Literotica Authors 05: Goldeniangel

I am conducting a series of interviews with authors on Literotica. This is the fifth in the series, with the author Goldeniangel . I have reached out to a variety of authors, some of who have been on the site for a while, others who are newer, but all write stories that I admire. I hope you enjoy the series; please feel free to send me your feedback, including suggestions of some of your favorite authors you would like to see interviewed. These are the words of the authors themselves; I have only conducted a light edit for formatting, typos, and consistency.

Do you remember when you first discovered that you liked reading erotic literature? How did this come about?

I can't exactly remember how I found the dirty stories sites, but I know it was when I was in college and looking for porn and I must have come across either Literotica or another site, and I found the stories to be so much more enjoyable than most of the porn I was finding. I've always had an active imagination and what I could imagine was way better than most of what I was watching.

When did you first begin writing your own erotic literature? What prompted you to write your own?

I'm a bit of a speed reader and after a while of cruising Literotica -- probably took about a year -- I stopped being able to find new stories that were exactly what I wanted. That's not to say there weren't good stories coming out, but I had particular cravings for certain kinds of stories, and when I got really frustrated about other people not writing exactly what I wanted to read, I decided to try my hand at writing. I've always liked writing and erotica was just a new genre for me to try out. To my delight, people seemed to really enjoy my first story and everything just kind of grew from there.

Your stories cut across many different categories, from (alphabetically) Anal to Transsexuals & Crossdressers. How do you decide in what category to write the story each time? Is it based on your own interest, or are you trying to respond to reader interest and demand?

Way back when I first started writing for Literotica (I can't believe that it was more than a decade ago!) there was a contest called Survivorphile, which involved writing in as many different categories as possible. You got bonus points for each first story in a category and then more bonus points for completing ten stories in a category. That's when a lot of my shortest stories were written, because I was trying to get out a lot of quantity to win the contest (and I did place for two years in a row).

However, all of my stories have included something that I'm interested in. I honestly can't write a story without it appealing to me in some way. Now I tend to go back and forth between stories that are inside my head, pushing their way out, and stories that have been requested by readers. Sometimes there are characters that I just can't ignore and they get written first (which makes me feel bad because I'd love to be able to focus on doing more reader requests, but my creative process mostly focuses on making the characters in my head happy).

How do you decide between standalone stories versus those that have multiple chapters? When you start a new story, do you decide upfront if it will be standalone versus chapters, and how do you decide how far to take a story (many of your series have more than ten chapters)? Or do you make those decisions based on reader reaction?

A little bit of Column A, a little bit of Column B...

There have been quite a few stories where the continuation of the story came from reader reactions. Those are nice because if reader reaction is poor then I don't have to continue, but if it's good, then I can! And then there are the stories I write where I already know it's going to be a chapter story and I have an entire plot outlined in one of my little notebooks, and I just have to hope that reader reaction is favorable because the characters aren't going to shut up until I finish writing them. Honestly, I do prefer those in a lot of ways because when a story is continued based solely off of reader reaction, sometimes I don't know where it's supposed to go since I hadn't planned for it to be more than a one-off, and so the plot can end up petering out later in the series. Most of the time I manage to finish it off happily, but there have been times when I couldn't.

You are one of the most prolific writers on Lit, with over 650 stories and poems posted to date. You mention in your profile that you wrote more when you were in school, but how do you still manage to find the time to write so much?

I have no idea, LOL. It helps that I type over 100 words per minute, but there are a lot of times when I look at my schedule and everything I do and I just haven't got a clue how I've managed to get so much done. I do take breaks though.

What is your typical writing style - do you work in shorter bursts, writing a section of a story and then putting it aside and returning to it? Or do you sit down and write a story from beginning to end? Do you work on multiple stories or poems in parallel, or sequentially?

I tend to write in bursts. I always have an outline or general idea for the story, although the characters in longer series/books tend to go rogue and then I end up having to rewrite the outline. I try to get a little bit of writing done every day, even if it's not on my primary work at the moment. I do write the stories sequentially from beginning to end though; I can't write a scene that's further in the book even if I know it's going to happen, I have to write the parts getting to it first. Especially since a lot of my characters and plots tend to develop pretty naturally, so how I think they're going to get to that scene might not actually be how they do. I prefer to let them do their thing rather than trying to force events along because I think it makes the characters more real.

As for multiple stories -- yes, I always have a primary story going on and at least one secondary story. I need the secondary story for when I start to stall out on the primary; I need to give my brain a break and work on something completely different now and then. It's interesting because even though the stories are always completely different, sometimes an idea in one will help spark an idea in the other and then I'm right back in the game with my primary work again.

You are the first author I've interviewed who had a significant body of poetry on Lit. When you have an idea that you want to write about, how do you decide between prose and poetry? Or do you start with the idea of writing a poem or a story, and then come up with the idea?

For me, prose is completely about the characters and poetry is completely about the emotions. Of course the characters have their own emotions, but poetry is about my emotions. Some of the poetry was written for the Survivorphile Contest, but a lot of it was written because I just love poetry and that's how I get a lot of my emotions out. I'm in a completely different mood when I write poetry than when I write prose (regardless of erotic level). This is also reminding me that it's been a while since I've written a poem, so maybe I'll have to see if I can get in the mood sometime soon!

Most readers read erotica in order to be aroused, and many (hopefully!) are also looking for a good plot. How do you balance the need for plot in your stories with the "hotness" factor necessary to get attention on Literotica?

Over the years I've come to feel a greater need for plot. When I first started writing I was a lot more willing to just write out the erotic stuff without going too deep into characters or plot, now I'm not happy with the work unless I feel like there's really some meat to it. I honestly don't really think about getting attention on Literotica, I just try to focus on telling a good story that has good sex, and that seems to net me attention (whether it be good or bad).

When you're not busy writing your own stories, what are your favorite kinds of stories to read on Literotica, and why?

The same kinds of stories I enjoy writing! I'm most often found browsing the Non-Con, BDSM, and Anal categories for the kinds of stories I like. For the former, I enjoy reading and writing the fantasy, for the latter two, it's just my kinks. I think Non-Con is a fascinating category because in real life, I'm kind of vicious about what I think should happen to rapists. Rape role-play is a huge turn off for me, and anyone making jokes or flippant remarks about it is going to get an earful and probably a few slaps upside the head. But I love reading and writing the fiction of it within certain parameters. There are stories in the category that I find to be turn offs for one reason or another, but it's always been one of the categories that draws me the most. It might just go along with the BDSM thing, which is the idea of being out of control in a controlled environment. Reading is a controlled environment since it's not really happening, so there's no need for inherent guilt, and I like feeling under someone else's control as long as I know I can take the control back at any moment.

Many readers wonder about the sex lives of the authors they like reading. We all know that most stories on Literotica are fantasy, but do your stories and poems provide a window into your own sexual being that you'd like to share with our readers?

Oh, I think there's definitely a huge window into my own sexual being, in every story I write. I think I said before, I can't write unless there's something appealing in the story to me. Even if it's in a category that I find a turn-off. For example, Incest/Taboo does nothing for me (for most stories, I picture the characters as real people in my head, for Incest/Taboo, they're cartoon characters, very hentai) so there's a lot of BDSM, reluctance, and anal in my Incest/Taboo stories. It is the number one most requested story category and I can usually make it work for me as long as the reader making the request is okay with me including those elements.

For me, there is no way to write an erotic story without showing, at some point in the story, what also turns me on.

Outside of your erotica, do you do other types of writing, either for work or pleasure? In your profile you state that you write both on Lit as well as on other sites. How do you decide where to publish each story?

I write erotic romances, the link to them is in my bio. A lot of my darkest stuff now comes to Lit, while my romantic stuff ends up in book format. I also focus a lot more on reader requests for Lit now, since a lot of my creative bugs are being worked out in book form. I mostly write BDSM books, both historical and contemporary, although I recently started branching out into paranormal too. It was actually Lit readers who encouraged me to start writing eBooks and now I try to balance my time between both, although my first priority is admittedly to getting the books out by their promised deadline.

Most of the time, if there's a story I want to write and I think there's going to be sex in every single chapter, I put it on Literotica. Plots that come up in my head that require a lot more development and less sexy time get turned into books. Although, admittedly, especially in my historical novels, there's quite a bit of sexy time.

I do particularly enjoy writing for Literotica though. Mostly the stories are lighter depth wise and so easier to write and it's another kind of break for my brain to work on them.

Any specific advice you would give to authors new to writing erotic literature on Lit?

Don't give up - whatever you do, don't give up.

There's going to be trolls, there's going to be nasty comments, and there's going to be occasional constructive criticism. Do your best to ignore the first two and take the third to heart. It can be frustrating, it can be upsetting, and it's never going to stop no matter how good you get. I know I've become a better writer over the years, I know a lot of people love my writing, and I still get comments that make me feel like I should just throw in the towel. And then I get the comments that make me feel like people really are reading and understanding what I'm trying to get across, and that helps a lot but those comments don't come unless you keep pushing through the nastier ones. There are a lot of people out there who don't want to write but do want to say mean shit to those who do. I don't know why, but it's the truth. You'll get all sorts of complaints and you have to just learn how to let them slide.

The people who succeed are not always the people with the most natural talent, they're not always the people who have the best ideas, they're the people who persevere. Talent can be crafted over time. Ideas can develop. But you have to keep at it and not give up, even though it can be incredibly demoralizing.

And that's not to say that every critical comment should be ignored. I get a lot out of constructive feedback from fans. Sometimes I don't take the ideas they give me, but sometimes trying to twist things a little to cater to fan reactions can lead to really interesting things.

The main thing is to keep going and to make sure that you are happy with the story you're telling, first and foremost. Because there will always be haters.