Chambers 20th century English dictionary:
Angst: anxiety especially a general feeling of anxiety produced by awareness of the uncertainties and paradoxes inherent in being human.
Beer's eternally blunt dictionary
Angst: The "damned if you do, damned if you don't" syndrome.
Not that I'm particularly experienced or talented writer, but I guess I;ve jotted down a few sucky lines that could be referred to as angst.
In my writing angst is essentially introspection and over-thinking that your characters does when caught between a rock and a hard place. We are talking classical Shakespearean sililoquys here, like in Hamlet "To be or not to be" etc.
Life occasionally fixes us with the sadistic choice, such is being alive. When you are in a situation where no matter which path you take your and others are going to be hurt. When your character realises they are in such a predicament they often take a step back to lament about the situation, and consider the consequences eventually becoming more anxious and depressed as they realise they can't win and are essentially buggered.
Classic example being some form of love triangle.
For example Heero loves Relena, but Relena is with some other guy and is very happy (and no the other guy is not a creep/abuser or other general bastard for onec). Heero is faced with the decision, takes a risk and tell Relena and possibly ruin her current happiness or be miserable watching the one he loves with someone else. The tension of such a cross roads would eat him up...thus angst.
Hm that sounds familiar :-?
Other variants could be that Duo is cheating on Hilde, and Relena is torn between telling Hilde and ruining their relationship or keeping secret and stuck with the knowledge Duo is doing wrong.
A plot I used from Ranma 1/2 was Ryoga togther and faced with the choice, ask Akane if she still loves Ranma and be broken by her answer if she says yes, or leaving things as they are and sharing a loveless relationship with ghosts.
Angst could also come post-decision where the character laments about a choice they made that changed everything, how they made the wrong choice. Alchohol helps this happen
Taking a consequence of the first example, Heero tells Relena he loves her when drunk. heero is now wracked with the stupidity of his slip and thinks he may have ruined Relena's relationship with both him and the other guy. Relena wonders if she may have lingering feelings for Heero whilst plagued by the knowledge she cares greatly for the other guy. Double angst.
Hm...I'm just asking for a prodding aren't I? :-?
Anyway I hope that clarifies at least how I define angst and how I dealt with it in my stories. Angst I think makes a more powerful piece of writing because you can really pull out the tradgedy of the predicament and the reader really gets to identify with any character and feel for them and is moved by their choice.
Though it is worth nothing, not having a happy ending (often with smut), though poignant, will get you lynched.
Thats my rant over
