What are your essential requirements for a good story?

Two things that I really want in order to enjoy a story featuring spanking:

1) The spanking(s) are all either well-deserved, or wanted (or both) -- that is, I don't like stories where people are spanked unfairly (i.e., for things they didn't do, or as an overreaction) -- unless they get their revenge in the end. [I must note that I violate this occasionally when I write, but usually with what I consider to be "good reason", and that's never the whole story]

2) In a punishment situation, I want the spanker to be in an appropriate relationship of authority over the spankee (parent, teacher, etc.) I personally don't like stories about DD relationships where I feel the partners "should" be in an equal relationship, but one is treated as subordinate to the other (even if that is their choice). I know it works for plenty of people, but it's not a storyline I enjoy. [I have violated this one at least once as well that I can think of]

These are not completely absolute for me, but they are very strong preferences, to the extent that I will dislike *most* but not all stories that violate them.

Agree with you Rosie on several, but not all. For me spankings should be well deserved,not wanted. Strong believer in discipline. Authority also important I would like to expand your etc. to adults. Maybe an adult daughter. son, or in in-lawsreceiving spankings for whatever reason you can surmise.

I also agree with both your points, Rosie, and in fact that's one of the fun things of coming up with a story: trying to invent a plausible reason for a spanking, so that it's not 'unfair' in the story. Though I have also violated this myself.

And as I mentioned before, I like age power imbalances (who doesn't?! ) so the spanker being in some type of position of authority is important. I'm pretty flexible about what type of authority they are in. Teacher or parent is always good, but a significant age gap or a major difference in life experience would also satisfy me.

You also made a good point at the end; I've read and enjoyed some stories that broke my own rules, because they contained some element that I really liked, even though the story itself wasn't my favourite type. My preferences can be overriden, and usually I end up skipping the parts that clash with my tastes and reading only the parts that get me where it counts.

When I say 'wanted', I'm thinking of a consensual erotic spanking scenario. That's really the only type of spanking that I like to read about between lovers/spouses -- the one that is just for fun because they get turned on by it. Those can be some very hot stories, IMO.

I am hesitant to analyse this question too closely as I am afraid that if my likes or dislikes could be distilled into a few guidelines then the magic might disappear. However, in general I would be at variance with Rosie's first point. I quite like stories (i.e. fictions) where the spankings are undeserved, unwanted or, I would add, unexpected. I think the unexpected aspect is important for me. Stories in which naughty children or teens get spanked after getting caught doing something which they know will earn them a spanking generally do nothing for me. I like spankings to be erotic or have erotic, even edgy, overtones, so spankings for purely disciplinary purposes again generally leave me cold (unless the story contains strong humiliation themes). Stories of adults spanking children leave me queasy as (a) I don't believe spanking children is good parenting and (b) I would worry about the motivations of the spanker, given my own feelings about spanking being erotic. When writing a story my main concern is not to identify a plausible reason / justifiable cause for the spanking but to identify a situation in which a (preferably unanticipated) spanking might arise. By avoiding the usual disciplinary reasons, such stories usually entail a suspension of disbelief of the reader, but I like to keep the story at least semi-plausible.

I would agree with Rosie's second point. Although I quite enjoy stories in which a spanking is unwanted and undeserved (e.g. due to a case of mistaken identity) bearing in mind they are only stories and do not actually hurt anyone, I generally dislike stories which involve an abusive power relationship, even if the woman (it is usually a woman) supposedly enjoys being dominated and controlled by her alpha male. Maybe such relationships do exist, but I just find it difficult to identify with the motivations of either character.

I am not sure if my ramblings provide any enlightenment, but at least they leave me as happily confused as ever!

So does the dominant/submissive nature of the relationship automatically make it "abusive," or do you believe that there can be non-abusive D/s situations?

What if it's simply a one-way domestic discipline arrangement (which is what I most prefer both reading and writing about, albeit with an 'alpha female' wielding the paddle), so that there may not be any generally dominant partner but merely a disciplinary one? (Yes, I'll admit that the precise borderline between those two types of relationships is uncertain.) Can that kind of a DD committed understanding be non-abusive in nature?

In these types of agreements, it strikes me that the truly punitive and erotically playful aspects of some spankings administered within them may not always be sharply differentiated, especially since a person who accepts disciplinary corporal correction still may receive subconscious sexual gratification from it.

If "abusive" is a descriptive term related at least partially to the severity of the spankings administered (the punitive ones anyway), my thinking is that the capacity of the recipient to endure such chastisement would strongly influence what would be considered physical abuse as opposed to severe yet non-abusive corporal correction.

For some spankee characters (and indeed real-life spankees), fifty medium-hard whacks with a sturdy paddle to his/her naked buttocks might be "abusive," while to others one hundred extra-hard ones might not be fully effective discipline.

It is rather amusing, from my perspective, to describe within a story a bare-bottom blistering which is nearly identical to one I've actually underwent in real life as a fun/erotic interaction, then have a reader comment that it struck him/her as "over the top," "excessive" or even "abusive."

So I'd venture that it's not simply "different strokes for different folks," within our spankophile kink it's also "different amount and intensity of strokes for different folks"...

--C.K.

The short answer to these two questions is 'no' and 'yes' respectively. I believe that D/s relationships are non-abusive provided the sub agrees to it, even if the punishments are what others would regard as severe. To my mind, a relationship becomes abusive if one partner lives in fear of being beaten by the other for every little infraction, or possibly for no reason at all; where the beatings are not for erotic pleasure, but to bend the victim to the will of the abuser. It is the nature of the relationship that makes it abuse, not the severity of the punishment. I would associate it with bullying.

With regard to severity, I have no problem believing that you (and others like you) can get pleasure out of several hundred hard whacks from a paddle, but I get no pleasure out of reading a story in which a wife in a non D/s relationship receives 50 whacks from an angry husband for accidentally burning his dinner. To me that is disproportionate to the offence, and therefore undermines the credibility of the story, especially if she supposedly gazes wondrously into his eyes afterwards in admiration of her strong man.

But I agree with you, we all have different notions of what is severe. When a reader comments that a punishment is too severe, what they are saying is it is too severe by their standards, not that it is too severe in an absolute sense. It should not be taken as inferring they think the author is some sort of pyscho or a fantasist.

That is strange because that is where it all began. Children were the ones that were spanked! Society has different values now and spanking kids is very much frowned upon. For what it is worth I don't think that spanking children is good parenting either. Nothing wrong in talking to them and not in the ridiculous way adults sometimes talk to kids as if they were tiny morons rather than intelligent small human beings. Personally I have never liked stories in which parents spank their children because the emotional bonds are far too close. You need a little distance which is why stepmothers, aunts and schoolmistress's are far better literary disciplinarians.

I don't think it's (necessarily) abusive, but it's not something I enjoy reading about. We all have our own scenarios that we do and do not enjoy reading (or writing) about. That's not one that really works for me. I think this is mainly because it evokes for me a time when men really thought they *should* dominate their women, and women thought they *should* submit to their men. And I was brought up to soundly reject that, to the point that I feel uncomfortable reading about such relationships (in either direction) even if they are consensual. My new "should" is that the partners in a relationship "should" treat one another as equals in all things. Perhaps not very realistic, and almost certainly not what everyone needs, but that's my bias.

Obviously, there will be few (maybe no) scenarios that work for everyone here. But there are so many stories that hopefully we can all find the ones that turn us on.

Typical - every time as I try to make some sort of generalised statement, someone highlights an exception. I love the James Arthur Blimp stories, yet they often involve a boy being punished by a female teacher, sometimes with a barely disguised sadistic streak. So why do these stories not make me queasy? I am not sure I know the answer, let alone articulate it, but I think it may be because the stories are written from the point of view of the spankee (or at least that is the way I tend to read them) rather than the adult. Also there is an implicit eroticism (e.g. there is often a mutual respect/admiration/attraction between the actors, whilst the spankings/canings are not primarily punishments intended to modify behaviour but tend to act as a source of vicarious pleasure to both parties). Somehow these stories strike a rapport with my pre-pubescent sexual fantasies as I remember them (as Blimp points out, this is where it all began), whereas a lot of adult-children stories just seem to me like adults bullying children to make them 'behave'. The latter I find uninteresting.