The Action

Assuming the set up has given a realistic reason for a spanking to take place, at first sight describing the resulting spanking should be relatively easier.

The most cursory research will show that the number of possible permutations (people, site, implement, position, dress, etc.) gives the author over a million different basic scenarios.   An embarrassment of riches.   So telling the reader what happens should be a piece of cake.

Alas - no.   The description of the scenario simply adds - or distracts - from the realism and atmosphere of the action about to take place.

The biggest problem the writer faces is that there are very few words to describe the act of smacking a bottom, and just as few words that can describe the resulting effects.

The absolute beginner, wanting to make a spanking as painful as realistically possible, might repeat the word "SMACK!!" twenty or thirty times to show just how much the spankee is suffering.  Such laziness usually causes the reader to abandon the tale.  So much so, that some editors will reject a story out of hand if there is as much as a single five word SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! sequence anywhere in it.   And using SPANK! instead does not improve matters.

On the other hand, describing each slap in slow-motion close-up detail quickly leads to the same reader reaction - not reading to the finish - but for completely a different reason.   Not only is there too much information, the sparsity of descriptive words means that repetition quickly sets in.   Or to avoid using the same words repeatedly, the author may be forced to find rare and obscure ones in an attempt to keep the telling fresh.   The first time I came across the word "nates" as a synonym for "buttocks" was when a writer had run out of words that meant "bottom", and had found that one in some obscure thesaurus.

Getting the spanking scene down - so that it is realistic, as painful as the tale demands, and does not turn the reader away - is possibly the most difficult task any author, in any genre, ever undertakes.

So we shall return to this topic many times over future posts to see if the art is, in fact, one that can be learned.