Contributors' guidelines

We have lots of different contributors and columnists writing for Taken In Hand, but it would be lovely to have more. Would you like to be one of them? If so, please don't be shy! If you have an idea, do feel free to submit it. If your article is selected for publication, it will be edited if necessary, and put up. If the editing is significant, we'll send you the edited version so that you can approve it. Unfortunately, as this is not a commercial site and is a labour of love, you won't get paid for any articles appearing here. Don't let that put you off!

When sending an article, please give your assurance that it is your original work and that it has not been published elsewhere in any form. If it has appeared somewhere (for example, on the internet) before, please say exactly where and when. On no account post anything on this site that is not your own work, unless you have permission from the writer. If you have permission, state that you have permission. What we are looking for is original material that has not been published elsewhere. But if, say, you once posted a version of it on a group with few readers, that might be fine. Just let us know where it was posted.

Another point to bear in mind is that if you are saying the same thing as someone else has already said on this site, your article would have to be particularly interesting, well-written, and fun to read in order to be accepted.

Articles that are fun to read and witty as well as being interesting and useful are more likely to be accepted, because our aim is to be entertaining as well as informative.

Note that this site specifically focuses on Taken In Hand relationships, and we are currently being a bit more strict about this than we have been in the past, so you need to ensure that your article is on-topic for this site. The Taken In Hand relationship is a wholehearted sexually exclusive marriage in which, to the delight of both spouses, the man actively controls the woman. The degree of control and the way the husband retains control vary from Taken In Hand couple to Taken In Hand couple, but in all cases both husband and wife actively want the husband to have the upper hand. No matter how strong, tough and forceful a Taken In Hand wife may be, and no matter how hard she might try to take control in their marriage, she would be aghast if her husband were to let her get the upper hand. Likewise, no matter how loving, kind and considerate the husband may be, he prefers to keep his wife firmly in hand.

As a general rule, if you make your article about the underlying substance of the Taken In Hand relationship, as opposed to focusing on the overt form the relationship takes – writing about the relationship, the philosophy, the underlying relationship dynamics or the psychology of control rather than about sexual practices, spanking, and other such details – it is more likely to be accepted. See also these ideas for article topics.

We have received a number of heartfelt, beautifully-written submissions recently, that have nevertheless not been accepted for publication. Currently, the two most common reasons for rejecting posts are that (1) the post is advocating submissiveness or frowning on Taken In Hand women's lack of submissiveness (i.e., it is a post that would be more appropriate for a D/s site) or (2) the post is about how bad the writer is, how unable to control herself she is, and/or how she desperately needs to be disciplined/spanked/punished, and/or how terrified she is of being spanked and how much it hurts (i.e., it is a post that would be more appropriate for a DD site). If you ensure that your post does not mention spanking, discipline, punishment, submission or being submissive, and you are not glorifying bad behaviour or a lack of self control, it is much more likely to be selected for publication on this site. Incidentally, the purpose of this policy is not to denigrate D/s or DD, it is simply that Taken In Hand is not those things and that needs to be more clear than it has been.

Another quite common problem is that the post seems to be a bit of a personal ad. Avoid mentioning that you are single, writing in a personal ad style, and/or giving personal ad style details about yourself.

The other common problem is that the writer previews the post but never completes the final step of clicking the button at the foot of the preview to actually submit the post. Don't forget to post your submission. Always check that you have actually posted it.

Articles should be tasteful, non-pornographic, and whilst they can indeed be erotic, they should not be explicit. It is perfectly possible to write erotically without being graphic. (Note that we have nothing against graphic writing: it is just not what we want for this site.)

For a better feel for the sort of articles we are looking for, see this page, take the tour, and read the posts on the FAQ.

Any format is acceptable, but if you want to make life extra easy this end, follow these guidelines:

- Instead of CAPITALISING for emphasis, use <i>italics</i> or asterisks. Don't use bold text.
- Dashes should be n-dashes with a space either side – like this: – . For this dash, type &#8211;. Or use two hyphens with a space either side, like this: --

2003 Sep 22 - 14:07 | latest article | previous article | next article |