Treatment Tuesday - May-December Romance

This week's assessment is for Jamie. She's writing a YA largely focused on the relationship between a 16-year-old high school senior Greta* and her teacher Mr. Corell*, and the aftermath of it being discovered. Greta is rumored to be the school slut after a mere kiss with her former best friend's boyfriend is gossiped to be much more. The few relationships she's had have been short-term with guys who invariably wanted sex, but Greta is still a virgin. She's eager to get out of high school because of the taunting and teasing her former bf has put her through. Greta's mother died when Greta was 8, and her father turned into an emotionally-abusive alcoholic as his was of coping with his loss.

Mr. Corell is an attractive older man in his early 50s (think Alan Rickman). He's a war vet who has been through several failed marriages and is currently in his fourth with a gambling addict who is also cheating on him. She spends large amounts of time away on her gambling trips, but Corell still won't leave her. He's either going to be Greta's English or Chorus teacher.

* Names have been changed to protect the fictional.

Jamie wants to know: From a psychological standpoint, what factors would contribute to both of the characters entering this relationship? What would be the realistic motivations behind both Greta's and Mr. Corell's actions? What kinds of emotions would be natural for them both to be feeling during the various stages of their relationship?

Fascinating idea here, Jamie. A May-December romance between a teacher and student isn't new (nothing is, right?), but what you do with this one could really set this apart. How exciting for me to get in on the beginning of your story!

I think you've boiled down the essential psychological factors at play for at least Greta. Her emotional trauma (from both friends and father) paired with her low self-esteem make her ripe for the picking with a more experienced older man. She's not getting any support from her father, so she'd likely absorb any support from a father figure like a sponge. Greta isn't going to be your issue.

Corell will be. The trick will be to write him in a way that's not creepy, to actually make the reader cheer a bit for him, even though he's completely out of line professionally and could be charged with statutory if things go badly for him. So how to accomplish that?

Corell's backstory will have to get fleshed out considerably. How can you make the reader have empathy toward him? Granted, he's had 3 previous wives, and his current wife isn't treating him great, but maybe he's trapped into marriage with her somehow? A reader would wonder why he doesn't just leave her, so I'd make that connection to cheating gambling wife really airtight, and I'd make it airtight for a positive, empathy-building reason, such as Corell helping someone else somehow by staying with her.

But that's his outward situation. What would internally draw him to the abused innocence of Greta? Maybe he initially sees a way to help foster confidence in a girl who reminds him of a lost daughter or even of himself at her age? Maybe he wants better for her than he had himself. His involvement at the beginning would be purely with altruistic motives to help another hurting soul. This would fit in with your inclination to have the teacher initiate the relationship. I'd advise not to have the relationship start with romance in his mind, as that might be one way to help the reader over the hurdle of his professional misconduct later.

I'm not sure if you plan on this relationship working out in the end, but I was picturing a relationship sort of like what Mr. Holland had with Rowena Morgan in Mr. Holland's Opus, at least to start with. They shared an initial common interest of musical talent, and in her girlish mind, she had them running off together, even though Holland was married. So Corell wouldn't have a steady marriage like Holland had most of the time, but it would make him less creepy if he didn't initiate the romantic part. A reader would have more empathy for a caring professor who gets caught in the crosshairs of the adulation of a young student and the forbidden stirrings of a desire for her.

As for emotions they would be feeling during various stages of their relationship, my guess would be that Corell should experience a lot more anxiety about things, as he has the most to lose. He might find himself intrigued with the idea of being with a girl who worships him, as he's never had that type of relationship with his previous wives. It'll boost his ego, for sure, and he'll probably eventually seek out opportunities to have her around him for that very reason, almost like an addiction. He might become reckless with their rendezvous locations or times.

Anyone who's ever been in love can fill in exactly what Greta will be feeling. She'll be on top of the world, finally having found someone who doesn't just want her for sex, who understand her and supports her and believes in her. She might grow frustrated at not being able to share this with anyone, yet it doesn't look like she has any friends to share things with anyway. I doubt someone with her low self-esteem would ever demand for Corell to divorce his wife or run away with her. I picture her more as a puppy dog gratefully licking up what crumbs Corell throws her in this regard.

As Mr. Holland walked away from Rowena's offer to run away with her, maybe Corell will eventually see things the same way. We'll have to read this when it gets published to know for sure! But there's nothing wrong with a fantastic story that ends in Greta gaining confidence and walking away from Corell, having gotten from him all she could for the next chapter in her life. Even if you don't have a HEA ending for these two, they both need to end the book in better places than they were before, mentally, emotionally, physically.

Thanks for writing in. Good luck with this story! Any related questions, leave them below.

Q4U: Any May-December romances out there in your WIPs? Any reverse age/gender scenarios? I did a review here on Lisa Lickel's Meander Scar, which is the first book I've read with an older female lead and younger male romantic interest. Leave any other examples you know of below.

Ebook Review and Giveaway - Lisa J. Lickel's Meander Scar

I'm honored to do a review and giveaway for Lisa Lickel's book, Meander Scar. I heartily agree with Michelle Sutton's endorsement: this book should make your list of the best of 2010 fiction.

Here's a blurb from Lisa's website:

Love can heal even the deepest scars...

After seven years with no clue as to the whereabouts of Ann Ballard’s missing husband, nearly everyone presumes him dead. Now forty-something, Ann is ready for her stagnant life to flow again. Then one day, a dark-haired younger man from her past shows up on her doorstep offering a river of hope in place of tears.

Former neighbor Mark Roth has secretly loved Ann for years. A respected attorney, he’s returned home to help Ann face down disapproving family members and the legal maneuvering of her likely deceased husband’s family— while quietly winning her heart.

When the hidden truth of Ann’s situation turns their lives on end and another tragedy strikes, the two must come to terms with family, faith and the depths to which true love can run.

Lisa asked me to do this review as a way of seeing what a therapist's take would be on the issues she has her characters going through. As a result, I now have a book I'll direct clients to who find themselves in similar situations.

First of all, the name of this book is a therapeutic metaphor. A meander scar (mē-án-dәr skär) is healed earth alongside a waterway. Rivers want to flow straight, but often run into a barrier like a large rock that causes it to veer off course. The water adapts to the landscape, but eventually is abandons the circular path to run straight again. The abandoned meander is first a small lake, then a swamp, then a scar.

Lisa prefaces her book with a definition similar to the one above, and it sets the tone for her novel. You can already conjure up ideas of extreme hurt and pain etching the canvas of the lives of Lisa's characters. But who alive doesn't fit that description? We don't go through life in a bubble! So I thought the scenes portraying that pain and suffering were so well done and realistic that anyone can relate to them.

The main reason I liked this book was because Lisa picked a 40-something heroine to match up with a hero 11 years younger. Whoa! Not often done in fiction, right? I love this quote from the hero's point of view: "He needed someone to understand that relationships sometimes can’t be built inside neat little containers. Sometimes they leak or don’t fit, or grow outside of their limits."

Both the hero and heroine end up facing scorn from family members, coworkers, and clergy for their romantic choices. *sigh* Unfortunately, that's so feasible that it's sad. Love doesn't have a formula, and the characters embraced that. However, the cards were stacked against them as soon as they did so. The heartbreak is tempered with some humorous scenes, like when Ann Googles "older women and younger men" and comes up with some unsavory descriptive terms (like "cougar")--ha! How many of us do stuff like that?

I could go on further, but take it from me....this is a book you don't want to miss out on. You can go to Lisa's website to read the first chapter of Meander Scar. You'll be drawn right in and hooked!

Rules for entering to win a free .pdf ebook of Meander Scar:

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Thanks, Lisa, for such a great read....and good luck to everyone!