Reflections on ‘The Adventures of Bridget Gallagher’

I finished writing ‘The Adventures of Bridget Gallagher’ about two and a half years after starting it; it’s fifty two episodes and nearly 139,000 words long, and concentrates on about six years of her life, from sixteen to twenty two, although there is some coverage of a wider time span.

I wanted to write some reflections on the process of writing such a long piece, both for myself, and for anyone else who might be interested. I don’t think I’ll write such a lengthy thing again, although I swore I’d never do another marathon after my first, and I’ve done three! Having said that, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing it, it’s just that it’s been such an epic undertaking.

For a long time I’ve wanted to write a spanking ‘coming of age story’, set in the times of my own youth, the seventies and early eighties. I wanted to write about how someone with a spanking fetish in those days experienced it, processed it and lived with it. I wanted to capture something of the inner life of a spanko in the days before the internet.

These days you can discover that spanking is a relatively widespread sexual kink or fetish in about five seconds, and in no more than a few hours can see more spanking pictures and read more spanking erotica than we got to see in years! We literally didn’t know if we were the only one with this thing, or if there might even be a few hundred others around the world.

This gave great weight and resonance to the things we did see and discover, from comics to TV shows and films, taking in newspaper stories and real life experiences on the way. I think we all went to our local library and looked up ‘spanking’ in the dictionary, and it never failed to be a deep thrill to see the word in print.

Although it felt like a hidden, shameful thing, there was in fact lots of bottom whacking going on, in schools and families, it was just that there was no acknowledgment of its sexual dimension. Looking back, that’s one reason why caning and slippering was able to carry on for so long, since recognising that for some it’s a fetish challenges the whole ethos of physical discipline.

I wanted to realistically capture the process of someone recognising their fetish and coming to terms with it, while they’re also trying to find people to share it with. It was important to me to show this as a complicated and sometimes difficult process, rather than a simple light bulb moment. Of course, I also wanted there to be lots of entertaining and stimulating spanking going on!

I decided to write it about a young woman, mostly because that interested me most, and to write it in the first person. I thought that gave the greatest scope for getting her thoughts and feelings right, although it also meant I had to work hard to get her voice, and then sustain and develop it.
I’ve been lucky enough to have had enduring relationships with women with a spanking kink or fetish, and that helped a lot in trying to make Bridget real.

Most of all I wanted her to be brave, thoughtful and beautiful, with her long red hair, eyes afire and chin stuck out, as she finds her way in the world; I fell in love with her, of course and I think that helped a lot, I lived with her a lot, away from the times I gave her voice,

I also tried to make her a woman of her times; she’s very bright, working class, left wing and feminist in the seventies, taking advantage of the opportunities for remaking herself through education that blossomed then. She thinks a lot too, so she’s prone to philosophical asides and deep pondering about her fetish, and inevitably struggles to make sense of some of the apparent contradictions.

One thing that I was determined to cover was how important spanking porn/erotica was for people discovering and exploring this fetish; its liberating aspects, if you like. I also tried to give a picture of that largely amateur/enthusiast world, its economics and technology, which has gone for good!

Sadly, I have to tell you that Bridget doesn’t exist, but is an amalgam of aspects of real people’s characters and behaviours, plus a dash of my own yearnings! Similarly a lot of her spanking experiences are made up, although quite a few aren’t! I’ve tried to make her adventures plausible, even if some are less likely than others; in the end I think it’s the extent of her experiences that’s unlikely, rather than any particular scenario.

I had the basic plot from the start, I didn’t want to just jump in and see where it went. I won’t give any developments away here but everything significant that happened was in my head before I began. I needed that framework to help me avoid just writing repetitive spanking scenes that can become tedious; there are a few places where I swerved sharply sway from the common plots of our genre.

However, it ended up being about 60% longer than I planned, because the world and characters I’d created demanded more space. For example, Bridget’s holiday in Lyme Regis was going to be only one episode, and yet when I began to write it that was clearly impossible! These are the times when the story writes itself, and you just have to keep up.

So, what were the difficulties? There were certainly times when I got tired of it, and couldn’t find the energy to carry on, and thought about giving up. Well, I really don’t like giving up, so that thought didn’t lead anywhere, but its like mile eighteen of a marathon, ‘why am I doing this?’ You have to answer as best you can, but for me it’s that I said I would, and people are expecting it.

I did write two other ‘coming of age’ stories in some of the lulls, ‘The Triangle’ and ‘Nancy’, and they were certainly aided by all my thinking about such stuff that ‘Bridget’ called for.

The dwindling number of views and comments didn’t help either; I can’t exaggerate their importance in encouraging me to keep going, and in trying to meet the standards I’d set myself. So, when an episode gets two comments and fifty views, it’s discouraging! Fortunately those two or three comments were supportive and insightful, so it felt that it wasn’t some crazy task I’d set myself that no one cared about.

I used the forum to try to drum up readers and that worked, and helped me to get the energy to finish.

The struggle at the end was to let the story live and breathe, and not to rush to the conclusion, just because I could see it. Any ending has a arbitrary side to it, it’s just a point of punctuation really, so I enjoyed sketching adventures I’ll never write, as she reviews her life.

I’ve been writing shorter things since, and really enjoying getting quickly from conception to conclusion, and getting more readers and more comments, and I’m planning writing more, perhaps seeing just how short they could be!

I’m still deeply in love with Bridget, though…

As an author, myself, of long-form spanking fiction I recognised many of your thoughts on the subject and share your concern on the dearth of comments, which I largely put down to the growth of the use of the smartphone as the tool to access LSF--makes writing a comment much more difficult than sitting in front of a keyboard and screen.

Your writing is excellent, as is your characterisation of Bridget. Keep it up!

Geoffrey Stirling.

First of all, congratulations on completing such an epic work. I can struggle to keep my focus after writing 193 words so l will never achieve what you have done.
Your recollections of growing up reflected my own feelings at the time, a decade earlier than you. For my first job in the 1970’s I was fortunate to work in central London close to Soho and the Janus bookshop where of course l discovered l was not alone while browsing the shelves. And of course, in that era there were the postcard adverts in the phone boxes for both escorts and for mistresses who would provide spanking services.
I agree there wasn’t any acknowledgement at the time of the sexual element of physical punishment. You can look back now and realise there must have been. I was once threatened with the slipper at grammar school but never actually got it. Looking back l can fantasise about what would it have been like and at that time l was aware of my interest in spanking, but at the time l was just terrified.
Coming of age as a spanko is a very interesting journey that is different for each of us and l can see why you chose that genre. Congratulations again and keep up the excellent work.

Congratulations for completing that story! It's twice as long as the longest story I have here.

I don't know why some stories get more views and comments than others. Nor do I know why some parts of a series get fewer views than others - sometimes going down and up. Going down, that I can understand, but going back up? That just doesn't make sense to me.

Coming of age stories are wonderful, as we've all come of age. Coming of age stories set before the internet are wonderful for us who grow up then. I've written several of those, usually from the POV of a teenage boy, and often the desired spanking doesn't happen because, hey, if others know that his parents don't (or no longer) spanks him then why would other parental types spank him?

As for stories taking on a life of their own, sometimes I love that, other times I hate that. I love it when the characters come alive enough to speak for themselves, but I hate it when they move the story away from spanking.

Again, congratulations for hitting a milestone!

While most of my work is in the form of single episodes, I enjoy the challenge of writing a more extended story. The constraint for me is the implied need to base each episode around an incident of spanking and yet for it not to become repetitive. I try to make each of my stories different with respect to characters and scenarios. And l find it difficult to achieve these aims within a multi episode format while also making the story as realistic and 'almost' credible as possible.
For this reason I have restricted my longer form work to the two 'novelettes' listed under my name.
However I would invite any reader who is looking for a more complete and fully developed tale to give these a try.

Thank you so much for finishing The Adventures of Bridget Gallagher. I enjoyed reading it, and I may decide to read it again. It is a really good story and well written, worth a second reading.

I appreciate your reflections on writing the story. While reading it, I often wondered about your motivations and background and what influence it had on the writing of this story, why the story took some of the directions that it did. Your reflections shed some light on much of my wondering.

I think you did a good job of capturing thoughts and feelings of someone with a spanking fetish in that time period; the wondering if anyone else experiences this, enjoying references to spanking in the media, looking up spanking in the dictionary all ring true. The process of Bridget coming to terms with her desires, and the adventurous way that she pursues them makes a great story for those of us that can relate to it.

Thanks again for the work that you put in to finish this series!

It’s a very difficult thing to write a full length spanking novel without becoming repetitive or escalating the violence to grotesque levels but Theo manages it somehow. He is expert in understanding the thoughts and anxieties of a young woman, and creates really loveable stern older women characters.

When writing a serial I tend to believe that every part should have at least some spanking, even though I am not always true to my belief.

Theo demonstrates that it is quite unnecessary--probably because his writing is so good and interesting. It never feels like wading through dross, just to get to the good bits. Good bits, of course, are always so much better in context.

Geoffrey Stirling.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Adventures of Bridget Gallagher. I'm only sorry that it had to end.

Like almost everybody on here (except Goodgulf and other notables) I find it almost impossible to comment on every or even most episodes of a series without my comments being very much the same as each other - which seems pointless. Also, but not applicable in your case, I rarely comment on stories that I don't like, since A) they are a decent story, but aimed at different audience, or B) they are not well written - and as a non-author I don't feel qualified to judge those who make the effort.

I have at last finished reading the story of Bridget Gallagher and assume I’m finally qualified to comment here. My first reaction is one of surprise as I rarely read serials at all, and now I have finished one of 52 chapters and almost 140 000 words. It’s not that I don’t like long stories (the 19th century with all its three-decker novels has always been where I feel the most at home), but I don’t have much time to spend on reading spanking literature, and the little I have, I would rather use to explore a variety of authors than being stuck in one universe.

So why did I then start reading the Bridget Gallagher Saga? One reason was that I had just (rather belatedly) discovered that Theo was one of the finest authors in the library - one who wrote stories that was much more than just descriptions of spanking action. Another reason was that he seems to have forgotten to tell us that the story would run on and on for 52 chapters!

A better question is probably why I didn’t stop. After all, I have long ago given up the foolish pride that for many years stopped me from abandoning a book once I had started it. I think the main reason was that I was bewitched by Bridget’s voice. The story is narrated by a much older and more mature Bridget, and the contrast between the younger and older version of the same person is not only fascinating but rings entirely true. The older Bridget looks back at her younger self with amusement, but also with sympathy and compassion, and she is definitely the same Bridget, although the years may have have have mellowed her a trifle.

The perspective of the older Bridget allows the author to include reflections not only on the spanking fetish, but also on the political and social developments over the last fifty years. As they are presented through Bridget, they never feel intrusive, but are a natural and integrated part of the narrative. Personally, I enjoyed Bridget’s musings as much as I enjoyed the many colorful spanking scenes, and a spanking story that makes you go back and reread Yeats’s «Easter, 1916» has definitely proved it’s worth! (And that’s far from the only thing it made me look up.) To me as a slightly older contemporary of Bridget, the story brought back at flood of memories, but I think the younger generation will find it equally fascinating.

First and foremost, Theo is a damned good writer. He makes it look so natural and effortless, but it takes time and thought to figure out exactly what to include and what to leave out, and it takes talent to describe it with exactly the right words. If you haven’t read «The Adventures of Bridget Gallagher» yet, there’s a treat waiting for you: The greatest English picaresque novel since «Tom Jones» (or is it a coming-of-age novel?)