Need adivce for a scene.

[Shadowlight]

Okay so in one scene of a story I'm writing a fifteen year old girl lands in trouble with her guardians who use corporal punishment as a last resort. They decide to give her a 'light' spanking to show her they are serious about what they say.

She has been physically abused by her bio mother so they can't be overly harsh without her becoming frightened of them.

How could I write this scene without making her guardians seem harsh or having the fifteen year old scared to death of them?

[RobM]

You probably can't.
The scene sounds too self-contradictory as a result of the use of a highly emo/dramatic spankee character with a 'tragic abuse' backstory.

If the parental characters can't use CP without the spankee becoming frightened, possibly traumatised and creating a lasting fear/resentment towards them... then they wouldn't/shouldn't do it.
Why would a loving, parental figure do something to a traumatised child that does more lasting damage and has a longer-lasting effect than the act itself.

Phyiscally punishing a character in that position sounds more like they're using the characters own fear of the punishment as the detterant. Spanking for punishment is ultimately about a pain/reflex and altering the risk/reward for naughtness or disobedience (something I note a lot of RPers and story writers lose sight of). If the characters primary motivator is going to be absolute terror of the memories of the past then this is always going to be a psychological punishment - argueably quite a cruel one - rather than a physical reprimand to disencourage future disobediance.

I personally might suggest if you've time for retconning playing down the resentment factors in your character towards people who remind her of the past. This gives you wiggle room.

To me, basic scene construction of this spanking would go like this:
In order to differentiate between this punishment and domestic abuse/violence there must be clear separating factors remarked upon.

• Spanking should be fairly formalised and ritualistic.
• Spanking should have the spankees cooperation.
• Spanking should have the spankees acceptance, with clear understanding of the limits of what will be done to her body (and those limits must not be exceeded).
• Spankee should have active roles in the spanking, such as fetching a hairbrush (If one is to be used), pulling down her own panties and positioning herself over the lap.
• Strictly no force to be used to compell her. Strictly no dragging or forcing over the knee, no holding her in place to be struck, especially while she kicks or screams or cries. Such actions would make it impossible to rationalise a difference in the characters mind and impossible, in my opinion, for an author to suspend belief that she won't hate the parents after.
• Spanking should take place in a neutral location, such as a living room or parlour - this won't taint 'safe-areas' such as her bedroom where she will want to enjoy safety, solitude and security and possibly retreat to after the spanking is concluded.
• Parents should stress speficic reasons for the spanking, reasons why it is needed and outcomes.
• For outcomes, specifically ways in which she can avoid it happening in the future, things she mustn't do again. There must be a divide between 'This is something that doesn't have to happen again' and 'this is something that may happen again at random on our whim following arbitrary judgements or moods you aren't privy to.'
• Make sure she see's it coming a mile away.

This is my take, but I think this wouldn't ruin my suspension of disbelief.
It really has in my mind to be about: Formality following understandable rules vs Anarchy and Unfair Random incidents.

[aka]

I'd tend to agree with RobM that physical abuse in spanking fiction just doesn't work out well. Even if spanking isn't physical abuse (depends on who you ask, and I am not going there) it's very much like physical abuse, so it can make your readers uncomfortable. I think it can be made to work (just about anything can be) but you'd have to have Shakespearean levels of skill, and even then you probably wouldn't get it right.

Instead, I would recommend replacing the "physical abuse" with more psychological abuse. For example, rather than the bio mother hitting the main character, have the bio mother do some of the following things (the intensity at which any of the below would be done, would of course be up to you):

1. Blame the protagonist for things that aren't the protagonist's fault.
2. Curse out the protagonist.
3. The bio mother was inconsistent. Sometimes she'd blow up at the protagonist, other times she'd take it in stride.
4. Often the bio mother would yell at/punish the protagonist without making it clear what it was the protagonist did wrong. Any efforts by the protagonist to find out would just get a "you know what I'm talking about!" and more cursing out.
5. Never explains why a rule is important.
6. Sometimes, even after the bio mother was done venting, she might not forgive the protagonist, in the sense that she would often refer back to something, or bring it up.


Meanwhile, for the character's new parents, basically for everything (or most everything, depending on how flawed you want to make the new parents) that the mother did, have them do it completely differently (I've never had children, so I don't know if any of the below is "right." But if these kinds of things happen in a spanking scene in spanking erotica, then I tend to believe it when the spanker says "This hurts me more than it hurts you."):

1. The parents try to learn about mitigating circumstances before punishing the protagonist.

2. During the punishment the parents never directly insult the protagonist. This can be a little bit tricky, because you also want them to emphasize that whatever the protagonist did was wrong. Basically, have the new parents give gentle, but precise constructive criticism. At the same time, they're emphasizing that they love the protagonist, and they hate having to punish her, but it's for her own good, etc. etc. In short, they're not punishing her because of her they're punishing her because of an action and they know that she's better than that action.

3. The parents make sure the protagonist knows the rules ahead of time, knows what the punishments are, and applies them consistently.

4. The parents make sure the protagonist understand which rule was broken.

5. The parents make sure the protagonist understands why a rule is important. For a simple example: "Running into the street without looking is very dangerous. If you're not careful, a car could squash you flat as a pancake." vs "Don't run in the street! I told you not to, and I know what's best for you, so I'm going to punish you if you disobey me!"

6. When the punishment is over, the parents forgive the protagonist, and never bring it up again (unless there's a repeat, maybe). You could even have an exchange the next morning, where the parents are serving the protagonist breakfast, making sure she has her school lunch, etc. as if nothing ever happened. The protagonist, thoroughly confused, could be like "But aren't you still mad about last night?" and the parents could say something like "No, of course not. You broke the rule, you were punished, you learned your lesson, the matter's closed."

One advantage of making the abuse less physical and more psychological is that the abuse the girl suffered is nothing like her new punishment. The abuse was random, lingered, cruel, and focused more on keeping her down, then helping her grow. Her new parent's punishment is predictable, over and done with, and geared towards helping her grow (in the context of spanking erotica. I'm not even going to touch real-world implications).

As for the scene itself, follow RobM's guidelines. From a purely erotic point of view, I tend to find compliant spankees kind of boring , but in the context of your story, that's easily the best way to go about it.

[Shadowlight]

Thanks. Here's more info on the characters.
She trusts her new guardians and knows they love her. She was told if she worried them again that they would spank her. As for the abuse she faced in the pass she was beaten with a belt across her back; she already knows that they won't do that because she's made them angry before and that only ended with her being grounded and scolded with the threat of a spanking if she would repeat that behavior.