Reading with Daniel
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About "Reading with Daniel"
Reading with Daniel
Lesson 2: Open thread on the first two chapters
What do you think about the opening of this novel? (Reminder to keep the conversation mostly positive)
No label Opening Chapters of AGIM
How to design an admirable character
No label AGIM to Archeologies
The power of keeping care going
No label To Anonymity: on future flagging
Use this technique to prep your reader!
No label To An Alliance: on exposition
How to make your exposition fly by the reader...
No label To Addendum – on the POV of Stalin
Could you use a "state-level" POV in your novel?
No label “A Gentleman in Moscow” to Apostles
No label A Gentleman in Moscow to Anecdotes
The challenges of the "staggered enterprise"
No label A Gentleman in Moscow to the end
What did you think of the surprises in the final chapter?
No label The Dark is Rising – chapter one
The dragon's toe!
Hint more, explain less
The power of layered, gradual description -- and a comment about accents.
No label RWD The Dark is Rising to Betrayal
On ambivalence
On combining two plot-lines -- its explosive power
No label The Dark is Rising, to the end
Steps to the impossible and the power of myth making
On the amazing style of the final battle
Making bad things bad -- in three steps
No label RWD chapters 8 to 16
The amazing shift in David's fortunes and how Stevenson makes it work
No label Kidnapped to chapter 24
Varieties of tension
No label Kidnapped to the end
How music can deepen a scene
No label Audio lesson for RWD: Kidnapped
No label RWD Daisy Darker page one
The benefit of "storytelling highways"
No label RWD Daisy Darker to ten
The four-beat clue
No label Darker ten to twenty
The power of deepening scenes
No label Darker twenty to thirty
The beats of suspicion and the wheel of emotion
No label Darker to forty
On "earning your pages" with flashbacks
No label Daisy Darker to the end: sequencing
How Feeney sequences the ending of this novel
Paths of success
All about the power of repetition
No label The Halfway-Point Pacing Jump
On "relationship oxygen"
The "hidden reveal" and its dangers
Omniscient narrators and reticent characters
Don't believe all the craft advice you hear!
The power of simple chapter jumps
No label The Midnight Library Mid Point Twist
Can your story shift at the halfway point?
No label Midnight Library to the end
Repetition and variation
No label RWD: Unreliable narrators
How many questions does your opening page introduce?
How does the style of the opening of CF prepare us for the kind of narrator we are listening to?
How to design a protagonist who is both clever but also missing the point?
No label Alternate read: Who’s Irish part one
When you have a first person protagonist, you should really go for it!
What is "bad" mystery and why should you be careful about it?
How to write a good argument scene
No label Cherish Farrah the end
The ending of the novel seems to suggest: themes and big picture stuff should happen at the end of your novel, not the start.
Several members of the group wanted to talk more about unreliable narrators in CF. Let's discuss!
No label Intro to Jade City
The 2nd session of Jade City.
No label Open Thread 2: Jade City
What strikes you about the setting?
The real plot and the fake real plot
The other uses of the "little plot"
On foreshadowing and "prior scenes"
How did you react to…??
on fight scenes
How to rescue a stuck protagonist, two ways.
No label Jade City newsletter: final chapters
How to entice readers to read book two of your series
No label Audio: does my novel need a plot?
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?
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?
No label A few comments on “mood”
A code of content for this experience
No label Our Starting Schedule (April 2022)
Time to get a copy of Jade City, by Fonda Lee
How I'm planning to handle content that readers may find upsetting or offensive.
This is why I don't think writers should worry about "theme."
No label Foreshadowing from the first page
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!
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.
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
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???