Please note that Tapas no longer supports Internet Explorer.
We recommend upgrading to the latest Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or Firefox.
Home
Comics
Novels
Community
Mature
More
Help Discord Forums Newsfeed Contact Merch Shop
Publish
Home
Comics
Novels
Community
Mature
More
Help Discord Forums Newsfeed Contact Merch Shop
__anonymous__
__anonymous__
0
  • Publish
  • Ink shop
  • Redeem code
  • Settings
  • Log out

Write Off

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Nov 23, 2022

When I came to university, I was praying that I got a decent roommate and that’s what I got for the most part. Angelo was nice, to say the least. Reserved, quiet, and a little boring was my first impression and it stuck for about the two weeks we roomed together.

That image didn’t stick for long when he started opening up to me after a couple of weeks.

I did not expect that he would be so knowledgeable in x-rated literature that he would launch into an extensive lecture about old and outdated fandom tags the moment I asked him what the hell “lemon” was. It was an innocent question that stemmed from a random book recommendation that featured that tag on the site I was looking at but the response was way more in-depth than I initially thought.

“So,” I pressed my hands together and took a deep breath. “You’re saying you’re gay as fuck?”

“No, I’m saying that Stucky should’ve been a real relationship portrayed on the big screen because people write so much smut about them!” Angelo leaned back into his chair, facing away from the work on his desk.

My eyes glazed over his half of the room and I saw no indication of gay pride. No rainbow flags, no cheesy print t-shirts, and no posters of any celebrities. The only thing hanging on his side of the room are posters of Mother Mary and Jesus Christ himself that his parents helped him hang up when he moved in on the first day.

I opened my hands with palms facing upwards and my stare was probably devoid of any life. “Yes, that makes perfect sense.”

He huffed. “It’s good for inspiration too. You never know when it comes and hits you and then you just have to write what you can before that spark disappears.”

I blink. “You write?”

His eyes widened and he began to shrink into his seat. “Yes?”

If he hadn’t blown my mind with his unexpected interest in smut, the revelation that he wrote stories wouldn’t surprise me more.

I gave a stiff nod. “Cool, me too.”

“What really?” His posture was restored to its original state. “What do you write? Fluff? Meet cutes? Romantasy?”

“Horror.”

“Oh.” He seemed stunned. “Um…”

I took the silence as an opportunity to lie on my bed and stare at the pansexual flag on my side of the room. “Not into horror?”

“No… It’s always too scary,” he said quietly. “And have you seen horror movies?”

“Yes.”

“They’re so icky!”

“And bloody,” I added.

“And disgusting!” He threw his arms up to emphasize his point.

“Right? Isn’t it cool?”

“No! You’re messed up!” His eyebrows then shot up in realization. “Is that why you’re called Boo? Because you’re into horror?”

“No, I had the nickname since I was a baby.”

“Then why?”

“Because I was as pale as a ghost when I was born. That’s all.” I looked down at my own hands and took note of how dark I was now. It was hard to believe I was white as a sheet when I was born.

“Well, whatever fits you. Horror is awful.”

“Right, as if smut is any worse than horror.” I raised an eyebrow at my roommate and he was silent. “You think blood is icky? What about that stuff that comes out of who knows where in smut?”

“It’s erotic!”

“It’s more disturbing than whatever monster lurks in the closet. At least I can relate to the monster and sympathize with the struggles it's going through.”

Angelo sighed wistfully. “But don’t you believe in true love and spending every single moment being intimate with that person?”

“And eventually being squeezed out of any breathing room and when the spark goes away you have to sit through hours of small talk about how your day has been which eventually leads to a full-out screaming match on why you’re not putting in effort into the relationship anymore? Yeah, I’ve dated before. It’s not all that cracked up to be.” I smoothed out the crease in my forehead with a knuckle.

“No!” Angelo was back to waving his hands wildly. “Like super true love. Soulmates.”

“Soulmates don’t exist, Angelo.”

“It’s nice to imagine at least.”

The conversation came to a natural silence and I pulled out my phone. I scrolled through the apps and my eyes landed on the app where I post my stories on. A frown formed on my lips as I checked the stats of my story and saw it hasn’t moved upward at all. Three thousand and nine hundred reads. Not bad but I’ve been stuck at that number for what felt like an eternity. I was hoping that because the story was finished, it would gain more traction but my hopes were quickly crushed.

“What are you doing now?” Angelo asked. It looked like he went back to doing whatever he was doing earlier but was avoiding it.

“Checking Inkreads.”

“You post there too?”

“Too? Okay, give me your handle. I’m following you.”

He hesitated. “Promise you won’t judge?”

“You insulted the genre I write first. I think it’s fair I get to judge you a little.”

He held out his hand and I stared at it.

“Your phone,” he said. “I’ll make sure you get the right profile.”

I eyed his hand as I handed over the device and he typed into it quickly before handing it back.

I stared at his author page and was assaulted with bright colours and suggestive images as well as a giant number.

“You have five hundred thousand reads?!” I didn’t mean to yell but it came out as one.

“Yeahhh…” A pink tinge spread over his face and he rubbed the back of his arm. “It’s not a big deal.”

“If your book stats were a person, it would crush my book stats by its very existence.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“And you’re fucking famous.” I pointed at my phone screen. “If I had that support, I would be way more motivated to write than ever. I think I could finish like three books with that pure encouragement. I haven’t been able to get back into writing lately because of this slump.”

I swiped through his profile but then noticed the last time he updated the book. Two months ago. That’s not a very long time but noticeable enough that I would doubt the book would be updated again any time soon.

“Encouragement? It’s more like demands for your very existence to be a slave to your story or trying to tear you down for the fun of it.” Angelo’s voice raised an octave. “How about ‘give me the next chapter now!’ or ‘write this character to be the top’ or ‘how dare you fetishize gay men! I bet you’re a cishet white woman writing this story.’ It’s terrible. I just want to have fun writing again.”

I try and wrap my head around the idea of being so famous that I would receive comments like that but I can't help but feel bad for the guy.

“Then have fun writing.”

“I can’t,” he sighed. “But there’s just so much pressure—”

“Then try writing a different genre,” I suggested. “Like horror. Start a clean slate. Even if you don’t like it, it could get you to understand why you liked writing before.”

His eyes met mine and pursed his lips. “I don’t know.”

“Hell, I’ll do it too. I’ll write—” I looked down to read his story tags. “Smutty gay friends to lovers… oh my god they were roommates? Fairy sex?”

“That one might be too intense for you.” If Angelo was blushing before, he was now red as the university’s signature colour. “How about something more beginner-friendly? I wrote another story that’s more innocent and fluffier.”

I scrolled down and saw a book with a cuter cover. Still too romance-centric for my liking but it definitely captured what the story seemed to be about.

“Sure,” I said. “How hard can writing romance be?”

“Then we have a deal,” Angelo smiled. “You try writing romance and I’ll try writing horror. Once we’re done with our stories, we can show each other and celebrate.”

custom banner support banner
JJJ000YYY
J. A. Jumphol

Creator

This is the full chapter 1 preview of Write Off! I didn't expect us to get to 20k ink donated but here we are. Regular postings for this story will begin on January 1st, 2023 and I hope to see you all later!

Comments (4)

See all
ilyasvideoprodu
ilyasvideoprodu

Top comment

As an artist who only recently tried writing, oh my God it's fun to write but so often it feels like throwing a boulder and then crying when u are unsatisfied and have to rewrite 2000 words . I'm not going to lie, I totally underestimated writing going into it. But anyway since I'm going to make writing my personality for a few months, this is really cute and somewhat relatable

1

Add a comment

Recommendation for you

  • Blood Moon

    Recommendation

    Blood Moon

    BL 46.9k likes

  • Invisible Boy

    Recommendation

    Invisible Boy

    LGBTQ+ 11.1k likes

  • What Makes a Monster

    Recommendation

    What Makes a Monster

    BL 73.5k likes

  • Arna (GL)

    Recommendation

    Arna (GL)

    Fantasy 5.4k likes

  • Secunda

    Recommendation

    Secunda

    Romance Fantasy 41.9k likes

  • Touch

    Recommendation

    Touch

    BL 15.3k likes

  • feeling lucky

    Feeling lucky

    Random series you may like

Write Off
Write Off

2.9k views89 subscribers

Two authors decide to swap genres when they both get into writer's block one day. There's one issue, neither has any idea how to write the genre they were assigned.

-

Phet "Boo" Thongdi is a horror writer with small notoriety online. He isn't the most famous writer around but his viewership is nothing to scoff at. Still, he can't help but feel discouraged and lose steam when he sees no one is interested in reading queer horror.

Angelo Reyes writes out all his gay romance fantasies, especially on the not-so-innocent side, for the online world to see. No sad endings allowed! It's only inevitable that the crushing pressure of his audience leads him to writer's block.

The two roommates vent their writing frustrations to each other one day which leads to an idea. They should swap genres.Read more
Subscribe

16 episodes

  • Chapter 1
    Episode 1 Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
    Episode 2 Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
    Episode 3 Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4
    Episode 4 Chapter 4
  • Chapter 5
    Episode 5 Chapter 5
  • Chapter 6
    Episode 6 Chapter 6
  • Chapter 7
    Episode 7 Chapter 7
  • Chapter 8
    Episode 8 Chapter 8
  • Chapter 9
    Episode 9 Chapter 9
  • Chapter 10
    Episode 10 Chapter 10
  • Chapter 11
    Episode 11 Chapter 11
  • Chapter 12
    Episode 12 Chapter 12
  • Chapter 13
    Episode 13 Chapter 13
  • Chapter 14
    Episode 14 Chapter 14
  • Chapter 15
    Episode 15 Chapter 15
  • Chapter 16
    Episode 16 Chapter 16
Ep. 1 Chapter 1

Comments (0)

  • Best
  • Newest
  • Oldest

Please log in to add a comment.

Comment
Chapter 1

Chapter 1

765 views 17 likes 4 comments


Style
More
Like
80
Support
List
Comment

Prev
Next

Full
Exit
17
4
Support
Prev
Next

Tapas uses cookies to provide you the best experience on our website.
More info | Customize