Question - Why 18 year olds?

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Perhaps you should in many, many things! I'm a good leader you know, if aren't sure, just ask me, I'll tell you the truth and set you straight.

Perhaps, we should all follow Mary's lead.

Hopefully not a path straight to hell!

 

[EmilyMiller]

Perhaps, we should all follow Mary's lead.

Seconded.

Em

 

[onehitwanda]

Hopefully not a path straight to hell!

It's a garden path, very... picturesque.

 

[PandemicReader8]

I'm with you on this. There is zero erotic interest or potential in an eighteen year old boy, and young women need several years out after high school to be interesting. Not saying they can't be as hot as all get out at that young age, but the mind takes a bit longer to mature.

This, so much this.
I soent several years in the service before I got the chance to go to college and earn a commission. It didn't take long to realize that while 18 and 19 year olds had their uses, I couldn't have a conversation with them.

 

[EmilyMiller]

This, so much this.
I soent several years in the service before I got the chance to go to college and earn a commission. It didn't take long to realize that while 18 and 19 year olds had their uses, I couldn't have a conversation with them.

YMMV - obviously

Em (still remember being 18 - it wasn’t that long ago)

 

[onehitwanda]

YMMV - obviously

Em (still remember being 18 - it wasn’t that long ago)

I still cringe at my 18 year old self. She makes for fantastic Oh-no-o'clock memories.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I still cringe at my 18 year old self. She makes for fantastic Oh-no-o'clock memories.

I’ve grown (if not in height) but I wasn’t an amoeba at 18.

Em

 

[onehitwanda]

I’ve grown (if not in height) but I wasn’t an amoeba at 18.

Em

I had about the self-awareness of an amoeba

 

[EmilyMiller]

I had about the self-awareness of an amoeba

I was a bit of an emotional wreck, for a number of reasons, but my brain worked fine (well no worse than now anyway).

Em

 

[onehitwanda]

I was a bit of an emotional wreck, for a number of reasons, but my brain worked fine (well no worse than now anyway).

Em

Oh, I formed crushed that became obsessions. I'd write terrible poetry, leave letters on car windows, stalk, listen obsessively to music, hang out on the same internet forums as them...

hey... hang on a minute!

 

[TxRad]

And it all comes crashing in....

I was big for my age. My Jr High school Football coach thought I was someone's father when I went out for the team. I played one game and the school board thought I was too big to play. It was kind of unfair.

At fifteen I had a car, an apartment of my own, and a job, while I went to high school. I've always been older than my age and dated women older than I was. Back then, if you looked old enough, you were.

Maybe that is why most of the women in my stories are older. Although I have used 18 year olds as the story needed.

 

[SimonDoom]

18 was an amazing year for me. I fell in love for the first time. I went off to college, far, far from home. I lost my virginity. I experienced things I'd never experienced, with a sense of wonder and curiosity. So many first-time experiences.

Why NOT 18? That seems like a more valid question to me.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I envy you! My 18th year was quite happy, but my 12th to 14th years weren't so nice. However, I'm feeling much better now. (Buddy on Night Court, about a killzollon times)

18 was an amazing year for me. I fell in love for the first time. I went off to college, far, far from home. I lost my virginity. I experienced things I'd never experienced, with a sense of wonder and curiosity. So many first-time experiences.

Why NOT 18? That seems like a more valid question to me.

 

[SimonDoom]

I envy you! My 18th year was quite happy, but my 12th to 14th years weren't so nice. However, I'm feeling much better now. (Buddy on Night Court, about a killzollon times)

12-14 is a whole different matter. Perpetual awkwardness. And 18 was no bed of roses. I recall feelings of insecurity and uncertainty. But the new experiences over-rode everything else.

My point is I think back on what an amazing and special time in my life that was, with all its good and bad, and I don't understand people who think it's "creepy" to want to recapture that in a story.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Me either.

12-14 is a whole different matter. Perpetual awkwardness. And 18 was no bed of roses. I recall feelings of insecurity and uncertainty. But the new experiences over-rode everything else.

My point is I think back on what an amazing and special time in my life that was, with all its good and bad, and I don't understand people who think it's "creepy" to want to recapture that in a story.

I recapture, with ages changed, the worst times of my life in my writing.

 

[PandemicReader8]

YMMV - obviously

Oh, to be certain. But for my part, my experiencec was as it was.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Mine are all fantasies. I use my ex as a model for the cuckolds only because they aren't good at sex. I make most happy about the cuckolding, whereas, my first husband was a lying, cheating, heartless bastard; these men care more for their wives than themselves. Most of the bulls have at least some of the qualities of my second and last husband. When they have a darker nature, they're just imagined individuals. I should explain the second and last part. I have the best, so if we ever break up or, God forbid, he dies, I'll not remarry.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I was living independently at 17, and 18 was a great year for me - some parts feature in stories here, heavily anonymised to protect the other guilty parties. And then there was college - so many tropes to play with...

20-24 was a lot tougher, but the sex was a positive. A few years ago I wrote in a forum for some friends, that since becoming an adult I have never had a bad sexual experience - though if I'd been less wary I might have had more of them. Which does mean that when life is hard, mentally or physically, thinking about sex is a good distraction.

And then, sometimes, I write it down. There's generally a bit of truth that ends up in my stories here. Both the best and worst of times.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I’ve grown (if not in height) but I wasn’t an amoeba at 18.

Em

Em, I would give a lot to go into the future and talk to forty-five-year-old Emily Miller and revisit this question. Hang around enough "young adults" as a mature person, and you will get it.

Why NOT 18? That seems like a more valid question to me.

Indeed, why not? I'm merely offering my perspective, and I did offer a few reasons why I have it. Your eighteen experiences seem terrific, but they were with other young people yes?

The fact is, that the rational part of the human brain isn't fully mature until age 25ish. Most 18-year-olds I knew as a parent of two boys were still mentally, children in big, hormone-filled bodies. So beyond the physical, which I do get, there isn't much sexy or attractive about most people between 18 and 21, IN MY OPINION. So it makes me feel weird about May/December stories that feature one. And there are a LOT of them.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Em, I would give a lot to go into the future and talk to forty-five-year-old Emily Miller and revisit this question. Hang around enough "young adults" as a mature person, and you will get it.

Indeed, why not? I'm merely offering my perspective, and I did offer a few reasons why I have it. Your eighteen experiences seem terrific, but they were with other young people yes?

The fact is, that the rational part of the human brain isn't fully mature until age 25ish. Most 18-year-olds I knew as a parent of two boys were still mentally, children in big, hormone-filled bodies. So beyond the physical, which I do get, there isn't much sexy or attractive about most people between 18 and 21, IN MY OPINION. So it makes me feel weird about May/December stories that feature one. And there are a LOT of them.

I hung out more with mature guys than guys my own age at college. Girls my own age, yes. Boys my own age was a whole truckload of pain.

As always, all generalities suck. This one sucks even worse.

Em

 

[AwkwardlySet]

You can throw around any kind of "facts" really, but it all comes down to personal preferences. Some want to write about experienced characters who have lived and seen the world. Some want to write about green and more innocent characters. Personally, I like to write both, and I do believe there is a place in our stories for both kinds of characters, although it does ultimately depend on the story you want to tell. But saying mature characters are better than young ones or vice versa is actually taking me way back to my early childhood when we kids argued about who is stronger, King Kong or Superman.
Yes, this discussion here is just about as reasonable as that, sometimes.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I didn't realize politely expressing an opinion was so poorly thought of here. I noted something and wished to have an adult conversation about it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

You can throw around any kind of "facts" really, but it all comes down to personal preferences. Some want to write about experienced characters who have lived and seen the world. Some want to write about green and more innocent characters. Personally, I like to write both, and I do believe there is a place in our stories for both kinds of characters, although it does ultimately depend on the story you want to tell. But saying mature characters are better than young ones or vice versa is actually taking me way back to my early childhood when we kids argued about who is stronger, King Kong or Superman.
Yes, this discussion here is just about as reasonable as that, sometimes.

Hey! We agree. Is it the end of days?

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

I didn't realize politely expressing an opinion was so poorly thought of here. I noted something and wished to have an adult conversation about it.

If that was meant to be in reply to me, sorry.

I over use variants of that generalities line.

Probably wholly inappropriate.

Sorry.

Em

 

[nice90sguy]

young women need several years out after high school to be interesting.

Not my experience at all, but I get the point you're making. However, I've also noticed people becoming LESS intersting as they head through their twenties, and only get intersting again thirty years later