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I do very much love reading stories here and elsewhere as much, if not more so than writing them. However, I just gotta get this stuff off my chest, whether anyone who is actually writing gives a crap or not. Character vital information and background: If you start off with an info dump (So and so is x years old, stands x height, weighs x pounds, blah blah blah) I'm done reading your story right there; I do not give a flying shit if what follows is the next Great Expectations. If you expect me to care about your character, make me care about your character, don't give me a Dungeons and Dragons stat sheet and expect me to be even remotely interested. It's really not hard to weave vital info into the opening chapters of the story where it becomes important, i.e. when I actually need to know that your character is only 5 feet tall (for example, when s/he has trouble seeing in a crowd, or finds him/herself staring up at something most people would be seeing on eye level), or how old they are, which is something that can be artfully woven INTO the story, for example, a particular scene in the middle school cafeteria where the protagonist finds him/herself having anxiety about entering high school the following year (putting them at age 14-15) or having him/her just completing a 4-year college degree (putting them at age 21-23). Info dump = lazy fiction writing. Ever seen a Stephen King book that leads off with an info dump? How about Tom Clancey? Anne Rice? Hell, even the tackiest, most cookie-cutter smut romance novels don't introduce their characters with an info dump. DON'T DO IT. THERE IS NO EXCUSE. Punishment in General You'd think by now every would-be writer on this and every other forum has seen enough of the parent who freaks out and goes "ZOMG (character name) you horrible creature! I can't believe you didn't rinse your plate before you put it in the dishwasher! Clearly, the only proper penance for this egregious sin is turning your room into a nursery, putting you in diapers, dressing you like a baby, and publicly humiliating you at every possible opportunity from now until you turn 30!!!!" followed by the character (regardless of age) casually going "Wait, no, stop, I'll be good" and whimpering a bit while passively allowing it all to happen. It's so cliche, nearly every AB story forum has its own spoof version! Shouldn't this tell you something about using it as a substitute for a plot? Sadly, either they haven't, or they assume the rest of us haven't, because it still happens. People still publish this and other ridiculously cliche and mind-blowingly unrealistic punishment stories (with the descriptions of their humiliating adventures being the sum of the plot line), with no regard for even putting a decent spin on it. CUT IT OUT ALREADY!!!! Spanking Yeah, it's a fundamental part of most AB fiction. Great. A lot of people need to learn how to emote this action, instead of treating it clinically. What do I mean? Giving me a count is clinical (so and so gave so and so 35 spanks with a two by four wrapped in barbed wire and studded with rusty nails). I don't want to read that crap! Give me a point-of-view moment here! (so and so grit her teeth, screeching through them as the metal laid open the tender flesh of her buttocks, while she reflexively rubbed her clitoris against so and so's thighs, the pain amplifying her sexual excitement) Okay, that was a little weird, but you get the point... Diaper Changes (and things that happen to necessitate them) Yes, again, I understand that this is a fundamental part of AB fiction. It ain't the whole plot - or if it is, you need to reconsider your plot, or at least tag it as a scat porno, not an AB story. The last thing I want to read is a plot constantly interrupted every two or three sentences by a graphic description of bowel/bladder activity and/or a diaper change. This is even worse when combined with the clinical spanking episodes (yes, there's a current active that fits this description, but they ain't the first, by any stretch), where it devolves into spank-diaper change-spank-diaper change-spank-diaper change and on and on until one's eyes begin bleeding. In short: Repetition = bad. Creativity = good. This ain't Dr. Seuss, folks, and if you think it should be, consider that he hated kids... Okay, I'm done. Back to your regularly scheduled... Aw fuck! Not again!!!!!!