Reading with Daniel

Video/Audio/Text

Video/Audio/Text

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About "Reading with Daniel"

Reading with Daniel

Newsletters

Text lesson

What do you think about the opening of this novel? (Reminder to keep the conversation mostly positive)

Text lesson

How to design an admirable character

Text lesson

The power of keeping care going

Text lesson

Use this technique to prep your reader!

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How to make your exposition fly by the reader...

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Could you use a "state-level" POV in your novel?

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The challenges of the "staggered enterprise"

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What did you think of the surprises in the final chapter?

Video lessons

Video lesson

The exuberant style of AGIM

Newsletters

Text lesson

The dragon's toe!

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Hint more, explain less

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The power of layered, gradual description -- and a comment about accents.

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On ambivalence

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On combining two plot-lines -- its explosive power

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Steps to the impossible and the power of myth making

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On the amazing style of the final battle

Audio Lessons

Newsletters

Text lesson

Making bad things bad -- in three steps

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The amazing shift in David's fortunes and how Stevenson makes it work

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Varieties of tension

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How music can deepen a scene

Audio Lessons

Audio lesson

Newsletters

Text lesson

The benefit of "storytelling highways"

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The four-beat clue

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The power of deepening scenes

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The beats of suspicion and the wheel of emotion

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On "earning your pages" with flashbacks

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How Feeney sequences the ending of this novel

Discussion

Newsletters

Text lesson
Text lesson

All about the power of repetition

Audio lesson
Text lesson

On "relationship oxygen"

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The "hidden reveal" and its dangers

Newsletters

Text lesson

The value of a talkative narrator

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Omniscient narrators and reticent characters

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Don't believe all the craft advice you hear!

Text lesson

The power of simple chapter jumps

Text lesson

Can your story shift at the halfway point?

Text lesson

Repetition and variation

Zoom Recordings

Video lesson

Newsletters

Text lesson

Three questions about RWD so far...

Text lesson

How many questions does your opening page introduce?

Text lesson

How does the style of the opening of CF prepare us for the kind of narrator we are listening to?

Text lesson

How to design a protagonist who is both clever but also missing the point?

Text lesson

When you have a first person protagonist, you should really go for it!

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What is "bad" mystery and why should you be careful about it?

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How to write a good argument scene

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The ending of the novel seems to suggest: themes and big picture stuff should happen at the end of your novel, not the start.

Text lesson

Several members of the group wanted to talk more about unreliable narrators in CF. Let's discuss!

Introductions and Resources

Text lesson

Newsletters

Text lesson

Let's talk about the book! (I have guidelines)

Text lesson
Text lesson

What strikes you about the setting?

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The real plot and the fake real plot

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The other uses of the "little plot"

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On foreshadowing and "prior scenes"

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How did you react to…??

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How to rescue a stuck protagonist, two ways.

Text lesson

How to entice readers to read book two of your series

Zoom recordings and audio files

Audio lesson

My response to a question from members of RWD: it seems like Jade City has a lot of "plot." Do all novels need a plot? Does my novel need to have a plot like this?

Audio lesson

The biggest concern many of us have had with Jade City -- the characters don't seem to be very "relatable." Don't novels need to provide us with fictional people we can connect to?

Text lesson

A code of content for this experience

Text lesson

Say hello by answering these three questions

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Time to get a copy of Jade City, by Fonda Lee

Text lesson

How I'm planning to handle content that readers may find upsetting or offensive.

Newsletters

Text lesson

This is why I don't think writers should worry about "theme."

Text lesson

Read the story. Then re-read the first page.

About the Teacher

Daniel

Daniel is the host of this reading club. Welcome!

  • Hi, I started reading Jade City and I am hooked.
    I was never one for gangsta movies or books but her very first words got me:
    “The two would-be jade thieves …” What a wealth of information and intruige in this six words! It instantly hints on danger and disaster: would-be is only used for not sucessful. So I needed to read on to find out how they floundered.
    And there is even more information in it:
    -they are no regular thiefs, so they are newbies.
    Jade must be very important, if they try to steal exactly that and not ‘jewels’ or money. I am at awe here!
    By the way, my reader shows me that this novel has over 1100 pages, is that true or do I have a strange copy?
    If so, would you please also mention the chapters, Daniel? It would be easier to follow then. Thanks!

    • Chris Flocken says:

      I received the paperback edition today, which is 495 pages. Chapter 1, The Twice Lucky is page 1; Chapter 2, The Horn of No Peak on page 10; Chapter 3, The Sleepless Pillar on page 19; Chapter 4, The Torch of Kekon on page 31; Chapter 5, The Horn’s Kitten, on page 40. Since there are 57 chapters plus an Epilogue, I won’t go through the entire book.

  • allisongailb says:

    I’m really liking Jade City so far. I’m on the second chapter.

  • I enjoyed the start of Jade City and had to stop myself reading beyond two chapters. It was so easy to read I underestimated the skill in the way the dialogue was written. A lesson well learned.

  • Hello Daniel I am an aspiring screenwriter who wants to learn and writer character-driven screenplay. I want to have a deep and thorough understanding of characters, character development and character arc.
    Please directed me to the appropriate place.
    Thank you

  • miriam.landor says:

    Intrigued by your comment on the importance of mid-point in Midnight Library… I’m writing a memoir/ family history so didn’t think this could apply to my work – but maybe it does???

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