Helping break my writer's block and lack of motivation to write

I've posted a handful of stories here, and have received many nice comments. But one thing that sort of bothers me is that all of the stories I've posted were written 10-plus years ago. I haven't written a single new spanking story in over a decade.

That's not to say I haven't written at all. While I was still writing spanking stories, I was also writing BDSM-type stories, and other stories with content not suitable for this site. Eventually, these other stories took up my time (mostly long-form, multi-chapter stories with complex plots), and the plain old spanking stories fell by the wayside.

An unfortunate casualty of this was a multipart spanking story I started, called, "Pamela & Richard". It's a story about a brother and sister who have a very close relationship, and the older brother regularly spanks the younger sister. I want to state up front that this is not an incest story. I deliberately wrote what has so far been written in a way that makes it clear that there are no sexual undertones to the brother-sister spanking relationship. The story is about a troubled girl who loves and looks up to her older brother, and sees him as her moral support and confidante, and a young man who loves and admires his little sister and wants what's best for her. The spanking part of their relationship is the result of their father deciding, when the girl turned 16, that she was "too old" for spankings. The brother was the only one to recognize the mental-emotional issues that started, or at least became stronger, in his sister when the spankings stopped, and to realize that she needed the spankings, even if she didn't realize it herself. The girl herself gets no sexual kick from being spanked, and in fact hates being spanked. But something inside her needs them.

Anyway, this is a story I have desperately wanted to finish for a very long time. I've gone back to it repeatedly over the years, intending to continue from where I left off, but ... every time, I find myself unable to get into the mental state I was in when I was writing the existing chapters. I know exactly how the story will end, and how it will get there, but I sit down, reread the existing chapters, and try to start writing the next one ... and nothing. I know what I want to write, I just can't write it. One problem that concerns me is the style and feel of the writing. As I said, I've written a lot of other stories since I started this one, and my style has changed and developed. So I fear that, at this point, if I manage to actually continue the story, there is going to be a jarring style difference between chapters six and seven.

But, I also suspect that part of the problem is that, until PhilK pointed me to this site, I simply haven't had an audience for my stories. My existing stories here were all originally written for another site, back around 2002-2004, and I found that having an audience prompted me to write new material. But as I started focusing more on different "genres", my newer stories were no more appropriate for that site than they would be here, so I stopped posting there, and eventually that site disappeared (well, it's still there, but under new ownership, and I felt like an intruder the last time I tried to poke my head in). So for ten years or so, I've simply been writing for an audience of one. Me. Oh, I found a site to post my other stories, but that site has also changed ownership, and the new owners have made technical changes to the site to where I cannot manage to log in (I even went to the trouble of repurchasing and registering an old domain name that I used to own, simply to get back the e-mail address I used to register at that site), nothing seems to work, and repeated attempts to contact the site owners have gone unanswered (I have one multi-part story there that I would really like them to take down, because it's been sitting there, unfinished, for ten years, and I hate having it there like that. And I can't even manage that.)

So now that I've found this site, and have an audience, I'm thinking of taking a chance that simply having you, an audience, might motivate me to continue, and finish, "Pamela and Richard". What I want to do is submit the first two chapters. The first chapter was originally meant to be a one-off, humorous short story, but then I decided to follow it up, and the much more serious chapter two made me realize that the story had potential as a "serial". Chapter three or four needs some rewriting to bring it in line with the site rules, so it would follow once the rewriting is complete. The last existing chapter I simply want to rewrite to remove or alter some of Richard's scenes that, in hindsight, are a bit gratuitous. But, having an audience ... I humbly think that this is a story that would have you begging for more, and perhaps such begging might help me actually write the next chapter.

Sound like a plan?

To Rikspanks. If you wish to write a different slant on spanking stories, and maybe some of these ideas might help. A teen-age son spanking his naughty mother. A young priest, spanking a Mother Superior Nun. An office boy, spanking a secretary, or female director of a company. a male private in the army, spanking a female ranking officer. A son-in-law, spanking a mother-in-law. etc. All I propose, is spankings in the usual reverse style, with an unexpected result. I hope these ideas will be some help to you.

Write what makes you happy and if it fits the KLSF so much the better, but the most important thing is for you to look after yourself in your writings and be happy about them. No story is liked by everybody but all stories are liked by someone. The same is true of your brother/sister story, it will have it's audience and enjoyed by those ones with immense pleasure. Now whether they comment on your story or not is another question but getting comments is not what we write for anyway,

Certainly do the first two chapters and see how things go, the basic theme of the story seems great and will have its own appeal. You may notice the number of readers will drop off if the serial gets longer but that is natural and happens to many authors. Some readers want short and sweet and are not interested in reading more than one or two chapters. That is why we as authors must write for ourselves rather than anyone else.

I do find that chapters of any serial have to be 'stand alone' reads and not dependant on having read the previous chapters but that is entirely your choice as the writer. Serials published all at once appeal to many while other readers like one or two chapters at a time to be published. Whatever way you decided to go is entirely up to you, but do it because you want to do it that way.

The more authors and variety of stories we have on site all the better for the site and I would encourage you to add your own style of writing to the collection as clearly you have many readers judging from your past submission. Writer's block is hard to break, but you are right in the sense that you will get some feedback and that can be very encouraging.

I look forward to reading your brother/sister story and hope all this rambling on makes sense.

CS

Not being able to finish a story is a real nightmare. I don't know why it happens, but the effect is very real and it seems to affect almost all writers regardless of their skill.
The unfinished story seams to just sits there like a discarded lover, complaining at you, demanding the attention which you feel you should give it but somehow can't.

I have not got any magic bullets, I've tried writing in collaboration with others, and whilst you actually end up with a finished result (mostly), it comes with its own difficulties.
I also tried writing very short pieces in the hope that actually producing something might help, at least in terms of confidence. Of course these would have to be similar in theme or style to the story you want to finish to be the most help. Having said that I'm not sure it helped me as my longest standing unfinished piece remains so.

Writers block hits us all at one time or another. Going forward with a piece requires vision. It's one thing to have a concept that starts it off. "A guy and 3 women crash land on a desert island...." But you have to decide where it's going, what the end is going to be. Once you do that, the task can be done and all it takes is the discipline to sit down and write it. But without the ending, it's not going anywhere.

I've always had a mindset that made my characters do as they wish. In other words, there are times I'll read a a story (any story I write) and I'll say, "where the hell did that come from?" I usually find a way to take characters to a different plane with the layers of the story itself. I find it's my editing that brings out the real story. Writer's Block very seldom hits me, but when it does it's not very long. I stop writing and go do something else. Later when I come back to edit, I find a new path to take, and that path takes me to places I never realized I could go with another spanking story to throw into so many others by other authors.

I see this all the time by authors here. Just when we think we've read every kind of story, there comes one that's totally unique and original. It's so true that the mind is a terrible thing to waste. There are so many authors with great imagination here at the library that it isn't even funny.

I've been experiencing a bit of a block lately, too. I haven't written anything since the challenge. What I am going to do, now that the holidays are over, is sit down and force myself to write. If it is bad, I'll deal with that, but there is no possibility of it being good if I don't ever do it. I really think that it won't take long to get back into the swing of it.

I had a similar situation, actually, with a story that I had written a long time ago. My style had changed considerably, not to mention that I had gotten better at the writing in general, so I rewrote the entire thing, editing out almost half of it. It turned out to be a much better story, and one that I was finally willing to share. I think that it is well worth the time.

Don't worry about having an audience or about writing something great or unique. Just be yourself, write something that you love, and the sincerity will show.

My husband and I went made a major move about a year ago and the discarding, packing and unpacking of belongings accumulated after so many years in one house and eventual decorating the new house and adjustment to a new area really restricted my writing muse. I know she is still there, but I no longer find writing a free flowing activity. I have been spending more time in my art studio in the hope of taking pressure off my writing muse. I know of many professional writers who are blocked and never write again, but I don't think that is always the rule. Let's all continue to look for inspiration for our writing in our everyday lives. I don't believe writing talent just evaporates! Don't give up!
Islandcarol

If you are unhappy with the style but like the storyline maybe it helps to rewrite the whole thing to your current style. Making it work as a whole.

Or you just accept the style differences and write a note to the reader that there is a long gap between the writing of the chapters.

Absolutely! This is something I've always tried to do. Even when I'm writing regularly, I can still write quite slowly, and I'd hate to leave my readers hanging for an extended time.


This is exactly what happened when I was writing "The House in the Woods". When I started writing it, my intent was to write a spanking "horror story" (probably a bad idea to begin with, as I'm not an active reader or viewer of the horror genre) about a "spanking monster" who lives in a house in the woods, and abducts and spanks foolish girls who wander into the woods. But as I wrote, the characters and the story just took on a mind of their own and went where they wanted to go. While the "supernatural" aspect remained, instead of a horror story I ended up with a sweet, poignant love story.

I never did well in "creative writing" classes in school. I blame Isaac Asimov, the first great author I got into. Asimov claimed that he never outlined or pre-planned his stories. Instead, he got an idea, and just started writing, and the story details developed as he went along. As I think he said once, "the story is finished when I get to the end" (or words to that effect). Creative writing classes always wanted to get into outlines and rough drafts and pre-plotting, and that just didn't work for me. I read once about another famous author (can't recall who) who was invited to speak to a college creative writing class. He stepped up in front of the class, and all the students were on the edges of their seats, prepared to take notes and learn from the master. The author asked the class, "Who wants to be a writer?" Every hand went up. He then asked, "Then why aren't you writing?!", turned, and left.