Before you start

This course is the real record of making They Say I'm a Dark Mage, but All I'm Good At Is Digging Dirt, an academy fantasy comedy of mistaken identity, in TypeTak. Before you begin, here's what you'll build, what you need, and how to follow along.

The example is a Korean web novel, written in Korean. Korean web novels are fiction serialized online in short installments, and every chapter has to end on a hook that gets readers to click through to the next one. The chat messages, agent answers, and manuscript you'll see are translated from the Korean original. The story's central joke is a Korean pun: “earth magic” and “dark magic” are both pronounced heuk-mabeop. Lesson 1 shows how the story uses it.

What you'll build

Lesson	What you do	What you have at the end
1 Ideation	Narrow a one-line idea down by chatting with the agent	A World with the title, the chapter 1 twist, and the characters
2 Board	Find the gaps in the World and lay out events	A board with event cards through Arc 4
3 Chapter 1 draft	Check the plan and write chapter 1	A 5,000-character chapter 1, and a World with new lore added
4 Revising	Get feedback and fix what needs fixing	Chapter 1, polished before it goes live

What you need

A TypeTak account — You can finish the whole course on the free plan. The free plan includes every AI feature, within a quota that refills monthly.
No API key or other AI subscription. The AI quota comes with your plan.
No manuscript in progress. This course starts from a single word.

Lesson 3, where chapter 1 gets written in one go, uses the most quota. Check what's left under Agent settings in the chat input. If you run short, wait for the next refill or upgrade your plan. (Plans)

Create a space

On the home screen, click New space and choose Web novel as the manuscript type. Once the space is created, the agent chat opens on the right. The course starts in this chat. (Spaces)

With web novel as the manuscript type, the AI follows basic web novel craft when it writes your manuscript. This choice comes into play in Lesson 3, when chapter 1 gets written.

Two ways to follow along

Exactly as shown — Everything sent to the agent appears in the course as a chat screen. Send the same message and you'll go through the same steps. Lessons 1–3 also list them in order at the end, under “Prompts from this lesson.”

The AI answers differently every time. Even with the same message, your titles and character names won't match the course. Just keep going with what you get.

With your own story — Swap out the words before you send. Instead of “give me worldbuilding for an earth mage concept,” try “give me worldbuilding for a ___ concept.”

If you're new, make a practice space and run through the example once, then do it again in your own story's space. Once you've seen where each feature fits, you can pick only what you need for your own work.

You can change the order

This course sets up the lore first and writes second. If you'd rather discover the lore as you write, start from Lesson 3. At the end of Lesson 3, the new lore that turned up in the manuscript goes back into the World. That way, you write the manuscript first and fill in the World later.

In Lesson 1, you start a conversation with the agent from one word: “earth mage.”