What Makes You Keep Reading or Stop Reading a Story?

After reading the posts about what makes you click on a story, I was wondering what makes everyone keep reading or stop reading a story. After you've found one with the preferred paring, implement, length, ect, what keeps you interested or turns you away?

How well-written the story is and the amount of good detail is probably the biggest factor or whether I keep reading or not. I want to see something with description and not "SMACK SMACK SMACK" and "OW OW OW" repeated constantly. Good details that really enhance the scene and keep it from getting boring are what holds my interest. That being said, too much or overdone description is a turn off.

The severity of the spanking matters to me. I dislike punishment stories where a character is beaten harshly or put through excessive humiliation, especially if it's for a minor offense. I'm often able to tell by the summary, but if I'm reading a spanking scene that begins to border on abusive, I stop reading immediately.

With characterization, I really look for authors who show the right amount of care and anger from the spanker in discipline stories. I've noticed that a lot of authors tend to focus on one or the other. Either the character is too stern, to the point of being mean, or far too sappy (it is punishment, after all!). Stories where the spanker has a good combination of both qualities are the ones that really stand out to me. I'm not as picky about the characterization of the character receiving the spanking. I enjoy reading both stories where they willingly submit or put up a fight.

This isn't completely necessary to my enjoyment of a story, but I prefer it when the spanking happens privately. To me, it's something that should occur between the spanker and whom he's spanking, and not people who aren't involved in the situation.

Of course, I occasionally read stories that go against these points, but generally not. I know what I like and will keep searching until I find the right story. What about you?

Interesting question. I will stop reading if the story involves rape, other than in a role play scenario. I also dislike stories with excessive humiliation - being humiliated is not the same as being humbled.

Generally, I would agree that spanking should be a private affair, but I can enjoy the kind of story in which two couples, both into spanking - either for discipline or for fun - spank together.

I will also stop reading if an account of a judicial caning or strapping causes the onlookers to become sexually aroused. Similarly, the Headmaster who 'gets off' on caning pupils is a 'turn off' for me.

And, like you, Sarah, I don't like to read of punishments which are unfair, overly harsh, or undeserved.

I too appreciate well crafted description and if confronted with endlessly repetitive lines of 'SMACK SMACK SMACK' etc, I'll probably not bother reading any further. Yawn.

I like an eclectic mix of stories, and I do enjoy a dash of wit and humour, and a pinch of romance now and then (but not the sickly sweet mushy stuff). A twist in the tale is always appreciated, and some authors do it really well – it's good to have endings which are not always predictable.

Some sex is ok if it fits with the story and its characters/plot, but I say a big no thanks to badly written porn. The spanking of young kids isn't something I particularly enjoy reading about (though there are some stories I have found quite entertaining). It certainly wouldn't put me off reading a well written story, unless it involved the young kids getting naked for their spankings - that makes me uncomfortable.

I don't like stories which verge on extreme abuse, but at the end of the day, stories is all they are – fiction not fact. If I really don't like something, I will stop reading it and move on to something else. We have an abundance of stories here and hopefully there is something for everyone.

flopsy

Compelling characters and a compelling plot. That's what keeps me reading.

Characters who (as characters) know exactly what's coming - yawn.

Spankings that happen simply because, in the characters' lives, that's what happens - yawn.

Lengthy and/or convoluted explanations for what the spanking is going to happen - yawn.

While I prefer F/M stories, the dynamic will not affect my reading a story to completion as much as the setting and premise for the spanking. Historical settings with Victorian school canings will cause me to stop reading unless there is some interesting insight into the characters' mindsets about giving or receiving a spanking. Stories about children will probably not be selected by me in the first place, but sometimes I'll give one a try. I'll finish the story if there is some exploration of some degree of desire or at least willingness on the part of the spankee. "Little Sally gets spanked for stealing apples"-type stories don't interest me.

A purely narrative story will usually cause me to skip to the end. Overly fanciful sci-fi stories will do the same. I want to read about something that seems to be about the spanking-folks I actually know. The "spanking condition as we know it". There is so much to explore in the real world of adult power exchange expressed through those who wish to spank and those who wish to be spanked that I am disappointed in how few authors dig into this fertile field.....and of those that do have few go into mindsets rather than just narratives of "who spanked whom for what reason and how 'blow-by-blow' it went".

At times I find I gravitate away from fiction and towards Spanking Blogs written by real people in spanking arrangements. Unfortunately there is often little eloquence to their posts, but what they lack in style, they make up for in believable honest revelation. Writing should borrow heavily from real experience. Many spanking stories seem to be written by people with a spanking inclination but minimal spanking experience. ( I understand such writing is often a coping mechaism for those who cannot indulge their interest for one reason or another, but while I am sympathetic to these people, I don't find their imagined spanking interactions terribly interesting to read.) We live in a modern world where adults in civilzed countries need never fear a whipping post or a spanking...........unless they wish it. Who these willing victims are, how they think, and how their dominant partners feel about doling out the pain and discipline their willing victims crave, are the things I want to find in a story...............or else it's 'skip to the end' for me.

"Many spanking stories seem to be written by people with a spanking inclination but minimal spanking experience. ( I understand such writing is often a coping mechaism for those who cannot indulge their interest for one reason or another, but while I am sympathetic to these people, I don't find their imagined spanking interactions terribly interesting to read.)"

How can you tell they have had minmal spanking experience? The last spanking I had is a dim and distant memory but I am not aware that I am writing under a handicap. Even if you had never been spanked if you are blessed with imagination lack of experience need be no handicap.

I don't like reading stories with bad grammar but on the other hand sometimes such stories possess an intensity and obsessiveness that appeals to me. It is hard to draw up any hard and fast rules except to say I much prefer F/m stories over any other type, especially those set in school. I rarely fail to finish any story I start reading except for very long ones!

PS Nearly forgot, the biggest turn off of all, sex in a spanking story. Seems weird I know! And nakedness too, just not necessary I feel, but each to their own.

Sometimes it is obvious. I have read stories in which, because it is their first caning, they will 'only' receive 20 strokes, during which they must not move or make a noise. I think that is probably impossible. I may be wrong, of course - maybe I'm just a wuss!

Having said that, if the story is well written, then I can enjoy it no matter how improbable it is.

Dear blimp: Any writing is affected by experience or research. A person writing about life in prison benefits from either experience in prison or research and interviews with those who have been in prison. The same is true for spanking. I have done this all of my life with different people and in different dynamics. I know how to do them, how it feels to be on both ends, and I know what goes through my mind and the minds of those I have played with and talked to. If a spanking story does not touch on any of these juicy and relevant idiosyncrasies in a way that rings true, I must suspect that the writer does not know of them.

I want to read a story where I either have an "aha" moment of "Oh yeah, I know how that feels (physically or emotionally)" or a moment of inspiration where I have not experienced what the writer is describing and yet am titillated by the idea of trying it in order to experience the same feelings described. This can only be done by someone with some knowledge (firsthand or through interview/observation) of the experience they are writing about.

I know what you are saying kd but I think you under estimate the power of imagination. Just because someone writes a bad spanking story doesn't mean they haven't experienced a spanking. They might just lack the ability to express themselves. Charles Hamilton who wrote the Billy Bunter tales wrote many of them set in India, China, The South Seas, Egypt, South America and Africa, yet he had never travelled outside of Europe. Of course he was an exceptional writer with wonderful gifts of being able to amuse, so perhaps it is unfair of me to use him as an example, but you would never know he hadn't travelled to those places he writes about.

Experience helps without doubt, but imagination is an even more important quality in a writer.

20 strokes without flinching seems unlikely Linda. I was a bit of a wuss too, despite absurdly lenient schoolmasters who never went beyond six of the best. Still looking on the bright side, it's helped give my writing that ring of authenticity!?('