Good article. With my two cents worth, I would also consider the category Pain & Pleasure, which my in some instances come under Sexual/Erotic. It's what degree of pain one takes to achieve that other degree of pleasure. I like the way this was written out. Very thoughtful.

B

Well done, I thought this goes along well with Rollin's submission in the previous issue. Putting the two together can help any writer, new or old. in writing and submitting stories. This article clearly took a lot of hard work and I commend you for making the effort.

As a fairly new writer, I'm taking on board all the comments and advice that I see written, I really enjoyed reading your article and naturally I will refer to it. For some unknown reason, the names of the characters are very important to me and are usually the first things I think of, which is perhaps a little bizarre.

You mentioned disabled people and strangely I wrote about a disabled woman, A New Year's Eve Story. I was driven to write about this and wanted to convey the fact that she had as much right to enjoy her fantasy as much as anybody else.

I'm not sure which genre it fits in, but what about those who just feel at times they need to be spanked and in fact they yearn for it, not for necessarily sexual gratification?

A fascinating and very helpful survey of different plots - thank you. Coming at it with the question 'Why would someone be spanked?' does seem to get to the heart of plots specific to this genre.

What a magnificent, well written article. I simple enjoyed your writing style and vocabulary, perhaps, more than the actual content of the article. With the poor writing in newspaper, etc, it was nice to just read something worth reading.

Well, my take on Frank's characterization is that he has presented the issue both from a different perspective -- the "why" -- but also at a higher level of abstraction. What I was trying to do was to pinpoint the most frequently used plot scenarios, which as Frank pointed out, involve a choice of setting. Yes, for example plots characterized as "erotic" and "punishment" are two different themes, but they are not, strictly speaking, plots. The writer, having decided, ok this will be an erotic story, still has to create a a story line. Is it a boy-meets-girl erotic story, or is it erotic because one character presents certain sexual possibilities to the other, or because one character exploits a power relationship with erotic consequences? But, l think looking at it both ways is useful -- my intent was to show writers (in a tongue-in-cheek way) that the "9 plots" tend to be overused and that care should be taken to make them original lest the author fall into the trap of rewriting a story that has been told a 1000 times before.
But what this article says is critically important because it dictates the tone for everything else, and that is that the author must decide "why" a spanking will occur and create the plot and characters with that in mind -- and stay consistent. Great advice in my book.

Very interesting article S

Miss Naughty - you're not alone in finding the names of the characters you create really important. I spend some time gettinjg names right. Unlike in real life, I want them to reflect character and spanking role somewhat - hence the spanker businessman Hugh Canning and the callipygous and much spanked Detective Constable Aashi Bhatt (which last took some research on Indian Hindu names). Less obviously, a girl called Sally is neither a girl called Suzy or a girl called Vivienne. For me the name encapsulates character and fate.

Flogmaster, I would say you covered all the aspects of spanking a naughty female, so as to pleasureably uncover her naked rear end.

I think you've covered all the bases here. I can't think of any categories you might have missed. Reading this has given me some inspiration though...

There is some overlap. Notably the blackmail plot. Would it be under Punishment or Assault if a wrongdoer submits to a spanking to avoid being arrested, losing a job, or something?
Examples like an employee caught stealing from an employer' ;a shoplifter caught by the store owner'; a speeder or drunk driver stopped by the police; college students caught cheating by a professor'; property owner catching a bunch of hippie kids swimming nude in his pool or pond, and so on.

A thought-provoking article. And challenging. I wonder how many other readers attempted to come up with a seventh plot. I remember reading that victims of chronic pain can sometimes get relief from being spanked once the endorphins kick in. This would seem to be a seventh reason for a spanking, not quite fitting into your Sexual/Erotic category, but it would probably not lend itself to a good spanking story. To my mind a good spanking story must always incorporate some element of domination and/or submission (voluntary or otherwise) - something you capture very well in your stories.

Building on BashfulBob's comment, there would be a plot (genre) called "Therapeutic." And, that would have to be divided into at least two categories: physical, covering the physical and mental benefits of endorphin release; and psychological, covering the sometimes beneficial result of pain on a troubled mind/soul/psyche.

Interesting. I'll have to see if I can come up with a seventh plot, or at least an interesting subversion of one of the six you describe!