Times change. In turning the classic "Tom Brown's Schooldays" from page to a visual entertainment, film producers have to take the sentence "Tom was flogged the following morning" and turn it into an interpretation with much greater detail. A modern audience, not understanding what a Victorian schoolboy flogging entailed, need to be given context so they can understand what a fearsome experience it had been back then. And just how sore poor Tom ended up.
When we spanko authors have the creative juices flowing, we can describe each and every strike of a spanking in enough detail to elicit some empathetic reaction in our readers. And no, I don't mean the newbie's trap of simply repeating SPANK! over and over and over to express some sort of gay abandon: I mean more in the manner you will find in "Over a Barrel" on my free stories page.
We have taken rather a round about route to get to where I wanted to go: when it comes to spankings, we do not always have to spell out every single slap. If you set up the scenario with enough detail that the reader has all that is needed to connect the dots, it is quite OK to let them fill in the scene with as much detail they need to enjoy what is going on. (Not all the time, though - we cannot get away with "and so to bed" in the manner of Samuel Pepys every single time and expect our readers to continue to invest their time in our discourse without ever questioning why they are doing it).
I shall give you a practical example.
In the book "Just Wilhelmina", set in the 1930's, the heroine and her three fellow pranksters get whopped and walloped in sufficient detail enough times that on one occasion I was able to utilize what I call the good hiding principle. Wilhelmina and Violet - both in their mid-teens - are sipping cups of tea in The Olde Tea Shoppe in their village, when we get the set up:
Wilhelmina arrived forty five minutes late for their ten o’clock meeting. Violet was extremely annoyed.“I owe you for getting me that strapping from your dad,” Violet said with quiet, yet firm, emphasis.“You owe me?”“I still have the cane that my brother used to use on me, back at my house.”“You have?”“Twelve would be about right. That would settle the score.”“Twelve?”“And since we are Sigma Sorority Sisters, you would have to repay them straight back.”There was a careful consideration of this offer, now that had been laid on the table. Wilhelmina sipped slowly from her china cup while looking carefully at the blonde minx sitting opposite her. She placed the cup carefully down upon its saucer.“That would be … very acceptable,” she finally said.“You think this is a good plan?”“It’s one of the best plans I’ve ever heard.”“I’ve the house to myself from ten until noon tomorrow.”“Then I’ll be there at ten.”“Don’t keep me waiting. I can get very annoyed if kept waiting. You would not want to get the cane from me if I was very annoyed.”“Right.”---oo0oo---
---oo0oo---
That simple payoff line has gotten me more comments than just about anything else I have written. And not your "Hey - where did the spanking go?" sort of complaint, either.
Sometimes "That evening, Suzette was given a good hiding by her father" really is sufficient. Which might be one those tricks you need to have in your bag - if ever the spanko version of writer's block hits you. That's when you really cannot think of a fresh and invigorating way of recounting how a pair of pale buttocks were turned a fine shade of crimson under their latest onslaught. If you have set up the scene with enough detail, sometimes you can let the reader "write" their own spanking scene on your behalf. (Just don't do it too often.)
Having read all that, why not now take a trip over to see what Jocelyn Devon has for her letter G?
Lots of good advice here. Thanks.
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