Professor/Student with a twist

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Jul 11, 2014
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Hello there! I'm currently in the early stages of writing my first story but am having a bit of difficulty in choosing between two slightly different scenarios and would love some feedback from other members. The two narratives are as follows:

Scenario 1:

The protagonist is a bright and driven young woman, a PhD student who has been burning a torch for her former academic supervisor since she was a master's student. There has always been a certain element of attraction between them but as he was married and she is admittedly quite proud, pursuing that attraction never seemed like a viable option...until now. He is recently divorced and she is in her final year of graduate school, set to defend her thesis and move on, and suddenly it seems as if acting on that attraction is a very good idea indeed.

The actual seduction would take place on a research retreat where the two would be acting (with a few others) as chaperons for a group of junior graduate students, adding something of a thrill of being found out due to the close-quarters nature of the trip.

Scenario 2:

Same two characters but they'd be older now and their roles would be somewhat different. The history remains essentially the same with the unexplored mutual attraction except now the female character is no longer in a subordinate role to the male (student to his teacher) but in fact, is actually somewhat superior. She would be returning to the institution as a newly installed higher administrator (think principal or chancellor) and he would be on the verge of retirement if not already an emeritus. Seduction in this instance would likely take place in her home after a cozy 'catching up' dinner and a bottle or two of red wine.

So I guess my question is which of these two scenarios would readers prefer? The traditional elements of the student/professor power dynamic are admittedly absent in both because she is an extremely good student and doesn't need to trade sex for grades and she wouldn't be using her power as an administrator over him (in the second scenario) to coerce him into having sex with her.

If it matters, she would be in her late 20s and he would be in his early 50s in the first scenario and she would be in her mid 40s and he in his late 60s in the second.

I'm not sure if there's anything else I should say about the two ideas but I'd be more than happy to answer questions! And, of course, any feedback would be very welcome as well. Thanks in advance!
 
Personally, I think the second scenario sounds more interesting, if only because it is more unusual.
 
Thanks for the replies :)

The second scenario is indeed probably more unusual but I suppose it loses some of the "taboo" factor that is present when one character is still the student of another. Unless of course some kind of power dynamic is brought into play with reference to the boss/employee relationship in involving an administrator and an academic. Though, university hierarchies and power structures are not entirely straightforward there.

The first is definitely a bit more conventional and benefits, too, I suppose from having characters who are younger.

That said, I guess there's always the option of doing both - combining them, as it were, as two separate story series starting with the first scenario and then revisiting the two after several years apart in the second.
 
Actually, I think your last idea hits the target in the bull's eye.

These would work very well as a two-part story. I hope you write it that way.
 
Why not make them into two different stories?

Anyway, I think #2 would be a good idea, but there are ways to keep the taboo of their relationship in tact.

But I do think it would be difficult to explain how a recent PHD graduate could become the Dean or administrator of a University, when there are so many other qualified people in line for the job.

Perhaps the student was able to land a great job at a tech or biological company or whatever. Years later, the professor and other faculty members take a trip to the company so that could learn about the new technology.

Maybe the seduction happens there.
 
Why not make them into two different stories?

Anyway, I think #2 would be a good idea, but there are ways to keep the taboo of their relationship in tact.

But I do think it would be difficult to explain how a recent PHD graduate could become the Dean or administrator of a University, when there are so many other qualified people in line for the job.

Perhaps the student was able to land a great job at a tech or biological company or whatever. Years later, the professor and other faculty members take a trip to the company so that could learn about the new technology.

Maybe the seduction happens there.

It could be two different stories, I suppose, but these characters work incredibly well together so I'd rather stick to them!

I'm sorry if I wasn't completely clear but she wouldn't be landing her position as an administrator straight out of graduate school - there's nearly a 20 year gap between her graduating with her PhD and coming back as an administrator which is why the character ages are different in each scenario.

As for the industry suggestion - that would definitely make a good story on its own but I should note that my PhD student and her supervisor are in the humanities, so industry isn't really an option! (I guess sexual fantasies aren't the only kind of fantasies that writers here allow themselves when writing these things ;))

Actually, I think your last idea hits the target in the bull's eye.

These would work very well as a two-part story. I hope you write it that way.

Thanks for that :) I think that I may actually do this.
 
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I'm sorry if I wasn't completely clear but she wouldn't be landing her position as an administrator straight out of graduate school - there's nearly a 20 year gap between her graduating with her PhD and coming back as an administrator which is why the character ages are different in each scenario.

That sounds good.

If you need anymore ideas, maybe the professor is highly respected and beloved by all. The school throws a private party for the professor for his early retirement (maybe he wants to travel the world). Afterwards, the professor is just hanging around late at night. The former student is there also. They wonder what they're both doing there, then they talk. They hit it off, and it's private, since everyone already went home. In a moment of candor, the former student admits she fantasized about him. He's surprised.

Or, the school is facing budget cuts. The professor begins to meet frequently with the former student to ensure that Humanities receives less cuts. That's when things start heating up, in her office.

Just some thoughts. Best of luck.
 
That sounds good.

If you need anymore ideas, maybe the professor is highly respected and beloved by all. The school throws a private party for the professor for his early retirement (maybe he wants to travel the world). Afterwards, the professor is just hanging around late at night. The former student is there also. They wonder what they're both doing there, then they talk. They hit it off, and it's private, since everyone already went home. In a moment of candor, the former student admits she fantasized about him. He's surprised.

Or, the school is facing budget cuts. The professor begins to meet frequently with the former student to ensure that Humanities receives less cuts. That's when things start heating up, in her office.

Just some thoughts. Best of luck.

Oh, I really like the idea of sharing her fantasy! Or, at least, sharing the fact that she has fantasized about him. I might just steal that if you don't mind?
 
Sure, go ahead.

If you need a little more advice, maybe it would happen after a long party. Everyone is gone. Both are exhausted. They probably won't see each other again, so she has nothing to lose, otherwise she would never dare telling him.

She tells him, and he becomes dumbfounded. He had no idea. From there the erotic tension grows. Maybe he nervously tries to comfort her, telling her that these fantasies are normal.

She says, "You think so?"

He agrees. ect...

Eventually it gets to the point where he asks, curious, what the fantasies were. She's hesitant, but she has nothing to lose, so she tells him all of her professor/students fantasies. She admits she wanted to do sexual stuff with him in his office and so forth.
 
Sure, go ahead.

If you need a little more advice, maybe it would happen after a long party. Everyone is gone. Both are exhausted. They probably won't see each other again, so she has nothing to lose, otherwise she would never dare telling him.

She tells him, and he becomes dumbfounded. He had no idea. From there the erotic tension grows. Maybe he nervously tries to comfort her, telling her that these fantasies are normal.

She says, "You think so?"

He agrees. ect...

Eventually it gets to the point where he asks, curious, what the fantasies were. She's hesitant, but she has nothing to lose, so she tells him all of her professor/students fantasies. She admits she wanted to do sexual stuff with him in his office and so forth.

This setup would work very well for a standalone story and it's something I might be willing to revist after finishing the one on which I'm currently working as it's definitely a good introduction :) Unfortunately, the relationship between the two characters with whom I'm currently working depends very much upon their attraction being mutual and upon them both having at least an inkling about how the other feels. It's a culmination of a sort of 'We've been flirting a bit outrageously and eye-fucking each other for years now so we should probably just do this at this point' situation.

That said, another development has recently occurred in the writing of this that involves being discovered by another staff member or student at the retreat and either a bit of blackmail sex or a full-on threesome resulting from this unexpected complication. I don't know...what would people prefer? Or would they rather have it start out as blackmail and end up in enthusiastic group sex?

These things do tend to go their own way in the process of writing...
 
I can imagine a slightly different emphasis on the second scenario:

The woman has, over the years, become an administrator, and the men that she's with expect her to have a strong, slightly dominant nature. And while she goes along with this, in her fantasies she often returns to the idea of being this young, naive woman who's taken-advantage of by one of her professors. And when she gets hired into a position over her old professor, she finds herself returning tot hat fantasy more often. Yet, the way in which they desire one-another is sort of at odds to their current relationship. She wants him, but she doesn't want to be a dominant, aggressive woman with him. She sorta wants him to take advantage of her, and she finds herself taking on a little bit of a flirty, school-girl persona around him, and she dislikes the fact that she goes into that persona. That conflict between who she sees herself as, and how she wants to be seduced within that particular relationship, could be a good driving force for an interesting character.
 
I can imagine a slightly different emphasis on the second scenario:

The woman has, over the years, become an administrator, and the men that she's with expect her to have a strong, slightly dominant nature. And while she goes along with this, in her fantasies she often returns to the idea of being this young, naive woman who's taken-advantage of by one of her professors. And when she gets hired into a position over her old professor, she finds herself returning tot hat fantasy more often. Yet, the way in which they desire one-another is sort of at odds to their current relationship. She wants him, but she doesn't want to be a dominant, aggressive woman with him. She sorta wants him to take advantage of her, and she finds herself taking on a little bit of a flirty, school-girl persona around him, and she dislikes the fact that she goes into that persona. That conflict between who she sees herself as, and how she wants to be seduced within that particular relationship, could be a good driving force for an interesting character.

Actually, that's very much what would be likely to happen. Like many people who are highly driven and successful in their careers, I think she is very much something of a sexual submissive. Like the high-powered male CEOs one often reads about who employ the services of a dominatrix, I think she needs one area of her life where she's not the one calling all the shots!
 
How about going in a much different direction? Scene 1 is yawn. Type in the tags for horny old professor and young bimbo who will do ANYTHING to pass, and your processor will melt from counting all the matches. Scene 2 has a little more originality; some older lech who is known for giving bimbos passing grades if they put out manages to get it up one more time when a previous student visits to relive sex that was far better in memory than the actual event.

Try this, young new male professor (early-late 20s) is teaching a computer science course. A professional woman in late 40s-early 50s is taking the course. She already knows everything in the course because she has been doing it at work, but her job sent her for the course because they need her to have official certification. As the course goes on, she is correcting him and showing him new things. She winds up having a conflict at work and tells him she needs an extension on the semester project. He makes a lame joke about students trading sex for grades. She laughs and says deal. He's in shock. A few days later they have sex. Afterwards, she hands him a flash drive with the completed project, it's at least 3 weeks early. He asks her how she did it since they haven't even covered some of the material yet. She tells him that she reread the assignment and realized the project was just like one of the things at work she is the administrator for, so she replicated it for the class. Getting laid also was bonus. His response is basically Mind Blown. End of semester she offers him a part time consultant job at her company because "he's only a little stupid and she can work with that"
 
How about going in a much different direction? Scene 1 is yawn. Type in the tags for horny old professor and young bimbo who will do ANYTHING to pass, and your processor will melt from counting all the matches. Scene 2 has a little more originality; some older lech who is known for giving bimbos passing grades if they put out manages to get it up one more time when a previous student visits to relive sex that was far better in memory than the actual event.

Try this, young new male professor (early-late 20s) is teaching a computer science course. A professional woman in late 40s-early 50s is taking the course. She already knows everything in the course because she has been doing it at work, but her job sent her for the course because they need her to have official certification. As the course goes on, she is correcting him and showing him new things. She winds up having a conflict at work and tells him she needs an extension on the semester project. He makes a lame joke about students trading sex for grades. She laughs and says deal. He's in shock. A few days later they have sex. Afterwards, she hands him a flash drive with the completed project, it's at least 3 weeks early. He asks her how she did it since they haven't even covered some of the material yet. She tells him that she reread the assignment and realized the project was just like one of the things at work she is the administrator for, so she replicated it for the class. Getting laid also was bonus. His response is basically Mind Blown. End of semester she offers him a part time consultant job at her company because "he's only a little stupid and she can work with that"

It's certainly a very well thought out scenario but I'm afraid it's not something that I, personally, am interested in writing. Besides knowing nothing about computer science and therefore being unable to write anything pertaining to a class about computer science realistically, I'm not interested in any kind of scenario whose foundation rests upon the premise of trading sex for grades (even if the tables are turned in the end). I'm not sure what in my original post made you think that was ever part of the equation for either scenario but it's something that I find incredibly irritating about the majority of the professor/student relationships out there. Of course, that is a personal preference and is in no way meant to disparage the work of authors who like to write to that fantasy. Perhaps you can interest one of them in picking up this suggestion and fleshing it out.
 
Thanks for the replies :)

The second scenario is indeed probably more unusual but I suppose it loses some of the "taboo" factor that is present when one character is still the student of another. Unless of course some kind of power dynamic is brought into play with reference to the boss/employee relationship in involving an administrator and an academic. Though, university hierarchies and power structures are not entirely straightforward there.

The first is definitely a bit more conventional and benefits, too, I suppose from having characters who are younger.

That said, I guess there's always the option of doing both - combining them, as it were, as two separate story series starting with the first scenario and then revisiting the two after several years apart in the second.

I'd be tempted to approach it as a "Sliding Doors" story. They're on the retreat, tension building, and she has to decide whether to let things continue or step back, and at that point the story forks. In the first branch she kisses him and things develop from there; in the second she pulls away, many years go by, and then their paths cross again and they realise they have unfinished business. It'd be interesting to explore how the two versions of the relationship differ, and how they're similar.
 
I'd be tempted to approach it as a "Sliding Doors" story. They're on the retreat, tension building, and she has to decide whether to let things continue or step back, and at that point the story forks. In the first branch she kisses him and things develop from there; in the second she pulls away, many years go by, and then their paths cross again and they realise they have unfinished business. It'd be interesting to explore how the two versions of the relationship differ, and how they're similar.

This is a really interesting idea. I've never written something of this sort before but I'm intrigued. Just to clarify my own understanding though, how would one structure such a composition? There'd be the common expository stuff, I imagine, but then would it literally diverge, presenting the reader with two completely separate stories? i.e., would the reader be given the option of clicking two different links that took them to two different places? Or, would one exhaust one scenario first - say, they do kiss and it goes from there and develops accordingly - only to have it turn out that that entire thing happened in one character's head in that tense moment before s/he actually pulled away, whereupon the story develops along the lines of the second idea?
 
This is a really interesting idea. I've never written something of this sort before but I'm intrigued. Just to clarify my own understanding though, how would one structure such a composition? There'd be the common expository stuff, I imagine, but then would it literally diverge, presenting the reader with two completely separate stories? i.e., would the reader be given the option of clicking two different links that took them to two different places? Or, would one exhaust one scenario first - say, they do kiss and it goes from there and develops accordingly - only to have it turn out that that entire thing happened in one character's head in that tense moment before s/he actually pulled away, whereupon the story develops along the lines of the second idea?

Several ways it could be done. Either of the options you mention could work, although using hyperlinks might be overkill here. Another possibility is to interlace the two branches, something like this:

"So, um..." She paused a little too long, and her face was a little too close to his, and she knew it was time to make the decision she'd been trying to avoid.

***

She kissed him. He seemed surprised, but he kissed her back. [paragraph of sexy smooching here.]

***

She did not kiss him. At the last minute she pulled away. "Well, I'm tired. I'll see you in the morning, Frank." [paragraph of her walking back to her room, trying to convince herself she's made the right decision.]

***

[more sexy smooching. She thinks about how she's risking damage to both their professional reputations, but decides dammit, she'll live with the consequences.]

***

[She goes to bed alone, sighing about how hard it is to be a responsible adult.]


And so on. I'd keep the first few cuts short, so that readers can get the hang of what's going on; after that it can be told in larger chunks. Doing it this way gives the option of playing off the two stories against one another: e.g. one branch where she's speculating about how things would have turned out if she'd made a different choice that night, another where we see how it actually did turn out.

With this approach it'd be important to pace the two halves carefully - you wouldn't want to have one half get through all the exciting parts too quickly and then plod along for the next thirty years waiting for the other half to get to the payoff.

Probably some other ways this could be handled, but I can't think of them just now...
 
How about going in a much different direction?

Try this, young new male professor (early-late 20s) is teaching a computer science course. A professional woman in late 40s-early 50s is taking the course. ... He makes a lame joke about students trading sex for grades. She laughs and says deal... A few days later they have sex...

I don't get it. A professional woman decided to trade sex for a grade. But she's having that sex with a guy who she's been badgering in class. Since the grade is on the line, you have a guy with a chip on his shoulder working over a woman who he doesn't like and has under his thumb...just doesn't seem like a good scenario for her. And then he gets to work with her? Awkward!

How about the woman is silent in class, amused at the cluelessness of the other students. She helps him out a few times, smiles exchanged. She quietly asks for an extension, he makes the joke, she agrees...
 
Hello there! I'm currently in the early stages of writing my first story but am having a bit of difficulty in choosing between two slightly different scenarios and would love some feedback from other members. The two narratives are as follows:


Scenario 2:

Same two characters but they'd be older now and their roles would be somewhat different. The history remains essentially the same with the unexplored mutual attraction except now the female character is no longer in a subordinate role to the male (student to his teacher) but in fact, is actually somewhat superior. She would be returning to the institution as a newly installed higher administrator (think principal or chancellor) and he would be on the verge of retirement if not already an emeritus. Seduction in this instance would likely take place in her home after a cozy 'catching up' dinner and a bottle or two of red wine.

So I guess my question is which of these two scenarios would readers prefer? The traditional elements of the student/professor power dynamic are admittedly absent in both because she is an extremely good student and doesn't need to trade sex for grades and she wouldn't be using her power as an administrator over him (in the second scenario) to coerce him into having sex with her.

If it matters, she would be in her late 20s and he would be in his early 50s in the first scenario and she would be in her mid 40s and he in his late 60s in the second.

I'm not sure if there's anything else I should say about the two ideas but I'd be more than happy to answer questions! And, of course, any feedback would be very welcome as well. Thanks in advance!

-Scenario number 2, It's something I’d write.

-The British perspective will make the story that much more elite academic and personally appealing. I’d really like it if you emphasized that she’s wearing stockings at some point prior to the sex scenes, and then rip them apart when leading up to the sex.
 
I personally like the first scenario better. I think it's more interesting and realistic so I can definitely picture it happening outside of the realm of just written word. I like the idea that you're building up tension between the two characters throughout her graduate school career to the point where now it becomes a solid temptation.

I'm also interested in hearing the male character's point of view about this. I like the idea that you have a solid, academically-grounded individual knowing that it's unprofessional but can't help but act on it. The female's internal conflict drawn by whether she would should go for this attraction or not is also intriguing.

On the one hand, I can probably say with some honesty that I am a little biased in this respect because I am a current PhD graduate student pursuing her doctorate in Biochemistry, so when I stumbled upon this, I was pleasantly surprised and am intrigued about it. It definitely would make for an interesting story because it's so potentially relatable. (Like this could actually occur in real life).
 
On the one hand, I can probably say with some honesty that I am a little biased in this respect because I am a current PhD graduate student pursuing her doctorate in Biochemistry, so when I stumbled upon this, I was pleasantly surprised and am intrigued about it. It definitely would make for an interesting story because it's so potentially relatable. (Like this could actually occur in real life).

Your professors must be SO MUCH sexier than mine were :)
 
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