as a person who wants to write spanking stories but is afraid to get it wrong... please infodump all you like 💖
I have some great advice for you:
do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do it - do eeeeeEEEEEEeeeeeet!! 🥳
No seriously! Ask any spanko writer and they'll probably give you the same answer! Well okay maybe not the exact same, but they're definitely gonna excitedly encourage you to join in!
That's where all of us started - worried we'd get it wrong or readers wouldn't like it.
Even those among us in the BDSM lifestyle who actually do the things we write about struggle with it because it's not fanfic mainstream and when posting writing like that it doesn't feel like you're just dipping your toe into the water. It feels like you're jumping in, and it can be hard to just do it!
My biggest sources of encouragement and validation have come from communities and friends even before Discord and AO3 were a thing.
If you can, I'd really recommend joining the Discord servers I linked the other day. They're safe spaces to talk about discipline fic, bounce ideas, ask questions, post your own snippets (and get enthusiastic support for those snippets), read other writer's snippets, and make friends who have a common interest.
There used to be a lot more spanko fics and writers on Tumblr, but the p0rn purge a few years back ran a bunch of them off, and it seems that they've resettled on Discord.
I don't recommend going to Twitter with spanko fic, and if there's a dfic community on Bluesky or Pillowfort I haven't found them.
Posting snippets of your own in a dfic community can really get you over that hump of being afraid about your own fic.
They're super supportive, awesome cheerleaders, and there's experience levels of all kinds there so don't worry that you'll be the least experienced one there!
My last bit of advice on this is to read dfic even in fandoms you're not a part of. As you're reading, you'll figure out what you like and don't like and you'll get ideas.
But you'll also see that what writers are doing is just writing what they want to! It's kinda hard to get something "wrong" that's so personal and varied.
Even in the BDSM community, there's styles, practices, and plenty of other things that mean one spanko doesn't vibe with plenty of other spankos. That's why talking about things and getting to know people is so important before play.
There's no one right way to do it no matter what anybody tells you.
I've read dfics over the years where I flat out said NOPE I would never do this and I don't agree with it, but it doesn't matter! We're all just having a good time and writing is all fiction anyway!
Also as a quick warning, be ready for people to have a problem with dfic. Writers who have been doing this for years are used to it and we all have our own ways of dealing with the trolls, but people can be nasty.
My response is none at all. Nasty asks and comments get deleted immediately, nasty DMs get blocked, because we're all here for fun and fiction and those people can just go fuck themselves.
The most common troll comment I get is "those characters wouldn't do that" followed by all the reasons why and how awful I am for writing such disgusting things.
Those always make me chuckle because it's just a toddler mad that someone is playing with the toys in a way they don't like.
The second most common comments I get are from people who just search for spanking keywords, don't bother reading the fic, and spew hate. As soon as I see the first few words on those, I delete. If possible, I block as well.
There's no need for that behavior.
And there's no need for your regular readers (if you already have them in non-spanko fic) to give you nasty shit either just because you're exploring something you're interested in.
I mean seriously - look at it for what it is! It's bratty toddler behavior! And an adult behaving like a toddler to a spanko is a really bad decision because it only makes me wanna spank brats more 😈
