Fact to fiction

I would be interested in knowing the creative process that the rest of you employ when taking a life experience and turning it into a story. It is an interesting process since the spanking itch begins as a fantasy and hopefully manifests into a specific reality which an author then turns back into fiction.

I just recently turned 50 and have been spanked throughout my life since my first adult spanking at 19. That's a lot of spanking and I'd be a liar to say that I recall every single one vividly. The truth is I remember the ones that stand out for certain reasons and it is for those special memories that I become motivated to write a story.

Only one story of mine here is a verbatim account of an actual event, but a few others are very close to real events. (Granted a few others borrow their reality from reality but their plot from imagination and fantasy.)

The biggest problem in making a real story a good fictional piece is making reality interesting enough to hold a reader's interest. Sometimes that is easier than other times. ( Currently I have three ideas that have been lodged in my head as past real spankings worthy of being reworked into the written word....but in each case I am stumped as to how to make it happen. Maybe it's just writer's block? LOL)

So, what do you folks do? What is your process?

Difficult one. What I try to do is remember that a story, in order to qualify as a 'story' should be more than just a list of events.

I might remove any interruptions ... like the phone ringing, or the milkman coming to the door to be paid (unless the narrative is intended to be humorous - then those things can add to it).

I would attempt to structure it ... real life can often lack structure, but a story must have it.

Another trick I use is to write it in third person instead of first. I find that helps to 'distance' myself enough to treat it as fiction.

Don't know if any of that helps, but it's the best I can offer.

Linda

Writers are like readers. They're all different and in the same way separate readers can get something out of a story or see things that others may not, writers do the same. I've had little experience with actually spanking or being spanked, but I know what I've fantasised about for as long as I can remember.
How it generally works when I write a story is that I get the idea for the situation and then expand on it, adding characters, etc.... This can be tough when doing a series, because then I have to try and think up ways to keep the continuity going and for the concept to remain fresh at the same time. I generally carry about 4 or 5 stories around in my head at any one time. I usually write a Spank Shop (mind you that was meant to be a one off) and then something else (usually a stand alone, except for the PGB ones which turned into a series as well). At the moment I have the next 5 Spank Shops backed up in my head and a few stand alones.

Linda, I believe that shift to third person is essential. Anything first person is going to read like a memoir.

Structure does help and so sometimes I consider adding a fictional set-up to arrive at the point that I wish to truly explore. However, sometimes I think that the strong emotional reverberation to an actual event can be linked to something so trivial that it is nearly impossible to get the reader to experience that same feeling. Instead they might just yawn at something that for us, in real life, was a huge issue.

One of my stories here is written in memoir form and is a warts-and-all narrative of a spanking event that took place nearly 30 years ago. I still remember that spanking vividly....but what I remember most were a handful of comments that were made by the two spankers involved that had an enormous impact on me. Having tried a third person approach, I found I could not get the effect I wanted. Perhaps I just lacked the skill?

Even in first person I found it very difficult to convey this impact when telling the story, and yet, to me, the whole point in writing the story was to flesh out my take on these comments. The reason is that the comments themselves were not terribly clever or even unusual.......not comments a reader might read and think "Wow...how devastating!"....and yet these simple remarks have replayed in my head countless times. Ironically the event was not without its down side and to be fair, I tried to admit those shortcomings also.

Perhaps things that are powerful to us can't always be explained to others with different experiences? Perhaps it's a case of "you had to be there" or worse yet "you had to be me and be there"?

More than half mine are told in the first person...as in the Johnnie and Eve tales. Not sure why that is, but they just came out that way. For the others it's a song...or an image...or something said that stirs my thoughts into weaving a tale. At the Castle there would be challenges...a photo put up and a request to write a tale that it evokes. I love those...for there turns out to be many spins from so many people that it's like a gift that keeps on giving. As for real life tales....there's two I'd lay claim to. Sadly, I have noooooo real life times in this venue to share anymore. But it's fun to look back and smile.

Good question!

While I try to write to other peoples interest, I write mostly for my own enjoyment. So, for me, my creative process is my fantasies which are described in first person. It allows the expression of emotion and feeling for the spankee. Which is what I like.

I try to think of a beginning and an end.

I think about my characters and what the roles they should play.

I develop a timeline which may be one scene or a number of scenes with different stories

I link the stories together

I sprinkle in some imagination and develop the thinking with my real experience (Spanker and Spankee - sometimes its good to be a switch)

And i write things i enjoy either as a real situation or as a fantasy or usually a mixture of both

I wrote most of my stories years ago, when I was trying to figure out my own interests and come to terms with them, so many of my stories are based not so much on real events but on anticipation of events I would enjoy . . . and sometimes did, afterwards. But I also like to try out different forms of narrative and different forms of verse, even some rather complex verse forms, because I enjoy the writing and just write about spanking because it is a preoccupation. And, then, I use the same preoccupation to write parodies and "O Henry ending" stories. Not that anybody reads them, unless they enjoy literary parody. Of course, a few verses are just pure wank material, and were used that way!