I'm Seeking Support Researching an Erotic Novel

[Noitard]

Kboards said that I was overthinking my story, but I've had a little professional training at college, emphasizing preparation, and hope I'll find a better fit, talking about my story, here, including sharing my notes.  I'm telling also an erotic tale, but certainly NOT smut--no graphic sex and at most, it's ONLY implied.  In any case, here are some of my notes 'n questions:

 

I'm researching for a story about beautiful young high school teacher that decides to disguise herself as a high school student to better understand her subjects, only to find herself entrapped in the lifestyle by a more experienced...teacher.

 

How to make it more real?  SHe's real smart, in the 97th percentile, so it would make sense that she's a very young teacher, like 24, but what kind of college would she go to?  WHat would be the exact career goals of someone in her position? Sh's smart, so how would she go undercover as a high school student in the aim of creating a doctrinal thesis, or something akin to it?  I want this to be as believable as possible.

 

Also, I intend for her to be fired from her first teaching gig  primarily because she's not assertive, too passive. WHat would that look like?  WHat kind of mistakes do rookie teachers make? What kinds of things get teachers fired?  (I'm not talking sex with students, racism, or doing drugs, either--those cases are TOO extreme.  SHe gets fired for just not being good enough, whch shocks her, being a genuine afront to her pride, and also challenge, being the first time she's failed professionally, after years of being an honor student.)

I'm telling a story about a woman entering an extremely unusual situation, but I want it to be a believable as possible, so I'm asking for details about how teaching is, for young teachers, and in particular for someone who's young, super-credentialed but also with limited self-confidence. How do high schools hire teachers?  How uncommon would it be for a teacher in the 97th percentile to start out as a high school teacher?  Also, how does the teacher-assistant dynamic work?  How can it get dysfuntional?  Where can I find answers to these questions?

[WBDaddy]

Perhaps she's pursuing a doctorate in Child Psychology and wants to specialize in adolescent behavior.   Being 24, she could physically blend in with no trouble.  Being crazy smart might make it hard for her to fit in much of anywhere.  

Internal politics is the #1 reason new teachers get fired in the States.  Until you make tenure, you can be fired for virtually anything, especially in a non-union state. 

She could be attending virtually any Ivy-league school - take a look at some of their online offerings, see which ones offer Doctoral programs in Psychology disciplines. 

As to your friend who says you're overthinking it?  Nah.  I do far deeper dives when I'm writing something fairly large-scale like The Wannabe Hypnotist, where I mercilessly researched every geographical detail about the setting I used in rural South Carolina. 

[Cute_Kitten]

5 hours ago, WBDaddy said:

 

As to your friend who says you're overthinking it?  Nah.  I do far deeper dives when I'm writing something fairly large-scale like The Wannabe Hypnotist, where I mercilessly researched every geographical detail about the setting I used in rural South Carolina. 

This, so much. It's better to over research than to under research. Any research you don't end up putting in the story specifically still helps you the writer to understand your subject better and that will come across in the writing. Whenever I'm writing a subject I'm unfamiliar with- something as simple as surfing or as complex as another culture such as Japan- I research. The bigger the role the subject plays in the story, the more research I do. It helps you get little things like vernacular  and professional jargon, etc right. Those little details might not seem like much, but they add up to create an overall picture/ build the world and develop the character. In other words, it's the little details readers might not notice, but it's what helps immerse them in the story. 

[willnotwill]

Did you watch Never Been Kissed? 

[Noitard]

On 3/25/2020 at 4:49 AM, WBDaddy said:

Perhaps she's pursuing a doctorate in Child Psychology and wants to specialize in adolescent behavior.   Being 24, she could physically blend in with no trouble.  Being crazy smart might make it hard for her to fit in much of anywhere.  

Internal politics is the #1 reason new teachers get fired in the States.  Until you make tenure, you can be fired for virtually anything, especially in a non-union state. 

She could be attending virtually any Ivy-league school - take a look at some of their online offerings, see which ones offer Doctoral programs in Psychology disciplines. 

As to your friend who says you're overthinking it?  Nah.  I do far deeper dives when I'm writing something fairly large-scale like The Wannabe Hypnotist, where I mercilessly researched every geographical detail about the setting I used in rural South Carolina. 

Aren't there doctorates in teenage psychology?  I would assume that is what she is pursuing--not child psychology.   My backstory for her is her is that she attained some sort of teaching certification allowing her to be a high school teacher, with the plan for her to teach for a year or two to attain first-hand experience, and then get a higher degree.  

Internal politics being the reason for her firing a teacher sounds about right.  Her future dom decides that she is too much of a pushover as a teacher, recommends her firing, and explains to her quite frankly.  My idea is that she has never attended high school, and the setting is completely novel, given she mostly homeschooled, and stuck to her books in college, completing  her courses lightning-quick.  She is more responsible, more capable than she is mature, and I intend to show that in how she lets her assistant basically run the class.  

When she gets fired, she is mad at her future dom for firing her, as opposed to giving her a chance to to learn--to get better, but he thinks he has her pegged.  This encounter, this charge that she cannot teach student because she cannot teach high schooler because she's never been one, is what drives her to become one, initially.   She says she came here to learn, and he tells her that's good, but is being paid to teach, and is being fired for too much learning and and not enough teaching, and that is her final lesson.   She's never lived, and that is what has drawn her to high school, so when he asks her what what she can teach her subjects if she can't understand them, she knows he's right.


Looked online at Columbia:  https://www.tc.columbia.edu/academics/courses/

[WBDaddy]

1 hour ago, Noitard said:

Aren't there doctorates in teenage psychology?  I would assume that is what she is pursuing--not child psychology.   My backstory for her is her is that she attained some sort of teaching certification allowing her to be a high school teacher, with the plan for her to teach for a year or two to attain first-hand experience, and then get a higher degree.  

Internal politics being the reason for her firing a teacher sounds about right.  Her future dom decides that she is too much of a pushover as a teacher, recommends her firing, and explains to her quite frankly.  My idea is that she has never attended high school, and the setting is completely novel, given she mostly homeschooled, and stuck to her books in college, completing  her courses lightning-quick.  She is more responsible, more capable than she is mature, and I intend to show that in how she lets her assistant basically run the class.  

When she gets fired, she is mad at her future dom for firing her, as opposed to giving her a chance to to learn--to get better, but he thinks he has her pegged.  This encounter, this charge that she cannot teach student because she cannot teach high schooler because she's never been one, is what drives her to become one, initially.   She says she came here to learn, and he tells her that's good, but is being paid to teach, and is being fired for too much learning and and not enough teaching, and that is her final lesson.   She's never lived, and that is what has drawn her to high school, so when he asks her what what she can teach her subjects if she can't understand them, she knows he's right.


Looked online at Columbia:  https://www.tc.columbia.edu/academics/courses/

There ya go.  Doing a little research, suddenly you've got not only your answers, but more plot concepts to further develop your characters!  

It's always worth it to research your story.   

[Noitard]

7 hours ago, willnotwill said:

Did you watch Never Been Kissed? 

No. What is it?

Any teacher forums online for me to ask about high schools?  I'd contact some high schools now, but obviously...

[willnotwill]

It's a movie with a similar plot theme.

[WBDaddy]

2 hours ago, Noitard said:

No. What is it?

Any teacher forums online for me to ask about high schools?  I'd contact some high schools now, but obviously...

What do you need to ask about high schools?  Depending on the question, it may be a non-sequitur. 

[Noitard]

22 hours ago, WBDaddy said:

What do you need to ask about high schools?  Depending on the question, it may be a non-sequitur. 

For this, allow me to share more of my notes:
 

Fresh outta college, and in the 97th percentile, she enters her first high school teaching gig.
As she starts, she finds she isn't very assertive, and lets her assistant lead the class for her, even bossing her around, slightly.
Another of the the teachers there, a mid-forties widower named Stephen Hardman, starts to mentor her a little.
She has a little bit of a crush on him, but the y develop more into a father-daughter-who's-college-age vibe.
Taking his advice to heart, she works to improve, and does.
Until she gets fired.
Stung, and never having failed at anything in her life, she bursts into "Mr. Hardman"'s office to complain.
Until he finds she was fired on his recommendation, given she was not "a keeper."
Mr. Hardman explains that she's still a "little girl" who just hasn't "grown up"" enough to justify tenure.

She begs him to reconsider, but he turns her down, saying she has nothing to teach, but much to learn, just as the clouds breakin throught the window, making her hair briefly look blond to him.  Staring deep into her eyes, he cradles her disappointed face before gathering her long, brown hair into two pigtail-like bunches with his fists, and then releases them, saying she should go back to school, like she was thinking. 

After this, she she retrurns to her college adviser, to consult him on her next move.
Given she's never had personal high school experience and went straight to college, he suggests that perhaps she try to understand them, more.
At this, she counter-suggests she do her research posing as a teenager, and write a paper on that, to which her advisor agrees.

How to make this arc believable, both in the academic mechanisms, and psychologically?  As is, I think I'm off to good start.

 

[WBDaddy]

Well, there fundamentally isn't a believable scenario here that doesn't end in her filing a lawsuit against the school.  All the research in the world doesn't change that, unless you REALLY want to do some deep stage-setting and have her father die when she's like 6 or something and have some big emotional last moment that she remembers of him, probably of him being disappointed in her. 

I mean, the prose is good and all, but I think you're working too hard to make literally everything about her teaching experience imprint some kind of LG thing on her.  There's probably an easier way to do this than the one you're trying to execute. 

[WBDaddy]

Addendum:  The only believable scenario I can imagine here is if this is a private school, probably a parochial school, where tenure isn't even an issue (BTW - teachers aren't even eligible for tenure until they've been in their positions for 10 years).