Alicante author Daniel Hernández Chambers is in the process of creating a novel together with 800,000 students from schools in Spain and Latin America. Via Fiction Express publishing house, used in more than 1,500 educational centers in Spain and more than 9,000 worldwide. Among the goals of the platform, it is aimed for students between the ages of 9-16 to maintain their reading habits and improve their language proficiency by studying the language comprehensively.
The publisher has been practicing this model of co-created writing for years, based on presenting a first chapter with three options for possible sequels, and now it’s the turn of Alicante’s Daniel H. Chambers. This text is received by readers from different schools using the platform and they vote for their favorite options for its continuation.. In addition to the novel, there is also a forum where students can make comments answered by the author and ask questions about the novel and give their suggestions.
“This project came to me through the publisher, and at first I didn’t know there would be so many creators,” says the author. There are also students who come to Spain-based schools from places such as El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Morocco or the Dominican Republic.. The story develops based on the common ground that the students wanted through voting; Daniel assures that this means that “sometimes the plot leads to problems that were not initially foreseen.”
We develop with these guidelines The two sides of the mirror A fantasy novel in which the protagonist, Jota, spends his holidays at the house of his uncles, who are antique dealers, in the city of Brighton. Just then, an interesting mirror, one of the last items his uncle bought, appears. At that moment, the child discovers that it does not always reflect what is in front of it, but sometimes shows what it had in another time, in another age, in another place. So Jota meets a young woman in danger who will transform him completely.
The first chapter of this book, which deals with fantasy in its most magnificent form, was published on the Fiction Express platform on November 3, and you can interact with a new chapter written according to readers’ votes every Friday for 5 weeks. Contact the author via the forum. But since the publication is weekly and three options are presented to maintain the narrative flow, the author must finish the chapters in record time.: “It leaves you with very little room for maneuver. When presenting options, I always keep in mind that I could write about this even if I hadn’t written about it beforehand.”
The freedom it gives co-creators goes beyond simple embellishments and can change the entire direction of the novel. According to Daniel H. Chambers, he doesn’t know how other writers who use this platform do it, but “in my case, I’m completely sold on what they recommend.”, I run the risk of not putting simple soft options. “I fully give you the choice to decide the course of history.”
The first episode introduces the protagonist, Jota. two sides of the mirror. When the entire context surrounding the young protagonist has already been marked, the shift at the center of the story occurs. Instead of seeing his own reflection in the mirror, the image of a girl appears. The first question the author asked his co-creators, far from giving any weight to the novel, resulted in offering options as to who the woman reflected in that magic mirror was.With offerings ranging from the daughter of a feudal lord to a witch in the Middle Ages.
Writer
Daniel H. Chambers (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1972) has published fifty books since publishing his first novel in 2006. One of his last works Department of Magical AffairsReceived two major awards: Azagal 2022 and Hache 2023the latter has a court of 2,000 youths. He received Delta Wing in 2016. Enola’s secret and by Alandar in 2017 turn your eyes away. His last work called secret of the forestIt is a detective novel published by RBA publishing house.
Now for the first time face this didactic method of creating books together with students from all over the world. Additionally, outside of his duties as a writer, he served as chief of circulation, then as a projectionist, and now as an office worker at TRAM headquarters in El Campello. Moreover, before that, he also worked at Alicante airport. For this reason, Its roots in the city are much more than anecdotes. Although he was born in the Canary Islands, his family moved to this state before he was one year old.where he has lived ever since.
A platform with educational resources
Fully digital, Fiction Express’ methodology involves connecting readers with professional writers through an interactive forum and a voting system that puts them at the forefront of their reading experience and allows them to choose the events that need to happen. This process yields resources for teachers, such as a survey, projects to work on cross-skills and other vocabulary, and reading comprehension, writing, and oral exercises. Working on all aspects of the language, always being compatible with the different curricula of the region.
The platform, which started its journey in 2012, is now present in approximately 9,000 schools in more than 60 countries around the world; It also has a significant presence in Spain and Latin America. It is a platform for schools that publishes three books in Spanish and three books in English every two months.; In total there are 54 books per year in 3 different languages.
According to the platform’s co-founders Cristina Puig and Sven Huber, “Being part of a novel while writing is unique and very impressive for young people; If a student reads regularly, he improves in other academic dimensions as well. “We measure this evolution with quantifiable data.” They also emphasize that “more and more schools believe in Fiction Express and our goal is to change the lives of 10 million children through education in the coming years.”