Authors... How Do You Write?

I'm thinking of some specific stories I've seen on here. Not yours.

Mdare makes some interesting points, particularly about a story being too strong on its own to garner much interest in a spanking story library.
I think I am often guilty of that, but I make no apologies, as I see the spanking story as a means to say something about the way we are as people, ( the ' human condition' as the pseuds have it) or more specifically a subset of the human race which finds spanking fascinating.


Clearly there are some 'random spanking' stories, but I'd defend them (given that they are well written) as long as the spanking isn't shoe-horned in in a completely irrelevant way.

"I've gathered you all here in the library," Miss Marple began, "to explain exactly how the murder was carried out, and by whom, and by the way if anyone could see their way to giving me a spanking later I'd be grateful"


Personally I think that the very best spanking stories should be able to stand on their own two feet as stories even if there was to be no spanking in them, but the addition of that seemingly perverse element gives an extra dimension to help our understanding of ourselves.

Of course, sometimes that's a load of tosh and the story's purely for erotic pleasure, and that's fine too.

Rollin asked me to cite some examples of stories in the Library that are so attentive to developing plot, character and dialogue that they don't work as spanking stories and speculated that his own stories might fall into that category due to his use of genre tropes unrelated to spanking. First of all, I don't think Rollin's stories, of which I am a big fan, would fall into this category. Although his stories often dress themselves in the trappings of particular genres — the detective story, say, or the time-travel story — it is still his sensitivity to the shaming rituals of corporal punishment between men and women that drives his fiction. If you took out the spankings, you'd have the story's skeleton, but not its beating (no pun intended) heart. That's my opinion, anyway.

One author who comes to mind, when I try to think of examples is Barrett Hunter. Although he constructs situations and characters that lend themselves very well to spanking scenarios, his stories are so suffused with colorful cultural details and eloquent wit, that I often forget to be turned on by the spanking scenes. His characters are more cartoons than human beings, and while I often find myself chuckling at their antics, I'm not able to identify with them. His stories are well executed burlesques that make me laugh, but they don't quite give me what I look for in a spanking story.

Another of the Library's most talent writers who can sometimes be too good for his own good is Goodgulf. He tends to like skirting the edges of spanking scenes — the anticipated potential spanking, the overheard spanking — more than he likes bringing the spanking into the spotlight, and that's fine: Sometimes the anticipation can be more erotic than the event. But take The Chronicles of Bamber for example: I enjoyed this epic serial, but it seemed evident to me that Goodgulf was so interested in getting the narrative voice right and establishing the rules of his fascinating world that the spankings came across as mostly perfunctory. For me, this worked as a work of fantasy, but was a bit disappointing as a spanking story.

I'd say most of the stories in the Library are built around their spankings and would not easily survive the loss of them. But that's not necessarily a weakness, in my view. It just means that those stories are focused on their main purpose. The thrills or drama of a story's mystery plot or historical romance can enrich the context of the spanking scenes, but if I get too caught up in those non-spanking elements, then I am arguably being distracted from the story's function as spanking erotica. To what extent can those aesthetic elements exist alongside a story's prurient interests without the two functions coming into conflict? I'm not sure of the answer to this question.

It can be a very delicate balance. One writer who I feel has mastered that balance is Artofzee. His serial The Bends integrates some very imaginative punishment scenes with an ingeniously choreographed mystery in a unique suburban setting. It's gratifying on an aesthetic as well as an erotic level. But even here there is a bit of a tug of war between art and eros. While some of his spanking scenes play out in full, more often he prefers to be suggestive rather than explicit and the curtain frequently comes down at a point when the reader is begging for more.

Michael

Really interesting observations, Mdare. Thanks for that. I think you nailed it with the reference to the "art vs. eros" tug of war. I really struggle with that. One reason my stories tend to be longer is that I want both.

In hindsight, I tend to agree.

Bamber was an interesting project. I was trying to model it around someone elses work - and cursing myself at every turn for not being the wordsmith that he was. Modeling it on Roger Zelazny's Amber series (the first five books of that series) left me with fewer options than usual. While I usually work with an outline I discovered that it's hard to write a rift on one book while keeping books 2, 3, 4, and 5 in your head.

It was also my first long work using the first person - and I found that a surprisingly hard voice to use. There were times where a bit of third person narrative "this is how the world works" would have saved reams of typing "Did I mention that blah works this way, blah then works blah way, blah blah". Alas, the books I modeled the stories after were all first person narrative so I didn't feel right departing from that voice.

The combination of those two factors - working in someone elses world and working through how to use the first person - did slow the spanking in that series. There are some parts of that story where it's just spanking after spanking, but sometimes there's a surprising amount of story between those spankings.

Looking through the works on my author page, there are a few others where the spanking elements aren't really the central theme. There's spanking in all of them (or at least talk about spanking), but some of them might be a bit far to one side of the "stories with spanking in them" to "spanking stories" spectrum.


But one thing about all of the stories I've posted (including the Bamber ones) is that I enjoyed them. They all (in someway) worked for me - and that's an important thing to keep in mind while writing. No story will please everyone so write what you enjoy. I've seen people try to write for others tastes and that never works. I've tried to write to others tastes - and those unfinished attempts at stories will never be posted anywhere. If you're writing a story and you realise "I don't like these character, nor the plot, nor the setting, and nothing about this story is clicking for me" then stop writing it. Maybe you'll come back to it with a fresh outlook, maybe you'll use elements of it in another story, or maybe it will just sit on your hard drive unfinished. Trying to finish a story that you dislike - it's just not worth the effort.

Not unless the characters have come alive and twisted in unexpected ways and you feel you have to tell their story - but that's rare and not every story like that needs posting. For example, there's one part of the Bamber series I never posted . In part 5, someone tells the main character something that happened after they parted in part 1, and the main character's response is: "I'll kill him.". That was a bit extreme, so I wrote a short story explaining what had happened back when. Mostly so I that I could have "this is what happened" clear in my mind. That short story turned out to be so ugly that I had to expand it to include the main character tracking someone down and killing him. Not that I wanted to spend time on that story, but I couldn't leave it on my hard drive without the SOB in that story meeting a richly deserved end.

Wow, this post has gotten long. Perhaps I can sum it up with:
Write the type of stories that you would enjoy reading.

Goodgulf
(who's always please to learn that someone else read the 65,000+ word Bamber story - even if it isn't their favourite story)

There is nothing pseud about using the phrase "the human condition".

I like to use dialogue as a form of 'authority' in the way the character in charge speaks to his/her subordinate. It's the way it's said that should make the reader say, "uh oh!" I also like to give my descriptive data what I like to call 'a mind's eye view' of what's going on. I want the reader to see it in their mind, and not just read my words. When it comes to the spanking scene, it should look to the reader like an action animated photo. See the panties flying of the foot. See the pants leg flopping around wildly as that paddle rains down on his bared bottom. I don't want my stories sounding like a manual of some kind, or a newspaper article that takes forever to get to the point.

All the authors mentioned her are fabulous, so I'm not tooting my own horn here. I'm just stating what I believe to be a good story of any kind.

B

What an interesting thread this is, with so many insightful replies. Most of my stories are planned out only in the vaguest of terms. For me, it's not about the dialogue or the point of view, but rather about the characters and their thoughts and feelings.

I think about a scenario over and over again until I "see it" vividly in my mind's eye. Like Ben said in the previous post, I "see" the legs kicking or the panties flying, I "hear" the impact of the hand or the implement and the sounds of the spankee. Then I just describe what I "see" and "hear."

I learn a lot about the characters as I write them. I see how they react to certain situations and that helps me anticipate how they will act in the future. The one common thread to all my stories is that the female characters - whether spanking or being spanked - are morally strong, are true to themselves, and realize that accepting punishment is far better than carrying guilt. They act out of love and care in all cases.

I start writing with those visions and values and see where it takes me.

"the female characters - whether spanking or being spanked - are morally strong, are true to themselves, and realize that accepting punishment is far better than carrying guilt."

Oh Billy B! That gave me such a good laugh! I can't imagine my female characters "carrying guilt." In fact, some of us... er... them not only never admit guilt, they don't even recognize the emotion. Tsk.

I can see and hear my characters as a story unfolds; I write as if I were in the room with the characters and they were dictating what I should write. Like others have commented - sometimes the characters take the story away from me and I just go along for the ride.

~Sar~

Oh, I agree with Billboard RE the female characters being, down deep anyway, morally strong and true to themselves, however given my (primarily F/M) gender orientation they also perceive that dishing out the spankings, whether as serious discipline or playful 'punishment,' is much more fun (and hurts a lot less) than taking them. I like my recurring feminine characters to be caring, sweet and affectionate, but also cleverly devilish on occasion--and strict-yet-loving disciplinarians when necessary.

On the rare occasions that they've done something that's ethically/morally questionable, any sympathetic female characters--like their male counterparts--should feel remorseful, I'm figuring.

I do agree RE the characters often 'taking over' the plotline of a story and behaving in a manner that I hadn't planned on them doing. IME the longer a story is, the less likely that I'll be able to keep its characters under control--or even prevent others from barging into the story line, initially uninvited by me... --C.K.