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

I agree opb, which is why I think the succinct spanking descriptions contained in ordinary fiction are often so much more evocative and powerful than many dedicated spanking novels.

For me I find it easier to write spanking poems than serials and stories. I use the analogy that my poems are more the equivalent of a sprint, whereas stories are closer to a marathon. This said, my poems, to me anyway, ARE for the most part spanking stories... just very short ones. I do usually try to fit in the same elements in my poems... plot, [minor] character background and feelings of [primarily] the spankee about their predicament and all but kind of a "Reader's Digest Condensed" manner than a more fleshed out version in a story or serial. A lot of my poems are describing having been spanked or an impending spanking so in many of them, although ABOUT spanking, there are NO actual spankings meted out.

one of the challenges I encounter is in creating verse that works with the narrative. Although I write poems I claim to know next to nothing about poetry. For instance, there are tons of poems out there that are not composed of rhymes but those confuse me more than anything else. To me the whole rhyming structure is poetry for me. I am no Emily Dickenson or Sylvia Plath by any stretch of the imagination! I currently have 180 poems in the library with over 100 in the can to yet release so my problem is to not re-use the same words in my poems, which I am sure I have probably done to some degree, over and over but when I have cranked out so many I have trouble remembering content from months/years ago and keep it from being inadvertently rehashed in new works. Plus I can feel limited by my relative inability to create poems that don't rhyme to come up with content because there are only so many pairings that work.

Anyhow, I just like what I do and from the majority of the comments I get (for which I am elated to receive, be they positive, negative or neutral!) it seems that the people kind enough to read them enjoy them as well.

I agree with many of the above comments. The story line should be of interest and credible entirely independent of any spanking which may, or may not, form a natural component of it. Repetitive descriptions of improbable and usually increasingly severe punishment descend rapidly into farce and kill any appeal the story might otherwise have held.
For me the challenge is to develop and describe a scenario within which a spanking could have occurred. To stretch the elastic of credibility as far as possible but not to breaking point. I have less interest in the act itself, preferring to leave that to the imagination of the reader.
My preference is for the non sexual discipline of those teens or young adults who might imagine they are beyond such indignities. As such I try to cover all combinations in different tales with both male and female spankers and spankers.
As a reader, I also seek out stories which comply with this pattern. We all write primarily for our own satisfaction, but of course hope that others find interest and pleasure in them, particularly recording this in supportive comments

mj2001 - care to share your 'cheat sheet' with the rest of us? We might be able to add a few terms you haven't thought of!

I did write a story which comprised a little girl spanking her doll. She was then spanked by her brother, who was spanked by big sister, who was spanked by her mother, who was spanked by her husband, who was spanked by his local domme with whom he'd missed his appointment, who then got spanked herself by the apex predator, the local leather master. Unfortunately he then met up with his mother who'd run away from her care home and gathered some birch rods on the way, and this all took place in a small terraced house in Accrington, England. Well, this one WAS meant as farce!

I've tried writing all manner of spanking variations with varying degrees of success. I don't think I'm good at the intensely erotic so I use humour and parody quite a lot.

You should have set it in Yorkshire instead:

"I got spanked by my big sister!"

"Luxury, we got the hairbrush from me mam!"

"Luxury, our dad used to thrash us with his belt!"

"Luxury etc etc.....

As a writer, I have found this exchange to be both fascinating and enlightening. I tend to live within my own world (both imaginary and real, as I am blessed to be in a domestic discipline relationship), but it's a good thing to step outside that world occasionally, to expand, so to speak, the larger world we all share. The beauty of spanking, from a writer's perspective, is that the possibilities are seemingly unlimited. To me, a good story explores the reasons for and the motivations behind the spanking (or spankings). Among adults, spanking is always a consensual act. The question is why. Of course, the spanking itself is the main event, and I agree with everyone else that it is often difficult to describe without being redundant. But, as writers, we owe it to our readers to go beyond that, to at least attempt to provide fresh characters, fresh situations, and fresh insights. Anyway, that's my two cents. I do appreciate the forum.

How a spanking should be? That depends, but often I like it rather long. I get disappointed when I work my way through a long build up and it then ends with a "and then he/she was spanked". I want details. Most of all I like it when there's a lot of emotions flashing through the spankees mind in response to the spanking. It can be half a page between each slap, describing the turmoil in the head of the person getting his/her rear fried. Anger, frustration, regret, self-pity, I want it all and I want to read about the progress through the storm until the spankee has reached the intended mental state that the spanker was looking for. And I don't mind if the bottom is described as shiny red, glossy, beaming like a setting sun, buttocks like two glowing domes standing over a city on fire, fire-engine red, like two ripe tomatoes, like plums, a volcano eruption, a storm of arrows shooting from the center of the rear and up the spine making the brain explode, buttocks like polished cherries, striped like tram-lines, ridges of agony running from one side of the burning landscape to the other, a screaming red shining like a lighthouse penetrating the dark making it glow as if the planet is about to fall into the sun, like a white-hot star, so hot that you could fry eggs on bare flesh, swollen to twice the original size unable to fit in the pants again, about to burn through the back of the pants, hot enough to set the seat of the chair on fire, radiating a heat strong enough to warm a ballroom in the middle the Siberian winter, making the water in the sink boil as the rear is lowered into the water. I like vivid parables, which I guess some of you might have noticed already if you have read some of my my contributions. Well, I could go on for quite a while here, but I think you get the idea. It sort of adds to the description of the experience of the spankees, when they feel as if something like that is happening, even if he/she knows that it's only in the mind. I've read well over 2000 stories here and it's just as great every time, as long as the emotions are there. If a bottom is red after a spanking, I want to read that it's red to get into the mood. I don't mind if I've read the same phrasing hundreds of times. To me, it's just as good every time. It's the story leading up to the spanking that matters. The actual spanking is of course the peak, but it's the road to get there that builds up to the climactic moment that does it. I don't mind if the same words describing the spanking return often, as long as the spanking is thoroughly described. I don't like spankings that are over the top though. The spanking can be mind-shattering in the mind of the spankee, but I don't like if it leaves any actual damage, beyond a few stripes. However, to make the plot in many of my mistaken identity stories work, many of the spankings I've described might seem rather harsh and long. Having said that, most of my stories with many favs happen to be exactly the ones with very long, intense and often excessive spankings that would never work in real life.

A lot of American stories describe someone getting 'their butt blistered' and I've wondered if that's literal or metaphorical? Perhaps someone who has experienced a wooden paddle can answer. Does it produce blisters?

I have read claims that a paddle with large holes can produce blisters, but seen no evidence that it actually does.

You hear the expression "the runner set off at a blistering pace", or "the blistering heat of the fire", so I tend to think it is just a figure of speech rather than an actual description.