How do you like your pain?

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No morons here.

I find this discussion rather painful albeit seductive.

Yes, no ifs ands or Butts about it.

Seductive because of the inherent thrust of this library's grouping but seductive because pain seems to be the draw. So how do we like it?

I just imagine it's dependent upon the intensity every individual imagines. We are talking stories here, after all. If we are discussing mindset, what is it that hits one's buttons? Personally, I like the idea of escalating pain. Pain that slowly grows and is built upon, eventually reaching a crescendo, symphonic or operatic. Oh, and of course, climactic.

Still, to me it's the ability to put pain into the proper context and/or perspective in any given tale. To transfer that special sensation to the reader as though he/she were there.

Quick answer?

Playful to harsh to intense to take me to nirvana. And enjoy doing it. For either party.

Wooz - escalating pain -- ooh good point! Yes, that's very important. (Although I already have or intend to break that rule too...) Sting first, agony later; anxiety first, terror later. Not the other way around.

TEM: Apparently I did not pick a good topic, because it seems all bears shit in the woods on this one. All of us are saying yes, gimme lotsa that delicious pain. We're all in agreement. I shall have to work harder to find a suitably controversial topic next time.

Still super interesting to read what people think about it though, in spite of the general consensus I mean, it's not like I could have this exchange with anyone I know in real life, except the people I do it with. (Say, colleague/neighbour/vanilla friend, how do you take your pain? Excruciating with a side of bruises? What's your favourite distress noise, screaming or crying?)

For myself, pain in relatively light doses. In a story it can be somewhat heavier.

In a story featuring a serious disciplinary spanking (often more than one of them), pretty much my favorite to read or write, I prefer to have it start out hurting quite a bit, then have the intensity escalate along with the sting and burn to the recipient's rear end.

Likewise, the victim's reactions ideally also become more energetic, starting with squirming, squealing and yelping, then sobbing, kicking and crying, after that bawling and blubbering with the scorched derriere dancing (especially under a caning or switching), finally if it's a truly severe and extended ass-thrashing the spankee ends up emotionally 'broken,' thus being reduced to mere moaning (possibly with each stinging impact) and whimpering before it ultimately concludes. (Of course, the coloration of the targeted bare behind changes also, potentially ending up glowing a deep maroon for a high-severity chastisement, but at the least "shining like a stoplight" with a fire-engine red hue.)

While my real-life seat-smackings (which are playful yet fairly intensive) usually result in my entering 'subspace' so that they eventually become considerably more enjoyable than hurtful, I rarely describe that outcome in my own stories, notably since I favor writing about strict corporal correction as opposed to erotic/fun spanking play.

Any bare-bottomed protagonist of mine can generally expect to end up with a blazing, blistered, throbbing posterior--fantasy as opposed to reality.

"Are bears Catholic? Does the Pope defecate in the woods? Well, ask a silly question about whether hineys hurting is a key element of the spanking kink's literature..."

--C.K.

I love it when a story describes the recipient's perception of the pain in great detail. I don't think I'm great at writing such descriptions, but I definitely enjoy reading them.

Eh?? I beg to differ

To me it seems an excellent topic, but I don't think you can except a lot of people in here to say that pain is inessential - it's all a matter of degree and purpose. I think I can honestly say that to me spanking is not first and foremost about pain, but pain is still essential. I have wondered why to the degree of once writing an essay called "What's pain got to do with it?". I'm not going to repeat the whole argument here (to the extent there is an argument!), but I think the main point is that for me spanking is ultimately about "paying the price" for something one has done, and the pain is the "objective" proof that the price has been paid. Everything else can be discussed and negotiated, but the pain is real and indisputable. It's not an entirely negative approach; the indisputable punishment is the first step on the road to being forgiven – and to forgive onself.

As for my stories, I hate to write long and detailed spanking scenes, although I force myself to try occasionally. My spankees usually end up howling, but I don't think their pain threshold is particularly high as I like them not to have been spanked too often - embarrassment is to me probably more important than pain.

I wonder why you read stories in which it is mainly about punishment and forgiveness. What attracts you as a reader on it? Do you still feel a sexual satisfaction as a reader or does something else excite the charm of such stories?

The more I think about this, the less I think our attraction to the stories is based in "pain". If we were about "pain" I believe the accounts of the Inquisition could satisfy that itch much better than anything offered at the LSF......but yet, we are here. And I think the reason is that we are about something very specific......(what the Greene's called in their 1970's book on S&M: 'a tidy pain'. )

We are into the spanking scenario and only into the very specific, controlled and specific pain associated with that. In that aspect...'yes' we are into 'pain'. But only in that regard. And as such, the pain intrinsic to a spanking is so well understood, that focusing on the pain in the story is superfluous.