Consider the phrases pinch, sting, smart, and stiffness. Moderate: This is pain that distracts but does not totally halt your character. Consider the phrases pain, throb, discomfort, and flare. Consider the following words: pain, anguish, suffering, spasms, torture, stabbing. Strong: The presence of pain that is severe enough to hinder a character's actions. Pain can be described in many ways. You could say that pain has many faces. It can be physical, such as from an injury; emotional, like grief or anger; or spiritual, like hell or heaven. In literature, people experience pain in different ways depending on the story being told. Some stories are written in a realistic manner while others use fantasy to explain what it is to feel pain. In fiction, pain is used as a tool for the writer to show how someone reacts to certain situations. Sometimes, pain is used as a way of showing the reader how much someone cares about another person. For example, in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty will do anything to save her brother's life even if it means giving up her own. She describes how pain feels during one of the scenes where she tries to stop him from jumping off a bridge because she knows this will kill him. In poetry, pain is used to express something that cannot be said otherwise.