How much of an 'actual' spanking do you want in a story?

How much of an 'actual' spanking do you want in a story?

The reason I ask this is because I find the spankings described in mainstream fiction to be just as powerful as those in dedicated spanking novels, even though they are much shorter in description. Largely I suspect because the scene build up has drawn me into the characters and the plot, which feeds my imagination rather than dictates to it. Much like a radio and books can create more powerful images in your mind than TV/movies do.

Another other issue is 'reality', where the magnitude of a punishment is well documented for schools and homes and stepping beyond such known limits starts to become abuse or consensual S&M. Etonian or dungeon floggings which draw blood have no appeal for me.

Finally the choice of traditional weapons is limited as are the positions for receiving punishment, therefore being too descriptive can just become predictable and repetitive.

What do others feel?

About twenty years ago I first became aware that spanking fiction existed and I bought some. I ended up throwing most of it away. Some of it was just too brutal and made me feel sick. Some of it was very badly written and I found this irritating, and much of it was just very little plot except spanking and that's just not very interesting after the first time.

My interest then spent many years being fed only by sections in mainstream fiction/non fiction. I found autobiography a particularly good source. Most people seem to remember a childhood spanking.

Having discovered this library, I have been delighted to find a wealth of genuinely well written stories where there is usually a good scene setting and a build up to the spanking.

I have my personal preferences and there's plenty here that doesn't fit them but I can just move on and find something else. Although I always feel I've had my wrist slapped when I get that message saying don't flick through the stories too quickly. This is usually when something in the first paragraph horrifies me (any mention of nipple clamps will do that) and I try to switch to something else.

For me it is different types of stories for different moods. I have also gone through phases of a particular style of story.

I like stories which explore the characters to some extent, especially when spanking is in their DNA because that makes me feel normal too. If I am intrigued by the characters then there can never be too much of this but impatience creeps in sometimes.

These days, I tend to fast read through any "Thwack" "ow" "Thud" "ouch" sections because I have read so many but I took in every detail at first. I enjoy it when little details are included about the spanking. I am an active sub so these details are often my reality check.

I did surprise myself in recent days by becoming engrossed in a series of standalone stories involving severe BDSM and a lot of of sexual content. Maybe not entirely realistic but an extrapolation of my experience brought them within the bounds of my interest. Extreme stories maybe a minority interest but I am glad there are those types of stories here.

There are also those stories which connect with something I suppress in myself. There was a recent "innocent" school story which pressed buttons I did not realise I have. In this case the spanking was quite a small part of the story and it was not about punishment at all but something much more delicate.

In recent years I have been drawn to stories with humour which could be about becoming more relaxed and able to laugh at some of the absurdities of my spanking interest. These often have very little character development and are mainly about dilemma and resolution.

Early on, I was fascinated by domestic discipline and the non-consensual act within a consensual agreement. These were often heavily weighted with the psychology, presented as internal musings.

So I celebrate the diversity of the library which has always met my needs as I explore my kink and it changes. I was thinking about drawing up the requirements for my perfect spanking story and it cannot be done.

I agree Katie.

The URL I posted the other day "Ms. Servalan Cane Class @ DomConLA taken by Mistress Ellen" was a very interesting documentary, but from my perspective there was too much caning and sadly no reaction from the victim.

Ms Servalan was a very skilled caner which was impressive to see in action, but she might as well have been just tenderising a steak rather than dishing out a punishment. Had it been just six of the best and some tears/squeals it would have been much better.

I think the same is true of stories, short and appropriate spankings are better than long lashings with multiple weapons.

For me the human drama is key; how did this spanking come to be? Character, plot, anticipation all make the spanking itself more powerful, in my view.

Unexpectedly coming across a spanking in mainstream fiction is a special pleasure in its own right, and quite different from reading spanko literature. In one of my stories, "The Letter of the Law", I deliberately set out to recreate the mainstream feeling by skipping over the spanking in a couple of sentences. Most comments were favourable, but it was clear that some readers felt cheated!

theo54
Well, Theo you win the prize (a small handwritten certificate) for having written my very favourite story in the library. I keep going back to re-read the Olga series and mutter bits of it to myself when I'm alone. And it's the characters and the situation that make it so good.

Absolutely Alan. The spanking in 'A Sparrow Falls' by Wilbur Smith is just a few sentences in a long novel, yet it is one of the most beautiful descriptions of the OTKing of a mature female brat I have ever read.

When it comes to describing the actual punishment I have to take care not to use the same phrases that I've used previously or clichés that have been used a thousand times before in other stories. How many times have we been told that the victim's "bottom was on fire" or read similar wearisome lines? I'm sure that other writers have the same challenges.

I must admit that I soon get bored by long descriptions of spankings, but tastes are different, and I often get chided for the brevity of my own spanking scenes (and perhaps rightly so because part of the reason they are of so brief, is that I find them terribly difficult to write!) I think there is a difference, though, between what I would call "slow" and "quick" implements. It seems much easier to keep up the intensity in a long drawn out description of a six stroke caning than in the description of a two hundred stroke hand spanking. With a slow implement one can easier retain the fear and the embarrassment from the build-up.