Inspiration

I agree. I also remember The English Master once describing writing non-spanking fiction as being 'up lit creek without a paddle'.

I'd be proud if that were so, but I think it must have been someone else. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've heard it.

And it's not just a clever witticism. I've experienced the same difficulty writing non-spanking fiction as Alef, Diana and NJRick above. I always wanted to write (so I could be a world-famous author!) but I lacked the confidence, the ideas and the willpower. Stumbling upon this website just as a mid-life crisis came on 12 years ago (almost to the day) proved cathartic, unleashing a creative output of spanklit that ran to a million words over 9 years and all the fun of the fair. Like Rick, I do now believe that I could write non-spank stuff; the trouble is that "lit creek" doesn't look nearly as exciting, and I'm too attached to my paddle.

I find plotting the hardest part, and I agree with Alef, Diana and Rick that the necessity to include a spanking does help to provide focus. And it's also true that it sometimes gets in the way of a good story.

As for describing the spankings, for me it varies. It's become a bit wearisome sometimes (especially trying to hold myself to (what I think are) high standards in the amount of detail provided) but - like the fetish itself, like the Alien, like our Boris - it never goes away; it just keeps bouncing back. I'm writing again at the moment, after a two year hiatus, and - with different characters and context - the spank scenes feel quite fresh.

TheEnglishMaster

I’m so glad you’re writing again and I’m very much looking forward to reading your new works.

Ditto for the renewed wrings of The English Master!

Writing spanking stories is a very specialist pool, I don't know whether anyone was crazy enough like me to try out my earlier stories at a vanilla writing group. Because I hoped they would STILL be entertaining and well-written enough for a mainstream audience, at least the less extreme ones!

I sometimes what things like "Tales Of The Unexpected" and see whether a viable spanko story might emerge from one or two of the scenarios played out in these episodes.

Janine and I shamelessly stole a Roald Dahl plot in the story "Vanilla Surprise" (though the theft blame lies mainly with me). He was a great plotter.


Thank you!

I really thought I had once responded to this topic, but it seems that is not the case. However, given that I have not contributed a new piece here since November of 2017, maybe responding now will offer a slightly more reflective perspective on inspiration. My past pieces grew out of several kinds of origins. Many were fictionalized rehashes of actual experiences from my own life whose underlying issues felt powerful to me (The Confession, Simplicity, Double Dare). Some were only loosely inspired by actual events but more deeply rooted in either unresolved thoughts (Still a Mom, The Right Cousin, Milgram 2016) or in my personal take on what fuels a D/s, DD, spanking relationship ( The Arrangement, His and Hers, Bare Bottomed Contemplation), OR on how I felt growing up as a kid and realizing I was 'this way' (The Woman of the Well, Emulating Tom, Deep Pockets, Crushed). A few simply gave me a fictional outlet to explore my own love of age reversals ( An Age Thing, The Delta Tau Solution, Deep Pockets). Other pieces were prompted by the challenges (C5, The Heirloom, Study in Scarlet, What If? ), and still others popped out of little joke-twists that occurred to me at times, that I felt could make for a cute story ( The Top's Mistake, Three Piggies, Proxy) . Lastly, there actually were several pieces that were intentional skewerings of trends, comments, reactions, and genres expressed here at the LSF that I felt called out for a twisted, alternate view ( Schoolgirl's Spanking, Montage, Becket Revisited). Looking back, still other random pieces arose from equally random mental provocations ( Proof's in the Pudding, The Friend, No Good Deed).

And given that array of disparate inspirations, I have not written a new piece in years. I still live the lifestyle, and I still have adventures worthy of fictionalized immortalization. I even have ideas so interesting that I have even gotten to the point of rough outlines.......only to have them wither in a limbo of inaction. Lately I have not even had the simplest of storylines pop in my head. It's like a switch has been turned off. And if this post is about "inspiration" I wonder if the aspect of what inspires us to follow through is not as....or even more.....important than where our ideas originate?

I don't know what killed my inpetus to write (though I have some unsettling ideas) but dead it is.

I'm sorry to hear you haven't been able to write in recent years, Kdpierre. I hope the muse will return to you again some day.

You raise an interesting question, what inspires us to follow through?
I think it is more important that coming up with an original idea. I always have ideas and most of them have led nowhere. Spanking stories are the first stories I've managed to complete (if we don't count a few silly things I've had to write while still in school).
And that's probably a major driving force for me: the pride I feel for actually completing something and considering it good enough to share. Overcoming the anxiety to actually share it and resisting the urge to delete everything I wrote (in between submitting a story and its appearance on the Latest Loaded list, I've usually successfully convinced myself that the story is total crap and wish I had never submitted it)

Another 'inspiration' is the lovely comments I've received from some members here. I know I shouldn't get my validation from other people, but it makes me feel really good to know others enjoyed reading my stories. Some even ask to read more about certain characters, I love that.

And what probably helps too, I've only written fairly short spanking stories so far. That way they don't sit around unfinished for too long, with less opportunity for me to delete them because I think they're crap I'm not sure if I could ever write a long story. Maybe one day.

DianaMiller By all means, keep writing.

No worries Often123, I definitely plan too
Four stories submitted at the moment, two in the queue, but they haven't made it here yet. I think there were a lot of stories in the latest queue.

Yep, I too have found inspiration from famous writers and - like so many others here - from everyday real-life experiences, fantasies, and people I have known.

Brainstorming with other writers and attending writing retreats, workshops, participating in writing exercises/challenges, prompts etc. can also help break writer's block and jumpstart your creativity.