Free for all
What it means to be a writer for − and a reader of − fiction websites like Joylada and Dek-D
Sky. Seon: Have you eaten anything yet?
Pa. Hoon: Not yet. We are so busy in the kitchen. Sky. Seon: Shall we have rice soup together? Pa. Hoon: Of course, but Seonho …
Sky. Seon: Yes?
Pa. Hoon: Could you check on Pa. Ong?
Sky. Seon: Hmmm.
This looks like everyday conversation, but it isn’t. This is how fiction is written these days.
The excerpt comes from Ong Hoon: Our
Seven Years, a novel written on a platform called Joylada which has attracted 3 million users in just a year. There are over 300,000 writers on the platform and nearly all of them write in this format: like text conversation as they appear on popular chat apps, without any descriptive passages.
Characters in the stories interact with one another only by exchanging texts, images, audio and video.
Ong Hoon: Our Seven Years features 20 episodes and only one episode is in descriptive writing. The rest is dialogue.
Most people surmise that young people don’t read — the popular, though misleading, joke that an average Thai reads only seven lines of text a year still sticks. Actually young people do read, but in different mediums and with different textual preferences. The popularity of Joylada shows that they prefer to read content that is short and comes with a lot of photos, as opposed to traditional novels which have only text.
Joylada was invented in July 2017 by the start-up Ookbee, which manages several e-book apps.
“Young people don’t read or write anything for long,” said Natavudh Pungcharoenpong, CEO of Ookbee. “Writing a novel on A4 paper must be more difficult than creating stories through instant chats and images. For anything that’s difficult to describe, such as how a character looks, an author can just use photos to portray it.”
Joylada, with its chat-message format, is one of many apps that target young readers through a massive catalogue of fluffy romance and fantasy stories, in an online community where anyone can be a writer simply by uploading their stories.
Other platforms, such as Dek-D or Fictionlog, have also become mainstream online libraries for young people. The stories on Dek-D are written in a format that allows for more description, like traditional fiction. Both Dek-D and Joylada offer aspiring authors opportunities to write freely. Each month, 400,000 young novelists create stories on Joylada and 300,000 post their work on Dek-D.
With that many writers, they also reach an even larger number of readers. Joylada claims to reach 1.5 million readers each month, whereas 3 million visit Dek-D’s website and app. (For Dek-D, 2.5 million read on dek-d. com and 500,000 are app users.) The users of both apps range from preteens to young adults.
Titles on these sites and apps clearly demonstrate their target audiences: Dear Mr Kom, My Bear: You Are Mine, Rules Of Friends With Benefits, Sweet Love and Call It Love, Doctor.
As with all online platforms that rely on freely created content, the quality of stories on Joylada begs debate. It has been criticised for weak, amateurish content that’s a far cry from traditional novels because it’s devoid of literary merit.
However, Jidanan Luengpiangsamut, 2017 SEA Write Award-winning writer for her collection of short stories
Singto Nok Khok ( The Outcast Lion), disagrees with the criticism. She finds many of the chat novels on Joylada interesting, contemporary and fun.
“Some people may assume that stories which feature only dialogue don’t employ narrative tactics,” she said.
“In fact, without description, it is difficult to create stories and make them understandable through only dialogue. It is challenging in terms of using language which is different from writing typical novels. And some authors can create graceful and enthralling dialogue.”
One of Joylada’s authors, Chantacha Adiluk, author of Ong Hoon: Our Seven Years, which will be screened on the app Mello Thailand, said Joylada should be considered a platform on its own that doesn’t compete with traditional novels written with literary ambition.
“Narrative novels are written in detail so they can convince readers and make them visualise what happens, which we can’t do. The charm of Joylada is its natural dialogue. If a character’s speech sounds like a descriptive essay, it isn’t real. But with dialogue, the Joylada format can make readers get into the stories as well,” Chantacha said.
Some readers may prefer typical novels, but for fans, the definition of a good story has broadened to encompass something once deemed amateurish and gimmicky. Siros Mahawattanaungkoon, 26, regularly reads stories on Joylada and Dek-D, and thinks the chat format can make for good stories.
“The impact of stories on readers isn’t about either a descriptive or dialogue format. It’s up to the writing abilities of authors. Sometimes only a single word of dialogue ... on an online chatroom can make a great impact on readers,” Siros said.
Besides the way stories are told, another complaint is that stories on these apps often contain errors, from inaccurate spelling to factual errors such as in legal and medical information. This points to the changing landscape in the publishing industry, where the integrity of the content isn’t the sole priority — for readers or writers
“Apps provide opportunities for anyone to be writers,” said Jidanan.
“Thus, there is no way that all of them are great at writing. It is normal to find stories with flaws. With these apps, I believe amateur writers can polish their skills and become good writers.”
Another novelist, 23-year-old Varoonrak Dinmuong, author of Chun’s Society, which ranks as the fifth-mostviewed novel on Joylada, said that some of the authors are very young and inexperienced.
“Some young writers don’t have adequate knowledge,” said Varoonrak. “The quality of work depends on how authors gather information for the stories. I always reread my work and perform fact-checking before releasing a story. If anyone finds any mistakes in my story and lets me know, I’m willing to correct it.”
Most aspiring writers use Joylada and Dek-D because they want to practise and receive feedback for improvement, but Joylada has one advantage over Dek-D — people can earn money from their stories if they attract many readers.
“Whenever readers click on mobile screens that have advertisements, we will count it. And the writers will receive a cut, but not much. I don’t think people come to write because of the money,” Natavudh said.
To support novelists, Natavudh plans to encourage readers to donate money for their favourite authors. And readers agreed with the idea.
“I want to support the writers and usually buy their published books, but I don’t know if there are any other ways that I can show my support. If there is, I want to do it,” Siros said.
The charm of Joylada is its natural dialogue