I am trying to expand upon an idea for a story. It is about a young female student who is either in high school or college, and she becomes infatuated with an older male teacher/professor. There are several ways to go with it – mainly, I was thinking either a romantic, erotic type of story OR a disturbing series of events in which the professor actually then reciprocates the feelings and actions. For example, the student fantasizes about him and wants to call his office phone just to hear his voice over the voicemail (somewhat creepy, but more innocent) – then the professor calls her phone and says strange things, essentially changing the entire dynamic of the situation. The change of context would be the main focus on the story. I also thought of possibly writing of small situations in which they meet, but the student then deeply fantasizing of them sexually. The end of the story would be the climax when is it revealed that the male professor actually raped her/assaulted her and she developed a split personality or something. Does anyone have suggestions? I know the gist of the story and characters, but I have a really difficult time creating a readable plot.
Since you're looking to go psychological with the climax, I'd suggest that rather than a split personality, you rather create general denial of the situation. As someone with a keen interest in psychological issues, it's amazing to see what the brain can suppress. To spin off an entirely different personality is very rare, and may be a little too evocative of Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King. Not to say that you can't draw inspiration from the work of others. I'd also suggest, for the same reasons, that you consider making the realization of what originally happened with the professor less than rape. Sometimes it's the smaller things that crush us and change us. We would be much more likely to be disenchanted with someone who violated us so severely, rather than mindlessly fantasizing about them. I do think that sexual fantasies about commonplace occurrences and meetings would fit well into the story. Just be careful to keep the writing good. A well-written sex scene is difficult to do, but absolutely great writing when it happens. Don't let it devolve into porn script.
I think that having the prior incident as a rape would not work. The motivation for rape is rarely sexual. Moreover, the effect on the victim is profound, and I can't see a victim having this kind of desire toward someone who had raped her, except possibly if she suffered from the worst kind of self-loathing. Even then, it would be extremely difficult to paint her as a sympathetic character (which I am assuming that you want to do, but perhaps not).
Hmmm... in my case, I would suggest a different turn of events. For example, if the student has so much desire for the professor then he wouldn´t have the need to rape her. He´d rather seduce her if he really wanted to. However, you could make her fantasize about a man she will never get and then find out that he indeed loved her too but since she never told him anything, and time flew by, he just went on with his life and upon learning this, she breaks down so badly that she develops a split personality . But it dosen´t end there... her split personality is based on her lost desires so she goes seek her lost love with that personality and when she goes back to herself she dosen´t remember what happened. From there on ,you can imagine the problems and twists this story will have, its just a suggestion. I like your concept still. Keep writing!
It's true the mind can suppress things to protect you. It happened to me. I mean.. I didn't totally forget things but I had very blurry memories over several years time up until recently. I was in excruciating pain non stop for about three years. Up until recently when I really started to deal with things emotionally I had very few clear memories of those times. I would remember the gist of things but not in depth. I don't know how rare split personalities are but I imagine it doesn't matter how rare it is since this is fiction. Also it doesn't matter if it sounds like something else so long as you don't copy it from that. There are only so many ideas and premises out there. What makes it unique is your voice as a writer. On one hand this is true on another people get into abusive relationships and think it's perfectly normal. I've seen it happen before. It's tragic but it definitely happens. I'm not trying to be rude and apologize if it come across as such. I just don't believe that the smaller things in life could ever come any where close to the big things that crush us. Perhaps it depends on your own personal experiences though. Ughhh please please please don't let it devolve into a porn. People will pretty much automatically discredit it as garbage if you aren't tasteful. Because as unfortunate as it is the romance genre is filled with really awful books. As in the plots and dialogue suck. Plus the character development is totally non existent.
