There is a fine divide between commercially sustainable BL dramas and those that actually make a powerful impact with their progressive ideology. Authors penning such socialist ideas are few and far between. Fortunately, the Thai BL industry is undergoing a revelatory phase, where BL authors are scripting tales that are both revolutionary and make an actual difference to the societal mindset. One such author is Prapt Writer, whose novels are the current trendsetters in the BL industry. Join us, as we strike a conversation with Mr. Prapt about his latest book adaptations and the thought process behind the making of each!

1) Congratulations on the successful run of your BL adaptations “The Miracle of Teddy Bear” and “The Eclipse Series”. The reception of both these dramas was phenomenal. How does it feel to see your work being recreated into a televised version?

Thank you. I have been happy since the beginning because both TV series were created with the true passion of the production teams. I must admit that both novels, The Miracle of Teddy Bear and The Eclipse, do not really conform to the usual practice of boys’ love genre. It was challenging to expect success in terms of revenue. However, according to my conversation with the production teams of both series, I could feel their great passion and connection with the novels. I have felt a great relief since the beginning when I learned that both novels were transferred to their hands because I believe that, first and foremost, great work must come from great love. Moreover, the directors of both series, Paa Jaew (Yuttana Lopanpaiboon) and P’Golf (Tanwarin Sukkhapisit) have proven tracks of records in creating popular and awarded works. It made me feel that the adaptation would come out great. After watching both series, I found that they were far beyond my expectation. “The Miracle of Teddy Bear” is the adapted work that confirms the seriousness of its voice and agenda, sticking to its approach without fear of the response. “The Eclipse” was adapted to be more towards its targeted audience and able to balance between the subjects and the expected entertaining piece very well.

2) “The Miracle of Teddy Bear” has won several awards. Tell us about this novel. What made you choose this subject matter?

“The Miracle of Teddy Bear” is my first Boys’ Love novel. I have previous novels that touch LGBTQ rights or the bromance genre but not boys’ love genre. The success of those previous novels led to the editor asking me to write a new genre. I must admit that I was not a reader or an audience of BL before. I have watched SOTUS and Addicted, though, and I like them both a lot. However, I am more familiar with LGBTQ dramas. I love Love of Siam, Antonio’s Secret, Permanent Residence, Summer Storm, Eternal Summer, etc. When I had a chance to write BL novels, I mixed together my love for both types of work. It was challenging at the beginning because Prapt’s image was attached to serious literature or investigative novels. In the end, I balanced by designing The Miracle of Teddy Bear to have the pastel skin on the outside, but once you read it further, you will find layer after layer is peeled like an onion until the heavy theme is found. And if you interpret the symbols and collect all the hints, you will find many questions on social issues for the present and the past.

3) What did you have in mind when you created the main protagonists, Nut & Taohu?

The original plot of The Miracle of Teddy Bear was the story between a guy and a girl. The character of Nut was originally a thirty-something girl who is seen as a tough and fierce girl on the outside. She has to take care of her sick mother by herself alone. Only her teddy bear knows what she has to face in her daily life, and how sensitive she really is on the inside. When the editor asked me to write BL novel, I looked at the plots in my notes for further development, and I found that this plot was very suitable to be adapted. Because the original character of Nut must take Taohu, the teddy-bear-turned-young boy, into her home and with the Thai social context at that time, it’s challenging for a girl to do such a thing. On the other hand, changing the character into a guy would make more sense. Moreover, it’s a great chance to bring in LGBTQ rights to the story. The character development of Nut started there, which was not too challenging because Nut represents the LGBTQ people in generation Y who are still unable to come out and speak up for what they want to be that much. He is oppressed by society, family, and school up until he has scars on his heart. Taohu is the opposite. He is the light and positive energy who come in to fix things in Nut’s family. In fact, Taohu is one of the most challenging characters I have ever written because he is a fantasy character that I couldn’t use any reference to help writing. I had to depend on imagination and found logic to base on in order to lead to all his thoughts and actions. In the beginning, I had to always pause and think that, with his background like this, so his action is like that, which is not the normal behaviour of ordinary people. Actually, another character who cries for attention is Matana, Nut’s mother. When we think about it, we will find that Matana is the centre of the whole story and the beginning point of it all. She impacts her son all along. She holds secrets. She has a complicated personality. In the manuscript, Matana is cheerful and dreamy, which is very different from her true core.

4) Were actors In Sarin & Job Thuchapon able to recreate the characters in the same way as you had conceptualized them? What is your opinion about these actors?

Normally, I never expected the adaptation to be the same as the original. I wish only for it to still keep the main idea and some messages which are the heart of the story. Because live action has conditions and limitations that are a lot different from the novel. Up until now, there are already 4 novels of mine that were adapted to live action. The Miracle of Teddy Bear is the closest to the novel. But some details and directions are different. For example, Matana’s character that I mentioned above, or Nut, which the series interpreted clearer. In the novel, Nut is shy and doesn’t speak much, especially with his mom. It’s true that there are scenes when Nut is aggressive with his mother in the novel but not many, and he has never been aggressive with Taohu. Most of the time, he keeps things in his heart until they explode. Taohu in the novel is more cunning. However, when analysed according to the adapted screenplay, Inn and Job did a good job. Inn made Taohu more adorable than in the novel. Moreover, he gave very natural detailed acting and showed great character development. Job played a role almost entirely opposite to his real cheerful and smiley personality. Although he did not have many acting jobs prior to this, Job realistically made Nut a complicated character. He could make the audience dislike him, pity him, cheer him on, etc., all through the journey of the story.

5) Your second adaptation, “The Eclipse Series”, recently finished its run. The show was applauded for highlighting the possible effects of homophobia. What did you have in mind while writing this mystique romance?

After the success of “The Miracle of Teddy Bear”, I was afraid to write BL for a while because I was afraid that I couldn’t make it as good. The origin of The Eclipse was when a production house invited me to. The director of the production house made an interesting project and at the same time is a fan of my books. So, I said yes. They wanted a BL work that could expand to 3 seasons, about young high-school boys in a private all-boys school. In Season 1, the characters are in grade 10; in Season 2, they are in grade 11, levelling up like this, which is similar to Harry Potter, with the main concept about coming out and “Love, Simon” as a reference. Then, we brainstormed if this story was in the Thai context, and what it should be. Regarding the story, the idea has been shared in the meetings and was concluded to be a comedy love story between a new and a current student who fight each other a lot until falling in love. My job was to gather all the ideas and outlines and plot them up, presented and revised them until aligned with all parties. In the beginning, I interpreted coming out as a solar eclipse. I thought that everyone has his/her own light, but being oppressed by society, his/her own beliefs and thoughts, and others make one be covered by a dark shadow until one can find a way out of it. This concept was used to develop each character and expanded from coming out in the LGBTQ context to coming out in other contexts as well – afraid of revealing the truth that you love your best friend, afraid of deciding to pursue the career of your dream.

The challenge of “The Eclipse” is that, at present, people are more open to LGBTQ already, and coming out might be an outdated issue. So, I needed to set up a background for Akk by making Suppalo a conservative school. Teachers have foul mouths discriminating against LGBTQ, making kids, who are about to accept themselves, afraid and must conceal abnormal thoughts. After developing the plot until it was fine by everyone, there was a big movement in Thailand against the dictatorial government around 2020. There were a lot of high school students in the movement. So, I thought that the plot was not up to date already, especially the thought that high school students are interested in only love and things in their daily lives. This was the reason that I adapted the context in the novel to be more aligned with the real social situation. At that time, the team was okay with it. So, I wrote the novel and the production team pitched the project with the producer. However, the pitching was not successful. In the end, the outcome was only the novel. And then, GMMTV came to buy the novel for further development with P’Golf as the director and P’ Yo (Apirak Chaipanha) as the scriptwriter and producer.

6) First Kanaphan & Khaotung Thanawat have become a formidable pair after being cast as the main leads in “The Eclipse Series”. Do you think they did justice to their roles?

Lately, I haven’t followed TV series that much, so I am not familiar with teenage actors. When P’ Yo informed me who would play which role, I watched their previous works. I was quite relaxed with First after seeing his previous TVC.

First’s role in the TVC was amazingly similar to Akk in the novel, and he was very good at the role. Khaotung had an image of a sweet mellow boy from his previous roles. I couldn’t imagine him in Ayan’s role, and I thought Ayan’s character would be adapted to fit this until I saw the first teaser.

I was glad that the team still kept Ayan’s character as in the novel, and Khaotung could erase the previous image of him. When the series aired, I found their acting very good. Many audiences could agree that Khaotung’s personality and acting were exactly like Ayan coming out in the novel. First gradually showed the complexity of the character as time passed by. Akk was a tough role as he had to act out the things that most people disagree with. But he had to make audiences understand, feel pity and cheer on him (similar to Nut in “The Miracle of Teddy Bear”), which First could do a great job.

7) When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer, and what inspired you to be one? What is the most difficult part of writing and publishing for you?

I have liked to read, see movies and watch drama series since I was young. I started to write by instinct back when I haven’t even read a real novel yet. I just felt like I wanted to do this thing. When I was in junior high school, I read the first novel in my life and that’s when I realized that this is the only thing that I want to do. I started to write by using a pencil and pen for sending the manuscript to the magazines. Back then, the channel to have your own work in Thailand was limited. You must publish your work in a magazine first or get into a competition or be approved by the publishing house. That manuscript was rejected, but I still continued to write. Most of the time I couldn’t finish writing each book because, like many new writers, I got bored with the current story I was writing and wanted to write other stories already. When I was in high school, there was a website for publishing my writing online, and a teenage writer there became popular because his online work got published in books. So, I wrote on the internet then. Previously, they were teenage comedies and satires. They got published for 4-5 books. After that, it was the era when there were too many online writers and only the real ones could go on. My online work did not get published in books anymore. Part of it was because I wanted to write more serious novels as I grew up. At that time, I was a salaryman and I had reading and writing novels as hobbies. I changed the genre in order to find a chance to get published again.

7-8 years passed, I was 27 years old then. My life and work were tough. I was still in the same place compared to my friends who were much ahead of me, some had family, some had their own businesses, and some had brighter careers. I found that it was because I was not interested in anything other than writing, which did not yield anything fruitful. I decided that if I did not get published that year, I would quit it altogether and do something else for a better quality of life. During that proving period, I looked for a literary competition. I sent my first investigative novel, “Kahon Mahoratuk” (Deafening Chaos) to a big literary competition even though at that time I did not read awarded literature. At first, I thought that if only it could catch the eyes of some people on the committee who thought it was good, it might get a chance to be published. Luckily, it won the first prize and could be in many other literary competitions too.

It then went on to be made into TV series.

It shone a light on my writing career again. However, the most challenging part is how to maintain your solid ground in this career path, especially when the economy is tough, and the publishing industry is down a great deal. There are also many other types of media grabbing your readers’ time and interest away from reading. I need to adapt myself all the time because of this and need to fight my anxiousness inside. It becomes even more routine than writing.

8) Out of all the characters you’ve written, is there one that stands out to you the most? Is there one you relate to the most?

It’s a tough question to answer because I feel that every character is myself, whether a good or bad guy. It’s the way I look at the world and reflect it out with the filter of the personality or perspective of each character. Some characters are very different from the writer, but act out similarly to what the writer would do even more than some other characters that are close to the writer. It’s because such a character doesn’t have limitations in doing things like the writer. So, the character can do things that the writer wants to do but cannot do in real life. Some characters can think and do things the same as the writer in some scenarios. In my writing so far, my characters have been a mix of these. The likes and dislikes and the empathy of the characters usually depend on the timing. Someday, by some event in life, it makes me think of one character. On that day, I will love and can relate to him/her more. But when the character gets cursed by the readers, I might like him/her less the next day. (Ha ha).

9) Is there anything in particular that you hope readers take away from the stories you write? What are you hoping to convey through your work?

The first objective of creating each work is to entertain the readers in a way that I target. For example, if it’s an investigative novel, the readers should be entertained in questioning and cracking the codes. If it’s serious literature, the readers should be entertained with the serious agenda or strange prose. But in every work of mine, I always try to send some message. At least, I want the readers to think and question something in our society. You don’t need to agree, but be able to develop some dialogue together. Live actions like “The Miracle of Teddy Bear” and “The Eclipse” can bring the key messages further, resulting in creating a wider dialogue. Some said it consoled the scar in their hearts or felt like they have friends going through a similar experience. For me, that poses the highest value.

10) What is your opinion about the current status of LGBTQ representation in BL novels? Do you feel that the BL genre is adequately representing them?

Judging whether it’s adequate is challenging because we need to interpret as to how much is considered adequate and whether that much is possible to achieve.

What is happening now is that there is still an argument about whether BL is LGBTQ. Personally, I like it this way. Because it expands the learning of the two cultures at the same time. Frankly speaking, previously I did not know what BL actually was because I think that a guy loving another guy is gay or bisexual. After learning about BL, I found its history and context. I came to know about the oppression of women and its development in Japan and Thailand. Similar to LGBTQ, learning about it resulted in me knowing about oppression and growth on this side. If BL is decided clearly to be only one side, our perspective would then be reduced in vain. Now we know the root and growth of BL at the same time, with the realization and speaking about LGBTQ more than before. We are obviously more careful in presenting them, which is the reflection of the openness and maturity of the audience and listening more to other ideas and beliefs. I think this is the best thing in our society. Moreover, the way the TV series adapt themselves by combining both sides resulted in an indirect benefit, which is making the work more realistic and logical. At present, BL works to expand to other types of queerness as well. All these things help create the feeling of “normalcy” in society, reducing the differences or the old representative that LGBTQ is only comedians, extras, or sex objects. I think it’s a good tendency and it makes us see hope in society.

11) Are any other of your novels in the process of being adapted into TV series? If yes, please share more details about them?

There are two more novels of mine that have already been bought to be produced into drama/TV series. One of them is a romantic suspense male/female novel called “Rak-Nai-Roy-Luang (Love in the Lie).” It twists the popular plot of Thai drama into horror and investigative genre. The current status is in production.

The other one is an investigative serial-killing crime. The main characters have a bromance relationship. The title is “Ling-Pad-Glon (Monkey and Tiger).” It talks about the human trafficking crisis and the minority in the south of Thailand. It links with the ancient law and punishment that is based on the belief in heaven and hell. “Monkey and Tiger” was published before “The Miracle of Teddy Bear”. And the success of its bromance characters brought me the opportunity offered by the editor to write the BL novels later on.

12) Can you tell us about any upcoming books you may be working on? If not, is there any news you’d like to share with readers?

My latest BL that has just been launched is “Dreams of the Mayfly”. The story is about a university boy who falls in love with his senior but is afraid to tell him. One day, he got a VDO call from his senior crush. But it’s from 7 years in the future and his senior crush on the line told him that at that time they both have become a couple for 7 years already. So, he planned to win the heart of his senior crush in the present time. However, he became more and more infatuated with his senior from the future than the present one. This novel has a mix of “The Miracle of Teddy Bear” and “The Eclipse”. The main theme is the dream. It invites us to question the necessity of the dream itself. What we will choose to grab between the dreamless present but more solid and the glorious future up in the air could be only a burning glow at the wings of a mayfly that can fly no more forever. Will we still dare to dream if that dream looks like a trap and is so far away it doesn’t seem real?

Another novel I am writing now is “The Eclipse Year 2”, which is the sequel to “The Eclipse”. It is when the characters study in their second year at the university. The expected launch timing is the middle of 2023.

Other works apart from these will be regularly updated via Twitter.

The BL Xpress would like to thank Mr. Prapt for taking the time from his busy schedule to answer our questions!

Questions contributed by- Krishna Naidu & Drama_Llama

Edited by- Gingerjiejie