What is desired in a spanking story?

I agree. I have spoken my opinion often enough to bore some people that the best spanking stories should have interesting enough plot, characters and situation that they would work as well a story even if there were no spanking in them.

Is the spanking always just the icing on the cake? Not necessarily, but a spanking on its own can't redeem an otherwise poor story, and in those cases where the spanking is the sole purpose of the tale there always seems to be something missing for me. If I might make a quiet plug here, The Appointment critiques this aspect of spanking storywriting.

Can a story be too long? of course it can, but even quite a short story can be too long - it all depends on how interesting, original and well written it is. It's a hard discipline to make one's work concise, and as we write here for pleasure, perforce we'll tend to write too long - it doesn't matter enough to us to keep it concise, because the activity is pleasureable.
Those who write for money (and students of English Lit. on the International Baccalaureate course - don't ask, it's a sore point) will have learned that discipline through having to produce articles to deadline and with strict word limits, and they are a different case entirely.

Can a story be too short? I am not sure on this one. I tend to think that it's a good thing to leave the reader wanting more, but a nice cadence needs to be struck at the end so the reader doesn't end up feeling that it's unfinished.

Can a forum comment be too lon

Nothing is TOO long if it holds the attention of the reader. So, I would say that the answer to that question is always subjective. As for your comment above, opb, it captivated my interest as should the perfect spanking story! BTW, in addition to what opb quoted from Biker above, and element of humour is also a good way to make a story interesting/appealing to readers.

I have to agree with Opb, the stories I enjoy are a bit like the movies I like. I enjoy a lot of special effects but a movie with lots of special effects but no plot, no character development does nothing for me. Obviously any story here should have something to do with spanking but that is only one element and the plot is just as important in my humble opinion. And if there is a twist at the end that's even better.

I would suggest that there is an unwritten contract between author and reader that goes along the lines of "If you suspend your natural sense of disbelief, in return I shall give you a tale that will interest and/or amuse you."

On a site like ours, it is axiomatic that the tale will interest and.or amuse a spanko. If we authors fail to do either, we have wasted a perfectly good suspension of disbelief, and ought to be taken to task for it.

So while there a number of devices we may employ that increases the chances of a tale being interesting or amusing to the average spanko, none of them give any guarantee.

My own acid test is after I have finished a tale, I check to see if it does amuse or interest me personally. Self criticism is inherently flawed, but my overflowing trash can suggests that I have spared our gentle readers from some horrible pot boilers that failed to live up to my initial enthusiasm when putting finger to keyboard. Muses are wonderful people, but sometimes cannot be relied upon to provide wholesome material for the spanko community.

A quick bit about physical descriptions, cribbed from Stephen King.

His first published book was Carrie and it centred around Carrie, a high school student. She dressed in odd fashions (because her mother didn't want her dressing like a slut and had odd ideas of what sluts dressed like), never got her hair done professionally, never wore make up, and was the quiet, shy, weird loner girl.

She is the centre of the book, but King never gave her hair colour, eye colour, height, weight, or even skin colour. He later explained that he felt that he didn't have to give any details - that everyone would remember that quiet, shy, weird loner girl from their own school and fill in the pieces better than he could if he spent page after page describing her.

I've read stories where I knew someone's age - to the month (which is odd for anyone outside their teens). Their height to an eighth of the inch or millimeter. Their weight to the ounce / gram. And usually all that descriptive prose does it to take me out of the story. I spend so much time trying to picture the person that the author is thinking of that I can't focus on the events of the story.

Sometimes, less is more.

That's not to say that all details should be skipped, only the ones that aren't important.
"Heidi had just graduated high school and was looking forward to a fun summer" - tells me roughly how old she is.
"Heidi had just graduated high school and at 18 and three quarters she was looking forward to a fun summer" - tells me a bit too much. Unless her being over 18 is important for the plot. If she's going to pose for nude pictures or have a lot of sex then knowing that she's 18 matters. If she is scheming to be spanked at her birth party (which is three months away) then knowing her exact age matters, but if it doesn't matter then her approximate age can be assumed by the reader.

So what do I desire in a spanking story? Enough room for my imagination to fly, to fill in the details that makes my reading experience different from anyone elses.

Goodgulf

In the case of the library it always does matter as the validator has to assign an age group to the characters and up to 12 is a Child, 13 o 17 is a Teen and over 18 is an Adult.

By the way, although most people assume differently the age of consent for sexual activities is 16 in the UK and in most states in the US although not in all states.

I agree with GG here, if we allow our reader to fill in the details from thier own mind then it becomes more personal, and crucially, more accurate for them. They know exactly how tall, fat, pretty, blue-eyed etc the character is, and if we define that too completely we take away not only some of their fun but also introduce a requirement on them to construct the character in the image we want, where it's not usually necessary.

Now, in a voyeur sort of story this doesn't quite hold, because the tension is created by revealing the detail of what the voyeur is looking at, and there the reader isn't being asked to recreate the object in their minds but the sense of admiration or lust which exists in the voyeur's.




Here's a funny thing, I was sure that in my comment I wrote "Can a forum comment be too lon" and yet when both Jools and Rick quoted it my deliberate truncation of the last word (added for comedic effect) was "corrected". Hmmm.

As a writer here, under another name, I can only say what 'does it for me' when it comes to spanking stories. I've read great stuff here and some not so good.

First of all there has to be a plot structure that fits the genre and sub-genre. If it's, say, a historical setting then authenticity is needed through some basic research. The characters are essential - what they look like, mannerisms, and the clothes they wear - as is the inter-play between the characters. The story as a whole has to build up or simmer, but there could be several 'peaks'. It helps if sometimes it can be 'challenging' to what we might expect. Describing the spankings or whatever also has to be done in a way that helps the reader visualise the scene, how players might feel or think. Having a twist, again the unexpected, sometimes works well if done correctly.

A couple of things I've learned is don't make paragraphs too long; break up dialogue between different people carefully to allow a flow to speech; and definitely break long pieces into parts or chapters, making sure the cut-off is sensible and the next start point is the lead in to another self-contained piece.

The stories that I've gotten the most responses from were the ones where people fell in love with the characters. When the motivations were believable and the choices they made were engaging, the characters were regarded as people rather than stand-ins for some CP.

Length shouldn't be a concern. As long as whatever is in the story is necessary to move the plot along, the length is fine. It should be dictated by the nature of the story more so than the format. When breaking something up into chapters, each chapter should have its own reason for existing, not just a break from an arbitrary word count.

The intensity of the spanking description should be a byproduct of the story. In some stories, spanking is very colloquial, but in others it's the third act resolution.

Format and style differ in various ways, but most good stories have engaging characters that play well enough to support some believable moments.

Sorry! We naturally assumed you had over-run your maximum comment word count!!! hehe