The Library of Spanking Fiction: Wellred Weekly


Wellred Weekly
Volume 1, Number 7 : April 27, 2012
 
Articles
Items of interest regarding all things spanking

Interview with the Author: Rick Marlowe
Wellred Weekly explores the work of this author


How did you get started writing spanking fiction?
Writing my first spanking stories coincided with the discovery of the depth of my interest in spanking as an activity. Even before giving an actual spanking, I had always been attracted to the idea of it. About fifteen years ago my introduction to the internet opened up this whole new world of spanking - chat rooms, pictures, and of course stories. As I started reading these stories, I was certain that I could do better. When I happened to make this arrogant claim to a woman I had been chatting with, she challenged me to go ahead - write one. So I did, telling the story of our imagined first meeting. Since she seemed to enjoy it (the story, not the meeting, as we never did meet), I decided I would write more, hitting each of the themes which seemed so common in the stories I had read - student spanked by her professor (The Late Paper), spanking in the office (What a Way to Make a Living), speeder spanked by a cop (The Consequences of Speeding), spanking in an erotic encounter (Naughty Paige), and woman-acting-badly gets spanked (Life of the Party).

Having concluded (however arrogantly) that indeed I had written better than I had previously read, I set out to exhaust the spanking genre by banging out the other half dozen or so other stories that were fluttering around in my head. Three years and about eighty stories later I finally hit the wall. Literally in mid-story (The Minister's Wife, since finished), I lost my inspiration. Another ten years passed without me writing much of anything. I thought that perhaps I should try my hand at mainstream fiction, but that was a total bust. Whereas in my spanking stories I always knew where the plot was headed - to (or through) a spanking - I floundered miserably without that certainty in my 'vanilla' writing. Then in early 2010, my joining the LSF became an energizing experience, getting my creative juices flowing once more. Being 'home' with the inspiration of other great authors, and with the tremendous feedback the Library members provide, I started cranking out stories once again.

Where do you find inspiration for your stories?
I find inspiration pretty much anywhere. It's often based upon a real-life observation - a particular person, or setting, or occurrence. Although the "original" may occasionally have a spanking-related theme, usually it doesn't. I just imagine "what if" and away I go. Sometimes a title of someone else's story strikes me - and then without reading that story, I create my own. Finally, my own fantasies have a lot to do with it. I never write what someone else wants me to write, but rather what I find of interest myself.

When you write, do you ever model any characters after actual people?
Of course! My most frequent model for characters is... myself. Ninety percent of my male protagonists have anywhere from a little to a lot of 'me' in them. If you want to know who I am, read my stories. But it doesn't end there. Everybody appears in my stories in one form or another - co-workers, neighbors, my ex-wife, people I meet only once. Oftentimes I take qualities from two or more real people, merging them into one. I've featured fellow LSF authors in my stories - Jools in Spanking in Auckland and a Janine/Katie B mix in J's Red Bottom. Public figures include the title character in The Duchess of York and an only slightly disguised United States politician in Sarah of the CSA.

Do you have a favorite story that you've written? A favorite genre?
I'll deal with genre first. I tire of the usual disciplinary scenarios - schoolgirls, naughty daughters, and misbehaving wives/girlfriends. That being said, I have written stories in each of these categories, ones that I really like. If you've read my recent work, you'll know that I'm heavily into humor. If you think about it, the idea that someone - particular an adult - would actually be spanked is pretty funny. I frequently try to capture that fun in my stories. I also keep coming back to what I call 'romantic comedies' - where a spanking is all part of two people falling in love, whether for the first or a second time. I think that some of my stories defy the usual classifications, simply because I keep trying to find new reasons for a spanking to occur.

Some of my own favorite stories - not necessarily the ones my readers like best - include Upstairs/Downstairs, Dem Bones, Katja, Letters from Palookaville, Raspberry Dark Chocolate Torte, The Spanking Bug and Confessions of a Marriage Counselor. That's probably too many to have named, but I have trouble picking only a couple. Most are on the list for the same reason - the story has one character I've fallen in love with (and I don't mean the 'me' character).

What are your views on fan fiction?
I can't really say. I don't read much of it, and have written but one, back before I knew what it was called. With the uninspiring title For LOTR Fans, it's actually one of the few stories I ever wrote upon request. Generally, though, I prefer to create my own characters rather than use someone else's, which is pretty much what you have to do in fan fiction.

When writing a longer story, do you plot out the detail in advance, or make it up as you go along?
I don't write longer stories, or serials. Only one of my stories is over 4,500 words, with most being under 2,500. I usually write my "less-short" stories the same way I write virtually all of my stories. That is to work on it in my head until I have everything pretty much worked out, and then try to write it in one sitting. If I don't do that, I'm prone to writer's block. At this moment, I have several stories that are unfinished weeks or months after I began, simply because I got interrupted before I could complete them. I have to admit, though, that even when I have things all worked out in advance, my characters sometimes do things I never quite expect, leading me to a different conclusion than I intended. Someone should just spank those uncooperative characters!

Name some stories by other spanking authors that you like, and say why.
I'll start off by saying that there are many great authors at the Kilahara Library of Spanking Fiction, where I do most of my reading, who have all written more than a few fabulous stories. Some of these authors also happen to be friends of mine. Therefore, instead of picking any examples written by friends, at risking of offending others, I'm going to stick to examples by authors I don't know.

The first is The Mystery of the Baton Rouge by Alex B. This is a wonderful take-off on an old-time detective story that, for some inexplicable reason, has received virtually no attention. I love it because it is so cleverly written in a fashion I could never duplicate. So often I smugly imagine I could have write a given story better than its actual author. Not this one. Please - go read it.

The second is The Oldest Profession by ruegirl. Ironically, it also happens to be a detective story. Maybe I have a unadmitted 'thing' for detective stories (I never read the vanilla version). I selected this one because it's ruegirl at her best - a sexy story with a clever plot.

My third example is The Characters Are Revolting by Quillis. It takes the idea of runaway characters that I cited earlier and makes it into a story. I just wish I had thought of it first.

Which Point of View do you tend to write in? Why do you prefer it over others?
It's a good thing this question came last, because I'm likely to put readers to sleep before they get to the end of my answer. (You have been warned!)

First, I have to say that many people confuse "point of view" with "person". The point of view is the vantage point from which the story is seen to unfold, which may be that of a particular character in the story. A story written in first person ("I," "me," etc) is clearly told from that character's point of view. In a spanking story, that person can be the spanker, the spankee, or an observer. For a story told in the third person ("he," "him," "she," "her," "they," "them"), an author has even more choices. Even though told in the third person, a story can still be from the point of view of a given character (which again, in a spanking story. can be the spanker, the spankee or an observer). Even though not told in that character's voice as it would be in the first person, the author (and therefore the reader) has access to the character's thoughts, experiences, feelings, intentions and so forth, but not those of the other characters. If that character hasn't seen something, or heard about it, then the author can't tell it.

An alternative, and the one most authors use when telling a story in the third person, is the omniscient point of view. In this case, the author has access to every character's thoughts, experiences, feelings and intentions, and can relate them to the reader at will. A writer can also use sort of a hybrid - a point of view that shifts between or among characters at different points in the story, with a clear delineation of each break. The reader should feel the shift from "Joe's story" to "Jane's story" by whose mind is being shown.

The final alternative is what I call the "outside observer's" point of view. In this one, the reader does not have access to any character's thoughts, feelings or intentions, except by interpretation of what he or she says and does. I liken this to watching a play or movie. The reader sees the action, and hears the dialogue, but must figure out the rest.

Why did I go through all this before answering this question? It's because I consider selection of the point of view a critical decision by an author when figuring out how best to tell a story. I can't start writing until I figure how much of each of my characters I want my readers to see. If I want to hide a character's motivation or feelings, I probably do not want to tell the story from that person's point of view, or from the omniscient one. And if I want to tell the story in first person, then I have to settle on which character's. The point of view is so important in a spanking story - as the point of view of a spanker (seeing a bottom redden) is quite different from that of a spankee (getting a good view of the carpet).

This is all part of the art of story-telling. I can't say that I have a favorite point of view, since it really depends on the best way to tell a particular story I want to tell. Similarly, the selection of "person" - related to but different from the selection of point-of-view - is significant. There are times, after selecting the point of view, that I just want to tell a story in that character's own "voice" which calls for the use of first person. The decision to use first person should not be made lightly, for the author must use language that is "in character" not just for any spoken dialogue, but for everything that is said. I've read too many stories that fail on "authenticity" because this isn't done well.

I pride myself on being able to write from a complete range of points of view and "person". It is especially gratifying when I hear from a reader that I've really nailed a story I've told in the first person from a female character's point of view. I've even written a couple of stories in second person ("you") - see Trust Me and my snippet In the Middle of the Night. Such a story probably has to be short, to keep it from being tedious, told in present tense, and with no more than two characters (the speaker and the one spoken to, with the "point of view" being sort of a merger of the two). It's not something I'm going try often.



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