So I have been struggling with the ages of my MCs for a while now, and I am looking for some help... A large part of the problem is the age difference, one of 7, between the main romantic relationship in the story. I can't just change the ages of the characters because this would mess up the entire plot of the story, part of which depends on the FMC being the same age as her love interests younger brother. No matter how many times I try to explain to people that I'm just trying to keep things realistic, (and I am pushing that, most of the characters being towards the upper end for their time), people don't seem to take it well and I end up felling bad about myself. I guess the help I'm looking for is how to handle my MCs ages in a way that seems at least somewhat appropriate to people in our day and age. The Character Ages: FMC: 16 later 17 MMC (the FMC's love interest): 23 later 24 The MMC's younger brother : 16 Notes: If you did not catch on, the story is medieval high fantasy. (Well actually its a wired blend of medieval, victorian, and other stuff, but that is a bit beside the point)
Age difference isn't as big a deal as the age of the youngest character. In an earlier variant of your story, I believe the female character being forced into marriage was 13. A 16/17 year old is different. Without knowing the details, I don't know if it's dandy, but it's much less of a problem. It would also be much less of a problem if she weren't forced into the marriage, or if she seemed to have some agency, or if she didn't fall in love with the man forcing her. Ideally all three. The previous idea was on the wrong disturbing side of all four issues. (Age, consent, agency, Stockholm syndrome.) The more of them you can flip, the better.
Yeah, this. IRL, my first wife and I were 7 years apart, but we were both a couple of years older than 17 and no one seemed to care. Not saying the age difference didn't create problems, because it did, but it was legal and nobody cared.
Its a problem with my school, I got suspended for sharing part of a chapter with a friend. The only reason I changed her age was because she needed to be the same age as R (the MMCs younger brother, and as a Knight I need him to be at least 15. I'm going to remind you that J (the MMC) was just as stuck as C (the FMC) was. He had about as much choice as she did, and C needed to marry someone, or her second cousin, the guy who got her father's castle and stuff, was going to many her, and that would have been very bad... R is closer to her age, but has enough problems (of the mental type), and dose not like girls anyway. Right now I'm trying to deal with the fact that most people, at least the ones I know, don't like it, and the fact I'm suspended because of it, which means my parents are mad at me to.
Okay, I think there is nothing we can do for you, here on the forum, regarding this issue. Obviously if you've been suspended from school because of it, there IS a problem. I'm sorry that's happened, but there isn't a forum magic wand that we can wave to change it. As a writer, you will need to deal with the problem. If you are not able to write the story the way you want and get away with it, then you will need to: a) write another story altogether b) change the ages to something acceptable to your readers (and alter the plot accordingly) c) stick to what you're already doing and realise that you're in trouble and will likely stay there You will need to pick one of those options, if you want to move forward. You've already had quite a few suggestions about this on other threads, if memory serves me right. Please let this issue drop, as far as the forum goes. I'm speaking with my Mod hat on here. I think you've had quite a bit of advice on it already. Because writing about underage sexual activity is a flammable issue on this forum, and has already been discussed over and over on other threads, I am closing this thread.
