Wang Zengqi: Writing a novel is to tell a plain thing with great feelings.

Wang Zengqi: Writing a novel is to tell a plain thing with great feelings.

Text/Wang Zengqi

Language: The only criterion is accuracy.

I heard the traffic safety propaganda car broadcast in Xidan: "Don't run with your head down when crossing the road". I think this is a very good language. I saw a sentence on the wall newspaper outside a police station in Captain's Camp to promote summer hygiene: "Leftovers must be cooked before eating", which I think is also a good language. Such a language can really be hung abroad, and it can't be added or subtracted.

The purpose of language is to make people understand it at first sight and remember it as soon as they listen. The only criterion of language is accuracy.

Shops in Beijing used to be marked with eight characters. Some are engraved on the plaque, and some are painted in black on the powder walls on both sides of the store, all of which are very appropriate. "Flying dust in the snow, HongLing is heavy". This is a snack shop. "Delicious chicken feet, delicious dolphin feet" is Gui Xiang Village. On the forehead of the door of the coal shop is written "Dark gold and jet, Shi Huo remains unchanged", which is beautiful. At the door of an "old lady" (midwife) in Bamiancao, it was written: "Free, lucky grandma". This is a poem.

Advertisements in shops are often very eye-catching. Such as "match the key and wait." I saw one in Xisi, and it said at the door, "Sell new rattan chairs and repair old brown beds", which is very good. I used to see four big characters as soon as I entered the bathhouse: "Take care of your clothes and hat", which was really simple.

The language of Shi Shuo Xin Yu is very particular.

In the same way, if you say this and that, the taste will be different if you say more words and less words. Zhang Dai remembered the words of one of his relatives: "You Zhang brothers are really strange. The meat is just eaten, I don't know if it's delicious; I just don't eat wine, I don't know if I will. " One person slightly changed these words, and Zhang Dai dismissed them as "father".

A novel writer must train his sense of language.

It is necessary to distinguish what language is tasteless.

02

The structural characteristics of the novel: casually.

The structure of drama is like a building, and the structure of novel is like a tree.

The structure of drama is external and rational. When writing a play, there must always be an introduction, contradictions and conflicts, and an climax (writing a play usually requires an outline and discussion), which is somewhat forcing readers (viewers) to accept these things. Drama is fooling people.

The novel is not like this. A tree doesn't think about how to grow a branch and a leaf in advance, and then grow it again. That's how it grew. However, this branch, this leaf, is so long that it makes sense. Don't let two branches and two leaves grow in the same place.

The structure of the novel is more natural.

I want to change "structure" into another concept-rhythm.

China used to talk about "literary spirit", which was very reasonable. What is "literary spirit"? I thought it was an internal rhythm. "Blood circulation" and "vivid charm" are all well said.

The structure of this novel is more elaborate, complex and elusive.

Su Dongpo said: "But always do what you do and stop at what you can't stop." He's talking about structure.

On Wang's parallel prose in Han Weiyan by Zhang Taiyan: "Free beginning and end, no response from beginning to end". Novel writers, that's all.

The structural characteristics of the novel are: casually.

03

Lyricism in narrative, narrated with lyrical brushstrokes.

Nowadays, young people are a little argumentative when writing novels. Edit the narrative, edit the discussion, or let the story express itself. This kind of discussion and lyricism is sometimes dispensable.

France loves to comment in novels. Some of his novels are mainly about discussion, and the stories are irrelevant. He just borrowed a story to discuss a social problem involving a certain aspect. But the French argument is brilliant, incisive and profound. Francis is a philosopher. We didn't. We can't have a very deep discussion. Therefore, it should not be frequent.

Don't talk about tendencies in particular.

One thing can be described in this way or that way. There is a tendency to describe it. It can be detached, objective, sharp and ironic (such as Lu Xun's soap and Gao Old Master Q), or it can be deep sympathy (such as blessing and regret for the past).

Dong Jieyuan's "The West Chamber" wrote Zhang Sheng and Yingying respectively: "Ma Deng's journey, the car came home; The horse is heading west and the car is dragging east: the couple are one step away! " This is narrative. However, Dong Jieyuan's attitude towards the love between Zhang Sheng and Ying Ying is revealed here, full of feelings. "One step away is like one step away", how painful it is. Without deep feelings, the author can't write such bitterness.

Lyricism in narrative is narrated with lyrical brushstrokes.

How to show tendentiousness? There is an old saying in China: read between the lines.

04

Don't worry, you have to speak slowly.

Writing a novel is to make an ordinary thing very emotional (there are many thrilling things in the world). The same thing, a person can say very beautifully, making people feel immersive; The other person may be bored.

Dong Xixiang wrote verse, but you can hardly feel that it rhymes. Dong Jieyuan uses verse so skillfully that it is more fluent, meticulous and vivid than prose.

Write a question about the second brother's distraction. The second brother introduced the Pujiu Temple:

"Shops all know that the country has been built for more than a few years, and it has been seriously built during this period. I think it will be better than him in heaven. What does the villain want after lying? In the whole world, there are no more than two. "When Zhang Sheng heard about it, he said,' For example, why don't we walk around with you?'"

The dialogue between Zhang Sheng and the second brother of the store is very appropriate in tone and expression. "Tell a lie and the villain wants something", which is the tone of a second brother.

Write Zhang Sheng's visit to Pujiu Temple, describing many scenes in front, and finally write:

"Zhang Shengqu lost his voice and said,' Sure enough!' Kowtow frequently. If you want to know when it was built, Liang Wen wrote:' The arch will be built for two years.' "

This is a genius move. The words "two years" and "repair" are very stable. This sentence describes Zhang Sheng's ideological activities, facial expressions and trends. -another way of writing may be very dull.

If you want to say something interesting, you have to say it slowly, not in a hurry, so as to observe human nature, judge words, find everything new and interesting. I am eager to tell people something, and I want to tell people the truth contained in it, which will not leave an impression on people.

Zhang said that he killed Liu Jingting's tiger and went to the hotel. Suddenly, the empty jar in the shop buzzed and said that he was "carefree and colorful, so good."

Only leisure is allowed.

Don't worry.

Dong Jieyuan's The West Chamber is not so much a drama as a novel. In the preface of Dong Xixiang published by People's Literature Publishing House, it is said that "its organizational form and artistic techniques have broadened the road for later operas and novels", which is very insightful. From the novel point of view, many details in Dong Xixiang are far better than many scripts. Many of its methods are still useful to us now and look "new".

05

You must be ahead of fashion.

Qi Baishi wrote four poems in front of one of his paintings: "Leng Yan is like snow, so it is worthless to come to Beijing. This person has no courage and has been empty for thousands of years. " He later founded the school of red flowers and black leaves, and his paintings were accepted by buyers-first of all, those big hotels with celebrity calligraphy and painting on their walls.

Yu Feian's paintings are also Wu Changshuo-style freehand brushwork. Later, Zhang Daqian told him: "There are so many people painting Wu Changshuo style now, when will you get ahead?" He suggested that Yu Feian change the college's meticulous painting style. Then, Yu Feian changed the painting, highlighting the strong colors. Yu Feian's paintings are also accepted by Beijing citizens.

The bosom friend of Yangzhou Eight Eccentrics was a salt merchant at that time.

I don't think salt merchants don't understand art.

Art is to sell money, to be appreciated and accepted.

Red flowers and black leaves, sketching and heavy colors, Yangzhou Eight Eccentrics, became a fashion for a while. In fact, it is the buyer who decides the fashion. The painter's style can't be too far away from the viewer's interest.

The same is true of novels. It is a writer like Kafka. If no one appreciates his novels, his works will not exist.

But a writer's style must be ahead of fashion, and his style can be transformed into fashion.

Writers who follow fashion will be abandoned by fashion.

1February 982

Originally published in the first issue of Tianjin Literature and Art in 1982.