The novel is a literary genre centered on the portrayal of characters and reflecting social life through a complete storyline and specific description of the environment. There are three elements in a novel: character, storyline, and setting (natural and social environment). Linear structure Linear structure, that is, the components of the plot according to the natural order of time, the causal order of events connected, linear extension, from the beginning to the end, from beginning to end, from the beginning to the end, step by step forward, although sometimes flashbacks, flashbacks and complementary narrative, but does not change the whole plot of the linear pattern. The linear structure is divided into single-line and compound-line. Compound line structure according to the relationship between the plot line can be divided into three kinds: one is the main line type, that is, two or more than two plot clues divided into primary and secondary, cross **** into. The second is the cross-type, that is, two or more than two plot clues difficult to distinguish between primary and secondary, cross **** into. Third, parallel, that is, there are two difficult to distinguish between the main plot clues, but not cross, but parallel state, and through certain characters or events caused by the connection between the two clues. The linear structure of the plot is generally presented as a straight-line movement in Western novels, and the end of the plot is often devastating. However, in classical Chinese novels, most of them present a kind of latent circle, and the ending is a happy ending or a return. For example, the reunion of husband and wife, the reunion of family members after hardships and dangers, the achievement of the right result after all the trials and tribulations, the achievement of a dream come true by winning the gold medal, or the reunion of the scattered and the scattered, the reunion of the separated and the separation of the separated and the reunion of the separated, and the decline of the flourishing and the decline of the flourishing. Not only that, some long novels also constitute a latent multi-layered circle, for example, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by the Eastern Han Dynasty is divided into three - Wei, Shu, Wu, and three into one - Western Jin Dynasty, in this one into three, three into one of the narrative circle, but also contains the Wei, Shu, Wu three from the start to the demise of the mutual confrontation and intersection of the three medium circle, as well as Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Lv Bu, Liu Biao, and other small circle in a hurry, in this round and round successive sets between the magnificent display of China's third century of the flow of political and diplomatic strategies and war legends. It can be said that the depth of the classical Chinese novels, most of the operation of the circumference of the "circle". This is because, since ancient times, Chinese people in the perception and experience of the universe and life, the formation of the so-called circular thinking, that is, tend to think that the universe, society, history, life presents a circular mechanism of operation, tend to pursue the heaven and earth, heaven and man, and man and nature and the universe in harmony and integration, and with which the narrative works of the aesthetic ideals of the kind of transcendent and rounded artistic realm. Second, the net-like structure to the character's mind as the center point, to the character's consciousness, psychological activities as the radiation line to form the plot, its structure as a spider's web, is the net-like structure. This is the basic form of plot structure used in western stream-of-consciousness novels, and it is also used in the works called "psychological novels" in the new period of China's literary creation. The basic features of the net-like plot structure of stream-of-consciousness novels and "psychological novels" are as follows: 1. The object of the novel is the flowing process of the characters' psychological activities, including their thoughts, consciousness, memories, associations, imagination, feelings, intuition, impressions and dreams, etc. 2. The writer breaks the time sequence and cause and effect logic of traditional novels, and organizes the material with the flow of the character's consciousness. 3. The writer adopts the methods of psychoanalysis, monologue and narration, sensory impression, and even hallucination and dream to carry out the narrative. 4. Picture structure The combination of picture plot units with scenery and scenes as the main body is called picture structure. This kind of plot structure exists in a large number of traditional and modern novels, but there is a great difference in their creative purposes, picture characteristics and specific ways of combination. As for the traditional picture structure, in terms of its creative purpose, the writer is interested in expressing his feelings through the creation of pictures. In terms of the composition of the picture, it is in the picturesque natural environment and natural scenery inlaid with character stories, the writer's interest in writing is not in the story, but in the space and environment on which the story is based; writing character action is not to seek the same dramatization as the theatrical stage performances, but to seek to be rich in static charisma. For example, Ling Shuhua, a famous writer in the history of modern novels in China, as Zhu Guangqian commented: "With a hand that is good at adjusting the color, adjusting the weight of the words she needs." "The author writes novels like she writes paintings, not much ink is used, but the meaning is very meaningful." ①The traditional picture structure, the connection between the pictures, is a picture book style, as Zhu Guangqian analyzed the novel The Bridge by Abolition: "The Bridge is full of poetic, pictorial, and Zen scenes, each of which is its own interest, and can be separated from the realm written before and after and become independent. It is easy to feel that 'there is no obvious connection between chapters'. The whole book is a kind of landscape picture book, turning a page is another page. Just as Shen Congwen once explained about his novel The Broken Rainbow: "The impression I give to people in this story will inevitably be similar to the integration of a kind of landscape painting." Of course, in most of the traditional picture novels, there is still a simple back-to-back story as the "glue" that binds the pages together so that they do not become disorganized. The modern picture-structured novel mainly refers to the works of the "New Novel" school born in France in the 1950s and 1960s. In terms of creative purpose, the "new novel" school believes that people should not be the center of the novel, the center of the novel is "things", that is, things, forms, and "characters" are only "temporary props". Characters are only "temporary props". Things are not governed by human consciousness, and writers should not depict things from subjective feelings, but should record the objective world and the activities of modern people in a calm language. As far as the composition of the picture is concerned, the new novel only uses language and words to transform the scenery into visual images like paintings, in order to receive the same visual effect as that of a painting; when it comes to writing about human beings, their thoughts and feelings are filtered out, and only a few pictures are left. The connection between images basically adopts the technique of movie "montage", which of course realizes the connection of meaning between images, but also makes the relationship between images have multiple meanings, and the overall intention of the narrative has uncertainty. Therefore, in this kind of works, what the readers often get are some "uncertain" and "unmeasurable" pictures. Symbolic structure Symbolic plot structure, that is, all the plot units closely surround a metaphysical abstract idea - consciousness, point of view, thoughts, feelings and unfolding and carry out, the idea is the kernel of the plot, is the connecting thread between the plot pieces. Camus's The Outsider, Kafka's The Metamorphosis and The Castle, Heller's Something's Wrong, China's new-age Zhang Danbang's Northern Lights, Deng Gang's The Enchanted Sea, Wang Anshi's The Base of the Wall, and Gao Xiaosheng's Fishing for Fish are all typical symbolic structure works. The artistic characteristics of novels with symbolic plot structure are as follows: 1. Symbolic meanings coalesce in all the plot units and run through the whole image system. Of course, most of these novels still have the appearance of time clues, but in terms of the aesthetic value of the novels, if they are understood only from the perspective of linear plot, then the meaning of these novels will be lost, or even disappear. 2. Completeness and vividness of symbolic images. From the point of view of the creative process, it is the symbolic meaning that unites and runs through the images and plots, but from the point of view of the finished product, it is the images and plots that imply and express the symbolic meaning. Therefore, when the writer assigns the symbolism to the novel, he still devotes himself to the integrity and vividness of the image. 3. 3. The process of plotting is concise and clear. Because what the writer pursues is the realization of the idea rather than the infectiousness of the plot and image itself, the process of plotting is inevitably concise and clear despite the fact that the overall image is characterized by completeness and vividness and the storyline can be complete. The author avoids the legend, drama and compactness of the course of events, omits the ins and outs of the events, abandons the intricacies of human relationships, and even intentionally blurs the names of the characters and the time and place of the events in order to let the symbolic meaning not be obscured by the branches of the plot and to stand out. 4. Symbolic images are characterized by great distortion. Symbolic plot structure of the image is generally after a large deformation of the processing, because only a highly exaggerated and extremely deformed image, the symbolic nature of the more intense, metaphysical concept is more conducive to convey. V. Realistic Structure The realistic structure is the plot structure adopted by the "new realistic" novels. The "new realistic" novel is not like the traditional realist novel that constructs a tight and delicate plot and creates a typical character in a typical environment, nor is it like the modernist novel that completely breaks up the time plot and organizes the narration based on the flow of human consciousness and flashbacks. It focuses on displaying the original shape of the object, that is, the original state and face of things and life (including spiritual or cultural phenomena), and reveals the original qualities of human nature and the understanding of life with all its sweet, sour, bitter and spicy flavors through the ordinary and trivial details of life, while comparatively downplaying the socio-historical background, political and ideological significance, and even suppressing the author's subjective feelings, which is called "Even the author's subjective feelings are suppressed, which is called "zero degree of emotional intervention. Chi Li's "Troubled Life," for example, chronologically displays life from 4:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., as if restoring life to a "naked" state by artistic means. Through this kind of original life, it shows how troublesome life is, and how pitiful and sad the survival state of ordinary people is. The novel shows people's needs and behaviors from those spontaneous and random events in people's lives. Because of the emphasis on showing the originality of life, the plot structure of the "new realistic" novels is reflected in the following: the storyline is not an elaborate, tight, closed and self-contained logical plot of cause and effect, but a loose and open story of life, in which realistic events and fantasy stories, rational thinking and irrational feelings, clear facts and fuzzy impressions, true, good and beautiful things and false impressions, are all part of the story. The real events and fantasy stories, rational thoughts and irrational perceptions, clear facts and vague impressions, the true, good and beautiful things and the false, evil and ugly phenomena ...... will emerge in the process of narration, so that people like to see the life itself. However, this does not mean that the "new realistic" novels are absolutely realistic. Although Liang Xiaosheng said that his realistic novel Father has "no fictional elements in it",4 and Wang Yijie, the author of the realistic novel Letters from the Other Side, also solemnly declared that this work has "no fictional elements at all, and researching a lot of facts in history, which is my creed",5 he also said that the novel has "no fictional elements in it, and researching a lot of facts in history, which is my creed". This is my credo. But in fact, any realistic work has fictional elements, not absolute reality, and absolute reality is impossible. Sixth, the structure of "prose" The characteristics of the plot structure of prose culture: First, the storyline is presented as a fragment of prose, just as the narrative of prose is a concatenation of fragmentary events rather than a coherent story with a beginning and an end. Secondly, the form is scattered but the spirit is not, that is, through the narration of fragmentary events and the depiction of natural scenery and social customs, a vivid mood is created to express the particular subject's feelings. This seems to be the same as the prose, but in fact, not, prose narrative of things and people are real, while the "prose" structure of the narrative of things and people of the realm, but fictional. The structure of "prose" actually adopts the plot form of prose and creates a fictional world. He Liwei's No Story in a Small Town is a typical example of the "prose" structure. The "prose" structure pursues the effect of naturalness. For example, in many of Wang Zengqi's novels, most of them use flashbacks to recall the past, with fragments of the past coming out, either long or short, thick or light, depending on the mood of the mind, without any traces of intentional modification. Wang Zengqi once said that before a novel is created, there is already a natural form of the novel, just like what Song Ru said that there is no such thing, but first there is the 'heavenly principle' of this thing. A novel cannot be lengthened or shortened at will. What Mr. Wang emphasized was the plot structure which was natural and natural, without any axe or carving. Classification of Novels Novels are divided into long novels, medium novels, short novels and novellas according to their length
Long novels: their first characteristic is that they can accommodate a vast and rich social life, reflect the major themes of life, and reflect a whole historical period positively, negatively, and vertically; and secondly, they can accommodate a large number of characters of all classes, strata, personalities, men and women, old and young, up and down, left and right, all of whom can be found in them. Secondly, it can accommodate many characters, all classes, all strata, all personalities, men and women, old and young, up and down, left and right, all of whom can perform to their heart's content on its macroscopic stage; thirdly, it can be dominated by a single major conflict, or it can be intertwined with several major conflicts, with a very complex plot and overlapping clues, showing the colorful and changing world from many sides and perspectives; and fourthly, it can serve a single theme, or it can contain several themes and sub-themes, like the bosom of the Kunlun Mountains and the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. Fourthly, it can serve a simple theme or contain several themes and sub-themes, like the bosom of the Kunlun Mountains and the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. The well-known classical novels "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Dream of the Red Chamber", Russian Lev Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina", as well as contemporary Chinese writers Gohua's "Hibiscus Town" and Mo Yingfeng's "General's Refrain" belong to this category. Longer novels, usually more than 100,000 words.?
Middle Grade Novel: It is characterized by less capacity for reflecting social life than the long story, but more than the short story, in between. But it still has a larger stage, more characters, more complex conflicts, more frequent entanglements, used to sculpt one or several major characters, to show a major event in society, to reveal the life of a thought-provoking issues, its structure of course can not be as long as the novel as a lot of branches and leaves, but not as simple as the short story is concentrated. If a long story is a sea, it is an inland river. Although it cannot be as boundless as the sea, it is still very grand and magnificent when it cascades down the river. For example, Lu Xun's The True Story of Ah Q, Han Shaogong's Papa Papa, and Fang Fang's Landscape all belong to this category. The middle grade novels are usually more than 20,000 words long.
Short story: it is characterized by the capacity of life is smaller than the middle story, the characters are less than the middle story, the plot is simpler than the middle story, and the theme is more single, but it is often intercepted a representative cross-section of life, the characters are concentrated, the plot is concentrated, the structure is rigorous, and the narration is concise, and it can be a little bit of a big picture, and through a spot and a peep at the whole picture, and it can not only shape a typical character of the flesh and blood, but also quickly reveal the essence of reality, if Gori's "The Essentials" is a good example, it will be a great example. If Gori's The Man in the Sleeve, Ma Fengyong's Three Years' Knowledge, and He Shiguang's The Old Man Who Planted Buns of Cereal, all belong to this category. Short stories, usually under 20,000 words.?
Novel: it is characterized by this short story of life capacity is even less, the characters are more single, the plot is more concentrated, it is just a beautiful moment in the social scanning, a quick shot in a hundred gardens. It is similar to news sketches, but must be the finishing touch, from a drop of water can see the sun, with a very short length to reveal the reality of a bright spot. Novels are usually read in one or two minutes, so they are also called "one-minute novels", with a word count of several hundred words or 1,500 words. Writer Wang Zengqi pointed out in his article "What is a Novel" that "the general qualities of a short story should be present in a novel. Novels and short stories are both similar and different in nature. Generally speaking, the short story prose ingredients more, while the novel should be more poetic ingredients. Novels are a new breed of hybridization between short stories and poems. It can't have the grandeur of narrative poetry, nor is it as strong as lyrical poetry with that kind of musicality. It can be said to be written in prose than the narrative poem more ethereal, more lyrical poetry is more episodic so something. It is again not a prose poem, for it is, after all, still a novel." This passage is instructive in recognizing what a novel is. There are many names for novels, there are thousands of words of novels, micro-novels, ultra-short stories, very short stories, one-minute novels, a bag of cigarettes novels, etc., but no matter how to call it, it is a figurative description of the novel's "small" features, it is a very short length, the story is very simple, and it is mostly taken from the life of a moment, an episode, a scene, a shot, and so on. It is a short story, and it is mostly based on a moment of life, an episode, a scene, or a shot. Reflecting the character's action in a thing or a piece of a scene. Outline the character's mental outlook, revealing the reasoning.