Implement of Choice

Quite often, simply by selecting an implement with which to punish a bottom, an author leaves it at that.   The protagonist delivers ten crisp cracks of a crop, and the reader is left to connect the dots.   A double edged sword, for the reader may make the beating meet some unstated ideal, but the reader may end up with a bottom that looks nothing like the one you imagined at the time of writing.

This is because the same implement may have different effects depending upon how it is used.

There are two main spanking motions:  back and forth in the manner of an oak paddle, or swished across the bottom as in the manner of a prison strap.    The outcome will be quite different.

A birch rod used as a paddle is fairly tame - and the sorest part of the victim's body is more likely to be the right hip rather than the bottom itself (the tips of the birch can curl around the butt, and it is where the tips land that cause the greatest pain).   A birch rod used with a whipping motion is a different matter altogether - this is the Victorian way, and it is designed to draw blood quickly and efficiently.   Six of the best of a birch used in a spanking motion might produce a yelp - six with a whipping motion is almost guaranteed to produce screams of pain.

And so it goes on.   A plimsoll (a British gym shoe with a flat rubber sole) used with a spanking motion caused a schoolkid to return to their desk with a sullen frown.  Used with swish would have the same schoolkid hopping up and down in a very lively manner, before returning to their desk with eyes brimming with tears.

Some implements - of the whip family, such as quirt, sjambok or buggy whip - are clearly meant to be used with a whipping motion.   And when so used, were constructed in such a way that the blows were likely to break the skin.   As authors, we might not want our characters to end up with bloody bottoms, but if we do not spell it out clearly, our readers may read the scene and conclude that a blood fest is what we intended.

Some implements - of the stiff paddle family - can virtually only be used with a back and forth spanking motion.   Dependent upon size, weight, and strength of arm, the most likely outcome is a pair of severely bruised buttocks.   If extensive bruising is not your intent - and more important, not an effect your readers relish - when you decide a paddle is going to be the choice of implement, you need to take time to make it clear that the size, weight and/or strength of arm is such that the bottom will tingle a healthy deep pink, and not turn black.

And then we have those that can be used either way.   A garden cane used with a spanking motion is going to sting like merry hell - but one used with a whipping motion will raise welts of a much more serious nature.

So, unless we do not care what our reader thinks has happened to the bottom under duress, it behooves us to give enough clues that the picture in the reader's mind is the one that we wish to draw.