All authors use metaphor, and its twin simile, to enrich the reading experience. We spanko authors use it, and its partners-in-crime allusion and euphemism to try to describe the same old scene, the same old consequences and the same old reactions in ways that are fresh, and stimulating, to our readers. Also, if you only use factual - and thereby clinical - descriptions all the time, your readership audience is surely going to dwindle.
So instead of describing in detail each action that tells the reader how he reacted angrily to the news, you might use the metaphor "he flew off the handle.". But don't. Most metaphors that have become part of everyday speech are so hackneyed that they should only be used in everyday speech, and not your next masterpiece of spanking docudrama.
The mark of a competent wordsmith is an ability to coin new phrases - particularly when it comes to metaphors, similes and their kin. If your first thought at the description of her spanked bottom was "her butt was as red as a beet" - well, no, that is the way a word hack would go about it. You need to come up with something like "as scarlet at a Maiden Aunt's blush" or "as red as sun dried tomatoes sizzling in olive oil in a fry pan." The choice does not have to be spectacular - just fresh.
You can get away with using well worn phrases if you mix them up in an original manner: "He plowed into her butt like a rottweiler going at a fresh steak." OK - not prize winning, but putting two old ones together in this way gives the illusion of crafting something new. And in writing, as in all other things, perception is 99% of the game.
There is one group of wordsmiths who spend all their lives searching for new ways to say old things. They are called "poets" and if you have not tried it recently, do read some of their works to pick up inspiration. If Ronald Reagan could borrow "and touched the face of God" from an aviator's poem to use in an eulogy, then it is fair game for you to be inspired enough by "The fog comes on little cat feet" to pen "she entered his study as light footed as a kitten stealing through a meadow." I am not suggesting that you plagiarize - but you should see how others do it, and try to copy their techniques (and not their words).
And another technique in your armory is to start off with some old hackneyed cliche and do a rewrite to change it into a factual description. "He was a bull in a china shop when dealing with her excuses." (Bad) "When she made any excuse, he would roar with rage and stamp around his desk as he yelled rebuttals, threats and arguments until her eyes filled with tears and her shoulders slumped." (Better - but needs another rewrite: an exercise I shall set as your homework for today).
Pithy turns of phrase should be one of your standard targets. But there is a caveat (there always is with my posts). Take care you don't overdo it. You can end up with mixed metaphors that give a hopelessly wrong impression of what is going on: "He smelt a rat and decided to nip it in the bud" is one famed example. "He saw it was only a storm in a tea cup so decided to pour oil on troubled waters". You could get away with those if you were writing a farce, but in serious spankerotica, you should avoid them as much as you can.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Friday, June 12, 2015
L is for Limitations, Responsibilities and Expectations
There is a moment when the flirtation is not enough, and it is time to move on to more satisfactory ways of enjoying each others company.
With a "vanilla" relationship, the time tested method works reasonably well, most of the time. One partner makes some sort of move that suggests and upping of the ante, and is encouraged or discouraged by the other partner's response.
But for spankos it is not that simple. The stronger the spanko urge, the less simple it gets.
Which leads us to "The Chat". A time when all defenses are lowered, in order that a meeting of minds takes place, to avoid unexpected and extremely embarrassing situations farther down the road.
I suspect the BDSM community have it slightly easier than us spankos, for their initial flirtations will have been heavily flavored with dominant and submissive themes. Should they get to The Chat stage, personal foibles may be so clear as to let them sit down with drafted contracts of behavior already written, as the basis for detailed negotiation.
The first problem we spankos have is that really do not know if our intended new close friend is one of us, or not. The extremely light pats that can happen during light flirtation may be seen as nothing more than harmless "slap-and-tickle" by those of the vanilla persuasion, and not as an invitation to unleash some hard wallops to an backside quivering in suppressed anticipation.
Which is why The Chat for us often starts by some variation of the simple question "Are you into spanking?" A negative reply is as eagerly accepted as a positive one by the person asking - on the grounds that such a major disappointment should not ruin what might otherwise prove to be some very enjoyable bedroom romps. Even to the extent, on hearing a no, to saying "Thank heavens for that - but I really needed to get that one out of the way." Followed by some lame alibi as to why, if pressed for more information.
But a positive answer means that we are now into a full-blown Limitations, Responsibilities and Expectations negotiation. Those three can be talked about in any order, but the sequence given indicates the relative importance of each.
The most important is Limitations, for we really, really must establish what is off-limits. We each hope that the two off limit boundaries are an identical match. If one party hopes to be able to do some particular act, and the other vetoes it - the disconnect could be fatal to the relationship. Not necessarily, but it is in the back of our minds. And two people with identical limits may convince themselves that they are a pair of soul mates.
When it comes to limitations, it is quite common in spanko relationships (less so in BDSM ones I am told) that bodily fluids should be safely kept in the body. It is extremely rare for blood to be drawn as a result of a safe, sane and consensual spanking - so reinforcing that limit has a side effect of iterating the SSC nature of the budding relationship.
Responsibilities part of The Chat revolve around the active part of spankings themselves - such as whether rules need to be broken prior to a whacking, and if so, what those rules are. It attempts to answer the questions "When will spankings take place?" And it is often the case that it is entirely up to the spanker, whether as part of foreplay or part of role-play.
Expectations is the tricky part - for, in essence, it is an attempt to answer "Why do we actually want spankings take place?" : moreover, how hard should they be and for how long should they last. Even if this part is skipped over (for a Chat on expectations is entirely optional), it would still be a good idea to establish if any safe words are to come into play. Perhaps even the "Green, Yellow, Red" conditional safe words to indicate how enjoyable (or not) the buttocks are feeling towards the current onslaught.
The Chat can be a light-hearted session of banter, or a serious detailed setting out of precisely who does what to whom with which. Either way, it should always be part and parcel of engaging in activities with an as yet unknown partner. For it is the only recognized way of ensuring that everything that happens afterwards is safe, sane and consensual.
With a "vanilla" relationship, the time tested method works reasonably well, most of the time. One partner makes some sort of move that suggests and upping of the ante, and is encouraged or discouraged by the other partner's response.
But for spankos it is not that simple. The stronger the spanko urge, the less simple it gets.
Which leads us to "The Chat". A time when all defenses are lowered, in order that a meeting of minds takes place, to avoid unexpected and extremely embarrassing situations farther down the road.
I suspect the BDSM community have it slightly easier than us spankos, for their initial flirtations will have been heavily flavored with dominant and submissive themes. Should they get to The Chat stage, personal foibles may be so clear as to let them sit down with drafted contracts of behavior already written, as the basis for detailed negotiation.
The first problem we spankos have is that really do not know if our intended new close friend is one of us, or not. The extremely light pats that can happen during light flirtation may be seen as nothing more than harmless "slap-and-tickle" by those of the vanilla persuasion, and not as an invitation to unleash some hard wallops to an backside quivering in suppressed anticipation.
Which is why The Chat for us often starts by some variation of the simple question "Are you into spanking?" A negative reply is as eagerly accepted as a positive one by the person asking - on the grounds that such a major disappointment should not ruin what might otherwise prove to be some very enjoyable bedroom romps. Even to the extent, on hearing a no, to saying "Thank heavens for that - but I really needed to get that one out of the way." Followed by some lame alibi as to why, if pressed for more information.
But a positive answer means that we are now into a full-blown Limitations, Responsibilities and Expectations negotiation. Those three can be talked about in any order, but the sequence given indicates the relative importance of each.
The most important is Limitations, for we really, really must establish what is off-limits. We each hope that the two off limit boundaries are an identical match. If one party hopes to be able to do some particular act, and the other vetoes it - the disconnect could be fatal to the relationship. Not necessarily, but it is in the back of our minds. And two people with identical limits may convince themselves that they are a pair of soul mates.
When it comes to limitations, it is quite common in spanko relationships (less so in BDSM ones I am told) that bodily fluids should be safely kept in the body. It is extremely rare for blood to be drawn as a result of a safe, sane and consensual spanking - so reinforcing that limit has a side effect of iterating the SSC nature of the budding relationship.
Responsibilities part of The Chat revolve around the active part of spankings themselves - such as whether rules need to be broken prior to a whacking, and if so, what those rules are. It attempts to answer the questions "When will spankings take place?" And it is often the case that it is entirely up to the spanker, whether as part of foreplay or part of role-play.
Expectations is the tricky part - for, in essence, it is an attempt to answer "Why do we actually want spankings take place?" : moreover, how hard should they be and for how long should they last. Even if this part is skipped over (for a Chat on expectations is entirely optional), it would still be a good idea to establish if any safe words are to come into play. Perhaps even the "Green, Yellow, Red" conditional safe words to indicate how enjoyable (or not) the buttocks are feeling towards the current onslaught.
The Chat can be a light-hearted session of banter, or a serious detailed setting out of precisely who does what to whom with which. Either way, it should always be part and parcel of engaging in activities with an as yet unknown partner. For it is the only recognized way of ensuring that everything that happens afterwards is safe, sane and consensual.
Thursday, June 11, 2015
K is for Kindle Unlimited
If you self publish your works as e-books, then making it available to the public at large is relatively simple. Download it on or all of many publisher's sites, push the "I agree" button to their terms and conditions, and away it goes. (Print is slightly more complicated - we shall talk about that anon).
But even with the simplicity of e-publishing, you do have to make tough decisions. The price you set could possibly kill potential sales if it is set too high, or lose you a lot of missed income if set too low. And you can never be sure what level is too high, and what is too low.
A further consideration is that if you give Kindle an exclusive contract for each work, you get to keep 70% of the sales income from that source - which is very nice. For six months, my books were published with every e-book publisher out there. But virtually all of my sales were through Amazon, and it became a no-brainer to sign up with Kindle to virtually double my income.
Then along came Kindle Unlimited. This marketing ploy gives the reader unlimited access to everything available in the store, for one flat monthly fee. If a KU customer reads more that 10% of one of your works. you get a flat fee regardless of your published price. (The 10% threshold is pretty low - we typically put that amount out as a free preview for all potential customers).
The price you set for a book is irrelevant for a KU customer. The customer is prepaid and you will get the identical amount per sale, come what may.
So the normal economic rule is reversed. For a cash customer, the higher the price, the greater the disincentive to buy. For a KU customer, the higher the price (and therefore the higher the assumed value of the transaction) the greater the incentive to download it. If someone has paid a fee to get to all books, the the higher the price of those books, the more valuable the purchase of the KU membership will seem to be.
So - for a while - I increased the price of my two slowest selling books from $2.99 each to $15 each - and as a result, they did indeed start to be picked up by KU readers. Cash sales for them went to zero, but I rationalized that that was OK on the grounds that they were not very big sellers to start off with.
Then came an epiphany - I have not set out my stall to be a niche author writing exclusively for the KU market. So last month I reduced their prices back to $2.99 each, in line with all my other works. The KU cash flow has dropped significantly, but cash sales have started again. And that is OK - I really do want my books to be available to everyone, and not only to those who have a "free" pass to everything that catches their eye.
But even with the simplicity of e-publishing, you do have to make tough decisions. The price you set could possibly kill potential sales if it is set too high, or lose you a lot of missed income if set too low. And you can never be sure what level is too high, and what is too low.
A further consideration is that if you give Kindle an exclusive contract for each work, you get to keep 70% of the sales income from that source - which is very nice. For six months, my books were published with every e-book publisher out there. But virtually all of my sales were through Amazon, and it became a no-brainer to sign up with Kindle to virtually double my income.
Then along came Kindle Unlimited. This marketing ploy gives the reader unlimited access to everything available in the store, for one flat monthly fee. If a KU customer reads more that 10% of one of your works. you get a flat fee regardless of your published price. (The 10% threshold is pretty low - we typically put that amount out as a free preview for all potential customers).
The price you set for a book is irrelevant for a KU customer. The customer is prepaid and you will get the identical amount per sale, come what may.
So the normal economic rule is reversed. For a cash customer, the higher the price, the greater the disincentive to buy. For a KU customer, the higher the price (and therefore the higher the assumed value of the transaction) the greater the incentive to download it. If someone has paid a fee to get to all books, the the higher the price of those books, the more valuable the purchase of the KU membership will seem to be.
So - for a while - I increased the price of my two slowest selling books from $2.99 each to $15 each - and as a result, they did indeed start to be picked up by KU readers. Cash sales for them went to zero, but I rationalized that that was OK on the grounds that they were not very big sellers to start off with.
Then came an epiphany - I have not set out my stall to be a niche author writing exclusively for the KU market. So last month I reduced their prices back to $2.99 each, in line with all my other works. The KU cash flow has dropped significantly, but cash sales have started again. And that is OK - I really do want my books to be available to everyone, and not only to those who have a "free" pass to everything that catches their eye.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
J is for Just in Time
The thing about motivation is that those self help books are really only any use for putting royalties into the pocket of the author. Hmm ... Since I actually possess the ultimate secret of self motivation, perhaps I could write a world best seller motivational text and make me richer than my more realistic speculations.
Except that big secret does not seem to be a money winner = at least not to my way of thinking.
What is the secret? Well, suppose you have promised your editor a final working draft by next Friday. Now, honestly, which is the first day you will do any real work on it? Yeah - me too. Thursday evening when there is really not enough time left to get it finished properly.
The urgency of having to hit a deadline - or face really unpleasant consequences - has a two-fold effect. First, the distaste at having to actually sit down and get some work done is finally pushed to one side and the fingers fly across the key board like demented little honey bees let loose in the ecstasy of a clover patch grown wild.
And second - even more important - the creative juices bring ideas teeming into play which (this is very important) would never have occurred to you without the pressure of a deadline looming like a guillotine over your future career. I am truly amazed at some of the plot twists that came my way because my demented muse had left me no time to consider where they were going to take me. A sort of "stream of consciousness" writing style, but one, due to avoiding an impending disaster, causes the stream to flow in a coherent and logical manner.
Procrastination comes easy to all of us. Indeed, I would have been accepted as a member of the Procrastinator's Society, but unfortunately my application arrived just before the final, final dead-line ran out. Life can be cruel, at times.
I have an on-line acquaintance who has to produce work of an educational content from time to time - and, oh boy, does she cut it fine every time. Promises of rewards if written earlier? Hah! - not a chance. Threats of dire consequences if not written ahead of time? As she put it, "Don't make me laugh so hard, my ribs cannot take it."
But the night before the deadline looms? Easy peasy - no problem in whipping out a couple of thousand words that would satisfy the most pedantic of professors.
So - if you want to write really great spanking fiction, make an irrevocable commitment to deliver it by no later than a set time on a set date. And then sit back and wait.
(I really do not see how all of this can be turned into a full length book on self motivation. If you can spot a way, and you write such a tome - that is perfectly OK provided a small portion of your loot is shared with your inspirational source.)
p.s. On my schedule for the AtoZ challenge, I need to publish each piece at 8 a.m. (local) each day of the challenge. Guess what time it is now, as I finish writing this post. Gosh - you are clever.
Except that big secret does not seem to be a money winner = at least not to my way of thinking.
What is the secret? Well, suppose you have promised your editor a final working draft by next Friday. Now, honestly, which is the first day you will do any real work on it? Yeah - me too. Thursday evening when there is really not enough time left to get it finished properly.
The urgency of having to hit a deadline - or face really unpleasant consequences - has a two-fold effect. First, the distaste at having to actually sit down and get some work done is finally pushed to one side and the fingers fly across the key board like demented little honey bees let loose in the ecstasy of a clover patch grown wild.
And second - even more important - the creative juices bring ideas teeming into play which (this is very important) would never have occurred to you without the pressure of a deadline looming like a guillotine over your future career. I am truly amazed at some of the plot twists that came my way because my demented muse had left me no time to consider where they were going to take me. A sort of "stream of consciousness" writing style, but one, due to avoiding an impending disaster, causes the stream to flow in a coherent and logical manner.
Procrastination comes easy to all of us. Indeed, I would have been accepted as a member of the Procrastinator's Society, but unfortunately my application arrived just before the final, final dead-line ran out. Life can be cruel, at times.
I have an on-line acquaintance who has to produce work of an educational content from time to time - and, oh boy, does she cut it fine every time. Promises of rewards if written earlier? Hah! - not a chance. Threats of dire consequences if not written ahead of time? As she put it, "Don't make me laugh so hard, my ribs cannot take it."
But the night before the deadline looms? Easy peasy - no problem in whipping out a couple of thousand words that would satisfy the most pedantic of professors.
So - if you want to write really great spanking fiction, make an irrevocable commitment to deliver it by no later than a set time on a set date. And then sit back and wait.
(I really do not see how all of this can be turned into a full length book on self motivation. If you can spot a way, and you write such a tome - that is perfectly OK provided a small portion of your loot is shared with your inspirational source.)
p.s. On my schedule for the AtoZ challenge, I need to publish each piece at 8 a.m. (local) each day of the challenge. Guess what time it is now, as I finish writing this post. Gosh - you are clever.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
I is for Interview
A problem for all writers is that we need to tell the readers some background material - and we often attempt to do so by subtle reveal, rather than a lengthy, detailed and possibly off-putting explanation of why our characters are acting in the way they are. If we don't want to have great chunks of explanatory text, then the only real technique is to break it all down into manageable bits. Not giving the reader any idea of what going on is an alternative, but not one that seems to have any merit.
A trap I think we discussed in a previous post is to put such information into statements made by one or more of the characters in our tale. The first problem with this, is that we have one person tell another something that the listener already knows: "Hello Mister Brown, famed harpsichordist". And the second is that unless we are careful, they say to each other words that would never get spoken in real life. An extreme bad example goes along the lines of "Hello my beloved wife of fifteen years of often tumultuous marriage who was recently unexpectedly promoted to office manager at the chagrin of her bitter rival - how are you on this morning, one on which a crucial meeting is planned to take place?" This is an example of an excessive use of a variation of the too much information syndrome.
So now where do we go? Having one character "interview" another character might be worthy of your consideration.
Consider:
Show rather than tell is the soundest advice that any spanko writer can be given, and dialog is one form of show. When that dialog is set out as an interrogation, or, more politely, an interview, we can show our reader exactly where our tale is likely to go. All quite painlessly - and that cannot be a bad thing.
But of course - there is a caveat. Don't start every tale you write using this technique, or it will become hackneyed from over use. (I shall talk about the slow reveal, and its usefulness, in some other post).
A trap I think we discussed in a previous post is to put such information into statements made by one or more of the characters in our tale. The first problem with this, is that we have one person tell another something that the listener already knows: "Hello Mister Brown, famed harpsichordist". And the second is that unless we are careful, they say to each other words that would never get spoken in real life. An extreme bad example goes along the lines of "Hello my beloved wife of fifteen years of often tumultuous marriage who was recently unexpectedly promoted to office manager at the chagrin of her bitter rival - how are you on this morning, one on which a crucial meeting is planned to take place?" This is an example of an excessive use of a variation of the too much information syndrome.
So now where do we go? Having one character "interview" another character might be worthy of your consideration.
Consider:
"Here, I've made you some tea." He handed her a small tray holding a delicate china cup and saucer, the cup almost overflowing with her favorite Earl Grey. She sat up in bed to take the proffered cup, She gave a grimace in the general direction of the sunrise taking outside their bedroom.
"What's wrong, petal? You look out of sorts."
"I have a meeting this morning. A planning meeting. They can be very demanding." She pulled the bed covers up around her bare shoulders and took a tentative sip at the hot fluid.
"You will have lots of meetings now you are in management. You've never had a problem with them before you got promoted." He brushed the fringe from across her forehead so that he could look into her deep blue eyes, almost as if to work out what was wrong simply by staring into them.
"Janet will be there. She expected to get my job. She is out to make trouble for me. Nothing is more certain than that."
"Janet? I never thought she was cut out to be management. Is she off her rocker?"
"Actually, she was favorite to get it. I was the dark horse. She was not happy that it was me, of all people."
"She has never liked you, as she?"
"Not since the petty cash incident. And that really was not my fault..."
"So - what are you going to do?"
"I shall have my wooden hairbrush in my tote."
"?" Not so much a question as one eyebrow raised in a quizzical way.
"If I sink her without trace during the meeting, afterwards, in private, I will put her in her place once and for all, for all time. And if it goes bad for me ..."
"If?"
"Then vengeance will be wreaked in a way she will never forget."
"You sure are still my feisty hellion..." He smiled.
"And I shall always be." She put the empty cup and saucer on the bedside table. "And now a shower and then my sharpest business suit. I've got a battle to fight..." She swung her long shapely legs out of the bed and set off towards the bathroom.Now that passage is not presented as a masterpiece of literary excellence, but simply as a case study in how to get your reader set up without a lecture of one sort or another. All relevant facts were revealed, without once going into anything like lecture mode.
Show rather than tell is the soundest advice that any spanko writer can be given, and dialog is one form of show. When that dialog is set out as an interrogation, or, more politely, an interview, we can show our reader exactly where our tale is likely to go. All quite painlessly - and that cannot be a bad thing.
But of course - there is a caveat. Don't start every tale you write using this technique, or it will become hackneyed from over use. (I shall talk about the slow reveal, and its usefulness, in some other post).
Monday, June 8, 2015
H is for Heaven Sent Opportunities
We spanko authors have a really hard time coming up with fresh ideas - particularly for the first stage of a story: the "there is going to be a spanking" stage. There may be thousands and thousands of different combinations that make up the bits and pieces of the spanking itself, but why it is happening has a very finite list of reasons.
So when Heaven sends you a nugget, grab it with both hands and see what hidden treasure it may contain.
For example, there was a short item some years ago in the English newspaper "The Sunday Telegraph" in which it was stated that a trainee at a Royal Navy institution had had her bottom caned for some infraction. It triggered me to do some research into the reality of corporal punishment in the British military over the years, and several tales ensued. "Over a Breach of Discipline" is a fictional rendition of what is now thought to be a real life event: the details all make sense within the traditions of the Royal Navy and the events of World War 2. And all from a paragraph in a newspaper.
If you chat on-line or in real life with members of the spanking community, you sometimes get a complete tale handed to you on a plate. A young lady recounted to me the exact events of a school paddling she had endured, and "Abuse of Power" virtually wrote itself. She regretted having worn jeans instead of a skirt - because in the bathroom afterwards her bottom was too sore to pull her jeans down: and therefore she had no cold water to lessen the sting. I would never, left to my own musings, dreamed up that sort of detail. And it was the people involved that turned what could have been a bland "teenager caught smoking" episode into something I think has a life of its own.
I should observe that the things you get told, particularly on line, should be taken with a huge grain of salt. I once wrote a story about the Maid of Honor at a wedding getting a vigorous whacking after her mother spotted that she was dancing at the reception without wearing any underwear. The nagging doubt that I was having my leg pulled, resulted in a missive so dire that you are very unlikely to get a chance to read it. (No - honestly - it really is dire and has little hope of improvement from doing some more re-writes).
And then there are straight forward challenges: a request to write a spanking story involving a genie led to "Djinn and Flick" - not really what the challenger was hoping for, because I made the Djinn conform to ancient tradition, and not the modern one of a jolly granter of three wishes. Still, I liked it, and that is over half the battle in finishing a tale that works.
Over on LSF, we were once asked to try to create a spanking tale by looking at a picture of a lime green rowing boat, at anchor, on a small lake. That led me into combining science fiction with near farce: a combination really way out of left field. Which only goes to show where you might end up if you never ignore one of those Heaven Sent Opportunities when they come your way.
So when Heaven sends you a nugget, grab it with both hands and see what hidden treasure it may contain.
For example, there was a short item some years ago in the English newspaper "The Sunday Telegraph" in which it was stated that a trainee at a Royal Navy institution had had her bottom caned for some infraction. It triggered me to do some research into the reality of corporal punishment in the British military over the years, and several tales ensued. "Over a Breach of Discipline" is a fictional rendition of what is now thought to be a real life event: the details all make sense within the traditions of the Royal Navy and the events of World War 2. And all from a paragraph in a newspaper.
If you chat on-line or in real life with members of the spanking community, you sometimes get a complete tale handed to you on a plate. A young lady recounted to me the exact events of a school paddling she had endured, and "Abuse of Power" virtually wrote itself. She regretted having worn jeans instead of a skirt - because in the bathroom afterwards her bottom was too sore to pull her jeans down: and therefore she had no cold water to lessen the sting. I would never, left to my own musings, dreamed up that sort of detail. And it was the people involved that turned what could have been a bland "teenager caught smoking" episode into something I think has a life of its own.
I should observe that the things you get told, particularly on line, should be taken with a huge grain of salt. I once wrote a story about the Maid of Honor at a wedding getting a vigorous whacking after her mother spotted that she was dancing at the reception without wearing any underwear. The nagging doubt that I was having my leg pulled, resulted in a missive so dire that you are very unlikely to get a chance to read it. (No - honestly - it really is dire and has little hope of improvement from doing some more re-writes).
And then there are straight forward challenges: a request to write a spanking story involving a genie led to "Djinn and Flick" - not really what the challenger was hoping for, because I made the Djinn conform to ancient tradition, and not the modern one of a jolly granter of three wishes. Still, I liked it, and that is over half the battle in finishing a tale that works.
Over on LSF, we were once asked to try to create a spanking tale by looking at a picture of a lime green rowing boat, at anchor, on a small lake. That led me into combining science fiction with near farce: a combination really way out of left field. Which only goes to show where you might end up if you never ignore one of those Heaven Sent Opportunities when they come your way.
Sunday, June 7, 2015
G is for Girls and Boys
Sit down and take a deep breath - I have something very important to tell you. Ready? Girls and boys are different. There, I have said it.
And it is more than a simple matter of plumbing. We all know that lady bits and gentlemen bits are in different shapes and sizes, yet often fit together very comfortably. Wat we often miss is that the two sexes also have dissimilar mental processes which work quite wonderfully in their different manners.
So what does this have to do with writing spanking fiction? It is all a matter of what is called the "Point of View". A quick segue for beginners to the craft of writing fiction: a point of view (or POV) is used to identify who is telling the tale: the line "I listened carefully before entering the room" has a different effect on the reader depending upon whether the person "writing" that line is supposed to be the hero or the heroine.
It is quite nifty to change the POV during a short story: the first half, say, from one character's viewpoint and the rest from the others. A trick I have used more than once to dress up what would otherwise have been a pretty lame standard tale. (Changing POV's during a novel is trickier: do it too often and you can confuse the reader and don't do it enough makes the exercise not worth doing. A tricky line to keep your balance on.).
The potential problem with selecting a POV for us short story writers? We might find that we are telling the tale from the POV of someone who is of the opposite sex of our own.
You have to go where your guts tell you on this one. For me, when I am relating the incident from a lady's point of view, I try to keep to the basic facts of what is going on. If the plot demands that my heroine has an orgasm, I will state that this is what happened. I, personally, would never try to describe the sensations or emotions that happen to ladies when this welcome event takes place in such a lady's life Lack of empathy with what is actually felt by them can lead into writing something that ia a total disconnect for readers who have actually experienced the event. Plowing on and making up stuff that your think will be adequate is sometimes known as the "50 Shades syndrome".
Having said that you should take great care in staying within your own sexual experience, you might have spotted that in more than one of the tales written under my nom de plume, descriptions are provided in full and complete detail - even thought they are ones that are impossible for me to have any personal experiece. Well - one of the perks of writing with a nom de plume is that it is perfectly OK for a co-author to step in from time to time to flesh out the bits we have no idea about.
You might want to consider this approach when your plot takes you into unfamiliar land. Say you have no idea what goes on in the mind of a switch when acting in manner 180 degrees from your own inclination (assuming that you are not a switch). Getting helpful prose from a fellow writer who has the necessary quirk to be an expert - that is no sin. Particularly if you have made some sort of arrangement as to how to share the proceeds, if you are writing is for profit.
And it is more than a simple matter of plumbing. We all know that lady bits and gentlemen bits are in different shapes and sizes, yet often fit together very comfortably. Wat we often miss is that the two sexes also have dissimilar mental processes which work quite wonderfully in their different manners.
So what does this have to do with writing spanking fiction? It is all a matter of what is called the "Point of View". A quick segue for beginners to the craft of writing fiction: a point of view (or POV) is used to identify who is telling the tale: the line "I listened carefully before entering the room" has a different effect on the reader depending upon whether the person "writing" that line is supposed to be the hero or the heroine.
It is quite nifty to change the POV during a short story: the first half, say, from one character's viewpoint and the rest from the others. A trick I have used more than once to dress up what would otherwise have been a pretty lame standard tale. (Changing POV's during a novel is trickier: do it too often and you can confuse the reader and don't do it enough makes the exercise not worth doing. A tricky line to keep your balance on.).
The potential problem with selecting a POV for us short story writers? We might find that we are telling the tale from the POV of someone who is of the opposite sex of our own.
You have to go where your guts tell you on this one. For me, when I am relating the incident from a lady's point of view, I try to keep to the basic facts of what is going on. If the plot demands that my heroine has an orgasm, I will state that this is what happened. I, personally, would never try to describe the sensations or emotions that happen to ladies when this welcome event takes place in such a lady's life Lack of empathy with what is actually felt by them can lead into writing something that ia a total disconnect for readers who have actually experienced the event. Plowing on and making up stuff that your think will be adequate is sometimes known as the "50 Shades syndrome".
Having said that you should take great care in staying within your own sexual experience, you might have spotted that in more than one of the tales written under my nom de plume, descriptions are provided in full and complete detail - even thought they are ones that are impossible for me to have any personal experiece. Well - one of the perks of writing with a nom de plume is that it is perfectly OK for a co-author to step in from time to time to flesh out the bits we have no idea about.
You might want to consider this approach when your plot takes you into unfamiliar land. Say you have no idea what goes on in the mind of a switch when acting in manner 180 degrees from your own inclination (assuming that you are not a switch). Getting helpful prose from a fellow writer who has the necessary quirk to be an expert - that is no sin. Particularly if you have made some sort of arrangement as to how to share the proceeds, if you are writing is for profit.
Friday, June 5, 2015
F is for Fact Finding
I write spanking fiction and have given myself perhaps excessive liberties to ignore some factual background elements in my tale. I call it poetic license. My critics call it bone idleness.
Sometimes it is obvious that what you have written has no bearing on the real world. If you have Julius Caesar and his army using their wrist-watches to coordinate the invasion on the English mainland, at best your readers will think you are playing some sort of joke on them.
In one of my tales set in the early 1800's, I had a young lady disguised as a Midshipman get a caning while tied to the barrel of a gun on a Royal Navy battleship. It might not matter to you that I had her across a 21-pounder on the top deck of the vessel. And it did not matter to me. But I got such a chorus of boos from those who knew that putting a 21-pounder on the top deck of wooden battleship was as silly as having Roman soldiers wearing wrist-watches.
Knowing about what guns went where on ancient Royal Navy vessels might lead you into the trap of go-gullibility (a condition of believing anything that is in a wiki). But even so, there is some basic research you really ought to carry out if your tale is not set about today, about where you reside and about activities you are familiar with. Our aim is to entertain, and the distraction of impossibilities really ought to be kept to the least we can manage.
But sometimes we don't stand a chance. Suppose, for instance, you want some Puritan wench to get a beating for whatever plot device you happen to be using. And suppose a Cromwellian soldier asks your heroine a question. Her answer "I don't know" might be the very trigger that sparks the spanking action. Now - did you spot the deliberate error in that short set up? No - and neither did I when that very line of dialog took place in my piece, A very kind person let me know that no Puritan could ever have said "I don't know" for that language format was another century in the making. She could only have said "I know not." I would suggest that knowledge of things that arcane is beyond the reach of most of us.
So, having said you should do sufficient research to satisfy your average reader, it is quite OK if that piece of advice is taken with a large pinch of salt. After all, some readers would find great pleasure in contemplating Roman soldiers coordinating their attack by using wrist watches. It really does take all sorts...
Sometimes it is obvious that what you have written has no bearing on the real world. If you have Julius Caesar and his army using their wrist-watches to coordinate the invasion on the English mainland, at best your readers will think you are playing some sort of joke on them.
In one of my tales set in the early 1800's, I had a young lady disguised as a Midshipman get a caning while tied to the barrel of a gun on a Royal Navy battleship. It might not matter to you that I had her across a 21-pounder on the top deck of the vessel. And it did not matter to me. But I got such a chorus of boos from those who knew that putting a 21-pounder on the top deck of wooden battleship was as silly as having Roman soldiers wearing wrist-watches.
Knowing about what guns went where on ancient Royal Navy vessels might lead you into the trap of go-gullibility (a condition of believing anything that is in a wiki). But even so, there is some basic research you really ought to carry out if your tale is not set about today, about where you reside and about activities you are familiar with. Our aim is to entertain, and the distraction of impossibilities really ought to be kept to the least we can manage.
But sometimes we don't stand a chance. Suppose, for instance, you want some Puritan wench to get a beating for whatever plot device you happen to be using. And suppose a Cromwellian soldier asks your heroine a question. Her answer "I don't know" might be the very trigger that sparks the spanking action. Now - did you spot the deliberate error in that short set up? No - and neither did I when that very line of dialog took place in my piece, A very kind person let me know that no Puritan could ever have said "I don't know" for that language format was another century in the making. She could only have said "I know not." I would suggest that knowledge of things that arcane is beyond the reach of most of us.
So, having said you should do sufficient research to satisfy your average reader, it is quite OK if that piece of advice is taken with a large pinch of salt. After all, some readers would find great pleasure in contemplating Roman soldiers coordinating their attack by using wrist watches. It really does take all sorts...
E is for Extreme
I was chatting on Second Life to a fellow spanko - he goes by the name of Hammer - and we were sharing prior real life incidents.
It has always been clear to me that the sex drive and the spanking drive are quite separate: spanking can be part of foreplay, but it does not have to be - and spankings do not lead inexorably to some sort of sexual relief. Of all things spanko that baffle vanillas is that sometimes the spanking is the be all and end all of some mutual time spent together. It is not always a substitute for Viagra.
It does occur to me that at the extreme end of those who get pleasure from the pain side of spanking really do take away the consent part of the usual occasion. We who spank get most of our kick out of the reflected glow coming from the partner's real tingle: and the reverse sometimes happens. The willing victim is getting all her pleasure second hand from the tingle the spanker gets by delivering a whack. The harder the whack, the more pleasure the spanker must feel and it echoes back to her.
Now, when it comes to writing spanking fiction, you might want to pitch your plot at a level the widest audience finds acceptable - unless of course (usual caveat) you have found a niche market place and your readers revel in your ability to bring extreme actions and extreme emotions into a sharp, if second hand, reality. If you are on the fringe and are enjoying the ride as much as your fans, then you do not need me to tell you that not everyone enjoys the extreme.
And although I have not met such a lady, I am told that some just revel in the sheer sensation of pain across their backside - the harder the pain, the greater the sensation, the more enjoyable the experience is. A welted, bruised and lacerated pair of buttocks is not regretted for one second, but simply the price of achieving a great experience.
I have never been out at the extreme limits - despite what my fictional fantasies may suggest. For me, the prime purpose of giving a spanking is to meet the needs of my partner first, and my own second. And the mutual delight is as satisfactory as it is important. So - I am not really sure what the outcome would be if I did come across some lady who wanted to be given a non-consensual beating to the maximum. I sort of think it might end up not working out how it was hoped to unfold - but if such a session ever comes my way, I promise to report what happens in some future post to this blog.
Incidentally, if you have never tried Second Life, you might like to give it a go. You get to steer an avatar around a virtual world, and if your travels should take you to one of the spanking sites (such as RLD) you will meet other avatars being steered by spankos. Worth a try, I promise you
It has always been clear to me that the sex drive and the spanking drive are quite separate: spanking can be part of foreplay, but it does not have to be - and spankings do not lead inexorably to some sort of sexual relief. Of all things spanko that baffle vanillas is that sometimes the spanking is the be all and end all of some mutual time spent together. It is not always a substitute for Viagra.
It does occur to me that at the extreme end of those who get pleasure from the pain side of spanking really do take away the consent part of the usual occasion. We who spank get most of our kick out of the reflected glow coming from the partner's real tingle: and the reverse sometimes happens. The willing victim is getting all her pleasure second hand from the tingle the spanker gets by delivering a whack. The harder the whack, the more pleasure the spanker must feel and it echoes back to her.
Now, when it comes to writing spanking fiction, you might want to pitch your plot at a level the widest audience finds acceptable - unless of course (usual caveat) you have found a niche market place and your readers revel in your ability to bring extreme actions and extreme emotions into a sharp, if second hand, reality. If you are on the fringe and are enjoying the ride as much as your fans, then you do not need me to tell you that not everyone enjoys the extreme.
And although I have not met such a lady, I am told that some just revel in the sheer sensation of pain across their backside - the harder the pain, the greater the sensation, the more enjoyable the experience is. A welted, bruised and lacerated pair of buttocks is not regretted for one second, but simply the price of achieving a great experience.
I have never been out at the extreme limits - despite what my fictional fantasies may suggest. For me, the prime purpose of giving a spanking is to meet the needs of my partner first, and my own second. And the mutual delight is as satisfactory as it is important. So - I am not really sure what the outcome would be if I did come across some lady who wanted to be given a non-consensual beating to the maximum. I sort of think it might end up not working out how it was hoped to unfold - but if such a session ever comes my way, I promise to report what happens in some future post to this blog.
Incidentally, if you have never tried Second Life, you might like to give it a go. You get to steer an avatar around a virtual world, and if your travels should take you to one of the spanking sites (such as RLD) you will meet other avatars being steered by spankos. Worth a try, I promise you
Thursday, June 4, 2015
D is for Discipline
Surveys show that we Spankos are far more opposed to the corporal punishment of children than the population at large. 77% are against the practice as opposed to 35% of adults in general.
We take our stance from the personal knowledge that non-consensual spankings are very unpleasant indeed, and will not condone any form of child abuse.
I think we might have taken the propaganda from the "no-Spanking" brigade hook, line and sinker without bothering to examine the rhetoric that they have brought into play. We are all opposed to abuse, and they shout from the house tops that all spankings are abusive and hitting children is invariably wrong.
There are a number of "single issue" campaigns out there from "No Vaccinations!" through to "Ban Tobacco!" - and they all use pretty much the same tactics: The state personal unsupported opinions as if they were facts, they use bad science to bolster their claims, and they use shame tactics to try to silence any opposition.
As I discussed in the piece "O Canada", independent researchers find that when "conditional spankings" are examined in isolation from other types of corporal punishment, they turn out to be the very best parental method known for removing bad behavior traits from kids. A conditional spanking is one that is administered under control, after due warnings, to the clothed bottom, with the bare hand, for a short duration, for a lapse in some behavioral conduct. That is, one should not spank a child for being bad at some academic topic - but if that child continues to play with matches in reckless manner, then a couple of slaps to the rump might start a change in behavior: one that perhaps saves your house from getting burned down.
In general, conditional spankings tend to be beneficial in their effectiveness - and all others are abusive. I think it behooves us to distinguish between the two, and to accept that conditional spankings can have a positive effect when it comes to discipline. And continue to make it very plain that no child should ever suffer and abusive beating. Regardless of circumstances - never.
We take our stance from the personal knowledge that non-consensual spankings are very unpleasant indeed, and will not condone any form of child abuse.
I think we might have taken the propaganda from the "no-Spanking" brigade hook, line and sinker without bothering to examine the rhetoric that they have brought into play. We are all opposed to abuse, and they shout from the house tops that all spankings are abusive and hitting children is invariably wrong.
There are a number of "single issue" campaigns out there from "No Vaccinations!" through to "Ban Tobacco!" - and they all use pretty much the same tactics: The state personal unsupported opinions as if they were facts, they use bad science to bolster their claims, and they use shame tactics to try to silence any opposition.
As I discussed in the piece "O Canada", independent researchers find that when "conditional spankings" are examined in isolation from other types of corporal punishment, they turn out to be the very best parental method known for removing bad behavior traits from kids. A conditional spanking is one that is administered under control, after due warnings, to the clothed bottom, with the bare hand, for a short duration, for a lapse in some behavioral conduct. That is, one should not spank a child for being bad at some academic topic - but if that child continues to play with matches in reckless manner, then a couple of slaps to the rump might start a change in behavior: one that perhaps saves your house from getting burned down.
In general, conditional spankings tend to be beneficial in their effectiveness - and all others are abusive. I think it behooves us to distinguish between the two, and to accept that conditional spankings can have a positive effect when it comes to discipline. And continue to make it very plain that no child should ever suffer and abusive beating. Regardless of circumstances - never.
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