Musings from a budding writer

Not the length of story that we usually see on here but you could submit the finished article to LSF Publications. If it's acceptable, they might consider it publishing it as a full-length novel. Alternatively, it could be trimmed and turned into a serial.

Yes you will become attached to the characters, they are your creation. I had to draw serial (When Mary met Margaret) to a close, I did it through Margaret's death. It was easy writing the final chapter, but each time I proof read it, reading the chapter got harder emotionally. I wrote it, I knew what was going to happen but it still made for difficult reading. It is difficult to walk away from the characters after the serial has ended.

I keep a note pad to jot down ideas as I get them. I know roughly how I want the character to develop, but it doesn't always workout that way. A serial I've just finished, it's not been published yet, started as a single story, then came a new idea. Another character and then a second new character, I ended with a six part serial.

Your experience very much mirrors my own. I started purely writing for my own amusement. I read spanking stories for amusement and at one point decided to submit a short excerpt to the site concerned as a thank-you for all the enjoyment that I received from the works of other authors.
After some encouragement and editing, the story was accepted and I then moved on from there. Later it was suggested that I look at LSF and with much support and encouragement I have been hugely content here as both an avid reader and as an author.
The rules for authors here are clear and whilst there is, of course, a quality threshold; the team here is invariably kind and supportive in getting works over the line.
Do my characters develop a life of their own, of course, they do. My first piece 'The Alicia Chronicles' is still only 80% complete, and at present runs to 345 pages, but I have started to post it in bite sized chunks as Alicia and Peter's loving relationship develops from their first meeting through an eventful reunion to a planned end on their return from honeymoon 18 months later. Even then it has been suggested that further stories of their married life together and in due course as parents might be welcomed.
I have also developed a number of short series and stories set in several Girl's Schools with certain key characters recurring and others developing.
My longest single series posted here is in twelve parts and totals 107 pages so your 30 or more pages can easily be adapted into a series. If interest is maintained readers to whom the work appeals will stick with you. You can however expect your readership to drop to possibly as little as a fifth by the end of a longish serial as readers will of course have their individual preferences.
As far as whether a spanking story is a story devoted entirely to spanking or a story that includes spanking; the answer is that it can be either. Some readers will wish to read exclusively the former or only the spanking parts of the latter and skip the rest. Some will also only read a particular type of story e.g. M/F or school stories which may not appeal to others. the great thing about LSF is that there is a huge repository of tales to suit every taste and more than enough readers to find your audience.
My advice, therefore, is to write what you would like to read, let your characters and your story develop naturally, and when you are ready and provided it is within the site rules, have no hesitation in submitting it.
A series does not have to be submitted all at once and additional parts can be added over time (you can add parts with up to a year between them) so that readers can get a taste, the readership here is exceptional in providing helpful and supporting comments.
In summary, please follow your instincts. I really look forward to hearing about the young lady's African adventures and further works in due course. Best of Luck!!

Astrosmurf, your questions:

1 Authors, have you ever experienced this phenomenon where your story seemed to take on a life of its own and you began to feel a certain attachment to the characters?

2 Authors and readers alike, what exactly is a good spanking story in your opinion? Or more philosophically, what is a spanking story even?

3 Is it a tool to get the job done quickly (if you know what I mean)? Or is it a piece of literature that you enjoy for its artistic qualities? Or maybe some combination of the two?

1 Almost always. I start with a concept, knowing roughly what will happen. Then I start developing the characters and the location. Once that is done the characters take over, behaving as such characters would in such circumstances, they "come alive" at least for me. From that point on I just need to nudge them to keep the story on track.

Once that has happened, I do, of course develop an attachment for them, unless the character depicted is truly unpleasant.

2 For me a good spanking story is both arousing and interesting. I like to think that I could remove the spankings from some of my stories and they would still be interesting. I may be kidding myself.

To be interesting there needs to good background, people and place/situation. But readers wanting to be aroused may be turned off by lengthy, but necessary, scene setting and characterisation. So that bit should always be interspersed by references to spankings past or future, to keep them interested.

The spankings themselves should be well described and interesting. I also like some insight into the characters' feelings leading up to, during, and after the event.

Personally, I like to end on a high note--something amusing or foretelling future activities.

3 As I have observed the story needs to be arousing but that bit should be set in a piece of literature that you enjoy for its artistic qualities. I believe however that there are LSF readers who are only interested in the "good bits" and only spend a minute or so finding and reading them, rather than reading the whole piece.

Astrosmurf, if your fiction is as good as your post, I expect that your stories will be worth reading!

Geoffrey Stirling.

Well I suppose it's time for me to jump in and add the odd, minority viewpoint.

In my case my attachment to my characters sort of precedes their creation since nearly every single character is based partially, substantially, or entirely on people I know, including myself.

As for what makes a "spanking story"? I take a literal....though not literary view: it's a story with a pivotal spanking (acted out or not) in it. Others would almost certainly disagree. I say pivotal to exclude works of literature which are about entirely different issues but happen to contain a spanking in it. For example, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and even 'Tom Sawyer' contain spankings, but while important, they are not pivotal events to the overall plot or theme, hence NOT 'spanking stories'.

I can't think of any novel length works I consider to be 'good' spanking stories. Most are just sequential spankings scenes linked together over the course of time with little else going on, and the ones that have tried to have a nobler goal often come across as preachy. I prefer a concise, tight, clever, stand-alone story that touches on something integral, poignant, or just artfully or emotionally evocative of what it means to have this predilection. Say it, say it well, and move on.

My advice if you use your stories as wank-fodder.....which is fine......is to enjoy them, get your jollies, and then..... post orgasm....... reread it and ask yourself if it's still good. If it only works as a 'tool', others may like it and even praise it, but it won't be for me. Like I said though, I'm a minority voice.

I have been experiencing the same phenomenon as I try my hand at writing spanking stories, and find it extremely enjoyable as the story essentially begins writing itself through my hands. The plot starts heading in different directions than I had planned or even envisioned. The characters begin to exhibit traits that are unexpected and twists and turns emerge to send the story sailing on a different tack entirely. I find it compelling and very entertaining, sometimes to the point of spending more time writing than I should, at the expense of other things that need to be taken care of!

I think that a good spanking story should be a good story at its base, with the spanking woven into the fabric of the story in whatever aspect the author would like to portray. It is a piece of literature, regardless of its emphasis or topic. Spanking happens to be a great vehicle for me to share my point of view with the world, and hopefully, it resonates with others on whatever level it may and enriches the readers' lives!

I wrote an article about this years ago for Well Red Weekly. Not sure how to link to it, let me quote you the main bit:

What must a spanking story do?

It must entertain, in the broadest sense: make us gasp, cry, laugh, blush and nod in recognition, but perhaps most importantly ... it must reach and heat those parts that other fictions don't. Who amongst us did not first come here in search of that sensually specific stimulation?

And to entertain, it must hold our attention from start to finish with characters, setting and a plot that captivate and transport us. It must avoid unnecessary details, or readers will be scrolling down for the hot bits, and never mind who, where, how or why. It must also avoid the kind of implausibility that spoils whatever illusion it has set out to create.

What must a spanking story have?

To qualify for inclusion here in the LSF, a story must evoke the feelings associated with the application of something solid or slicey to a (preferably) luscious fleshy bottom. As many of us know, the eagle-eyed Library Staff have remarkable laser-vision for spotting Other Genres that try to sneak their way onto Our Hallowed Shelves with a token bolt-on spanking, when really such stories belong Elsewhere!

I hesitate to insist that a spanking story must also have a reason or motive for its spanking; of course, most stories do, and that build-up is usually important to our enjoyment. It's just that Our Genre is so specific that, in the many thousands of examples collected here, it is not surprising to find every possible avenue (highway, road, boulevard, street, lane AND cul-de-sac) very thoroughly explored, and that includes the Utterly Pointless Spanking - because that too can be fun, done well. Let's face it: never in the field of human fantasy has so much been penned by so many to so naughtily light our fuse.

What must a spanking story be?

It must be imaginative; it must surprise a little. But, with almost 17,000 stories here alone at the time of writing, we cannot, surely, expect it to be original, can we?

Consider this: latest estimates from the LSF Archivists suggest that over half a million wives, 415,000 schoolgirls, 328,000 husbands and 176,000 boys and girls have now been spanked in these shelves with 624,000 hands, 412,000 paddles, 369,000 canes, 197,000 hairbrushes and one wet fish, over innumerable laps, desks, chairs, sofa arms and pillows (innumerable because we haven't counted those yet).

LSF writers were among the first in the developed world to foresee the Crisis of Global Capitalism in the devastating economic effects of naughty wives' maxed-out credit cards, of crashed cars and the mountains of shoplifted goods. It was we, long ago, who predicted the Fragmentation of Social Cohesion in the plague of non-regulation knickers sweeping our nations' schools, undermining the very fabric of ... etc.

No. Originality, you would think, must be as hard to come by in the LSF as an apology from a pre-spanked brat. And yet, miraculously, new nuggets do emerge: not, admittedly, in the colour a bottom turns after Punishment Paddling number 412,001, or in the sound a hairbrush makes, or the nature of a spankee's cries (for how many ways are there to say 'CRACK' and 'OUCH'?), but ... characters, like humans, are unique, and the English language itself is an almost limitless mine of shafts and seams, all to be plundered for our pleasure, and sometimes, just sometimes, on your Latest page, or buried deep beneath the mysteries of the Browse button, you stumble across ... your perfect story.

Thank you very much for your very thoughtful replies!!!

I will re-read them and comment on them later!

I am honestly a little overwhelmed by both the number and the length and quality of the replies, so I have parsed them into sections to make them easier to overlook and interspersed some comments:

*1. Does the story take on a life of its own, and do you feel an attachment to your characters:*












Well, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has had these things happen, and I appreciate reading about your experiences.

Kanestrokes, I can understand your feelings regarding killing off a character. If you change your mind, you could consider some kind of Reichenbach falls type retcon!

My own main character is 18, and the story is probably set around 2008, so conceivably I could spend the next many years following her until the present day. Hopefully, my innate laziness will keep this from happening.

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*2. What is a spanking story, and what makes it enjoyable? Is it a tool, a piece of literature, or something in between?*




The way you have phrased this resonates with me a lot, Geoffrey. I think I can say this is what I have been trying to do. But I feel I may have went a little overboard with my description of feelings and background. More about this below.
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I can see what you mean, and you make me a little worried that readers may find some of the details a little too boring. Interestingly, the whole background and detail thing came about out of my desire to make the whole scenario more plausible. But like I said, I may have gone overboard. More below.
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That's entirely fair!
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That's true.

Like I said in an earlier post, as a reader I do tend to search for stories that fit with what I like - e.g. "wanting to be spanked" type stories, and after a first readthrough I will concentrate on the "good" bits.

But longer narratives can draw me in with their prose or the themes they explore. And after having dabbled in writing myself I will definitely try look more actively for such stories.
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*3. Advice, story length, etc.*






That is very encouraging!

My thought was to divide it into parts and upload the first one and see if it could get through the eye of the needle, as it were. Then, if there were any interest in it, I could upload more. But the question is if it will fit in here. More below.
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Okay, that is fair. See my next post for my thoughts on this.
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Are those actual statistics? That is impressive! I am particularly interested in learning more about the wet fish! Do you know what story that is from?
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Nothing wrong with being a minority voice.

Interestingly, I'm not sure if I could use the story like this. I don't know if this is because I am too close to it, or if there are simply not enough "good" bits in it. More below.
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That is very encouraging, and thank you for your nice words!
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Thank you, Geoffrey, that is very kind of you!!
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Thanks again for your replies! More to follow!

As promised (threatened), here are some details about my story that make me wonder if it could interest others, and if it would fit in here.

As I have hinted, it started out as a simple story about a young girl who goes to an African country and is shocked to learn that they use corporal punishment there. After a first draft, I realised that realistically any western girl in that situation would just hop on the next plane home and then sue the school and exchange agency. So I decided the story should explain her motivation for staying, and I also thought it would be nice to go into more depth with descriptions of both characters and setting.

Like I said, I have a soft spot for the "wanting to be spanked but having mixed feelings" trope, so it was inevitable that that would work its way in there.

Also, I like a long, slow build-up, and the feelings of the characters can be more interesting for me than the actual spank-spank part.

The end result is that although spanking is the linchpin of the story, there are relatively few spankings in it so far. In stead, the majority of the narrative is used to describe the main character's reaction to suddenly finding herself in an environment of discipline and corporal punishment, and how she struggles to come to terms with her mixed emotions.

So there are a lot of descriptions of her thoughts, inner dialogue, etc. and of the ... hm ... auto-erotic activities that she indulges in as a result of being in this environment. Not to spoil too much of the plot, but she eventually decides to accept her new feelings and explore her submissive side.

I am concerned that readers may find such a story boring, and also that the moderators may find that the story focuses too much on her erotic awakening and not enough on actual spankings.

The first nine pages, which I might submit as the first chapter, describes the background of the characters and how the main character's stay came about, and then explores her mixed emotions and rationalisations when she learns about the corporal punishment used in her new family. There are no actual spankings, but a lengthy discussion with her new sister about the punishment regime of the household, and a part where her host mother lays out the rules she must follow, which I personally find particularly saucy.

I promise there will be actual spankings in the second and third parts though!

Again, I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts. If I don't get strongly discouraging replies, I will probably try to post the first nine pages at some point.

Thanks for reading!