nyquillis dillwad

Hi there! A month ago I proclaimed my goal for October, which was to write three specific, silly fics for a set of Schlocktober prompts in the fandom Hello From the Magic Tavern. I'm here to navel-gaze on what the experience was like. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how things went.

( The original goals, under the cut )

My Method: Fun and Games
The main obstacle I foresaw was that I would get stumped trying to write for a canon with such a particular tone/vibe, and for which canon review was difficult. The fan wiki's quality and completeness leaves something to be desired, and there are no scripts to reference since the show is entirely improvised. One thing I did to surmount this was extensive long-form pre-writing.

( More on fun and games under the cut )

What I Actually Wrote: Gore, a Prequel, and the Weirdest Vehicle for Unrequited Love Yet
The first fic I posted for the challenge was "Proprioception" (on AO3), which is nasty gory self-cest. I must emphasize that I am a huge scaredy-cat about gore so it is especially astounding that I wrote this. But, it was something I felt had to exist. More extended reflections are in this post I wrote in the beginning of the month. In retrospect, I do think it helped me build my confidence. It felt more approachable because I really only had to review a few episodes of canon to write it, and the canon had already set up the premise for sex. Armed with a detailed outline, I wrote and posted the fic with an incredible amount of momentum. And at least one other person than me liked it!

I started on the next fic, which was supposed to be a quick, silly little PWP with secret identities and cross-dressing. I'm sure you can guess what happened.

( More about what I wrote under the cut )

Suffice it to say I'm really happy with my progress. I'd written fics for Hello From the Magic Tavern before, but that was a long time ago, and I wasn't 100% comfortable writing in that world yet. (For one, the canon is hilarious, and writing humorous fic is not easy.) This has been a great month to work through some of those hesitations, to discover that there are a handful of people who are also excited about this fandom, and to stretch myself as a writer.