How to write a good novel 2 (reprint)(1/12)
Therefore, this seemingly proactive process of "choosing subjects" is often completed in the subconscious of the novelist. If a novelist is an excellent novelist, he will respect his personal interests and conscience and choose the subject of the novel he is about to write, or be chosen by those subjects that have permeated his personal thinking. On the contrary, a mediocre novelist often pays more attention to the needs of the current and local external environment when choosing a subject. A truly excellent novelist is the crystallization of a spiritual activity with an ideal color, which is inseparable from the novelist's stubborn exploration of human nature. More importantly, the choice of the subject should be an independent and personal respectful person by an excellent novelist.
The decision of the stern is the result of certain things he wants to say, he must say, he has to say, rather than judging the situation - what can be said, what cannot be said, what has been said, what has been said, what has been said, what has been said, what has been said, what has been said, what has been said, what has been said, what has been said, what has been said, what has been said, what has been said, because he loves what he has said…” 3. The fiction of the novel: There is
For a while, I always heard such words, "It was barbaric to write poetry after Auschwitz." It is said that this is a famous saying by the German philosopher Theodore Adorno. I don't think this sentence is so beautiful. Because I think this sentence itself is poetry, and using poetry to oppose writing poetry is just like people do not rely on other fulcrums, but want to lift themselves from the earth with their own hands, which is artificial and ineffective. The "real life" that people often say is nothing more than work, eating, sleeping, shopping, studying, communicating, etc., and perhaps also reading books, watching TV, and watching movies. Then the reading part may also include reading novels. We can analyze the psychology of a person who reads novels. Why does he read novels?
Naturally, because novels have an attraction to him. Some of his dreams that cannot be realized in real life can be fulfilled by him; his life is too dull, and novels can provide him with spiritual and emotional support; or he can obtain some moral education from the novel and resonate with it; or he just wants to satisfy his private habits by reading novels. In short, everything described in the novel should be related to his real life, but it is not just a truthful copy of his real life. Novels must bring him thinking, dreams, emotions, spiritual strength, etc. Among his many purposes of reading novels, a very important point is that he wants to put something like wings on his real life and let him fly.
To put it in a famous saying of urban girls, it is "High". And such wing-like things are born from the novel's "fiction" of real life. That is to say, novels create another kind of life at the level of real life, perhaps this can be called "life in novels". It is precisely because of the existence of "fiction of novels" that novels appear to be valuable to people. The value of novels makes people's real life not always seem so valuable. - Although novels are false
However, people's behavior of reading novels (reading books) is real and is part of people's real life. It can be said that everything fiction in novels and their impact on people's thoughts and emotions make people's real life richer and more interesting. What Oscar Wilde said in his article "The Decay of Lies" is that "life imitates art than art imitates life", which is vaguely said. Speaking of this, we have to say "the truth of novels". Indeed, the fiction of novels is small
Where is life mentioned? But the source of fiction in novels is a kind of real life. If a novel wants to have an impact on readers, it must make readers believe in everything fiction in novels, and it must make readers think that the "fiction" in the novel is possible, sincere, and real. Otherwise, the reader's wings of fantasy will never be installed, and the fiction of novels will not be fiction, but hypocrisy or nonsense. The novel will be unable to display its shocking magic because it seems unreal. Back to
The sentence "Writing poetry after Auschwitz was barbaric." According to my understanding, one of the meanings of this sentence is probably that the cruelty of human beings is far more cruel than that of artistic works. When you engage in artistic activities (such as writing novels), it is impossible to truly reflect the human situation and lose the necessity. The person who said this has a good starting point and intention. He reminds us to pay attention to the fiction in art, in the end, only by reaching a tacit understanding with human real life can it constitute a meaning for human survival.
Everything "fiction" in words, pigments, or other media can only be considered art if the light of "reality" is illuminated by the light of "reality". But he ignored one thing, that is, if the human spirit shrinks to no longer need the kind of sincere, heartfelt, excellent artistic works that cultivate and inspire his spiritual will in a fictional way, if humans no longer fantasize about a better life than the current life, then Auschwitz will come again. 4. Characters in novels: characters are a very important element in novel art. Of course, due to the diversity of novels, there are no characters in the works of some novelists, which is also possible. Perhaps some people will question this way: "Why do novels always write about people?" Yes, I don't
I thought that every novel must be written about people and must be characters in it; but after thinking about it, I still feel that no matter what kind of art is written about people or not, it ultimately expresses everything related to people. We cannot fiction something outside our (human) observation and thinking ability. For example, when we fictionalize the appearance of aliens, we often use our appearance as a reference. The reason why aliens or non-human things appear in literary works is due to the purpose of our human beings to explain and explore themselves. This also shows that it is normal for a large number of novels to directly use people as research objects, directly describe people's lives, and directly tell people's stories. The people in novels are the "characters" mentioned here.
In a novel with fiction as its main feature, the characters are of course fictional. Those characters we talk about, such as Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai, are just characters fictionalized in Cao Xueqin's works. We can say that Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai's prototypes are XX and XX in Cao Xueqin's life, but Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai are not the same as their prototypes. They are always just characters living in "Dream of Red Mansions", leaving
After "Dream of Red Mansions", they are nothing. This is probably the unique power of the novelist - the novelist has the right to pick up many living prototypes from his life to shape the characters in his novels without being held accountable for fabrication and slander. If this is clear, I think there is no need to add a notice such as "This novel is purely fiction, please do not take the part in the character" in front of the novel. This seemingly unreasonable power
, is given to the novelist by the art form itself. Because the true source of the novel should be real life or things related to real life. To make the characters "live", the portrayal of the characters' actions, inner activities, dialogue (including monologues) and relationships with other characters is essential. These experienced novelists can probably do it. The question now is, what is the purpose of the novelist spending so much energy to portray characters? What kind of motivation is that the novelist uses to portray characters, not the type? What kind of view of life does he want to express through these fictional characters? These are determined by the novelist's own aspirations, hobbies, his thoughts, artistic views, etc. The number of novelists has as many characters. The number of novelists has as many destiny will have as many characters.
The key to distinguishing the excellence of novelists is the era of today's emphasis on technologicalization. In most novelists I have seen, they may focus more on the narrative method of novels than on the character portrayal in the novel. This is related to the novel style of novels in the 20th century. The continuous innovation of novel concepts has greatly damaged the novelists' elegance in shaping the perfect character. While people talk about Faulkner and Joyce's "stream of consciousness", should we also care about the characters in the novels they have created?—
The so-called stream of consciousness is the stream of consciousness of these novel characters. 5. The story and plot of the novel: the basic function of the novel lies in "narrative". If the "the subject matter of the novel" refers to the "things" in the novel, which is a static concept; then "the story of the novel" and "the plot of the novel" are two concepts in motion related to "narration". These three concepts (the subject matter, story and plot) are three different projections produced by using light to shoot at the "novel" from different angles. A novelist with a very passionate creation may not study the differences between these concepts in detail. He can write decent novels using his years of creative and reading experience. This is the instinct of a novelist. By instinct creation, he sucks his fingers with his children.
, like ants moving food, is a very natural process. If you care about the differences between the concepts of the novel, it will probably cause the novelist to lose the ability to create; just like the person who is in the idiom "Learn to Walking in Handan", he will not learn the steps in the end and can only crawl home. If I were not writing articles to analyze novels, I would not have deliberately thought about the specific meaning of the vague concepts of the novel. Of course, I am defending myself. According to E•; M•; Foster, in the UK, this person has written novels such as "Traveling to India" and published a famous speech "A Perspective of Novels" - as it is said, "story" refers to "narrative in chronological order", while "plot" refers to "emphasizing the causal relationship between events under the premise of narration in chronological order".
In layman's terms, "story" refers to the characters in the novel who experience one thing and then another. For example, in "Water Margin", first Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian commit adultery, then Pan Jinlian killed Wu Dalang, then Wu Song killed Pan Jinlian, and then Wu Song killed Ximen Qing. The "plot" seems to refer to why the characters in the novel experience another thing after experiencing one thing. Or, what is the inevitable or accidental connection between one thing and another? Why does Ximen Qing have
Affair with Pan Jinlian and become a traitor? Not to mention that Ximen Qing is a playboy, then Pan Jinlian is not a good person either. Why did Pan Jinlian kill Wu Dalang? Of course, Wu Dalang is not interested in it, and he is also stingy. Why did Wu Song kill Pan Jinlian and Ximen Qing instead of escorting these two bad people to the government? It was because Pan Jinlian and Ximen Qing killed his brother. Besides, Wu Song himself is also a man who is not afraid of heaven or earth. Besides, the government is not a good thing. People often say that a novel is very interesting. This sentence
The words probably mean that the novel's story is very novel, unique, tortuous and charming, and the plot of the novel is very vivid, intriguing, touching, and profound. Novels that overemphasize the novelty of the story and ignore the depth and credibility of the plot can be referred to as the martial arts novels of Jin Yong and others. Novels that ignore the structure of the story and blindly circle the logic of the plot can be referred to as some modernist novels with extreme views in the 20th century. Having said that, in fact, there is no ideal novel creation method and the most ideal novel creation method in the world.
Ideal, the most perfect novel. Because there are not only two people in the world: an author and a reader, between these two people, a best design plan for "story" and "plot". 6. Details of novels: The detailed description in novels is the fundamental reason why the novels are formed. Detail description usually refers to the description of visible things and the description of psychology. Visible things, including environment, natural scenery, social background, historical background, appearance of characters and their actions, dialogues, etc.
Psychology, of course, refers to the psychology of the characters. On a very accidental occasion, I talked to a young man about novels, and he said: "I am very tired of the word 'details'!" Yes, this word is indeed boring, but it is a fact that novels (not only novels) cannot be avoided. There has never been a novel without details, just like there has never been a person without a body. A novel can only contain a certain type of detailed description, but it cannot be completely without detailed descriptions. For example, Hemingway's short story "The Murderer"
, the whole article is almost full of dialogue, and those vivid dialogues are the details that support the novel. Some so-called novel schools, such as the description of "things" in French new novels, and the description of psychology in stream-of-consciousness novels, are the products of emphasis on the detailed description of a certain aspect of the novel. A great novelist must be a novelist with very unique and innovative consciousness in detail description. Excellent long works that have emerged in human history are also examples of detailed descriptions. For example, Hugo's "Trip"
The strokes of the world include almost all detailed descriptions of society, history, nature, character actions, psychology, etc. The shocking power of such novels to readers will naturally last and be powerful. Due to the detailed description, the novel has a length. The length of the novel is composed of vitality details. However, the length of the novel itself is not divided by good or bad. A bad novel, no matter how long it is, cannot match the enlightenment effect of an excellent short story on human nature. In some small, poor abilities
For the speakers, one-sided pursuit of the length of novels has become a common problem. It seems that if they are not long, their existence as novelists will have questions. In order to increase the length, they desperately put low-level interesting and mentally retarded detailed descriptions into the novels. The more popular "popular novels" are basically the same creative mentality. The hollow details will inevitably make these novels appear bloated and hypocritical. From the heart, I can also understand the authors of "popular novels". Everyone is human and has the desire to cheat people.
I made a long piece to cheat readers of money. As long as the readers are willing to do so, it is not bad. Confucius said, "I examine myself three times a day", and I also pretended to reflect on it. The novels that have excited me and the novels that have admired me, wherever they go, are the exquisite and touching details that are pierced into my body like needles. In Dostoevsky's "Insulted and Destroyed", what the little girl Nere said before her death, the environment at that time, and the psychology of Vanya, these descriptions cannot help but cry. Although it makes people cry, it may not be an absolute indicator to measure whether the novel is excellent.
Meaningful description of action
Personalized actions can create vivid pictures and make dialogue full of vitality - William Taboli
When I first wrote, I seriously accepted a friend's advice about writing, who emphasized that the characters' actions play an important role in the development of the story. But in that calm scene, when the characters in the novel are talking and listening, I have trouble. I mistakenly think that just using some concise "action" words here is enough. Therefore, my scene description is filled with phrases such as "he nod", "shrugging", "he got up", "sit down", or "sliding his legs". I even made my novel's
The characters look, yawn, smile, and sigh. These are the "actions" I use when talking about characters. I mistakenly regard "meaningful action description" as a single "action". Because these dispensable words are filled with a large number of dispensable words, my manuscript has to be scrapped. Time and some seminars on novel writing have helped me get rid of these problems. I understand that boring statements and ordinary actions are no different, they are the enemies of novels. I finally understand that when a person's activities are linked to emotions, attitudes, postures or expressions
, They are meaningful actions, which are personalized actions that can create vivid and vivid images and make dialogue lively. Let me give you an example: Sergeant Hawkins and Lieutenant Carrathers are two police agents, and they are discussing a murder in the sergeant's office. Hawkins looked at Carrathers, "There are a few things that have not been identified yet, Lieutenant. Whose blue shoe is this? And this key, is it a bad key, is it on the door, padlock, or on the travel box?" Carrathers shrugged,
Hawkins put the two items in his drawer. Carrathers stood up, "Maybe we can get more clues from the coroner." He walked towards the door. "His autopsy report should be on my desk now. Don't worry, Hawkins, we will be able to find out the truth soon." He left the office. The scene lacked the dramatic effect, these boring verbs: look, shrugg, put, stand, walk and leave, none of which describes intentions, attitudes, postures or expressions. None of them expresses the emotions of the two.
Looking again, the scene immediately became full of vitality when these boring verbs were changed to vivid activities. Hawkins leaned forward. He pointed his finger at the items on the table: "There are a few facts that have not been determined yet, Lieutenant. Whose blue shoe is this? And this inferior key, is it on the door, padlock, or on the suitcase?" He stuffed them into the drawer and closed the drawer with a "slam". Carrathers stood up with a smile and patted Huo
Kings' shoulders. "Maybe we can get more clues from the coroner. His autopsy report should be on my desk now. Don't worry, Hawkins, I'm sure we'll find out the truth soon." He walked out of the office. Now the emotions of the scene were clear. Every move involved posture, attitude and expression. We saw Hawkins' troubles, and Carrathers used confidence to eliminate his troubles. These words and movements complemented each other.
The following example is a conversation between two little boys outside the gate of an old house. "Hurry up, Johnny, let's go in." Billy said. Johnny looked at him, "I heard that there are haunted here, and people say they have seen ghosts." "Oh! There are no ghosts at all, they are all scary words." Billy walked onto the porch. Johnny followed behind. When he first arrived at the front door, he heard a scream and turned around and ran away. Some colorless verbs appeared here: Say, look,
Go, follow, arrive, hear and turn. The purpose of this dialogue is to let us know that it is better to use the provocation to incite Johnny to a haunted house. But the dialogue does not involve postures. Now, let these actions convey attitudes, postures and expressions, and make the scene liven up. "Hurry up, Johnny, let's go in." Billy guessed he wouldn't dare to go in. Johnny was pale and even trembled in his speech. "I heard that haunted here, people said they had seen ghosts." "Ahhh, root
There were no ghosts at all, those were all scary words." Billy walked up the steps with a swagger. He glanced at Johnny who was standing outside the door with a challenging look. Johnny glanced behind Billy's shoulder and finally moved forward again. He pretended to be bold, but kept shaking in the front door. At this time, he heard a scream, a terrifying scream. He ran down the steps quickly and rushed out of the door. Now this scene has a terrifying tone, and gives life to this small scene.
The mind is also very clear. In these two examples, the dialogue has not changed, but the description of the action has changed. It is these modified action descriptions that help readers better understand these scenes. As a writing exercise, you can try to add meaningful action descriptions to the same two scenes without changing the dialogue. For example, you can try to show a sense of humor between Hawkins and Carruthers, or a sense of adventure between Billy and Johnny, rather than a sense of fear.
The article is aimed at novels outside the absurd
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