Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
Did you know that the world’s first erotic works of literature date back thousands of years ago? The oldest and most notable one was written on an ancient Sumerian tablet which dates back to as far as 1964 BC.
These days, erotic literature can be found everywhere, most notably on e-book platforms such as Wattpad. And how would I know? Well, for one, I am one of the writers who bring people’s secret fantasies to life, via stories of course.
How It All Started…
I won’t tell you my name, I can’t. If my parents find out what I do for pocket money, they would literally disown me. Don’t get me wrong, my parents love me but I don’t think they can accept the fact that their darling daughter who is still sloughing her way through university can write such naughty stuff.
To be honest, I stumbled upon this path by accident. Wattpad as you know is one of the most famous e-book platforms around. It houses thousands upon thousands of stories, more than enough to satisfy even the hungriest of bookworms for a lifetime. Being a bookworm myself, I downloaded the app 2 years back and started to read their stories out of boredom.
Some stories were incredibly good, others were just plain horrible with all the usual troupes of damsels being saved either by billionaire/CEOs, werewolves or even vampires. I’d devour one after another only to get frustrated when the story did not turn out the way I wanted it to.
So one day, I decided to write a story of my own.
I would be the ‘god’ of the story – I would dictate how the story would end. I threw in a few explicit scenes in my story just for the heck of it because, well, I’m still a growing girl with raging hormones.
Then one day, an acquisition editor for an up and coming e-book platform sent me a message asking if I would be interested in becoming a contracted author. She had read my story on Wattpad and felt that it had the potential to milk some cash. On Wattpad, you usually don’t get paid, unless your story stands out like a beacon among a sea of other stories.
At first, I was skeptical, what if this was a scam? But then I googled up the company and found that it was legit. They had an office in Singapore and had been signing up authors from all across the globe.
So what did I do? I jumped on the bandwagon and never looked back. A few of my friends know what I do. Sometimes they will ask, “Where do you even get your ideas?” and “Don’t you ever get bored writing the same kind of stories over and over again?”
What can I say? Sex sells.
Most of the time, the stories just come to me, other times when my brain stops churning ideas, I read stories by other writers and get inspiration from them. I’ve been writing erotica for two years now and to be honest, there are times when I wish I could stop and just start to write something more meaningful. Something like Khaleed Hosseini’s Kite Runner perhaps?
I’ve had to sacrifice a lot of things too. Most of my free time is spent holed up in my room with a laptop while my peers are out socializing with one another. A friend joked that I would end up becoming a sociopath or become addicted to sex when I truly go out into the real world.
But then I look at the pay I get and tell myself to stick with it for another year, at least until I graduate and get my degree. I hope to work for a MNC upon graduation and don’t see myself becoming a full time writer. At least that’s what I think now. Who’s to know what will happen in the future?
For now, with my attendance bonus and royalties, I can easily get a few hundred to a few thousand ringgit each month. It’s hard work having to write non-stop, but I personally feel that the money I earn is worth it.
So What’s Next?
Writing has provided me with an outlet to release my pent up frustrations ( emotional and sexual hah) and I feel that while my stories may not be for everyone, I have gained a lot of knowledge in writing. So I guess there will be a few more erotica stories coming out soon from yours truly.
For more stories like this, read: After Malaysia’s Borders Were Closed, Here’s What 5 Pilots Are Doing To Survive and How We Started A Batik Brand That Empowers Malaysian Local Artisans, Refugees and People with Disabilities.
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