Shadowing Practice: How darkness helps RF KUANG write fiction!? | BookCon 2026 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi, this is Asha Victoria Robinson coming to you from the pop spot here at BookCon

and I am here with the woman who's broken everybody's heart and soul, Rebecca Kwong!

How has your BookCon been treating you so far?

It's been a lot of fun.

Everyone's been nice and calm and respectful.

Yeah, I mean it's a reader so they're all really sweet.

Everything that you write is so profound and so deep and so well researched.

When you're sitting down to write a new book, Are you intentionally destroying my soul as you start?

I don't think about soul destroying

so much as I think about what is the coolest thing I can be thinking about in any given moment.

And all my books are just journeys down rabbit holes that I'm really obsessed about.

So the last few weeks I've been telling everybody who will listen about the miscarriage of justice during the Tokyo War Trials.

And then the writing process is figuring out which parts of those historical, factual nuggets would make for really good dramatization.

I read a piece about like Alexander Dumas

and how his whole strength was sifting through like all of this data

and archival knowledge about the historical situation that he was in

and finding the beating heart within it

and that's what I tried to do with the periods and the events that I can't stop thinking about.

I like the idea that it's you just cracking open your skull

and being like this is what is my brain worm this is what I'm obsessed with right now.

So Reddit calls you Grimdark's darkest daughter.

Do you think this is an accurate nickname or do you think it's overblown?

I think it was a good set of adjectives to describe the Poppy Word trilogy.

I feel like Grimdark is actually a term that's kind of out of fashion now.

I don't hear it as often.

People were saying Grimdark to describe this very gritty, grim, like bleak genre of fantasy that was interested in,

I think, like, pushing back against the valorization of war, the idea of noble heroes, and rather exploring anti-heroes and,

like, gross bodily functions, and the fact that, like, your sword gets dirty and you get smelly after days on the road, and wars don't end cleanly,

and sometimes you have to do terrible things to advance causes you care about.

So I think it was a very interesting shift in fantasy, but I think a lot of fantasy has just moved in that direction.

So Grim Dark is no longer so spectacular.

But yeah, I think the Poppy War trilogy is squarely within that genre.

It embodies that.

Yeah.

So last year you signed a four book deal with HarperCollins, including Taipei Story.

Can you tease us anything about what some of those upcoming releases might look like?

Yeah, so Taipei's story comes out in September and after that I'm working on a retelling of the Faust mythos

that will be over five different chronologies across the 20th century that explores the intersections between art and politics and fascism.

And I'm also working on another love story that involves aliens.

Ooh, that is, uh, those are not words I thought that you would say to me, and I'm very, very intrigued by that.

I thought I would ever say either, but I got really into UFOs and tales of alien abduction,

and I thought that those intersect really in interesting ways with the tropes of the classic rom-com.

Wow, I'm imagining you being like, I'm going to Marfa, I'm going to Area 51 to do all of this research for that love story.

I believe in aliens.

Do you really?

Yeah.

Aliens like little green men or just like a truly alien life form?

Now we're going down this rabbit hole.

Both.

I just think that there are a lot of questions

that haven't been answered and objects moving at speeds that can't be explained.

Do you have a favorite fictional alien?

E.T.

Ooh, good one.

Classic.

We love it.

So speaking of your research, and you said that all of your books are sort of like explorations of ideas that you personally are interested in.

What is your workflow like day to day and how many cups of coffee do you drink?

I actually, I'm very sensitive to caffeine.

So if I have coffee it will be like one cup of iced coffee in the afternoon

but otherwise I'm more of a tea person or I just start bouncing off the walls.

What's your favorite type of tea?

I am a tea agnostic.

I love all kinds and it depends on the season.

I think right now it's not something I've often brewed for myself but Lapsang Souchong.

I've had it in really good cocktails and lattes because it adds that smokiness.

I'm really into that but workflow wise I sit down in the morning with a cup of tea.

And I actually do about an hour or so of research.

I do my archival investigations at the same time as I'm doing my drafting.

Otherwise, I will just procrastinate and only do the research.

And then I just keep reading about gallery exhibitions of fascist art in 1930s Japan for the morning.

And just get very embodied in one particular historical moment.

And the moment you start reading through those monographs, ideas for scenes, just start populating your mind.

And then I take note of everything that could become a story beat.

And then I set that aside and then write it all up.

And this is how the process goes for most of the first draft until I have to step back and realize, oh, I've done all this research and all this brainstorming, but I actually have to stitch it all together into a novel that makes sense.

You're also a very prolific writer.

I feel like you write so many pages so fast.

When you are writing, are you sitting down and trying to hit a word count, trying to hit a page count, or just whatever comes organically?

I've been at this long enough

that I know what a comfortable word count limit is for

me on any given day where I feel like I'm getting close enough to the deadline, but I'm also not rushing the work.

And right now it's between 700 and 800 words, which is just three good paragraphs.

And I feel like you can sit down and write three good paragraphs on any given day.

But I've actually slowed down over my career because I used to think the more words, the faster, the better.

And that good writing came from just fits of inspiration, like, you know, spurts and flows.

But actually, since I started teaching creative writing, I've been teaching my students that if writing feels easy and fast and loose, it's because it's probably because it's lazy writing.

It feels easy because you're using volunteer words for volunteer sentences.

So, like, this is also my way of coping with the days where the writing feels slow and difficult.

That's because you're thinking.

Writer's block is you being very precise and controlled with the process.

That's a good thing, and it results in better writing.

So, I'm learning to be content with the slow writing days.

I think that's beautiful that, like, writer's block is because you're processing something.

That's so healthy, and I admire that so much.

Yeah, you're working at your craft.

That's work too.

A lot of what you deal with, as you've sort of been alluding to even in your research, is dark or maybe not the brightest and happiest things.

How are you seeking self-care?

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What are you doing to touch grass at the end of the day to sort of reset your creative slate?

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Well, over the past year I've been coming back to visual art.

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I used to do a lot of visual arts

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when I was a child and for a

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while I thought I wanted to be like a graphic novelist and illustrate comics and then I turned to prose instead.

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But because I am researching the artistic process in a bunch of different mediums for this next novel

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that is not writing fiction, I've been going to life drawing classes.

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I've been doodling in my free time.

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I'm trying to do a pen and ink sketch every day.

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And I'm not good, but it is a really nice way to scratch

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that creative itch and also do something that is not professionalized, that I don't have to show anybody, that has no standards.

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And I'm also learning to look at the world in different ways.

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I'm looking at you and I'm breaking you into shapes and lines and proportions.

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And yeah, I think that is really nice because it's still work

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and that I'm learning about a different artistic process and I'll use that vocabulary in the next project.

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But it's having an artistic hobby where you don't have deadlines or an editor or an agent.

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Yeah.

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And lastly, but not leastly, because here on The Pop First, we celebrate the best in TV, movies, comics and books.

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What are you geeking out about that you're not working on?

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So other than drawing, what are you doing just for fun?

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Well, I'm always running and reading a lot at the same time.

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I'm back to audiobooks while I run.

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And for a while I stopped because I was watching The Wire on the treadmill.

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Oh, my God.

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But now it's warm again and I can run outside.

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So I've been listening to classics.

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It's a really good because like you spend

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so many hours on the path that you can just churn through classics that way.

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So I just finished Middlemarch.

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Oh, my God. So good.

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It's amazing.

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And I did Kazuo Ishigo's The Unconsoles, which was a bit of a slog,

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but I'm really glad I did it in audio because then I appreciated the intricacies of the plot.

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Thank you so much for joining us here in the Pop Spot today.

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Thanks for having me.

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Who Is This Video For?

This video is perfect for intermediate to advanced English learners aiming to boost their conversational skills, especially for IELTS speaking practice or real-world dialogue fluency. The natural, engaging conversation between the interviewer and author Rebecca Kuang features casual yet expressive language, making it ideal for shadow speak—repeating phrases aloud to mimic rhythm and tone. Whether you want to sound more confident in discussions or understand nuanced storytelling, this video offers rich material to practice with.

Words & Idioms Worth Stealing

The dialogue is packed with standout expressions. "Rabbit holes" (deep, obsessive dives into a topic) and "brain worm" (a persistent, preoccupying idea) add color to descriptions. "Miscarriage of justice" (a wrongful legal outcome) is a powerful phrase for discussing social issues. "Valorization of war" (glorifying conflict) and "anti-heroes" (flawed, morally complex protagonists) are great for literary or political conversations. "Squarely within that genre" (firmly belonging) helps clarify categorization. These phrases are versatile—use them in essays, debates, or casual chats to sound more native.

How to Get the Accent Right

To master the speaker’s tone, focus on natural intonation. Kuang uses slight pauses before key points (e.g., "I don't think about soul destroying so much as...")—imitate these to emphasize ideas. Notice how she shortens "it's" to "it's" and "that's" to "that's" in fast speech; this casual contraction is key for fluency. For shadow speak, repeat her lines slowly first, matching her rhythm, then speed up. Pay attention to stress in words like "profound" (PRO-found) and "dramatization" (dram-a-ti-ZA-tion). Practicing these nuances will make your English sound more authentic, whether for IELTS speaking practice or everyday interactions. Learning English with YouTube has never been more effective—this video is a goldmine for refining your speaking skills.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	I've been telling · I've been teaching · I've been coming
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to think · used to do
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	It's been · Everyone's been · has just moved
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	been answered · is not professionalized

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: How darkness helps RF KUANG write fiction!? | BookCon 2026 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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