helpful! I know in my own writing I’ve tended toward over-emphasizing pain, especially too early in the story.

One thing I didn’t get a chance to discuss is the idea of ramping up the pain — backing off on descriptions early so that you can maximize them later and not have it be repetitive. It’s the difference between a low-level ache in the shoulder when your character gets out of bed and the ripping, tearing agony when they tear their rotator cuff at the worst possible moment in the story. It’s not always appropriate, but in general, ramping up your character’s pain to mirror scene tension can be an excellent tool if done well.

Good luck with your stories!!

February 9, 2017 at 5:12 pm

Very informative particle. Thank you for sharing.

February 9, 2017 at 11:16 am

Thank you for addressing this problem! It’s very useful information.

February 9, 2017 at 10:41 am

Hey Angela! I just wanted to say thanks so much for having me on the blog, and I hope this post has been helpful for your readers. It’s great to appear on such a fantastic blog!

February 9, 2017 at 1:35 pm

So glad to have you. This info is a great help to many writers. 🙂

February 9, 2017 at 9:48 am

Hi Angela: Thank you so much for Posting and for sharing Aunt Scripty’s Post and website. I’ve signed up for her Newsletter and look forward to using the Resources that she offers.

February 9, 2017 at 7:23 am

Wonderful information and ideas.

[…] Resources:How To Accurately Write About Your Character’s Pain10 Methods to Make Your Character […]

[…] writers find pain difficult to write about, at the risk of downplaying their characters’ pain. However, unless some plot device in the […]

[…] Resources: How To Accurately Write About Your Character’s Pain 10 Methods to Make Your Character […]

[…] there! This is a part of a series on pain and suffering in writing. Part 1 of the series, Writing About Pain (Without Putting Your Readers in Agony), appeared on the eminent and excellent blog WritersHelpingWriters. Thanks again to Angela for […]

[…] How To Accurately Write About Your Character’s Pain – WRITERS HELPING WRITERS® […]

[…] Check out Writing About Pain (Without Putting Your Readers in Agony) here! […]

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Tag: describing pain in creative writing

How to Describe Pain in Writing

What’s the worst pain you’ve ever felt? And how would you describe it? Describing physical pain in writing is a challenge that most writers face at one time or another. A character might have a headache, give birth, or get injured in an accident or a battle. (By the way, if you’re reading this, you might also want to check

Stabbed or Scratched: How to Describe Pain in Writing

Think about the worst pain you’ve ever experienced. How would you have described it when you were in the moment? What did it feel like? Did it have a color and texture? Maybe even a sound or a smell? Did it make you perceive your world in different ways? Did you notice what was going on around you? 

Chances are, if you were in enough pain, you probably didn’t notice much beyond, “Wow, this hurts.” It might be after the fact when you start to think more about how pain affects the body and the mind. Although the weird thing about pain is the body is designed to forget it—otherwise no one would ever have more than one child–so it can be hard to recall what exactly it felt like. 

Incidentally, my worst pain was probably giving birth to my son. The epidural had worn off, and it was too late to do anything about it. He was coming, and it was time to push. All I can remember are bright lights, screaming (not sure if that was me or my husband), and a lot of people surrounding me because things weren’t going very well and my little guy was stuck. 

If I had to give it a color, it would have been white or light blue for the lights and uniforms of the medical personnel. If I were giving it a texture, I would say it was smooth, simply because everything was just passing me by like I was sliding through a tunnel until that moment of absolute relief when the worst of it ended with a healthy baby boy placed in my arms. 

When it comes to writing about the pain your characters experience, you need to walk a fine line between taking your reader along to feel that pain without beating them over the head with it (which would also be painful).

With all that in mind, let’s talk about how to describe pain in your writing. In this article, we’ll go over:

• Challenges of writing pain
• Tips for writing about pain
• A list of pain descriptions you can use in your writing

Challenges of Writing Pain

Of course, one of the challenges of writing about pain is that everyone experiences it differently. What might feel like off the charts pain for one person might just be another day in the life of someone who lives with a chronic illness. A splitting migraine for you might feel like a normal headache to your neighbor. 

We also express pain in different ways. Some people try to suppress it and pretend they’re absolutely fine, while others will make sure you know about every single ache and stitch they’re experiencing. Multiple times. And of course, there are the majority of people who will fall somewhere in between. 

The other challenge with writing pain is that it can feel like a real drag to read paragraphs of how much something hurts. 

Consider the following paragraph…

“She dragged herself up as needle-sharp bolts shot through her shoulder, her teeth clenching so hard her jaw ached. Her body trembled and sweat dripped down her forehead as she groaned. When she inhaled, another flash of pain had her seeing double as her head throbbed and her arm felt like it had been cut in two. She stumbled, clutching her flaring limb as her vision went dark and waves of agony seared through her body.”

OKAY, enough already. 

She hurts, we get it. 

You can see from that paragraph how easy it is to go from describing pain in your character to inflicting pain on your reader. It’s a fine line that, like anything, you can get better at with practice.

Tips for Writing About Pain

And of course, to help you out, we’ve got some tips to make it even easier to learn the intricacies of writing about pain. 

Consider the pain level

Not all pain is created equal and some will impact your life in large ways, while others will be nothing more than a minor inconvenience. You can divide your character’s pain into four categories:

• Mild/minor/low: This is the kind of pain that is a little annoying but doesn’t hamper you. A mild headache or a sore muscle. Use words like pinch, sting, stiff, sore. 
• Moderate/medium: This is a higher level of pain that doesn’t debilitate but still  distracts your character from a task or breaks their concentration. Here, you might use words like ache, throb, or flare. 
• Severe/high: This is a type of pain that prevents your character from doing pretty much anything. It’s the kind of pain that will have them laid up in bed. Consider words like anguish, stabbing, or torturous. 
• Obliterating/extreme: This, of course, is the kind of pain that will have your hero writhing on the ground, unable to think of anything else, even pushing away thoughts of how to actually stop it. Think of words like shredding, twisting, knifing, or ripping. Ouch. 

You can also consider the injury and what kinds of pain would result, such as:

• Getting stuck with a pointed object like a sword or tree branch: pricking, drilling, penetrating, stabbing, piercing
• Getting cut with an object like a blade or knife: slicing, cutting, lacerating, sharp
• Having something tear like a muscle or a joint: pulling, wrenching, tearing
• Getting crushed by something heavy like a stone or piece of a crumbling building: pressing, crushing, tight, squeezing, heavy
• Getting whipped or lashed by magic or a whip: whipping, searing, lashing, lacerating
• Getting burned by cold or hot things like fire or ice: scalding, burning, aching, tingling, freezing, numbing, scalding
• Getting attacked by some kind of magic or curse: cruel, vicious, torturing, twisting, writhing

Less is sometimes more

Remember above when we talked about how it can be a drag to read endless paragraphs about how much your character hurts? With that thought in mind, keep your descriptions tight and resist the urge to wax on for too long about it. 

Conversely, if your character just got shot or got a knife in the gut, don’t forget about the pain a moment later. A serious injury doesn’t just magically disappear (unless you’ve created your world that way) just because the action is picking up. Sprinkle in gentle reminders that the injury is still present and affecting your character’s ability to get to their goal. 

After the fact, don’t forget to also allude to it from time to time as they’re recovering. If they’ve been seriously injured, then they’re bound to feel pain as they heal, too. But as we’ve mentioned, keep it brief and treat it with a light hand. Just a mention here or there to weave it into the details with the rest of your story. 

Show, don’t tell

Oh man, not this again. But yes, with pain, this rule is even more important. Don’t tell us it hurts. Tell us what it feels like. If your character has just been stabbed, talk about how it feels like an iron hot poker has just been shoved through their gut. If they’re being crushed by a heavy object, talk about how they’re having trouble breathing. If they’re being tortured, talk about the way they’re trying to detach from the pain and send their mind into protection mode. 

Give your pain consequences

There should be a consequence for the pain, otherwise what’s the point of hurting your character? (There is one exception to this that I’ll talk about in a minute.) Think about what the pain prevents them from doing. If they’ve been stabbed, can they rescue the handsome prince from the tower? 

Think about how much you want pain to play a role in your story. Do you want your reader to believe your character might not make it? Using pain as a plot device is an effective way to drive up the stakes and is a great way to show that “end of the world” moment for your down-on-their luck character. 

Give your character chronic pain

Chronic pain is something many people live with and yet, we don’t tend to see it represented that often in books. Chronic pain can come in the form of a disease or disability, or something like chronic migraines. How you choose to portray that pain and what you do with it is up to you. 

I mentioned above that not all pain needs to serve a purpose, and this is where chronic pain comes in. It doesn’t need to stop the character from doing anything, but it can be used to show how it affects their life, simply because that’s how people sometimes live. And it definitely doesn’t need to be “cured.” In real life, it rarely is, so for a character to simply exist with this as a part of their day to day is perfectly fine.

In fact, the trope of “healing a disability” is one that’s fallen out of favor and can actually be considered problematic. If you do choose to write about chronic pain or disability, be sure to get yourself a sensitivity reader to ensure you aren’t leaning into negative stereotypes or harmful tropes. 

Research your ailments

Pain is one of those things you want to get right. While you can get away with a lot in fiction, especially if you write speculative fiction, pain and injury are pretty universal ideas. 

If one of your characters gets shot or knifed in the stomach in one scene and they’re making dinner plans and heading to the gym in the next, your readers are going to give you the side eye. 

Yes, it’s fiction and the pain tolerances of fictional characters can be different from real life people, but within limits. 

If you’re writing a fantasy creature that heals quickly, that might be one way to overcome an extreme injury. Or maybe you’re writing a thriller with a Jack Ryan-type hero who would never let a little bullet wound get in his way. 

But for most, breathing, living characters, getting their arm nearly hacked off is going to take them down. Make sure you’re exercising realistic limits of pain tolerance.

The blog Script Medic is a great place to start where a medical professional breaks down various injuries for writers. It’s a great way to get information without filling your search history with things the FBI might investigate you for.

Pain Descriptions

Here are some words and phrases to help you describe pain in writing. Obviously, this isn’t an exhaustive list, but this should help get you started:

• A pale complexion
• Arching of the back
• Avoiding others
• Begging to die
• Biting a bottom lip
• Blacking out
• Blotchy skin
• Blurred vision
• Body going into shock
• Calling for help or aid
• Clenched hands and limbs
• Clenching or grinding of teeth
• Dark hollows under the eyes
• Darkness in the corner of vision
• Dragging one foot
• Drinking excessive alcohol
• Drooping eyelids
• Eyes squeezed shut
• Flinching at contact
• Gingerly moving about
• Glassed over eyes
• Gripping another person for help
• Haggard expression
• Hands gripping clothing
• Hanging on to the wall or furniture for support
• Hunched shoulders
• Hyperventilation
• Impatient gestures
• Limp arms, legs, hands, or fingers
• Looking away
• Mouth hanging open
• Nostrils flaring
• Praying to gods of deities
• Repeating oneself
• Rocking or swaying back and forth
• Rubbing areas of pain
• Sawing breaths
• Short, panting breaths
• Shuddering breaths
• Standing still
• Starbursts or floaties in the eyes
• Stilted gait
• Sweat on the brow
• Taking medication
• Tapping the foot
• Taste of blood or copper in mouth
• Tears or wet eyes
• Tentative steps
• Tight muscles and limbs
• Walking stiffly
• Watering eyes

By now, you’re hopefully a bonafide expert on the art of writing pain. As with anything, make sure you’re reading lots of books where pain is described. It can help you see what works and, maybe more importantly, what doesn’t. If you’re reading a book and the character’s pain is starting to feel like a drag, then that’s a good sign the author has taken it too far. 

But if you find yourself aware of the pain, but not distracted by it, then that’s a sign they’ve done their job well. 

If you found this article useful, be sure to visit our growing database of articles at DabbleU . We’re adding new ones every week to help you become your best writing self. We even make it super easy for you and send you all our latest tips, advice, and tricks when you sign up for our weekly newsletter . 

Nisha J Tuli is a YA and adult fantasy and romance author who specializes in glitter-strewn settings and angst-filled kissing scenes. Give her a feisty heroine, a windswept castle, and a dash of true love and she’ll be lost in the pages forever. When Nisha isn’t writing, it’s probably because one of her two kids needs something (but she loves them anyway). After they’re finally asleep, she can be found curled up with her Kobo or knitting sweaters and scarves, perfect for surviving a Canadian winter.

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Describing Words for Headache: Examples & Synonyms

Ever experienced a pounding, throbbing headache that feels like a jackhammer inside your skull? Or perhaps you’ve had a dull, persistent headache that lingers all day, making it hard to concentrate? As someone who has dealt with my fair share of headaches, I know just how frustrating and debilitating they can be. That’s why I’ve put together this guide on adjectives for headache – describing words that can help you articulate and understand the different types of headaches you might experience. In this article, I’ll provide you with a comprehensive list of descriptive adjectives for headaches, along with examples to help you better describe and identify your specific type of headache. So, whether you’re dealing with a splitting, stabbing, or pulsating headache, this guide is here to help you find the right words to express your pain.

Table of Contents

How to Describe headache? – Different Scenarios

Now that we have explored various adjectives to describe headaches, let’s delve into different scenarios where we can apply these descriptive words. When it comes to headaches, each situation may present unique characteristics and symptoms. By understanding and articulating these details, we can better communicate our experiences and seek appropriate treatment. Below, I’ll outline different scenarios and provide examples of how to describe headaches in each case:

1. Migraine Headaches

Migraine headaches are notorious for causing intense pain and a range of other symptoms. When describing a migraine headache, you can use adjectives like:

• Throbbing : “I have a throbbing migraine that feels like a jackhammer in my head.”
• Pulsating : “The pulsating pain of my migraine is becoming unbearable.”
• Severe : “I’m experiencing a severe migraine that’s affecting my ability to function.”

2. Tension Headaches

Tension headaches are often described as a dull, pressure-like pain. When discussing a tension headache, consider using adjectives such as:

• Aching : “I have a constant, aching pain from this tension headache.”
• Heavy : “It feels like there’s a heavy weight pressing down on my head with this tension headache.”
• Persistent : “The persistent tension headache is making it difficult to concentrate.”

3. Cluster Headaches

Cluster headaches are excruciatingly intense and typically occur in cyclical patterns. Here are some adjectives that can be used to describe cluster headaches:

• Stabbing : “I’m experiencing sharp, stabbing pains on one side of my head with this cluster headache.”
• Explosive : “The explosive pain of a cluster headache is unbearable.”
• Unrelenting : “These cluster headaches are unrelenting and causing significant distress.”

Remember, these are just a few examples of how to describe headaches in different scenarios. The key is to pay attention to the specific characteristics of your headache and choose adjectives that accurately portray your experience. This will not only help you communicate your symptoms effectively but also assist healthcare professionals in providing appropriate treatment.

Describing Words for headache in English

When it comes to describing headaches, having the right words can make all the difference. As someone who has experienced various types of headaches myself, I understand the importance of being able to communicate the specifics of your pain. In this section, I will share with you a range of adjectives that can help you describe different aspects of a headache. Whether you’re experiencing a migraine, tension headache, or cluster headache, these words will come in handy.

1. Migraine Headache

Migraine headaches can be incredibly debilitating and often come with a range of symptoms. Here are some words that can help you articulate the experience of a migraine:

• I have a throbbing migraine that makes it difficult to concentrate.
• The pulsating pain in my head is making me feel nauseous.

2. Tension Headache

Tension headaches are commonly caused by stress and are characterized by dull, persistent pain. Here are some words that can help you describe a tension headache:

• I have this aching tension headache that won’t go away.
• The pressure in my head feels like a tight band.

3. Cluster Headache

Cluster headaches are intense and often have a cyclical pattern, with clusters of headaches followed by periods of remission. Here are some words that can help you convey the nature of a cluster headache:

• Excruciating
• Unrelenting
• Penetrating
• These excruciating cluster headaches make it impossible for me to sleep.
• The stabbing pain in my head feels unrelenting.

Using these adjectives can help you accurately describe your headache experience to healthcare professionals, enabling them to provide the appropriate treatment. Remember, being able to effectively communicate your symptoms is crucial for receiving the relief you need.

Note: Consult with a healthcare professional if you consistently experience severe headaches or if your symptoms worsen.

Now let’s move on to the next section, where we will explore some common triggers for headaches.

Adjectives for headache

When it comes to describing a headache, there are a wide range of adjectives that can help convey the intensity, type, and sensation of the pain. Whether you’re discussing your symptoms with a healthcare professional or simply trying to articulate your experience to others, using descriptive words can be incredibly helpful. In this section, I’ll provide you with both positive and negative adjectives for describing headaches, along with example sentences to demonstrate their usage.

Positive Adjectives for Headache

When using positive adjectives to describe headaches, we’re focusing on the sensation of relief or the absence of pain. Here are some examples:

• Soothing: It’s such a soothing headache after taking a long nap.
• Mild: I’m thankful that my headache is only mild and not too severe.
• Bearable: Although it’s not pleasant, the pain is still bearable.
• Comforting: I find comfort in knowing that the headache will eventually go away.
• Temporary: Thankfully, this headache seems to be only temporary.
• Easing: The medicine is slowly easing my headache.
• Remitting: The headache is remitting after a good night’s sleep.
• Subsiding: I can feel the pain subsiding little by little.
• Manageable: It’s a manageable headache compared to previous ones.
• Improving: With each passing hour, my headache seems to be improving.
• Fading: The headache is slowly fading away.
• Restorative: A good rest can be incredibly restorative for a headache.

Negative Adjectives for Headache

On the other hand, negative adjectives for describing headaches focus on the severity, intensity, and discomfort associated with the pain. Here are some examples:

• Excruciating: The headache I’m experiencing is absolutely excruciating.
• Debilitating: This debilitating headache has made it impossible to concentrate.
• Agonizing: Every movement I make intensifies the agonizing pain in my head.
• Unbearable: The pain has become unbearable, and I can’t function properly.
• Pounding: My head feels like it’s being pounded by a sledgehammer.

Using these adjectives can help you express the specific characteristics of your headache and provide clearer information to healthcare professionals. Remember, it’s important to consult with a professional if you are experiencing severe or worsening symptoms.

In the next section, I’ll discuss different scenarios and situations in which these descriptive adjectives can be applied to further enhance your communication of headache experiences.

Synonyms and Antonyms with Example Sentences

Synonyms for headache.

When it comes to describing headaches, there are several synonyms that can help you convey the intensity or specific type of headache you are experiencing. Here are some useful synonyms for headache:

• Migraine : A severe, debilitating headache often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light.
• Cephalalgia : A medical term for a headache.
• Pounding : Describes a headache with a pulsating or throbbing sensation.
• Splitting : Refers to a very intense or severe headache.
• Throbbing : Describes a headache with a rhythmic pulsation or pounding sensation.
• Tension : Relates to a headache caused by tightness or tension in the muscles of the head and neck.
• Sinus : Refers to a headache caused by inflammation or congestion in the sinuses.

Example sentences using synonyms for headache:

• I woke up with a pounding headache that made it difficult to focus.
• The bright lights triggered a throbbing headache that lasted all day.
• I tried to relax my neck muscles to ease the tension headache I was experiencing.

Antonyms for headache

Antonyms provide a contrasting perspective and can be useful in describing the absence of a headache or a relief from the pain. Here are some antonyms for headache:

• Comfort : The opposite of a headache, indicating a state of ease and lack of pain.
• Relief : Describes the sensation of having a headache alleviated or eliminated.
• Calm : Suggests a state of tranquility without any headache symptoms.
• Clear-headed : Refers to the absence of any mental or physical discomfort associated with a headache.

Example sentences using antonyms for headache:

• After taking the medication, I felt a sense of relief as my headache disappeared.
• It was such a relief to wake up and feel clear-headed , without any trace of a headache.
• I enjoyed a peaceful afternoon at the park, feeling a sense of calm and comfort without a headache bothering me.

Remember, effectively communicating your symptoms to healthcare professionals is crucial for appropriate treatment. If you are experiencing severe or worsening symptoms, consult with a healthcare professional.

Describing headaches accurately is crucial in effectively communicating symptoms to healthcare professionals. Throughout this article, we have explored a range of adjectives that can be used to convey the intensity or specific type of headache. By using descriptive words such as throbbing, pounding, or piercing, we can paint a clearer picture of our pain.

Additionally, we have discussed the importance of describing the absence of a headache or the relief from the pain. Words like relieved, eased, or alleviated can help convey the sense of relief we experience when the pain subsides.

Remember, if you are experiencing severe or worsening symptoms, it is always advisable to consult with a healthcare professional. They can provide a proper diagnosis and recommend the appropriate treatment for your specific type of headache.

By utilizing these adjectives, we can better express our symptoms and seek the necessary medical attention. So, the next time you experience a headache, remember to choose your words wisely to accurately describe your pain.

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Here's How to Accurately Describe Your Headache to a Doctor

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It’s easy to feel isolated when you have a severe headache. For one thing, the extreme pain can seem to cut you off from the world, especially if your headache makes you sensitive to lights and sounds, or causes visual disturbances (such as an aura ).

Beyond that, the most prominent symptom of severe headaches—pain—is “invisible.” Other people can’t actually see what you’re going through the way they could a broken leg, for example.

With that in mind, describing your headache to someone else can be tricky.

Why it’s important to describe your headache clearly

Talking about your headache might be tough (and, honestly, the last thing you feel like doing while dealing with one), but bridging that gap is important, especially when it comes to communicating with your doctor.

According to migraine expert and Cove Medical Director Dr. Sara Crystal , using the right words to describe your headache to a physician can help you get a diagnosis and find treatment that works.

There are many types of headaches and migraine , and the way you describe what you feel can signal to your doctor what’s ailing you. For example, “Throbbing and pulsating are common descriptions of migraine headaches and make up some of the diagnostic criteria,” says Dr. Crystal, while “band-like or vise-like pain suggests a tension-type headache.”

How to describe your headache to a doctor

So, how should you describe your headache to help your doctor get you a diagnosis? Know that a physician will likely ask you several questions to learn more about your condition.

What does the headache feel like?

Using words to describe the acute pain is probably the toughest part of the equation. Your doctor can use these clues to get at the type of headache you might have. For example, a tension headache might feel more like “squeezing” or “tightness,” while migraine attacks often feel like a “throbbing pain” or “pounding sensation" and are often associated with nausea, as well as light and sound sensitivity.

Here are some common words physicians hear to describe common headache types:

• “sick” headaches (due to associated nausea)
• throbbing sensation

Tension headache

Cluster headache

• suicide headache
• worst pain ever

Indomethacin-sensitive headaches

• lightning bolts

Last one sound unfamiliar? According to migraine expert and Cove medical advisor Dr. Philip Bain , indomethacin-sensitive headaches are not nearly as common as other headache types. They occur on just one side of the head and last seconds to minutes, but recur multiple times per day. Notably, they can be treated with the anti-inflammatory indomethacin.

Where is the pain located?

The doctor can likely assume that headache pain is in your head, but let them know where exactly. Does the pain center around the base of your neck, or around your eyes? Or perhaps on one half of your head? Tension headaches tend to be bilateral, or on both sides, but Dr. Crystal notes that “migraine in adults is usually unilateral,” or focused on just one side of your head. That being said, a constant pain on one side of your head could be another type of headache, she adds.

Also, make sure to tell your doctor if the pain moves around or migrates as the headache develops.

How quickly does the headache develop?

Does the pain come on suddenly or start as a dull ache that crescendos into severe pain? This information can help the doctor figure out if you have migraine (which might develop over several hours), or another common headache, such as a sudden cluster headache (which can peak in just 5-10 minutes).

How long does the headache last?

Migraine attacks can last from 4-72 hours, so be sure to let your doctor know if your headaches fall somewhere in that window. If they last longer than 72 hours, your headaches could be classified as status migrainosis , or an unusually long-lasting attack, which is sometimes triggered by medication overuse (need-to-know information for your doctor!).

Shorter headaches could be tension headaches, which can be as short as 30 minutes (though they can last up to 7 days), according to the International Headache Society .

Cluster headaches are also short-lived, lasting up to 3 hours, though the National Headache Foundation reports they’re not anywhere near as common as migraine or tension headaches (and mostly affect men).

Whatever bucket your headaches fall into, make sure you have a general sense of how long your headaches last so you can get closer to a diagnosis.

How often do you get the headaches?

Your doctor will want to know how often your headaches are disrupting your life , and that information can help them pinpoint your specific medical condition. If you get short (30 to 120 minutes) very severe headaches several times a day, for example, you could be suffering from cluster headaches.

Also, if you get migraine headaches more than 15 times per month, you could be considered a chronic migraine sufferer. Since your body’s pain tolerance and over- or under-medicating can affect your likelihood to end up with chronic migraine, it’s important to tell your doctor how often you’re struggling with headaches.

Is there any other context around your headaches?

In other words, what else is happening in your life when headaches strike?

Believe it or not, doctors understand and can treat specific types of headaches triggered by specific things going on in your life, like sex , exercise , and menstruation . So, any patterns or correlations you’ve noticed between your lifestyle and your headaches could be relevant.

Dr. Bain states that certain health conditions and traumas, like head injuries or chronic illnesses such as HIV, can be causes of headaches.

For example, tension headaches can be triggered by stress, grinding your teeth , sleeping in a strange position, straining your eyes, and so on. Migraine triggers can include things like stress , diet , caffeine and alcohol (especially red wine), sleep , weather , and more.

Knowing if one of those things coincides with your headaches can help your doctor get a read on your condition.

If it’s tough to remember the context around your headaches, consider keeping tabs on them using a headache tracking tool . With a log to review, your doctor will get a clearer picture of what you’re going through, and you’ll likely learn more about your specific triggers and how to avoid them.

What about your family history?

Some headaches could be passed down through your family. While cluster headaches may have a genetic cause, up to 90% of migraine sufferers have a family history of migraine.

Although there isn’t one specific “migraine gene,” researchers think at least 20 chromosomes might be related to migraine. And specific types of migraine can have a genetic component. Any background you can dig up about your family headache history can be useful to your doctor. (Just a note that your primary family members are most key here.)

How does the headache respond to treatment?

In other words, what have you tried, and what has worked? Whether you’ve used home remedies or over-the-counter NSAIDS —or even lifestyle changes like sleeping or staying in a dark, quiet room—let your doctor know what you’ve tried, how it affected your headache (did it shorten it, dull the pain, have no effect at all, etc.?), and for how long it was effective.

Knowing how a headache responds to treatment can help your doctor figure out what kind of headache you’re dealing with, and also give you helpful next steps for further treatment.

How will your doctor use this information?

Once you’ve given your doctor as much information as possible, including whether your headaches feel more like “throbbing” or “tightness,” for example, what should you expect next?

Unfortunately, says Dr. Crystal, there’s no blood test or scan for diagnosing your headaches. These tests are used to rule out other caues of headaches. Instead, your doctor will look at your personal history, she says.

You might have to go through a few tests, especially if your doctor thinks you might have a type of headache other than migraine. But, if your doctor does suspect migraine, they will use these criteria:

Migraine is diagnosed when a patient has had at least 5 episodes of headaches in their lifetime lasting between 4 and 72 hours and accompanied by at least two of these symptoms:

• unilateral, or one-sided, pain (though migraine in children can be on both sides of the head)
• throbbing or pulsating pain
• moderate or severe intensity
• worsens with routine activity (walking, climbing stairs)

And at least one of the following:

• sensitivity to light and/or sound
• nausea and/or vomiting

Other factors might lead to a migraine diagnosis too, adds Dr. Crystal, like aura (or visual disturbances), motion sickness (especially if you had car sickness as a child), and the presence of common migraine triggers in your life.

The good news, says Dr. Crystal, is that you’ll likely leave your first visit with a diagnosis and a treatment plan.

“I like to divide the treatment plan in terms of transitional treatments (to break a headache cycle if needed),” she says, “preventives (including natural products and prescription medications), and acute treatment (or medications to take when you have a headache).”

The bottom line: The more information you share with your doctor, the more specific they can be with a treatment plan that helps you feel better faster.

What should you do for immediate headache relief?

Make sure to ask your doctor what you can do to start feeling better and control your headaches while you wait for prescribed treatments to start working. It's important to remember that preventive treatments can take six to eight weeks to start having a real impact on your headaches.

Your doctor may suggest making lifestyle changes, including “ stress reduction , good sleep hygiene, identifying and avoiding triggers, adding aerobic exercise, and possibly adding supplements,” says Dr. Crystal.

Some natural headache treatments might give you some relief, so make sure to ask your doctor if any alternative migraine treatments or common home remedies for headaches (such as supplements , caffeine, or ginger) are worth a try.

“Migraine didn’t begin overnight, and it likely won’t be fixed overnight either,” says Dr. Crystal, and the same holds true for other types of headaches. But, by communicating with your doctor, you can get an effective treatment plan that helps you handle your headaches and start to feel better.

Do you tend to get throbbing headaches, but aren’t sure if they’re migraine attacks or something else? Learn more here about migraine symptoms and other headache types , so you can get prepared to talk through them with your doctor.

The information provided in this article is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. You should not rely upon the content provided in this article for specific medical advice. If you have any questions or concerns, please talk to your doctor.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. The supplements referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Photo by Ehimetalor Unuabona on Unsplash

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So Much More Than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature

Book Review by Laura Grace Simpkins

Kathleen J. O’Shea. The Kent State University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-1-60635-403-2

Can language ever fully represent pain? Much writing about illness returns us to that question, including two books published this year: Pain: The Science of the Feeling Brain and Ouch!: Why Pain Hurts, and Why It Doesn’t Have To (both 2021). The arguments for or against are usually circular, and predictably inconclusive. In So Much More Than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature , an anthology of writing about migraine, editor Kathleen J. O’Shea declares that ‘literature can capture the authentic voice and language in ways objective texts cannot’ (xiii). Although I’m relieved O’Shea picks a side, I’m more interested in whether So Much More Than a Headache can move us away from asking whether language can represent pain altogether.

So Much More Than a Headache is a collection of poems, essays, and fiction by writers—some famous, some not—across five centuries, most of whom are or were migraineurs. For O’Shea, a literary professor whose life with migraine ‘began when I was 14, moved from episodic migraine to chronic migraine in my 30’s’ (106) let down by the lack of pharmaceutical solution and frustrated with how self-help guides exaggerate the control migraineurs have over their disease, this book is personal, and a passion project. The anthology is separated into five themes: 1. ‘What it feels like’, 2. ‘What people don’t see: the invisibility of migraine’, 3. ‘It’s just a headache?’, 4. ‘It’s a lifelong, full-time job’, and 5. ‘When it’s gone’, and is bookended by two essays that speak to all five: Joan Didion’s ‘In Bed’ (1984) and Anna Leahy’s ‘Half-Skull Days’ (2012). In her introductions to each section, O’Shea points out what might be useful to readers who are migraineurs themselves, or are family members and friends, or are medical practitioners.

‘The truth is’, O’Shea writes in the preface, ‘most of the general public still see migraine as “only a headache,” rather than the complex brain disease we now know it is’ (xii). Her intention, in So Much More Than a Headache , is to offer insight on a disease that many of us are ignorant about and which is often difficult to describe—‘at least in ways that aren’t clinical and objective’ (xii). After taking us through the stages of migraine, from Prodrome Phase to Migraine Attack to Postdrome Phase, O’Shea leaves it up to her selection of writers—many of them illness writing heavyweights like Oliver Sacks, Irvin D. Yalom, and Virginia Woolf—to describe migraine in ways that are personal and subjective. I most enjoyed the poetry by writers I didn’t already know, especially Linda Pastan and Kevin Crossley-Holland’s joint imagery of the skull during migraine as a fragile eggshell:

the eggshell skull won’t hold, will crack, Linda Pastan, ‘Migraine’ (1995) (8).

My skull cracks open. Look at the birds, looks at the birds release, a spray, a fantail flowering. Kevin Crossley-Holland, ‘Deliverance’ (1983) (182).

O’Shea’s anthology will be empowering for migraineurs, comforting to those close to them, and essential for medical professionals. Her own contributions are clear, straight-forward, and accessible. I was reminded, however, of Theodor Adorno when he writes, ‘The bad essay chats about people instead of opening up the matter at hand’; [1] while I do not think there are any ‘bad essays’ in this book, it strikes me that O’Shea could have been more radical in her framing of the collection, could have gone further than her opinion that language can represent pain, further than her declaration that ‘literature can capture the authentic voice’. Adorno is right, unfortunately: sometimes other people’s suffering, even that of Sacks, Yalom, and Woolf, isn’t always that interesting to read about (and I say that as someone who writes extensively about my mental health!) unless it opens something up beyond sharing and comparing experience. For me, Crossley-Holland’s migraine poetics does just that. His ‘birds release’, his ‘fantail flowering’ imaginatively evokes the pain of migraine whilst elegantly reminding us of its aesthetic potential, potential that I believe O’Shea somewhat overlooks.

So Much More Than a Headache could have been an opportunity to explicitly challenge the reliance upon medicalised language that has marginalised and misunderstood migraineurs for centuries. The book itself could have expanded the definition of what migraine actually is; demonstrated how symptoms were and are identified using creative description long before clinical description; and could have made a case for considering creative writing as an epistemology in its own right within the medical humanities. O’Shea is indeed persuasive when she uses the collection to evidence how literature can represent, illustrate, and encapsulate pain, propelling us beyond the usual circularity of such arguments, to a certain extent. Where there is more work to be done is on speculating how migraine poetics and aesthetics can intervene in and contribute to ‘clinical and objective’ research on migraine aetiology, symptomatology, diagnostics, and management.

Laura Grace Simpkins’ writing has been published by The Polyphony , is forthcoming in It’s Freezing in LA , and has been broadcast on BBC Radio. She is currently working with the Wellcome Collection on an essay series on the medication lithium carbonate. Her website is at lauragsimpkins.com .

[1] Adorno T W. The Essay as Form. New German Critique 1984:32—154.

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Finding the Words to Describe Your Headache to Doctors

Whether you have a chronic illness or you have no health issues at all, chances are you’ve experienced the unpleasantries of a headache. For frequent or intense sufferers of headaches, describing your concern can feel really frustrating, especially when your symptoms seem hard to pinpoint.

If you’re trying to track down a diagnosis or get treated, knowing how to have productive conversations with your healthcare provider is the first step.

To help you take charge of your pain, this article provides a toolkit for precisely describing your headaches to your doctor. By better describing your symptoms, you can help your doctor narrow down potential causes and start managing your headaches.

What exactly is a headache and why does it happen?

A headache is a pain or discomfort in your head that can vary in intensity, location, and duration. They can be caused by several factors, like stress, muscle tension, inflammation, nerve-related issues, or other factors like underlying illness.

What are the different types of headaches?

Most headaches can be classified into two different types : primary and secondary.

A primary headache is a condition itself. This means that the pain isn’t due to a separate medical condition, but instead, it can be caused by something like genetics or lifestyle habits. Here are some common ones:

• Tension headaches
• Migraine headaches
• Cluster headaches

A secondary headache, on the other hand, is a symptom of an underlying condition. Here are a few examples:

• Sinus or congestion headaches
• Headaches induced by dehydration
• Medication overuse headaches

How to describe your headache pain to a doctor

To help pinpoint a cause, there are 4 main things you should be able to tell your doctor about your pain: type, location, intensity, and timeframe.

There’s some biological process behind whatever type of headache you have. So, depending on what that process is, your headache will show certain characteristics that make it easier to diagnose.

As many of us know all too well, pain can show up in a lot of different ways. With headaches, certain descriptors are often associated with certain types, so using the right language is a good start.

Here are some adjectives your doctor will be familiar with:

2. Location

You can think of your brain as a network of signaling pathways that are all headed in different directions. For different headaches, certain pathways are ‘lit up’ and cause pain in different areas.

Here are a few ways to describe where you feel pain:

• Unilateral : This means that your pain is contained to one side of your head. It can also be a small region, like just behind one eye, for example.
• Bilateral : Pain on both sides of your head is often referred to as bilateral. It may feel evenly dispersed or spread out, but it doesn’t have to affect both sides equally.
• Headband region : This is the area above your eyes that wraps around the back of your head. This also includes the sides of your head or temples.
• Occipital region : The back of your head is a common area to feel a steady ache and it often goes hand-in-hand with the headband region.
• Coming from the inside-out
• Upper back, neck, or shoulders

3. Intensity

One of the most helpful tools for explaining your discomfort is the pain scale. This simple system allows you to rate your pain and makes it easier for your doctor to understand the severity of your headache.

How does the pain scale work?

• Mild (1-3): At this level, your headache is noticeable, but the pain is relatively minor and manageable. It might be an annoyance, but it doesn’t get in the way of daily activities too much.
• Moderate (4-6): A moderate headache can be distracting and might interfere with your ability to focus. The pain is noticeable and might require some over-the-counter pain relief.
• Severe (7-9): At this level, the headache is intense and significantly impacting your daily life. The pain is overwhelming, making it difficult to focus on tasks or find relief with simple pain medications.
• Very Severe (10): A level 10 headache is excruciating and might be described as the worst pain of your life. If it occurs suddenly, it’s sometimes called a thunderclap headache and requires medical attention.

4. Timeframe

How often: They can occur daily, annually, or anywhere in between. Besides the diagnosis, understanding frequency is vital for forming a treatment plan. For example, if you’re taking over-the-counter medication more than twice a week for your headaches, your doctor will probably want to make an alternative plan.

When: Certain headaches can be more common during specific times of the day, and in rare cases like cluster headaches, they can even be seasonal.

For instance, there’s a big difference between headaches that happen at the end of your workday (after staring at your computer) compared to headaches that you wake up with every morning (perhaps due to sleep apnea). In light of that, it’s important to keep track of what else might be going on in the time surrounding your headache, like excessive stress or worse sleep than usual.

How long: As you can imagine, the duration of different headaches varies a lot too. Some may last only 15 minutes to a few hours, while others, like migraines and tension headaches, can sometimes last days.

Some things to consider besides pain:

Additional symptoms

Besides the ache of your headache itself, you should also mention any additional symptoms that accompany your pain.

Cluster headaches are a good example of a headache with a few different accompanying symptoms . Besides pain behind one eye, you may get a runny or congested nose, as well as some occasional tooth and jaw pain.

Other things to pay attention to are mood swings, changes in appetite, muscle tension, or congestion, to name just a few. Changes to your motor or sensory function can be important too. This can be tingling, numbness, or limited movement in your fingers, arms, or legs.

Patterns and triggers

Paying attention to what in your day-to-day life might have triggered a headache is another vital factor. Excessive stress, for example, is one of the most common causes of tension headaches. For cluster headaches, excessive smoking or drinking can trigger an attack, whereas other types can be due to things like caffeine or medication overuse.

Paying attention to these patterns and triggers can help your doctor find a diagnosis, as well as help you preventatively manage your headache pain.

Keeping a Log of Your Headaches

Each time you get a headache, you should note the date, time, duration, and severity . Get specific about the type and location of your pain, as well as accompanying symptoms. If you took pain medication, be sure to record it and keep track of how your symptoms responded. Before you forget, write down what you were doing, what you ate, or any other medications you took before your headache started.

For those with recurring headaches, so many of these vital details get lost in translation by the time you make it to the doctor. By maintaining a record, they can help identify the source of your headache, as well as potential triggers and treatments. Over time, you can also use these notes to track the progress and effectiveness of different medications or lifestyle changes.

Tracking and Managing Your Headaches Effectively

Apps like Guava can guide you through answering these questions so that you describe your headaches correctly. We’ll suggest adjectives to describe your pain, compile the timeline, and pull in other symptoms and metrics you’ve logged that might be associated. Using this data and your relevant health history, we’ll generate a visit prep summary so that when you’re ready to see a doctor, you won’t miss any of the details.

Proactive communication with your doctor is the first step toward effective headache management. By providing detailed and accurate information about your headaches, you’ll allow your healthcare provider to make a precise diagnosis and develop a more personalized treatment plan. Don't hesitate to reach out to your doctor if you need support in managing your headaches. Together, you can work towards finding relief and improving your health.

How to Describe Nervousness in Writing (23 Tips + Examples)

How do you move beyond simple statements like “She was nervous” to create a vivid, believable depiction of anxiety?

Here is how to describe nervousness in writing:

Describe nervousness in writing by using vivid language and sensory details. Show physical symptoms like shaking hands or quick breathing. Use dialogue tags such as “stammered,” internal dialogue, and pacing to build tension. Use words like “jittery” or “heart pounding” to deepen emotional impact.

In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about how to describe nervousness in writing.

23 Best Tips for Describing Nervousness in Writing

Table of Contents

In this section, you’ll find 23 tips and techniques, complete with examples, that will guide you in portraying nervousness with nuance and depth.

Read all the way through and then pick the tips that speak to you the most.

1) Demonstrate, Don’t Describe

One of the cardinal rules of effective writing is to show rather than tell.

Instead of merely stating that a character is nervous, portray their anxiety through actions or implications.

This strategy draws the reader into the experience, making it more relatable and impactful.

Example : Instead of writing “John was nervous about the interview,” you could say, “John’s hands trembled as he straightened his tie one last time before stepping into the interview room.”

2) Use Body Language

Body language can be an incredible tool for conveying a character’s nervousness.

The slight tremble in the hands, fidgeting feet, or erratic movement can speak volumes.

In focusing on body language, you give your reader visual cues to better understand the character’s state of mind.

Example : Rather than simply stating “Emily was nervous before her speech,” describe how “Emily kept shifting from one foot to another, her fingers incessantly twirling a strand of hair.”

3) Incorporate Inner Monologue

A character’s inner thoughts offer an unfiltered glimpse into their emotional state.

For nervousness, consider incorporating internal monologue that captures the essence of the character’s fears or concerns.

This internal conversation can range from panicked thoughts to rationalizing statements.

Example : Instead of writing, “Sarah was nervous about the test,” you could write, “‘You can do this, you’ve prepared,’ Sarah thought, attempting to drown out the rising tide of panic that whispered, ‘But what if you fail?’”

4) Employ Facial Expressions

Facial expressions are highly expressive indicators of emotion.

A clenched jaw, furrowed brows, or widened eyes can all be signs of nervousness.

Including these details enriches the imagery and allows the reader to visualize the emotion vividly.

Example : Instead of saying, “Mark was nervous about the confrontation,” you could describe how “Mark’s eyes darted around the room, avoiding eye contact, his lips pinched in a tight line.”

5) Manipulate Pace and Sentence Structure

The pacing of your sentences can mirror the character’s emotional tempo.

Short, choppy sentences can create a feeling of urgency or disquiet, while long, winding sentences may denote an overwrought mind that’s spiraling out of control.

Example : Instead of “Lisa was anxious,” you might write, “Lisa’s thoughts tumbled over each other, a jumbled mess of ‘what-ifs’ and ‘if-onlys,’ her heart pounding as if keeping time with her spiraling anxiety.”

6) Use Metaphors and Similes

Metaphors and similes can also be instrumental in conveying nervousness.

By comparing the emotion or associated bodily sensations to something else, you can evoke a particular feeling or image in the reader’s mind.

Example : You could write, “His nervousness was like a swarm of bees, buzzing uncontrollably in the pit of his stomach,” to imply a sense of chaotic energy and discomfort.

7) Utilize Dialogue and Tone

Dialogue can also be a potent tool for conveying nervousness.

The words a character chooses, their tone, or even the pauses and stutters in their speech can all reveal underlying anxiety.

Through dialogue, you can show a character’s struggle to articulate their thoughts, their tendency to ramble, or their use of filler words—all indicative of nervousness.

Example : Instead of writing, “Tina was nervous about the question,” you could show her hesitation in dialogue: “‘Well, you see, um, it’s a bit complicated, isn’t it?’ Tina’s voice wavered, each word tinged with a nervous lilt that betrayed her composure.”

8) Leverage Environmental Interaction

How a character interacts with their environment can be another window into their emotional state.

Someone who is nervous might fiddle with objects, look away into the distance, or keep glancing at the door.

These interactions serve as nonverbal cues to the reader, adding an extra layer of context to the emotional landscape of the story.

Example : Instead of saying, “Paul was nervous,” you could describe how he interacts with his surroundings: “Paul kept glancing at his watch, then at the door, his fingers drumming an impatient rhythm on the tabletop. Every creak of the floorboards made him start, his eyes darting towards the source of the sound.”

9) Use Sensory Descriptions

Incorporating sensory descriptions can deeply immerse your reader into the character’s emotional state.

Describe how nervousness feels, tastes, sounds, smells, or even looks from the character’s perspective.

Does their mouth go dry? Is there a pit in their stomach?

Sensory details add a tangible quality to emotions, making them feel real to the reader.

Example : Rather than saying, “Raj was anxious,” you could provide sensory details: “A sour taste filled Raj’s mouth, his tongue thick and clumsy as if coated in cotton. His skin tingled with the static of his nerves, every sound magnified to a grating roar.”

10) Incorporate Thought-Action Sequences

When nervous, people often go through a rapid series of thoughts and actions.

Incorporating these thought-action sequences can add a realistic dimension to your depiction of nervousness.

Describe what the character thinks and then immediately show how that thought translates into action or inaction.

Example : Instead of saying, “Lisa felt nervous,” you could write: “‘I can’t mess this up,’ Lisa thought. Almost robotically, she reached for her notes, skimmed through them one last time, and adjusted the microphone. Her hands quivered just enough to remind her of her fragility.”

11) Use Repetitive Actions or Tics

People often exhibit repetitive behaviors or tics when they are nervous.

This could be tapping a foot, scratching an itch that isn’t there, or even humming a tune unconsciously.

These actions can become a character’s signature way of displaying nervousness, aiding in building a more rounded, believable individual.

Example : Instead of saying, “Nina was nervous,” you might write: “Nina kept pulling at the hem of her dress, stretching the fabric until it snapped back into place. It was a nervous tic she had developed as a child and it resurfaced now, a telltale sign of her inner turmoil.”

12) Play with Syntax and Grammar

Unconventional sentence structure can sometimes effectively convey a character’s nervous state.

Fragmented sentences, run-ons, or even abrupt syntactical breaks can make the reader feel the disjointedness or racing thoughts that come with nervousness.

Example : Instead of saying, “Harry was nervous,” you could experiment with sentence structure: “Harry couldn’t sit still. Couldn’t breathe normally. Everything a jumble. Thoughts. Emotions. A cacophony. He was unraveling.”

13) Utilize Flashbacks or Imagery

Sometimes the source of a character’s nervousness is a past event or a vivid imagination projecting worst-case scenarios.

You can employ flashbacks or internal imagery to convey this deeper layer of emotion.

It provides context and depth, making the emotion multidimensional.

Example : Rather than writing, “Martha was nervous,” you could incorporate a flashback: “As Martha waited for her name to be called, a vivid memory flashed before her eyes—the last time she had stood on a similar stage, forgetting all her lines. Her stomach knotted at the thought.”

14) Exaggerate for Effect (Hyperbole)

Sometimes a little exaggeration can drive the point home effectively.

Hyperbole allows you to amplify a character’s emotional state for greater impact.

While you should use this sparingly, an exaggerated description at the right moment can offer an intense snapshot of a character’s feelings.

Example : Instead of simply saying, “Clara was nervous,” you could exaggerate: “Clara felt like her heart was about to burst through her chest and make a run for it, leaving her behind to face the crowd.”

15) Punctuate with Silence

The absence of sound or action can be as powerful as its presence.

Moments of silence, hesitation, or stillness can accentuate a character’s nervousness and build tension.

Readers naturally fill silence with their own anticipation, adding to the emotional depth of a scene.

Example : Instead of saying, “Jim felt nervous,” you could write: “Jim opened his mouth to speak, but words escaped him. An uncomfortable silence filled the room, every tick of the clock amplifying his growing sense of dread.”

16) Use Dialogue Tags and Modifiers

While it’s generally better to show emotion through action and dialogue, sometimes a well-placed tag or modifier can be effective.

Words like “stammered,” “muttered,” or “whispered” can add nuance to speech, indicating a character’s emotional state.

Example : Instead of saying, “Maria was nervous,” consider: “‘I, uh, think we should talk,’ Maria stammered, her voice barely rising above a whisper.”

17) Add Color to Breathing and Voice

Breathing patterns and voice modulation can reveal a lot about someone’s emotional state.

Short, shallow breaths or a tremulous voice can indicate nervousness.

Describe these to allow readers to ‘hear’ and ‘feel’ the character’s nervousness.

Example : Instead of just stating, “Lucas was nervous,” describe his breathing and voice: “Lucas drew a shallow, shaky breath, his words coming out in hesitant fragments: ‘I, um, don’t know how to, uh, say this.'”

18) Describe the Passing of Time

How a character perceives the passing of time can indicate their emotional state.

Time might drag painfully slow or rush by in a disorienting blur when one is nervous.

Use this to build atmosphere and provide insight into the character’s inner world.

Example : Instead of stating, “Kelly felt nervous,” write: “Every second that ticked by felt like an eternity to Kelly, each moment stretching out as she waited for her name to be announced.”

19) Break It with Humor

Sometimes, breaking the tension with a moment of humor can accentuate the nervousness that preceded it.

This can make characters more relatable and endearing to the reader, showcasing their coping mechanisms.

Example : Rather than saying, “Tom was nervous,” you could write: “Tom fumbled with his keys, dropping them twice before finally unlocking the door. ‘Well,’ he chuckled nervously, ‘who needs a security system when you have butterfingers like mine?'”

20) Employ Foreshadowing

You can use foreshadowing to build anticipation and make the character’s nervousness more pronounced.

Plant clues early in the narrative that something significant, and potentially nerve-wracking, will happen later.

Example : Instead of saying, “Sandy was anxious,” employ foreshadowing: “Sandy couldn’t shake off the ominous feeling as she read the anonymous letter again. ‘See you soon,’ it ended, and every time she read those words, her stomach churned with a nervous dread she couldn’t place.”

21) Bring it Full Circle (Callback)

Sometimes calling back to an earlier moment of nervousness can demonstrate growth or a lack thereof in a character.

This can add depth to your character and make the emotion feel earned.

Example : Instead of saying, “Amy was no longer nervous,” you could use a callback: “Amy looked at the stage, remembering how she’d frozen up last year. But this time, her feet were steady. She smiled, her nerves giving way to newfound confidence.”

22) Layered Emotions

Often, nervousness isn’t a standalone emotion; it comes layered with anticipation, excitement, or even dread.

Describing these mixed feelings can offer a more nuanced and relatable portrayal of nervousness.

Example : Instead of saying, “Dan was nervous,” you could layer emotions: “Dan felt a strange cocktail of emotions—nervousness peppered with a dash of excitement and a hint of dread. It was his first day at a new job, after all.”

23) Blend Multiple Techniques

The most compelling portrayals often use a blend of multiple techniques.

By combining different elements like inner monologue, dialogue, body language, and pacing, you can craft a rich, multi-layered portrayal of nervousness that resonates with readers.

Example : “Jane’s fingers tapped an erratic rhythm on her desk. ‘You’ve got this,’ she silently assured herself, her stomach churning like a washing machine on spin cycle. Her breaths came in quick, shallow gasps, failing to clear the fog of unease that clouded her thoughts.”

When describing nervousness, it’s good to first understand it:

30 Words to Describe Nervousness in Writing

When it comes to describing nervousness, the right vocabulary can make all the difference.

Selecting precise words can make your prose more vivid and transport your reader into the emotional landscape of your characters.

Here are 30 words you can use to describe nervousness:

• Apprehensive

30 Phrases to Describe Nervousness in Writing

Sometimes a single word won’t suffice and a phrase can provide a more nuanced description of a character’s emotional state.

The following phrases can add complexity and detail when describing nervousness:

• Heart pounding like a drum
• A bundle of nerves
• Sweating bullets
• Butterflies in the stomach
• Walking on eggshells
• Twisting one’s hands
• Gnawing at the insides
• Mind racing a mile a minute
• Pins and needles
• Shaking like a leaf
• Biting one’s nails
• Stomach in knots
• Breathing quick and shallow
• Fumbling over words
• Ears burning with embarrassment
• Vein throbbing in the temple
• Holding one’s breath
• Suffering a nervous breakdown
• Nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof
• Feeling cornered
• Jumping at shadows
• Second-guessing oneself
• Trembling from head to toe
• Heart skipping a beat
• Palms clammy with sweat
• Restless leg syndrome
• Voice tinged with apprehension
• Pulse racing uncontrollably
• Lost in a fog of nervousness

3 Full Descriptions of Nervousness in Different Genres

Here are three full descriptions of how to describe nervousness in writing.

You’ll read about nervous characters in:

Science Fiction

Mystery/thriller.

John walked into the dimly lit room, its shadows casting eerie patterns on the walls.

His heart pounded in his chest as if a drumroll were announcing his entry. The smell of old books mixed with the musk of mildew, creating an ambiance of foreboding that gnawed at his insides.

He felt like he was walking on eggshells, each step a potential trigger for something he couldn’t quite articulate.

The room seemed to close in on him, and he found himself gripping the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white. His breaths were shallow, each inhalation a laborious task, as he felt the weight of eyes upon him—even though he was alone.

Emma looked across the candle-lit table, her eyes meeting Michael’s.

Her stomach was a swirl of butterflies, fluttering wildly as if trying to escape. Her hands felt clammy, and she discreetly wiped them on her napkin.

As he smiled, she found herself lost in a fog of nervousness, a tingling sensation crawling up her spine.

The thought of what might happen after dinner filled her with a heady mixture of excitement and dread.

Each time their eyes met, her heart skipped a beat, making her wonder if this was love or just a new level of emotional chaos she had yet to understand.

As Captain Williams stood before the interstellar council, his legs trembled beneath his space uniform, almost as if they were about to give way.

His heart felt like it was racing at warp speed, and he was acutely aware of the hundreds of extraterrestrial eyes focused on him.

Each species had its own way of scrutinizing, yet they all seemed to pierce right through him.

This is it, the first contact, don’t mess it up, he thought, his mind racing a mile a minute.

The gravity of the moment bore down on him, heavier than Jupiter’s pull, and he swallowed hard, trying to find his voice amid the lump of apprehension lodged in his throat.

Final Thoughts: How to Describe Nervousness in Writing

Nervousness is a critical element in tension and, therefore, every story.

If you’re looking for more guides on describing emotions and actions in writing, we have many great articles for on this site.

Related Posts:

• How to Describe Fear in Writing (21 Best Tips + Examples)
• How To Describe a Panic Attack in Writing (Ultimate Guide)
• How to Describe a Brave Person in Writing (21 Tips + Examples)
• How to Describe a Hug in Writing (21 Best Tips + Examples)

What is Creative Writing? A Key Piece of the Writer’s Toolbox

Not all writing is the same and there’s a type of writing that has the ability to transport, teach, and inspire others like no other.

Creative writing stands out due to its unique approach and focus on imagination. Here’s how to get started and grow as you explore the broad and beautiful world of creative writing!

What is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is a form of writing that extends beyond the bounds of regular professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature. It is characterized by its emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes or poetic techniques to express ideas in an original and imaginative way.

Creative writing can take on various forms such as:

• short stories
• screenplays

It’s a way for writers to express their thoughts, feelings, and ideas in a creative, often symbolic, way . It’s about using the power of words to transport readers into a world created by the writer.

5 Key Characteristics of Creative Writing

Creative writing is marked by several defining characteristics, each working to create a distinct form of expression:

1. Imagination and Creativity: Creative writing is all about harnessing your creativity and imagination to create an engaging and compelling piece of work. It allows writers to explore different scenarios, characters, and worlds that may not exist in reality.

2. Emotional Engagement: Creative writing often evokes strong emotions in the reader. It aims to make the reader feel something — whether it’s happiness, sorrow, excitement, or fear.

3. Originality: Creative writing values originality. It’s about presenting familiar things in new ways or exploring ideas that are less conventional.

4. Use of Literary Devices: Creative writing frequently employs literary devices such as metaphors, similes, personification, and others to enrich the text and convey meanings in a more subtle, layered manner.

5. Focus on Aesthetics: The beauty of language and the way words flow together is important in creative writing. The aim is to create a piece that’s not just interesting to read, but also beautiful to hear when read aloud.

Remember, creative writing is not just about producing a work of art. It’s also a means of self-expression and a way to share your perspective with the world. Whether you’re considering it as a hobby or contemplating a career in it, understanding the nature and characteristics of creative writing can help you hone your skills and create more engaging pieces .

For more insights into creative writing, check out our articles on creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree and is a degree in creative writing worth it .

Styles of Creative Writing

To fully understand creative writing , you must be aware of the various styles involved. Creative writing explores a multitude of genres, each with its own unique characteristics and techniques.

Poetry is a form of creative writing that uses expressive language to evoke emotions and ideas. Poets often employ rhythm, rhyme, and other poetic devices to create pieces that are deeply personal and impactful. Poems can vary greatly in length, style, and subject matter, making this a versatile and dynamic form of creative writing.

Short Stories

Short stories are another common style of creative writing. These are brief narratives that typically revolve around a single event or idea. Despite their length, short stories can provide a powerful punch, using precise language and tight narrative structures to convey a complete story in a limited space.

Novels represent a longer form of narrative creative writing. They usually involve complex plots, multiple characters, and various themes. Writing a novel requires a significant investment of time and effort; however, the result can be a rich and immersive reading experience.

Screenplays

Screenplays are written works intended for the screen, be it television, film, or online platforms. They require a specific format, incorporating dialogue and visual descriptions to guide the production process. Screenwriters must also consider the practical aspects of filmmaking, making this an intricate and specialized form of creative writing.

If you’re interested in this style, understanding creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree can provide useful insights.

Writing for the theater is another specialized form of creative writing. Plays, like screenplays, combine dialogue and action, but they also require an understanding of the unique dynamics of the theatrical stage. Playwrights must think about the live audience and the physical space of the theater when crafting their works.

Each of these styles offers unique opportunities for creativity and expression. Whether you’re drawn to the concise power of poetry, the detailed storytelling of novels, or the visual language of screenplays and plays, there’s a form of creative writing that will suit your artistic voice. The key is to explore, experiment, and find the style that resonates with you.

For those looking to spark their creativity, our article on creative writing prompts offers a wealth of ideas to get you started.

Importance of Creative Writing

Understanding what is creative writing involves recognizing its value and significance. Engaging in creative writing can provide numerous benefits – let’s take a closer look.

Developing Creativity and Imagination

Creative writing serves as a fertile ground for nurturing creativity and imagination. It encourages you to think outside the box, explore different perspectives, and create unique and original content. This leads to improved problem-solving skills and a broader worldview , both of which can be beneficial in various aspects of life.

Through creative writing, one can build entire worlds, create characters, and weave complex narratives, all of which are products of a creative mind and vivid imagination. This can be especially beneficial for those seeking creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree .

Enhancing Communication Skills

Creative writing can also play a crucial role in honing communication skills. It demands clarity, precision, and a strong command of language. This helps to improve your vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, making it easier to express thoughts and ideas effectively .

Moreover, creative writing encourages empathy as you often need to portray a variety of characters from different backgrounds and perspectives. This leads to a better understanding of people and improved interpersonal communication skills.

Exploring Emotions and Ideas

One of the most profound aspects of creative writing is its ability to provide a safe space for exploring emotions and ideas. It serves as an outlet for thoughts and feelings , allowing you to express yourself in ways that might not be possible in everyday conversation.

Writing can be therapeutic, helping you process complex emotions, navigate difficult life events, and gain insight into your own experiences and perceptions. It can also be a means of self-discovery , helping you to understand yourself and the world around you better.

So, whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, the benefits of creative writing are vast and varied. For those interested in developing their creative writing skills, check out our articles on creative writing prompts and how to teach creative writing . If you’re considering a career in this field, you might find our article on is a degree in creative writing worth it helpful.

4 Steps to Start Creative Writing

Creative writing can seem daunting to beginners, but with the right approach, anyone can start their journey into this creative field. Here are some steps to help you start creative writing .

1. Finding Inspiration

The first step in creative writing is finding inspiration . Inspiration can come from anywhere and anything. Observe the world around you, listen to conversations, explore different cultures, and delve into various topics of interest.

Reading widely can also be a significant source of inspiration. Read different types of books, articles, and blogs. Discover what resonates with you and sparks your imagination.

For structured creative prompts, visit our list of creative writing prompts to get your creative juices flowing.

Editor’s Note : When something excites or interests you, stop and take note – it could be the inspiration for your next creative writing piece.

2. Planning Your Piece

Once you have an idea, the next step is to plan your piece . Start by outlining:

• the main points

Remember, this can serve as a roadmap to guide your writing process. A plan doesn’t have to be rigid. It’s a flexible guideline that can be adjusted as you delve deeper into your writing. The primary purpose is to provide direction and prevent writer’s block.

3. Writing Your First Draft

After planning your piece, you can start writing your first draft . This is where you give life to your ideas and breathe life into your characters.

Don’t worry about making it perfect in the first go. The first draft is about getting your ideas down on paper . You can always refine and polish your work later. And if you don’t have a great place to write that first draft, consider a journal for writing .

4. Editing and Revising Your Work

The final step in the creative writing process is editing and revising your work . This is where you fine-tune your piece, correct grammatical errors, and improve sentence structure and flow.

Editing is also an opportunity to enhance your storytelling . You can add more descriptive details, develop your characters further, and make sure your plot is engaging and coherent.

Remember, writing is a craft that improves with practice . Don’t be discouraged if your first few pieces don’t meet your expectations. Keep writing, keep learning, and most importantly, enjoy the creative process.

For more insights on creative writing, check out our articles on how to teach creative writing or creative writing activities for kids.

Tips to Improve Creative Writing Skills

Understanding what is creative writing is the first step. But how can one improve their creative writing skills? Here are some tips that can help.

Read Widely

Reading is a vital part of becoming a better writer. By immersing oneself in a variety of genres, styles, and authors, one can gain a richer understanding of language and storytelling techniques . Different authors have unique voices and methods of telling stories, which can serve as inspiration for your own work. So, read widely and frequently!

Practice Regularly

Like any skill, creative writing improves with practice. Consistently writing — whether it be daily, weekly, or monthly — helps develop your writing style and voice . Using creative writing prompts can be a fun way to stimulate your imagination and get the words flowing.

Attend Writing Workshops and Courses

Formal education such as workshops and courses can offer structured learning and expert guidance. These can provide invaluable insights into the world of creative writing, from understanding plot development to character creation. If you’re wondering is a degree in creative writing worth it, these classes can also give you a taste of what studying creative writing at a higher level might look like .

Joining Writing Groups and Communities

Being part of a writing community can provide motivation, constructive feedback, and a sense of camaraderie. These groups often hold regular meetings where members share their work and give each other feedback. Plus, it’s a great way to connect with others who share your passion for writing.

Seeking Feedback on Your Work

Feedback is a crucial part of improving as a writer. It offers a fresh perspective on your work, highlighting areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. Whether it’s from a writing group, a mentor, or even friends and family, constructive criticism can help refine your writing .

Start Creative Writing Today!

Remember, becoming a proficient writer takes time and patience. So, don’t be discouraged by initial challenges. Keep writing, keep learning, and most importantly, keep enjoying the process. Who knows, your passion for creative writing might even lead to creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree .

Happy writing!

Brooks Manley

Creative Primer  is a resource on all things journaling, creativity, and productivity. We’ll help you produce better ideas, get more done, and live a more effective life.

My name is Brooks. I do a ton of journaling, like to think I’m a creative (jury’s out), and spend a lot of time thinking about productivity. I hope these resources and product recommendations serve you well. Reach out if you ever want to chat or let me know about a journal I need to check out!

Here’s my favorite journal for 2024: 

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fainting - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

When Daria's skin went as pale as her eyes we knew she was clocking out. Any blood sugar dip and this happened, face of a china doll and a body of rags.

Hayla suddenly took on a pale look, as if she'd been painted with white-wash - even her lips were barely there. Then with one step backwards she crumpled like a puppet suddenly released of their strings.

Peter knew he would faint when his stomach gave out. It felt like his innards were being replaced by some kind of black hole. Then nausea crept from his abdomen to his head and the world went black.

When Polly had imagined fainting it was with delicate femininity, reality was different. She felt sick and then went down like a sack of onions in front of the entire school, hitting her face on the gym floor.

Beneath her feet the wooden floor felt soft, not as much as even a firm carpet, but not right for oak planks. Saskia moved to the edge of the room, her jeans brushing against the mildewed wall. It was hard to make out the details of the room after the summer light outside, but after a while she could make out the features of the room. It was the same as it ever was, just abandoned, old, dusty. On the wall was her school photograph taken just a few weeks ago. On the table were Papa's reading glasses and her mother's knitting was greyed with layers of dust, not even a glimmer of red wool fighting through. Forgetting the floor she rushed forward, "Papa! Mama! Papa come out! Mama where are you? Mama!" Her only answer was the creaking of the door moving lazily in the breeze. She went to run up the stairs and her foot went right through the first one. She staggered backward, her mind swirling, her breaths shallow until she fell in a heap to the floor.

Tyler's skin went ashen and he stumbled forward before he fell, Lucy and Ian grabbing for his arms as he tumbled. Then he lay there in the dirt as still as a corpse, barely breathing at all.

Henry lost the colour from his face. It was as if his heart had suddenly stopped beating and all the blood had run down into his boots. He swayed for just a moment before Max caught him and lowered him to the ground.

Jen lay on the damp ground. Keesha picked up her hand and dropped it over her face, leaving the rest of the gathered crowd to wince at the resounding slapping sound. Jen was out cold; that was the proof.

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• J Headache Pain
• v.23(1); 2022

Narrative-based medicine in headache disorders

Christian lampl.

1 Department of Neurology and Headache Medical Centre, Konventhospital Barmherzige Brüder Linz, Linz, Austria

Simona Sacco

2 Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

Paolo Martelletti

3 Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Associated Data

Not applicable.

In this editorial we aim to provide an overview of Narrative-based Medicine (NBM) and highlight what it may offer to the care of individuals with headache disorders.

In times when different algorithms tend to substitute the decisions taken by physicians and precision medicine is seen as the “promised land” to provide individual care, it is inevitable to see the patients not as a human being but as a numerical product which sums a certain number of processable variables. Sticking only to variables and forgetting the importance of human-to-human interaction represent a new challenge modern medicine is offering. In this editorial we aim to provide an overview of Narrative-based Medicine (NBM) and highlight what it may offer to the care of individuals with headache disorders.

The correct clinical diagnosis of headache disorders is pursued by a comprehensive acquisition of patients´ characteristics, general medical status, headache features with associated symptoms, frequency and intensity of the headache episode(s), examinations reports, and pharmacological history [ 1 ]. An appropriate headache management includes a cooperative relationship with the patients, including a attentive understanding of their needs. Traditionally the model of care has been disease-centered, slowly evolving in past years to a patient-centered care model (PCC), where the privileged approach is individualized for each patient [ 2 ], together with an evidence-based system providing the sound scientific basis for the treatment.

PCC is a well-accepted model in general clinical practice [ 3 ]; it includes the bio-psycho-social aspects of the disease and its holistic care. However, in order to value different points of view of both the doctor and the patient [ 4 ] and offer emotional reward to both parties, another tool needs to be implemented, NBM, which applies narrative ideas to the practice of medicine [ 5 ]. It is particular important to promote the NBM approach because while Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) was imposing itself as the ruling model, narratives were gradually substituted by data on symptoms and diseases, considered to be more scientific. Rita Charon and John Launer, two of NBM´s key proponents, pointed out the importance of narratives in healthcare and how a narrative competence is required in order to understand and be touched by the stories around the illnesses of the patients [ 6 , 7 ]. Both parties of the therapeutic process have to tell a story: the patients tell us about their headache episodes, the symptoms, the pain they feel and how it impacts their lives. Moreover, they tell us about their fears, their possible explanations of their headache, what they did so far without experiencing sufficient benefit, and what they wish for their future. On the other side, the headache specialists come up with their experience, formulate a possible diagnosis, explains the nature of the disease, its triggers and aggravating factors, the course over life, and illustrate the treatment options. Both stories are told based on interindividual personalities, knowledge, and experiences. If the physician does not show interest for the patient and gives no empathy for their condition, the patient may not tell the right story and omit emotionally important aspects which deserves care. This may lead to unnecessary examinations and consultations.

During the coversation lots of conscious or unconscious personal interactions are observable. Patients come to the consultation with many variable expectation: “Will the headache specialist listen to me? Is there an interest in my story? Can I tell my story in detail? Will they address my concerns? What will the headache specialist advise me? Will the specialist provide a good solution for my pain?” The headache specialist, on the other hand, might feel uncomfortable while listening to difficult patients, or feeling the pressure of a great number of patients, incorporating co-morbidities and multiple psychosocial effects.

The NBM approach aims to take personal narrative styles into account [ 8 ], recognizing narrative skills as a central part to the practice [ 9 ]. In NBM, description of experiences is an important part of the consultation. The narrative includes not only words, but also silences, physical reactions, gestures. This approach provides a richer experience of patient perspective and needs. While the physicians listen and observe the patients, they understand the patient and learn valued and devalued issues. Good empathy and communication skills are fundamental to any consultation [ 10 , 11 ]. Those are not commonly teached at University and mostly learned on the field. Additionaly, they also rely on the physician background, personality and attitude and even in the same physician they are subject to variations due to emotional status, tiredness, time and physical contraints, personal feelings. In order to apply NBM during the consultation, John Launer identifies 7 principles—the 7 C s [ 12 ]. Conversation , Curiosity , Context , Complexity , Challenge, Caution , Care [ 13 ]. Throughout these 7 Cs, adherence should be increased. To increase this fundamental need of adherence Rita Chanon defined 4 divides [ 14 ]: the “ context of illness” (a biological phenomenon requiring medical intervention), “ beliefs about disease causality” (that often differs between the headache specialist and the patient), as well as “ shame, blame and fear ” (headache makes them vulnerable and fearful) and the “ relation to mortality” (illness as an unexpected event). The foundational models of NBM are crucial in dealing with disparities in headache care due to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic status. Every clinical decision should be guided by the needs and the values of both parties in the treatment process. NBM allows headache patients to unburden themselves. To achieve that, the headache specialist must focus on the need to understand, rather than the need to solve the headache problem. Active attentive listening is intrinsically therapeutic [ 15 ]. Using a narrative approach in daily clinical practice means being open towards patients and their narratives through the use of specific narrative skills such as:

• Understanding the patients and their experience with the illness;
• The diagnosis must be established and explained in an individual context, avoiding any systematic and standard description of the disease;
• Use of communication skills, such as exploring, conjecturing, planning, active listening and circular questioning [ 16 ];
• Self-reflection.

“By recognizing that the language of medicine and the language of the patient's world transformed by illness are not the same, the medical humanist creates a communication bridge. And in so doing, provides support to both doctor and patient as they face uncertainty” [ 17 ].

Migraine is the third highest cause of disability worldwide [ 18 ], it affects people of all ages, races and ethnicity [ 19 ]. There is a wide evidence that effectively treating migraine reduces the burden of the disease and the risk of medication overuse. Individuals with primary headaches need physicians who understand their disease, provide a clear diagnosis and explanations to symptoms, can reassure them on the nature of their symptoms, can prescribe the most appropriate treatment, and accompany them throughout their illness. NBM might be a very useful tool in the clinical practice of primary headaches. This is particularly true when the sole medical storytelling is the pillar for a correct diagnosis, in absence of reliable biomarkers, as is the case of all primary headaches. It is important that both the headache specialist and the patient are open for a narrative exploration and the headache specialist is trained in communication skills. Headache specialists lean toward a not-perfect biomedical model of e.g. migraine, following an EBM approach of treatment possibilities. But there may be a lack of care for not taking into account migraine patients’ apprehensions and needs, concentrating only on the numerical data on headache days, analgesics intake, disability scores. Co-morbidity is increasing and becomes more prevalent and EBM does not work well in multiple conditions and in giving a complex bidirectional clinical lectures, as for example in the relationship migraine/depression [ 20 ]. While PCC is found to be especially effective in managing co-morbidites [ 21 ], NBM is also relevant since listening to patient’s narratives is beneficial for both doctor and patient [ 22 ] and it helps building a strong relationship. Narratives could then fill the gap between the large amount of data coming from randomized-controlled studies and the ability of the physicians to apply this knowledge to a single case. Therefore, EBM and NBM should be applied in complementary terms [ 23 ]. EBM alone cannot help patients in their emotional aspects. Physicians have to improve their skills in recognizing the plights of the individuals they are caring, to extend empathy toward them and to be honest in the not uncommon situations were the disease is difficult-to-treat and refractory to medical treatments [ 24 ]. NBM can offer better rewards to physicians and health care providers in general by enhancing human interactions and having patients more satisfied and emotionally-closed. Indeed application of NBM may be a powerful therapeutic instrument itself and favor patient engagement, compliance by also favoring any placebo effect of treatments and reducing the nocebo effect. The hypothesis to be tested in primary headache care is that physicians equipped with the skills for a NBM approach achieve better outcomes in managing patients than those not equipped with a NBM approach.

In order to pursue a NBM approach, we must also take into account the current rules in the National Health Systems regarding time slots for the length of a visit, the enormity of the patients who require headache consultations and the consequent formation of waiting lists that creates disparities and favors chronicization and self -medication overuse, and cause patients’ expectations to grow dramatically. These barriers must be filled also by active and exstensiv involvement of a multidisciplinary team with different expertise which may help to allocate enough time for a NBM approach. This approach is fundamental in an epidemiological context that tends to see headaches grow globally [ 25 ] and which must appropriately and non-exclusively use models for assessing disability in the various personal, social and occupational domains [ 26 ].

Adequate mutual listening between doctor and patient, not just unidirectional, can reinforce therapeutic adherence [ 27 ], increase the physicians’ capacity for deprescription [ 28 ], favor a multidisciplinary intervention that is still experienced as a mere act of delegation [ 29 ] and facilitate telehealthcare contacts to maintain the continuity of a personalized relationship [ 30 , 31 ].

Acknowledgements

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The authors contributed equally and approved the final version.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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