A question for fellow authors.

What an interesting topic! I guess it really gets down to why we write what we do, doesn't it? For me, I often start out with an idea or, perhaps predicament that one gets into or is a part of, and then explores that idea in a manner that most closely aligns with what I want to express, including word choice and descriptive terms. For this site, it would have to be something spanking related that I want to explore. The more I write, the easier it is to get in touch with the mood I'm trying to evoke, much like a jazz musician striving to get out the authentic improvisational solo that they're hearing inside of them. Clearly, the better you know your instrument, the easier it is tio get in touch with the music you are trying to express. Likewise with the craft of writing, the more you do it, the easier it is to depict whatever scenario you happen to be weaving. What is really cool for me, is when the story heads in a direction you didn't anticipate when you first started it. That is super satisfying for me. The story truly takes on a life of its own!........Ramon

It's very fascinating when this happens. For me, it's usually the characters that take on a life of their own and set off in an unexpected direction. Once or twice I have tried to stop them, but my experience is that it's useless and only ruins the story.

Many authors have mentioned this phenomenon here in the Forum over the years, and it's been 'a thing' for me too. Perhaps it is for everyone except those most brilliant at planning everything down to a T? It can be frustrating when you think you've a good plot going and your fictional creation decides it knows better.

But what I've found interesting, especially in longer fictions, is how such 'improvisations' can lead me to manifest, albeit indirectly, parts of my subconscious I hadn't known needed airing. A character can engineer a situation that touches a dormant nerve, and that passage can remain emotionally potent for me long after I've written it. Writing as therapy, anyone? Specially in our genre!

Bravo, English Master! You are so right on! There is something that takes over, perhaps another part of our consciousness that kicks in, unraveling our hidden mysteries. I remember taking an advanced Creative Writing class in college from a young grad student out of Brown University. She was tough, and could be scathing in her critiques of one's work. However, her major project for the semester was to do a stream of consciousness journal each day. I was trying to decide if I wanted to change majors at the time, and that exercise made it clear that I needed to change because of the unfettered back and forth that came out of me spontaneously every day in the writing. She noticed it right away. I changed majors and never looked back.

Thank you, Ramon. I'd normally be very English and skip quoting your compliment, but I wrote a scene recently where a young teacher gets spanked by an older teacher-mentor for brushing her compliments aside rather than accepting them gracefully, and I abhor hypocrisy, so...


Definitely another part of our consciousness, because where else is there for this stuff to come from? On the 'Where does it end' thread over there (----->), Alef was just talking about the role of instinct and intuition in writing, which may be relevant to what you say. Worth a peek.

I'd add that TTWD is variously erotic, hysterical, dangerous, stimulating, sexual and deeply stirring of our 'unconscious' (if you subscribe to such an entity), so writing about it, in the service of however innocent or prurient a motive, is bound to get psychologically interesting, isn't it?

That's the kind of journaling I try to do. Not every day, only when I feel the need. I find it helpful in many ways. But not necessarily helpful when you try to write for someone else. My "stream of conscious" often only consists of keywords that trigger my mind to fill in the blanks. But I can use it as a plot. As far as what part of my consciousness takes over from there? I enjoy best what I think of as "lucid dreaming.". Unfortunately, I tend to want to keep dreaming, instead of writing.

I also find this thread and the " Where does it end" thread helpful. That TTWD creates many paradoxes. I struggle with what to write, how to write it, and whether to write it. At this point reading these threads is more "satisfying" than writing.

So far there have been 25 contributions on this thread but far fewer comments on the story I was trying to promote. Ho hum.

Perhaps because your promotion suggested that the spankee was male?

Geoffrey.

I read and responded to this thread, and I read the story which prompted it, but didn't comment exactly because it succeeded as was your intention: to write a story pretty much devoid of anything but a focus on spanking. Such stories do little for me and to be nice I didn't leave a comment. (As I said, I often don't leave comments if I feel they are just going to be criticisms.) However, I will go leave a comment and try not to be too negative. (Be careful what you wish for, I guess? )

On another note, i do utterly sympathize with the disappointment of mentioning a story in a thread, especially one that is a personal departure/experiment, and getting little response anyway. It is happening to me as well on the sci-fi piece I mentioned in the sci-fi thread. Just 5 comments so far and one telling me how the reader found the story confusing after admitting to having skipped over large sections of it. The ratio of comments to reads in general lately......at least on my pieces.....has been disappointing at best. But I think that's just the state of things in 2025.

If we keep to the original distinction between "spanking stories" and "stories with a spanking", I have a feeling that there is an implicit value judgement involved, namely that "stories with a spanking" are somehow superior to "spanking stories". This may be true in average (especially if one has read so many spanking stories that one is getting sick and tired of the genre!), but I doubt it is a general rule. As an experiment, I tried to divide my own stories into "spanking stories" and "stories with a spanking", and I learned at least two things: (i) it’s harder than one might believe (I think I was in doubt about at least a third of the stories) and (ii) although I think most of my best stories are "stories with a spanking", there isn’t a clear difference, and there are definitely "spanking stories" I would put high on the list. But perhaps that because they aren’t just spanking stories, but also what I’ve called "stories about spanking", i.e. stories that explore the way the spanking kink works.