Past Residents Share Their Thoughts

The Summer Residency was a game-changer. It helped me pinpoint exactly what wasn’t working in the middle of my story and showed me how to weave exciting elements from the ending into the beginning. The program guided me to strip the story down to its core, creating a truly character-first experience.

Daniel's feedback is pure gold and magic! His ability to offer keen insights into my plot and character, to offer ideas for how to augment what is working and make it even better, and to gently (and dare I say lovingly) offer suggestions for improvement are the highlights of this program for me. I also have loved the prompt packs. Writing is such a vulnerable, brave, and at times scary act! And Daniel is a fantastic guide, holding a candle and lighting the way, quietly saying, "I believe in you. You can do this." And he gives you actual strategies and ideas for how to implement his feedback. I cannot recommend this program highly enough!

I really liked the prompt packs. Full of good information, step by step instructions that I can refer to in the future. I learned how much more there is to writing a novel than telling a story .

The Essential Residency helped me take a fresh look at my story idea, and most importantly, how my readers would experience it! It allowed me to uncover crucial gaps in the backstory of my main character and gave my story a solid structure that I can't wait to fill out. Now I have the tools at hand to to unblock me at any time I get stuck and dive right into my story.

"This program is the most flexible, inclusive and generative for me as someone with severe chronic illnesses and a neurodivergent brain. It’s hard to find and I am so thankful to Daniel for helping me to dream that I can do this despite being disabled. There’s nothing quite as inclusive out there.”

Daniel is an innovative teacher and thinker. The Essential Residency course was exactly what I needed to inspire me to write the skeleton of a new novel. The Orc system, which helped us to write three 7-minute sprints (similar to pomdoros, but easier), turned my whole idea of needing half a day to get any writing done. Whenever I had 30 minutes of free time, it was easy to sit and write for at least one 7-minute sprint. It also helped me write faster and messier, which is the opposite of how I normally work. The prompts were excellent, and even though I'm a 100% pantser and not a plotter, I was able to bypass some of the suggestions and get a lot done. I found the ChapGPT bot especially useful for helping me see the possibilities of who, what, where and how my story could progress. Thanks a million for a great program, Daniel!

From week 1 onwards, the Essential Residency has been amazing. I think I could have finished my draft based on what I learned in the first week alone, but as the weeks rolled on there was an abundance of unbelievable magnitude, and I don't see how anyone at all could fail to write their best draft ever, with all these resources to use. Every time I tried out one of the bots, I thought it was the best, but now I do have some favourites. These bots teach, they don't write for you, but they have so much of Daniel's knowledge programmed into them, that they can help with all kinds of writing questions and dilemmas. I had never used a bot before this training, and now am definitely a convert to these unique writing helpers that Daniel's created. Writing from all over my novel was huugely freeing and I even tracked back to Act 1 which I wasn't happy with and got advice and help to rework it. I think it can be hard to let go of one's own drive to just keep going, but I certainly found that pausing my wish to do that, and trying out all of the ideas Daniel was offering, turned out to be a great decision. I have learned so much, my characters have developed and grown, the story has taken shape, and is becoming so much better in it's depth and complexity. My top tip is, read all the handouts! They're amazing, don't miss anything Daniel says, he is equipping us to succeed.

Thursday prompt helped me create a whole new chapter 7 to enhance my chapter 8! Chapter 8 is the story of how a main character, the protagonists brother, dies in an attack on their town. I realized that I had never given him a chance to speak to what kept him there when he and his family could have escaped. It was a hole in the narrative that needed to be filled

This has been such an energising week for my revision project! I now have a list of tasks to get on with and I know that if and when I experience that sense of overwhelm I can bring it back to repeating these prompts, one day at a time, one step at a time to get back on track. At present I'm moving forward and focusing on the middle of novel. I've already started to cut some of the boring stuff, because I have a clearer idea of what's more important and where I need to amplify emotions of not only my MC, but also those around her, as my MC questions and confronts the social norms. There are some brutal realities ahead for her, which I have been ignoring or at best minimising. As well as the really sweet wins - which is what I've focused on until this point. I now have to unmask those harsh realities (betrayal, threats and isolation) in more detail and write them! This has been a blast! Thanks.

I keep telling myself I'm stuck in the middle, but really @danieldavidwallace has given us so many other optional ways to creep around the problem.

I have to say, I'm really enjoying this process so far. It truly is stretching how I see my writing. What an amazing week! I've learned so much. I have 3 things I know I want to keep and 4 things that I will definitely be looking to change. Exciting times ahead. Thanks, Daniel , for offering this and thanks to all of you who had courage enough to share your writing and experience. Happy writing! -Bonnie