Yeah, I've been looking for the good in the situation, too. Chronic pain's old news for me, but it does have a couple of weird little benefits. When the fibromyalgia flares up, all my senses get keener. The photosensitivity's a real inconvenience, and it's not so much fun when loud noises map over as pain in my skin, but then, good food becomes Euphorically Good Food, and I have a sense of smell fit for blending perfumes with. I figure, I can sit in a nice dark place and mix up some anointing oils while I wait this out. Synesthesia's not such a bad deal, then. Feeling the scent of sandalwood in my skin is almost worth the price of admission.

I have to be really vigilant about the chronic pain worming its way into characters who don't have it. Anytime a character is weary, or spends an entire scene flat on his or her back with any sort of debilitating condition, I have to ask myself, am I writing this because it's one of the things I know, or is it actually good for the story? "Weary" is one of the words I run searches on when I'm revising, to make sure that not once instance of weariness occurs unnecessarily. That word is almost as pernicious a tic as "pretty much."