W is for Waiting

There is a sub-set of spankos who find the idea of corner time to be quite delicious.   Having whacked a butt until it is extremely tingly, the culprit is made to stand still, possibly in a corner but not necessarily, to contemplate further their misdeeds, with a very stern warning not to massage any relief into their punished backsides.   A hands-on-head stance adds to the emotions of the ordeal.

But clearly not everyone is of a like mind over this.   In fiction, as probably in real life, once the paddling is over, it might well be a time for cuddles of varying degrees of intensity that could lead to all sorts of romantic or erotic activity, now such a blazing fire has been lit.

But it is not that sort of waiting I wanted to discuss with you today.   There is a time lag between the spanker deciding a spanking is going to take place, and the spankee feeling the first swat to the rump.

And we fiction writers can use that gap to good effect.    At the simplest level, we can describe the reaction of someone who realizes that in the next couple of seconds or so, they are going to be subjected to some form of instant justice.   This might range from annoyance through to an unexpected thrill of anticipation, or to some degree of desire to put as much distance as possible between self and deranged disciplinarian with evil intent to inflict damage to the nether regions.   It is our choice.

Far more complex possibilities arise when there is a significant period between sentence being pronounced and the deed being carried out.    Many who recounted real life instances of genuine corporal punishment agree that the agony of waiting is often worse than the beating itself.   Six of the best do not necessarily have to result in uncontrolled agony - but for a first timer, waiting half a day or more for them to be delivered could prove to be a subtle and sublime torture.

This is because it can happen that a chemistry occurs between paddler-to-be and paddled-to-be during the waiting time.   A chemistry that can give the author the opportunity to explore what is going on inside their two respective heads.

On the other hand, as authors, we can blandly state that the victim had to wait some specified time - as part an parcel of the ritual - and let our readers fill in the missing detail with their own imaginations.    You do not have to say that waiting outside the headmaster's study for half an hour was hell:  everyone knows that it must have been.   Sometimes letting the readers' personal demons do our work is the most effective way of inducing a chilling reaction to a future event.

It is worth noting that, in general, the shorter the wait, the more intense it is.   The split second between told you are acting like a child and being face down across a lap probably is of a higher emotional pitch than being told you will be beaten at four o'clock tomorrow afternoon.    The longer the delay, the less intense the wait.   Putting the moment of reckoning off for a week or more dilutes the waiting time to nothing more than a matter of endurance.

Recognize the time lag your tale has created - decide how you are going to use it - and, if it adds to the experience,  make the most of this golden opportunity to get into the head of your characters.   Or into the heads of your readers.