Being over-passionate as the story-teller

Very interesting, RR! We want to be truthful to the character, but at the same time our temptation (in our OWN fantasies, not necessarily the character's) is to embellish in order to drive the reader's interest and keep them invested in the characters and story. Too much can belabor the scene, and too little can be read as not being faithful to the truthfulness of the character's actions or goals. Perhaps the answer is somewhere in the middle: keep driving the story forward, but don't feel obligated to vividly paint every image....trust that the reader will do that on his/her own. Thanks!!

Just a few more thoughts:
Being structurally and grammatically correct is important. It is not as rigid in a story as in some other types of writing, but the basics have to be there to make it enjoyable to read.
It is very easy to get carried away when you don't format as you go. It's much easier to write in a 'friendlier' format such as Word or Open Office, and much easier to read it back, than plain text.
I love ellipses, but the key word you used above is 'overuse'. They are helpful in moderation, but distracting when the entire story is littered with them.
Repetition of letters and sounds, to me, is just bad writing. There have been other threads about this, and there is a difference of opinion. I think there are more efficient ways of painting the picture.
And, onomatopoeia is definitely distracting. Especially, don't describe every single smack or whack. That gets boring and old.
As you probably notice, the key word I have used here is 'distracting'. Any device that calls attention to itself at the expense of the story should be omitted or, at least, limited.
There is good information in the author guide, found under the Info/About tab. Concentrate on the basics, maybe write a short piece first, and then work on the ones that are 'pages' long. Good luck - I am looking forward to reading your first story in the library!

Thanks FiBlue!..."any device that calls attention to itself at the expense of the story"....great words to keep in mind!

One or two points. SPLAT and the rest can be used, but sparingly. Amateurish writers use them like a kid playing at war (BANG! RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT...BOOM! AAARGH!) I do, though, love trying to convey all the rich complexity of a wail or a scream in letters.

We're writing for fun - for our own fun as well as readers', so I'd suggest, if you really want to expand on something, do so. You'll be surprised at the positive reactions.

Always think about the state of mind of the spanker and spankee. You may be able to convey only one side directly, say the thoughts of the spanker, but maybe the spankee says something that tells you a lot. Always think about whose point of view you're writing from, even if the story is in the third person. It's still, at any one point, someone's perception. Some people do things like telling you a girl's weight. Now assuming she's not thinking about the worrying figure on her bathroom scales that morning, who exactly is looking at this girl with the gorgeous bottom and calculating her weight?

So much good advice! Thanks, punchy, for starting this tread; I have a lot to contemplate.

One thing that has worked for me that hasn't been mentioned yet is writing a scenario that's somewhat removed from my own favourite fantasies. When writing a scene that I feel strongly about, I tend to ramble though lengthy descriptions, whereas when I'm less emotionally invested I only include what is necessary to get the point across.

I actually took the time to read through a lot of the 'To Do's and Don't Do's' in the LSF help for authors. When I came to the 'try not to use to much SMACK CRACK WHACK' I realized just how much I fell into that trap. When writing a story there is a such thing as 'Tricks and Traps.' The trick is to make a scene logical and understandable. The trap is to fall into an easy way out of writing that scene.

Punchy, I'm so glad we entertained you. All kidding aside, thank you for your lovely post involving FiBlue, Seegee, and myself. I'm happy that we were able to shed a little bit of light on the subject. It sounds like you have an interesting talent in voice acting. It must be fun for the actors to do animated movies and use their voice. I always wanted to do that.

Thanks again for your kind words. It sure makes everything worthwhile.

B

A big thanks to all! Barretthunter, you mentioned a key phrase...POV....point of view! And I appreciate that you did because that would be another trap to fall into: making any scene so one-sided so as to not give the reader a well-rounded (no pun intended) description of both the spanker and spankee's words and actions. FiBlue and bendover, you've convinced me to be glued to the author's help page and the do's and don't's before revisiting my script. And Kia, you are very welcome! And thank you for the suggestion of perhaps tackling a story that is a bit removed from what my passions and fantasies are. Doing that I probably would be less likely to embellish and more likely to create proper story structure, a concise beginning, middle and end. It might be a great way to learn the "less is more" lesson..LOL!

PoV is a very interesting thing with writing. You have to make a decision about what you want to do early on. Most of my work here is in 3rd person, but I like to do 1st person and I recently experimented with 2nd person because it's so rarely done, and I just wanted to see if I could do it successfully. And with 3rd and 2nd person you have to make a decision about whether it's defined or omniscient and be careful not to head hop too much. All writers are different and you hear about two types of writer: outliners and 'pantsers'. Outliners work it all out before hand. Pantsers fly by the seat of their pants hence the name. I'm mostly a pantser. Stephen King is a pantser, he claims outliners are frustrated college lecturers, but it's really what works for the individual writer.

Great post Seegee, love it! Thanks! To "head hop" too much, I assume, is to change POV so much as to lose momentum in the story-telling? I have always been a performer who loves improv and spontaneity, so the discipline of a structured pre-story outline would not be easy for me in the writing world I think (I could be wrong). I would fall under the pantser category. Say, since this is the spanking fiction genre, wouldn't we be de-pantsers?
Ouch! sorry! Thanks so much! This is it for me on this thread, but I will read any other helpful thoughts and advice. You all rock!! punchy55

I think this in an interesting aspect that is different from what I had in mind in my first post. I was thinking about unintentional changes in character due to the author being carried away by his own fantasies. What Ryan is referring to is intentional changes in a character's behavior as the spanking is approaching or taking place. Spanking is to a large extent about confessing, losing face, being found out, regaining contact with the real self within etc. — all things that lead to changes in behavior (at least for while). To catch these changes and the reasons behind them is — at least to me — one of the most interesting challenges in writing a "realistic" spanking story.

To write such a story, I think you need to plan ahead. You can't just say to yourself "perhaps she should suddenly behave like a little girl" when you get to the spanking scene, because then the scene very likely is not going to make any sense. You need to make her change of behavior one of the major themes of the story, and you have to build it into her character from the very beginning. The change may come as a total surprise or as a natural conclusion depending on the story, but it has to make sense in hindsight — when the readers look back at the story, they should think "that's the way it had to be" or "I didn't see that one coming, but it definitely seems right". Occasionally you and your readers will disagree on how natural it was, but as long as the story makes sense to you (and that is the logical, balanced, everyday you and not that person with the steamy fantasies), you should be happy. Then, of course, there are other kinds of stories where logic and character development aren't the main issues, but that is something else.