Common sense in novel writing

The novel as a whole should be centered on the portrayal of characters. Reflect the objective social life through complete storyline and environmental description.

Among them, the most important thing is to reflect social life, which is the basic purpose of the novel. This society refers to society in a broad sense. The so-called showing this society includes many narrow concepts such as showing social background and revealing truth. This thing to be expressed is called the theme of the novel. If a novel does not achieve the purpose of reflecting society, it cannot be a complete novel.

The most basic novel has three elements: plot, environment, and characters.

Creating characters is the most basic requirement of novels and the most basic and important means of reflecting the objective existence of society. Creating characters directly serves to represent objective society.

The plot of the novel plays the role of expressing the character and theme. The plot part can directly serve to show society, or it can indirectly serve to show society by showing the character's personality.

The plot of a novel is theoretically composed of four fixed factors: beginning, development, climax, and ending. In addition to this, two optional elements can also be included, namely a prologue and an epilogue.

In actual creation, these six factors can be used flexibly and there is no need to stick to the format. When structurally necessary, we can omit, repeat, combine, or misorder one or more of them to construct a structure suitable for displaying society.

There are several commonly used formats:

1. Start the flashback with the ending. 2. There should be a climax or development at the beginning to interject the narrative. 3. In writing, other structural factors other than the climax are deliberately ignored and the narrative is condensed. There are many such combinations, not all listed here. All structural factors can be changed freely, but all structural factors must also have no less than three actual existence signs, otherwise readers will easily have difficulties in understanding during the reading process. .

Environmental factors include social background (narrow sense) and natural background. Among them, the social background directly serves the theme, while the natural background serves the theme indirectly through its role in shaping the character image.

There are two common methods in the narrative of the entire novel.

One is to narrate in the first person, and the narrator appears in the plot. The biggest advantage of this method is that it facilitates the development of psychological description.

The other is to narrate in the third person, and the narrator does not appear in the plot. The biggest advantage of this method is that it facilitates the intersection of multiple clues.

In addition, new literature also uses second-person narration, such as some suspense and fantasy stories that are now popular in the West. The biggest advantage of this kind of novel is that it attracts readers, but broadly speaking, this kind of narrative method still belongs to one or three person narrative. When creating, the author should also conceive according to the first and third persons.

What is a "novel"?

Balzac: The novel is the secret history of a nation.

Proust: The novel is the son of silence.

Oe Kenzaburo: Writing novels is salvation.

Zhang Chengzhi: Novels are a degenerate form.

Ge Fei: Novels are the outlet of past memories.

Zhao Benfu: Novels are a place where you can dream.

Sebo: Novels are weeds, and their true value and reason for independent existence arise after they give up their desire to become

trees and flowers.

Zhang Dachun: Good novels can show the freedom of novels, but they cannot show the freedom of the art of novels.

Novel, generally speaking, is just a story.

Celebrities talk about their own "novel"

Hong Ying: My novel is about women's sexual discovery, that is, self-discovery. In other words, discover

one's own modernity.

Lin Yanni: My novel is a colorful world made up by me. It’s the “cartoon” realm where I do whatever I’m interested in and do as I please.

Zhang Yueran: Novels are different from essays. My novels are the combined force of memory and thought.

Chen Jiaqiao: The greatest significance of all historically important works is to expand new ways of perception

in experience, that is, to constantly transform some suggestive things into For a kind of self-awareness, my pursuit of novels is like this. Society has given many hints, but I want to make these hints clear as a kind of strength.

Han Shaogong: I want to make the novel a park, with many exits and entrances. Readers can come in and out from any

door. You have experienced and felt this park, and that is enough.

Tie Ning: If a person who writes novels cannot be a writer, he should at least be a craftsman. What is a craftsman? Just crafts, shoemakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, they are all great. Novel writing is also one of many crafts.

The Red Sleeves author's point of view

Lu Jiangliang: Novels are stories that are selectively discovered by the author and contain the imprint of his own soul.

Huang Xiaoyang: Novels are about human nature, and novels also need to reach divinity.

Red Scarf 1976: The novel is to speak in its own language.

Yang Zhongbiao: Novels are the relationship between the writer and the world. Language is the tool, structure is the posture, details are the

skills, and thought is the climax.

Life sentence: The novel is a form of textual organization, usually used to tell human stories; after dissatisfaction with simply telling

human stories, the "novel" really appeared.

Red Sleeve Editor’s Opinion

Lazy Butterfly: Novels are made up of things that make people feel that they are really the case. Novels should be left to fend for themselves

and die on their own if no one reads them. Chairman Mao said that literature and art are for the masses. What Yangchun

Baixue’s stinky writing style can kill people.

Qin Chao: Novel is an art that emphasizes fiction, refining the sensory experience of characters’ lives and expressing certain ideas or opinions in language

. Its essence is fiction. sex and experience.

Ai Min: The novel is a condensed society. As Balzac said: "The novel is the secret history of a nation." The novel cannot be completely equated with real life. It is necessary to covertly embody the author's worldview

and select materials based on real events around the author's theme. Moreover,

it must follow the basic rules of novel creation and create a story with the characteristics of the times. Representative people

characters. So the definition of a novel should be expressed accurately and completely like this: that is, using image

thinking, through plots and details, transcending time and space, mobilizing the environment and scenes, and shaping the character

It is a form of literary expression that reflects the richness of social life and the themes and thoughts that represent the author's worldview.

Xiaoqiao Fengmanxiu: Novels are an exploration of the essence of life. Novels, for me, are weapons to enter another space

Meixuan Huazhu: Novels are the bridge between reality and ideals, and novels are the reality of art.

Will literature die? Is there still a future for writing novels?

"What is the current situation of novels? Are they too marginalized? It seems that pure literature is getting weaker and weaker?" Qiu Huadong asked this question in "Beijing Youth Daily" 》expressed the following views in an article published:

1. Now Chinese contemporary literature has returned to where it should be. The nature of the spokesperson that literature had in the 1980s has almost disappeared today, and the writer even just represents himself. Today's contemporary literature presents a very rich and diverse landscape, with various aesthetic circles intersecting, intersecting and even separating from each other. This is what literature should have.

2. Commercialization does not necessarily harm a writer. Sometimes it’s the readers who make the writers.

3. In the future, writers will try more means of literary communication. For literature, today’s multimedia interaction and dissemination are very favorable conditions for survival.

4. Will literature die? The answer is no, because we are still using language, and literature is the art of language.

In this regard, the author of Red Sleeves said this:

Huang Xiaoyang:

Of course literature will not die. But literature is becoming marginalized, or at least, increasingly separated from the so-called mainstream perspective. It keeps retreating, and finally retreats into people's hearts.

It is necessary to define literature here. Fast food literature is not literature, prostitute literature is not literature, text message literature is not literature either... those are all "pseudo literature".

Literature is the inner need, the door to salvation, and the bridge to the other side. It is the contemplation of wisdom, the desolation of life, the dust of history, and the feast of language.

It is beautiful. Literature also needs more means to spread. The Internet is a good way. There are others.

Red Scarf 1976:

I think that since the whole world is rising in a spiral, then novels should also be the same. Whether it is prosperity or decline, it is inevitable for evolution. . As for personal feelings, novels are neither ideal nor life. We just ask for each other and use each other, as I said before.

Meixuan Flower Master:

“Now Chinese contemporary literature has returned to where it should be.” Where did it return from? In short, it is a return from "for politics" to "for life." That is, a shift in the focus of writing.

Chinese traditional novels advocate "literature to carry the Tao", that is, literature serves politics. This understanding is one-sided.

In the mid-1980s, some writers claimed to rewrite literary history and put forward the concept of "new era literature", that is, shifting the direction of writing centered on politics to "intending to express oneself" (Zhu Ziqing), expresses the personality and personality of the writer. Becoming truly human through writing.

About the outlet of pure literature. This problem is actually the market effect of high-brow literature and popular literature. It is obvious that popular literature is more vital because of its secularization. There are two books on the bedside, one is a world famous book and the other is a martial arts novel by Jin Yong. It can be safely said that most people are more willing to read the latter.

Due to changes in the direction of writing, there are very few writers supported by the country. Literature is a commodity that has been recognized by everyone (the views of Shanghai-style writers represented by Su Qing and Zhang Ailing: writing for life), literature Lifting the veil of mystery and moving towards civilianization.

Life is the narrative resource of novels, and narrative is the understanding of life. Life continues, but literature will certainly not die.

Qin Chao:

Looking at today's literary world, I disagree with Qiu Huadong's view that "contemporary literature is not only not weak, but on the contrary presents a period close to real prosperity". As long as we carefully browse the current From the novels on the shelves, we can easily draw a conclusion, that is, there are no truly high-quality novels in the literary sense in the current literary world. What we are seeing now is a false prosperity that is driven by capital and the desire for quick success. But everything is divided into two. This capital-driven result, coupled with the reincarnation of literature itself and the progress of society, will inevitably prompt literature to return to its origin again. At this time, a truly prosperous period of literature will not So, I strongly agree with Qiu Huadong's argument that "I, or writers younger than me, are expected to succeed."

Ai Min:

First of all, we need to distinguish between writers and writers.

A real writer is someone who sees the world with his heart, feels the world with his soul, who can withstand loneliness and poverty when faced with the temptation of fame and fortune, sticks to his own principles, and writes down-to-earth, unlike mediocre writers. The biggest difference between people is that they know the market and analyze the market, but they will never be led by the market; they may sometimes sell words for a living, but they will never regard selling words as a career. The things they write are combined with the market, but they will ultimately lead the trend and guide the market.

In our impetuous society, as long as there are still these solid guardians of literature, literature will have a future and a tomorrow.

From the heyday of Tang poetry and poetry, it is not difficult to find that the development of social economy, social prosperity and stability, and the prosperity of people's lives are closely related to literature. Perhaps, the problem of basic food and clothing has been solved. Only then can we have leisure time to serve flowers and grass, recite poems and compose rhymes.

Deng Xiaoping once said: Development is the last word. The trend of rapid economic development has swept every corner of the country. Under this large social background, it is understandable that people are impetuous and pursue efficiency. It is an inevitable experience in all social development processes. After this period, we have entered a prosperous and powerful society, and literature will eventually move towards a prosperous tomorrow. Perhaps, this period can be called a period of darkness before dawn in the development of literature, a period of darkness that is extremely close to light. I believe that Western developed countries have also gone through such a period.

Compared with the 1980s or the era before, today’s literature has got rid of many shackles and does not have to take on too many missions that should not belong to it. It has gained freedom and is increasingly showing a trend of diversification. I believe this will become even more prominent in the near future. There is no doubt that the future of literature will be even more brilliant.

As for the current diversity of literary communication methods, it can be said to be a grand event for literature. Many traditional paper media are increasingly kitsch due to the influence of the market, while many pure literature websites are relatively less affected by the market impact, and there is a purity that belongs to literature. , more and more pure literature lovers gather on the Internet and become the most solid guardian group of literature. This is a blessing for literature.

Economic development is the hope of literature, the hope of pure literature lovers, and the hope of literary websites.

I agree with Qiu Huadong’s words: as long as words are still there, as long as language is still there, literature will never die.

Yang Zhongbiao:

Qiu Huadong is one of my favorite young writers. He wrote in "Is there a future for writing novels today?" I agree with many of the points in the article. In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion on issues such as what "pure literature" is and the "marginalization" of literature. Everyone is arguing about it, and they can't agree on one.

What I want to ask is, is there such a thing as "pure literature"? How much purity is considered “pure”? This is like the liquor we usually drink. The ethanol content is 38 degrees. Can you say that it is not liquor? Comparing 58-proof liquor with 65-proof liquor, isn’t 58-proof liquor considered wine? I think if the ethanol content really reaches 96, it is not liquor, but industrial alcohol. We must know that literature has never stagnated. Its development to this day has derived many new styles to meet the needs of readers at different levels. As Mr. Qiu said, "Contemporary literature is not only not weak, but on the contrary, it is approaching a period of real prosperity." We might as well call the current literature "pan-literature."

As for the issue of "marginalization" or even "death" of literature, people have long raised it - Czech writer Milan Kundera, Chinese writers Ye Zhaoyan, Han Shaogong and others all mentioned it more than 10 years ago. It pointed out the crisis of literary innovation and the possibility of literature's demise. But they mainly talk about it on the level that innovation is difficult or even impossible. In the essential sense, literature has never been at the center. Using the topic of "centrism" to discuss literature is itself a mockery of literature. This is a basic common sense that has been inverted but is constantly regarded as fact and constantly quoted. Looking back, Tang poetry and Song lyrics are not in the "center", and Ming and Qing novels are not in the "center". Only the so-called "revolutionary literature" has entered the "center". Therefore, those attempts to bring literature into the "center" are short-lived. Precisely, only when literature is truly "marginalized" can literature have broad living space and prospects.

Lu Jiangliang:

Will literature die? I agree with Qiu Huadong on this point. Literature is not easy to die. To say that literature will die is unfounded by some people. Regarding what Qiu Huadong said, "Contemporary literature is not weak, but on the contrary presents a period close to true prosperity." I think he is too optimistic.

After traveling, we can see where to add and what to inquire about. We need to go one step further to seriously pretend to be the people in the story and imagine everything about everyone. Yes, what we are going to write may be a short paragraph of facts. But if we don’t know everything in detail, the paragraph we are about to write will not be truly vivid. In our hearts, we have already said a thousand words for someone, or we can only use one sentence to represent him correctly when we put down the pen. Only with extremely rich information and profound understanding can we talk about tailoring. We know that only by ten points can we write a very good one point. Novels are alcohol, not wine mixed with water. Everything from history, nation, society, and culture to occupation, appearance, and habits must be thought about before we can describe a person simply and accurately. What we write must be what the person we want to write about can do. Affordable, the people we want to write about are the inevitable parties to the things we want to write about. In this way, our novels can be wrapped in skin and flesh, and the flesh supports the skin, so that they are naturally connected without any trace of fiction. The novel should be as perfect as a flower, not like the "rich clothes" in the Erhuang costume.

The same is true for speech and scenery. The words of the characters in the novel are responsible for the development of the story on the one hand, and on the other hand they are also the expression of personality - when a person encounters a certain thing, he must say a certain thing. In this way, we don’t need any surprising words, but we can naturally move people. Because the dialogue in the story is based on our own and our precise observation of people, coupled with the crystallization of our multi-faceted imagination of the characters in the story. We say a word for him, just like what a certain person in society would say when encountering a certain situation. Such a sentence is sometimes very ordinary, but it is always touching.

We write landscapes not just for beauty, but to enhance the mood of the story. Landscapes are the clothes of the story, just like widows wearing green clothes and girls wearing red trousers. Our scenery must be consistent with the characters in the story. Equipment - a place where joys and sorrows can be found in their own way. Every plant, tree, insect, and bird in the novel must have its own meaning. A person who believes in gods and ghosts will feel unhappy when he hears a crow. A sentimental person will cry when he sees a fallen leaf. Knowing this, we can collect materials anytime and anywhere and prepare them for application. When describing, it can be as big as the meaning of life, or as small as an insect or a butterfly, picked up casually, they all become interesting.

The above is a general report on the story, characters, scenery, etc. in the novel. Due to time constraints, it cannot be detailed in detail. Suppose someone were to come to me. According to what you said, it would be difficult to write a novel? It may not be an extremely difficult thing for me to answer, but it’s not easy at all!

Extracted from Volume 16 of "The Complete Works of Lao She"

I would like to add something to the above.

When writing a micro-novel, it is impossible to fully express in words many of the things you want to narrate like when writing an ordinary novel. These things are usually hidden in every sentence in the micro-novel.中;When writing, you should cherish ink as much as gold when writing classical poetry.

Quoting a few famous quotes about writing micro-novel:

Writing with small knowledge, from the near to the far

Although the layout is small, it is clever in the construction

A few strokes, with a distinctive expression