Writing a Choose Your Own Erotic Fantasy

JOANNA ANGEL is a powerhouse in the adult entertainment industry as an adult film star, director, producer, author, and owner of the BurningAngel Empire — the company known for the emergence and prevalence of tattooed women in the adult film industry. Her second choose-your-own erotic fantasy book, Club 42 is out now!

It’s a sexy read both men and women can get on board with, and something we think everyone will enjoy from the comfort of their own home.

We asked Joanna if she could give us some insights into the process of writing her book.

What’s a “Choose your Own Erotic Fantasy” you ask? Well, it is exactly what you’re thinking it is, but I can’t call it that. Here’s a little piece of information you never needed to know but now you will.

The term “choose your own adventure” is in fact heavily trademarked, and the conglomerate who owns the trademark sent an unfriendly email addressing it when my first novel became available for pre-order. So… with that said, both novels I have written contain many characters, who experience their own adventures, and the reader can, in fact, choose which one they go on, but the genre of the book very much is “Choose your Own Erotic Fantasy” and not… the other one. You get my drift here?

In any case. Now that that’s out of the way. I’d love to share with you the beauty and pain of this style of writing, and how it all came to be.

I suppose I was… er… um… “discovered” by Cleis after contributing a short story to an erotic anthology called “Asarotica” edited and curated by Asa Akira, a fellow sex-worker and author. My contribution to that project was titled “Pussy with Extra Cheese, Please”, and it was a chapter of erotica about a threesome that also involved pizza. I was by contacted Cleis shortly after they read my piece, and either their love of pizza or polyamory swept them off their literary feet, and they asked if I’d be interested in writing a full-length fiction novel, an opportunity I had been hoping for.

“We’d really like it to be in the choose your own adventure (sorry I mean erotic fantasy) format,” they said. “Are you into that?”

Truthfully, I was not into that at all. The task sounded daunting, stressful, and actually quite limiting when trying to write a novel. But of course, being so excited to get a book deal, I replied, “Yes! I’d absolutely love to.”

My background in writing is probably more than you’d assume it to be however, I was still grossly underqualified for this task. I did graduate from Rutgers college with a creative writing concentration on my English major back in 2002. In these classes, I wrote endless amounts of poetry, and short stories about the men and women I had crushes on and sometimes engaged in random sexual encounters with. While it made the other 8- 12 people in my classes, along with my Professors incredibly uncomfortable, I found these works to be rather inspiring.

Following graduation, I entered the adult film industry and spent a good 16 years writing porn scripts (yes, the part of the movie where people are talking that most people fast forward through) and writing synopses of films that I produced. Occasionally, I’d be invited to chime in on sex advice columns or Op-Ed pieces that was partly educational, but mostly Valentine’s Day clickbait. Needless to say, the task of writing an entire novel, let alone in a very niche format, was daunting, to say the least.

How did I tackle this? First of all, it took a concept that involved lots and lots of different types of characters all interacting differently with a main character. In my case, since it was the genre of erotica, they had to be situations that could easily lead to sex, which added another layer of complication. Most erotica revolves around some kind of love story involving two characters. I had created about 6-10 different main characters to engage in a salacious and compelling romp with my protagonist, and have all these mini-stories have multiple beginnings, middles and endings that packaged all together seamlessly in 60–90-thousand-word harmony.

The internet was a great resource for me when I began googling “how to write a novel.” Which was, admittedly the first thing I did. However, the world wide web was not nearly as helpful when I applied that same effort and googled “How to write a choose erotic fantasy novel.”

I was on my own… going through uncharted territory, and, as someone who doesn’t ever step foot in a restaurant without reading the menu in its entirety several hours before my reservation, I can tell you that It makes me incredibly uncomfortable to enter any territories uncharted.

I spent a good month on my outlandish crime map/outline, with detailed characters and paths and scenarios, with beginnings and endings and alternate endings all clearly laid out for my own self to follow. And then, after 40+ pages of writing this outline, it all went completely out the window, and I mean that literally. It was on a cork board and I actually threw it out the window. As insane as it sounds, I let the characters speak to me and tell me where they wanted to go, and they most often spoke to me after about 19 cups of coffee.

Now, this off-the-cusp method had its limitations. It’s almost as if there was a literary taser in my brain, not letting me go too many pages without a “choice” to go here or there. And then after I’d get 80 pages deep in a path, I’d have to wrap that particular story up then go back 80 pages ago and follow up with a whole different character who didn’t even have a name yet and fully develop their story, and then have that story have its own twists and turns and paths.

What I did try my hardest to do was make sure that the book didn’t feel like there was one “favorite” story and everything else was just kind of filler around it. Every path and every story had to be the main story. All paths must be created equal or your readers won’t have much choosing to do. You want to legitimately stress them out- should I go here or here? And you want them to go back and see what they missed when they’re done. Ultimately, you want everyone to read the whole book.

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CLUB 42

A Choose-Your-Own Erotic Fantasy

An interactive read where the reader controls the characters’ fates from “One of the most powerful feminist icons in the adult industry.” — Pacific Standard Magazine

“Quick, hilarious, and erotic. A must-read for anyone who fantasizes about sex work It’s gritty and glossy all at once.” — Stoya, writer, Pornographer

After spending a year in Singapore working on her senior thesis and practically flunking out of film school, Naomi finds herself working at an average coffee shop in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC. She loves coffee, but does not love serving it and is fired one fated afternoon after spilling a cup of coffee all over a customer and her white pantsuit. With her rent due in a few days, Naomi is desperate to find a new job. On her walk back to the subway, she trips and falls, landing right in front of what would soon be her new place of employment.

Enter Club 42, a strip club located in Times Square. Naomi goes inside on a whim and finds herself agreeing to audition, stripping out of her polka dot summer dress and kitten heels and earning a spot on the day shift.

The goal: To navigate Naomi through her day shifts at Club 42.
But it’s up to you, readers, to decide if she should give an old crush a lap dance, give her ex the "extras" in the VIP room, get dominated in a dungeon, tell her not-quite-boyfriend about her career path, indulge in her attraction to her beautiful coworkers, or leave her life of dancing as quickly as she starts it!

No matter which path you choose, you’ll get an insider’s glimpse into the erotic, neon world of New York strip clubs. So grab your body spray, turn up the early 2000s dance hits, and journey with Naomi as she learns how best to undress!

CLUB 42
CLEiS PRESS

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Joanna Angel is an adult film star, director, producer, author, and owner of the BurningAngel Empire, the company known for the emergence and prevalence of tattooed women in the adult film industry. Club 42 is her second choose-your-own erotic fantasy book. Her first, Night Shift received much praise for being sex positive, gender inclusive, open minded, and diverse.

Angel started her business in a college dorm room at Rutgers University in 2002, and today, the company has a network of websites, hundreds of DVDs to its credit, and over 50 adult industry awards including Best Pornstar Website, Best Comedy, and many more.

In 2016, Angel was the host of the Adult Video News (AVN) Awards show and was also inducted into AVN and the American X-Rated Critics Organization’s (XRCO) hall of fame. Angel has appeared in every major adult magazine and was the first tattooed centerfold in Hustler.
Heeb Magazine featured Joanna as their cover girl, naming her one of the “Top 100 Up-and-Coming Jews”, The New York Post featured her as one of the “Top 25 Sexiest New Yorkers” and CNBC’s has included her on their annual “dirty dozen” list multiple times as one of the
twelve biggest adult film stars in the industry. A self-made star who has made her mark on the industry, this is just the beginning.

“After giving an entire generation calluses with her films she has mastered sensual paper cuts of pleasure like a true sadist.” — Chris Nieratko, Author of Skinema

“It was like I was a newbie stripper and learning all over again how to hustle, and the author’s appetite for sex
and money is intoxicating.”  — Elle Stanger – exotic dancer, writer, and certified sex educator

“A brilliant author who has an amazing sense of sexuality and mystery with everything she does and creates.” —

Buck Angel, transsexual activist, film actor, producer and public speaker

“. . . I smiled a lot, laughed, commiserated, empathized, missed New York City, got envious, got a few boners, and ended up hiring a cruel Dominatrix who does house calls. I assume like most fans of Miss Angel after reading her book, I felt hot, bothered, dirty, and in desperate need of a sound beating!”

— Fat Mike, producer and lead vocalist for the punk rock band NOFX

FIND JOANNA ONLINE
Instagram: @joannaangel
Facebook: /joannaangelrules
FanPage: /joannaangel

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Category: How To and Tips