What Makes You Keep Reading or Stop Reading a Story?

Hmmm what makes me keep reading a particular story... mostly the evil flopsybunny and what she puts in my validation queue *sobs*

Seriously though, I have my preferred orientation - adult male and adult female - but after that I want something clever, or something funny, or something with a great storyline, maybe a twist. The spanking, whilst not incidental, is less important for me. As with others, I don't need to read lines and lines of WHACK SMACK WHACK with little else about what is actually happening. Also, yes here I am unusual, I don't need the sexual element. I am not offended by it, so long as it is written to fit the story but I am not too fussed about it either.

I do agree that some peoples inexperience (or at least I perceive it as such) can show in their writing. I do raise my eyes at people who can take 100 strokes of a cane without a murmur, or those who are almost so obsessed with the actual spanking that they forget to write a story around the event. I guess that is the good thing about a library such as this though, there ought to be something for everyone.

The only things that really make me want to close a story (or moan at Linda on msn) are rape - genuine rape not role play, severe degradation and what I consider to be abusive stories. Although they are only 'stories' I simply do not need the images in my head, thank you.

I am not a writer. I have written a few bits but they were written for specific people, pertaining to their circumstances. I do not have the imagination of some of the people on here, I wish I did!! Working here has however given me the opportunity to read a vast variety of stories that I otherwise would probably not have looked at and I have to say thanks to Febs and Flops for that

Yeah, I agree with everyone about some authors being unrealistic when it comes to how the character feels the pain of the spanking. Just today I read a story where the victim getting 150 cracks with a hairbrush on the bare bottom was considered normal. Later I found one where a teenage boy cries after getting twenty smacks with the hand on a jean-covered bottom. Not exactly accurate in either case!

When the author goes overboard with the punishment, I think it might be due to a lack of planning and just getting carried away while writing. I tend to write long spanking scenes, so I always reread and edit them later to make sure they're realistic.

What makes me keep reading a story are characters who are fleshed out, and an interesting storyline. I also like for the spanker and spankee to have a caring relationship.

I came to the Library with a preference for M/M and M/m (older teen) preferences, and I couldn't have been paid to read a M/F story. ( I know I'm in the minority)
To my amazement I have found quite a few stories outside the genres I enjoy. I have even found some M/F stories that were so good that I've added them to my favorites.

The sorts of things that makes me stop reading: stories with too much description and not enough character development. I also don't care for stories that involve monors which have any sexual elements. I know a lot of spanking story readers enjoy very severe punishment, but that's not what I like.

As a matter of fact, like a few of the others who have posted, I really like spanking stories without any sex in them.

I prefer the stories with a believable scenario, that is, it can, does and will happen. Having been on both ends of the cane, I now prefer spanking stories on the more harsh side, that is, harsh enough to permit the spankees endorphins to kick in moving her (me) from pain to pleasure. I also prefer discipline stories rather than "cosmetic, it's Friday night so I guess it's time for my spanking" stories
The spankings I (we) have been involved in do have sexual overtones which generally become part of the evening. I like the idea of consent on the part of the person who is disciplined that is willing to accept her punishment voluntarily accepting the caning or strapping as a result of her behavior.

No children, no rape, no scat,

Our personal limits to the subject matter we enjoy or tolerate in a spanking story are just that...personal. In that regard, probably no two of us are exactly alike. Rape happens to be one my own personal limits in spanking fiction. A rape scene is a quick way to make me bail out in mid-story; but I realize that others may react differently. I also understand why children in spanking stories rates high on some folks personal limits, though not in mine because spanking was part of my childhood and I see no compelling reason to blot it out.

We read about many things in fiction that we would never wish to happen in real life. Popular fiction is full of wars, murders, dreadful accidents, monsters and all sorts of terrible things that clearly neither the writer nor the reader would wish to experience in real life. So it follows that if an author writes a socially incorrect scene into a spanking story, that is not evidence that he/she would ever want that event to actually happen in real life, and it certainly does not automatically make that author a bad person. It also follows that the same can be said for any reader who happens to enjoy the story.

The closer you look at the different types of fiction and the reasons we enjoy it, the stranger it gets.

Curiouser and couriouser, to be sure. Years ago there were several people who tried to insist that an interest in spanking HAD to come about because of one's being spanked in childhood. They insisted that my claim to have not grown up with that meant that I was suppressing it. I now know that some spankos were, some weren't. And with interests, for some it is sexual, some not. And theere are lots of other different variations. ISpanking is really not one klink, and a variety of them, with the common point being someone getting his/her bottom warmed. No wonder then that there are different interests in STORIES. I also agree, Guy, with your comments about wirters (or readers) not necessarily wishing the events described in a story ever to be real. It's just FANTASY, and fantasies are ok. I must admit, though, that I have had occasion to be disturbed about WHY I like writing (and reading) some of the stories I like. I guess it's good that I have those occasions - because it helps me to be sure to understand & remmeber the difference between a fantasy and what I might ever want for real. I've seen posting on other sites where I'm not sure the poster really understands that difference. All that being said, it doesn't bother me if people like stories that I don't, ot that other people don't like what I like. We're just different.

I would like to point out that the fantasy an author writes isn't necessarily his or her personal fantasy. Just as an author doesn't necessarily want to see what they write in real life, they don't necessarily want to see it in their mind's eye. Sometimes it's just what they're writing at the moment, sometimes a creative exercise, sometimes it's what that particular story needs.

-LK

Some contributors to this forum I sense feel uncomfortable about children appearing in spanking stories. However, not so long ago, it was mainly a punishment given to children, at least it was when I was young. Even with adult spanking their is often some form of role play involved. If, when you are spanking your partner, you call him a "naughty boy" or "naughty girl" you are pretending your partner is a child and needs to be chastised. I can't speak for other spanking writers but the child in my stories is always the same child. Its me. Early in my childhood I developed an obsession with spanking. It is an interest I have had all my life and as I am not more than mildly interested in adult consensual spanking, it is what I write about. It does slightly disturb me when I see it mentioned in the same sentence as scat and rape, after all no one is advocating spanking as a way of disciplining real children. I suppose I shouldn't be so sensitive, after all, as Guy so ably put it, we are all different.

Hmmm. I hope nobody minds some subject drift here, or perhaps this needs to be the start of a new subject?

I have been thinking about this all afternoon, but I just can't generalize my characters as clearly as Blimp seems to. If there is a child being spanked in one of my stories, it is often me. Sometimes my stories even take place in my actual childhood home or my actual elementry school. In that case, you can be pretty sure that the child is me. If I am not the child, I am just an off-stage observer. I can't recall a case where I am the spanker.