What is the theory of novel writing?

Novel is a kind of prose literary style that reflects the social life in detail and realistically with a relatively complete system of artistic images.

Compared with other kinds of literary styles such as poetry, drama, and prose, it has a larger capacity, which can carefully and y portray the characters' thoughts and characters' character and show their destinies; it can also completely express the intricate social and life conflicts; and at the same time, it can also describe the environment in which the characters live in a concrete and graphic way. Therefore, it has unique strengths in reflecting complex social life in a holistic, broad and vivid way, which are inferior to the other literary styles mentioned above. Reported literature, biography, memoirs and other articles, because they are limited by real people and real events, such as novels, can not be arranged on the basis of fiction without violating the essence of real life. A deep level of transformation, so it is not as novels in the creation of enjoy a greater degree of artistic freedom.

The novel has three elements, namely, character, plot, and environment. It reflects life with the organic composition of these three elements or the artistic picture presented. Modern novels break the pattern of traditional novels, showing a variety of colors. The situation of pluralism and juxtaposition is a reflection of the prosperity of artistic creation. However, even in the modern novel, three elements are indispensable. The so-called "three no" novels, in fact, does not exist, it is only a different approach, to present a different type of style, the reason why some people put forward such a claim, only lies in the traditional novels on the rigid and dull mode of a rebellion and challenge. For example, characterization, modern novels just break through the traditional "realism" norms, so that the character image in addition to the simple sociological sense of the "typical" characters, but also "original state In addition to simple sociological "typical" characters, there are also "original" typical images, psychological "introverted" typical images and abstract "symbolic" typical images. Therefore, whether it is Chi Li's Troubled Life, Wang Anyi's Little Baozhuang, Fang Fang's Landscape, or Wang Meng's Dreams of the Sea, Miscellaneous Colors, Xu Xing's Variations on an Unsubjective Theme, Remnant Snow's Mei's Sorrows on a Sunny Day, or Zong Pu's Heads in the Mud, Wang Fenglin's Valley Infested with Wolves, or Zhou Liwu's Beasts, etc., they should not be considered "typical characters" due to the absence of the traditional "typical characters". The absence of traditional "typical characters" can in no way negate the existence of the various styles of characterization. In terms of plot arrangement, many modern novels are also different from traditional story-type novels: they downplay the plot, such as Tie Ning's Oh, Fragrant Snow, Shi Tiesheng's My Distant Qingping Bay, Liu Zhenyun's Pagoda Pavilion, as well as some of the works of Remnant Snow, A Cheng, and Wang Zengqi; or they pursue poeticization of the plot to win in terms of mood, such as He Liwei's The White Bird, He Shipang's Joy, and Peng Mingming's The Man, the Mountain, and the Dog, etc.; they abstract the plot; or they make the plot abstract. etc.; or make the plot abstract, such as Zhang Chengzhi's "Osaka", Huang Can's "Lonely Island", Han Shaogong's "Flying through the Blue Sky", etc. All these novels, although there is no more traditional novels of ups and downs of the storyline, the conflict of the heart-stirring, suspense, but this proves that the novel can not plot, is undoubtedly a shallow ignorance. Here there is a problem of rational understanding of story and plot. British novelist Elizabeth Bowen discusses this issue, saying, "Any novel must contain stories. But these stories may be on a plane with which you are not familiar or which you did not expect: they may be written about psychological, emotional or internal things. ...... And we should know that the test of a story is being whether it is moving forward." If we get rid of the traditional conception of plot and story and recognize the new understanding that plot and story are contained insofar as they are dynamic processes, we will naturally have a correct grasp and understanding of the embodiment of the plot element in the modern novel.

At the same time, the modern novel in the background of the environment of the abstraction, virtualization or grotesque; on the modern novel theme to change the past connotation of the unitary (i.e., only the theme is understood as the concept of thought) and a variety of character (i.e., information, emotion, mood, ideology, etc., can be the theme); in contrast to the past graphic didactic, one-way designation, but the ambiguity, multi-significance and ambiguity embodiment, there should be a scientific It should also be understood scientifically. Can not be based on this, that the novel can not be background environment, can not be the theme of the purpose.

In short, the novel is a vivid, concrete and organic blend of character, plot and setting. Realistic and natural artistic pictures to reflect the social life of the prose narrative literary style.

So what is a short story?

People generally often to the number of words to determine: three or five thousand words, up to more than ten thousand words, that is, the short story of the ranks. This kind of referee certainly has its advantages of directness and conciseness, but also contains one-sidedness: because it fails to involve the essence of the novel, only limited to the appearance, sometimes easy to bias. For example, Maupassant's "Lantern", up to 30,000 words, according to the provisions of the above should be a novel, in fact, is recognized as a short masterpiece; and Lu Xun's "Q Zhengzhuan" than the "Lantern" less than the number of words of more than 5,000, but into the ranks of the middle and no objection.

What, then, is the basis for the correct division?

I think it is: according to the specific volume of the novel and its artistic way of grasping life.

As far as capacity is concerned, the short story mainly reflects a specific "knot" in life, and generally does not provide an objective panoramic view of social life. Lu Xun on this: "borrow a spot to know the whole panorama, with a glimpse of the spirit of the full transmission." That is to say, a part of life, a side, a scene, a small thing, a piece of mind, or even just a typical detail, by the author of the excavation, and then from the other, from the small to see the big, from the "piece", from the "point" so that readers produce associations The author's work has been a great success.

Short stories are characterized by the following features: in addition to the short and concise text, firstly, there are fewer characters, the relationship between characters is less complex, the characterization of the characters do not do a multi-faceted development, and generally do not show the dynamic changes in the character of the characters, and more static appearances. Second, the plot is concise, mostly single clue, sometimes even no story, only contains a few, (or a) scene. Third, the environmental description is specific, but very brief, the social background is generally not unfolding description, some almost no obvious background, only some abstract hints. In short, short stories are characterized by a high degree of simplicity: simple background, simple characters, simple plot, simple atmosphere. The English writer Maugham said, "The short story ...... is simply the narration of an event, either material or spiritual, with all the details that do not help to illustrate the event cut out, and this comes to give the work a vivid consistency." On the basis of this understanding and then look at "The Goat's Ball" and "Q Zhengzhuan", it can be understood: "The Goat's Ball" is long, but the plot is simple, the environment is concentrated, only one main event is written, and the specific background of this event is highly condensed in a wagon fleeing from a disaster. Therefore, it can only be a short story; "Q" in the characters are not more than the "ball", but it is a complex plot, long process, broad background, reflecting the social life of the more comprehensive, therefore, of course, it can only be categorized as a middle class novel.

The rational concept of the short story has gone through three stages of realization, namely: "longitudinal section"; "cross-section"; "knot". As far as China is concerned, the earliest short stories basically show a relatively complete "longitudinal section". For example, the chapters of "Three Words" and "Two Beats" are basically vertical displays of life experiences and the vicissitudes of the world. During the May Fourth period, modern novels appeared on the literary scene, giving rise to the "cross-section" theory. "The short story is to use the most economical literary means to depict the best part of the facts, or one aspect ...... such as sawing off the body of a large tree, and those who know botany look at the 'cross-section' of the tree and count the 'rings of years'. 'annual rings' so that the age of the tree can be known." Hu Shi, in this passage, is merely using a metaphor to illustrate the small to big nature of the short story, and any metaphor is strictly speaking inaccurate. However, after the founding of New China, many researchers and general textbooks, without regard to the full text of Hu Shih, have used the "cross-section" in a biased and absolute way, and realized it. This concept, although pointed out that the modern novel breaks the traditional novel only longitudinal life story mode and has a piece of horizontal display characteristics, but after all, too one-sided. Because, even in the outstanding modern novel there is no lack of "longitudinal section" to describe the works, only this vertical section is through a few key sections of the margins show, but different from the running account type step-by-step narration. For example, Maupassant's The Necklace, Chekhov's Baby, Lu Xun's Blessing, Gao Xiaosheng's Li Shun Dazhong, and Ru Zhijuan's Editing the Wrong Story ...... and so on. According to the strict definition of "cross-section", these short stories cannot be categorized as short stories, which is absurd! So the "knot" says: "The relationship in real life is very complicated, and often entangled together. Among them, there are big contradictions, there are small contradictions, there are contradictions in this area and that area, there are also internal and external contradictions, but carefully observed, but also often become a knot. And this knot is also a unit or an individual. For the author, to take that big knot is a long story, and to take that small knot is a short story. There is no distinction existing here between a cross-section and a whole trunk, etc." It should be said that the "knot" statement reflects the essence of the short story more accurately. There are all kinds of big and small "knots" everywhere in the intricate social life, and these "knots" are not subject to the overly mechanical limitations of time and space, but rather "qualitatively" embody the various units of life. These "knots" are not limited by time and space in a mechanical way, but are "qualitatively" the units of the phenomenon of life. All these units contain both horizontal sections of the life process and vertical entanglements that cannot be disentangled. Therefore, a "group knot" explains the connotation of the short story in a more comprehensive and precise way. For example, He Shiguang's "On the Country Ground" reflects a small knot of life between the external social pressure and the inner struggle of the self, which is dominated by the horizontal section (small disputes on the country ground), and at the same time is interspersed with vertical historical changes of the times and the cause and effect of the personnel. In this knot, the vertical and horizontal aspects are presented in an appropriate and indispensable way. Another example is Gao Xiaosheng's Li Shunda's House-Building, in which the struggles and frustrations of the main character's house-building experience are tied together in a longitudinal dissection, but supplemented by a few cross-sectional horizontal drawings. In this set of knots, the vertical and horizontal aspects complement each other and are indispensable.

Modern short story on its content focus, there are the following types:

1, plot novel.

Plot novels focus on the integrity of the story, vivid and interesting performance. The author should not only use a fine needle and thread to embellish the plot, so that readers get a clear sense of time and space, but also pay attention to the inevitability of the contingency in the display, so that readers are reasonable and unexpected, and then produce a kind of attraction to win the charms of the people. Plot novels require the first and last of the story, the rhythm of the plot and density of control, the conflict process of suspense set, coincidence. The use of misunderstanding and so on. Take the new period of Chinese novels as an example, such as the search for the painting of Han, White Teeth, the night without stars, the rest belongs to you, etc., from the content focus, they all belong to the plot of the novel.

2, character novel.

This refers to novels that focus on characterization.

Because the character image is the center of the novel, the other two elements should be completely subordinate to the needs of characterization: the plot can not appear independently of the story of the vivid twists and turns, but as the history of the character to evolve and develop; the background environment must be closely with the activities of the characters to become the character of the performance stage.

In the writing style, the vertical narrative of social life is no longer the author's commitment, and the center of gravity is generally shifted to the horizontal development to increase the clarity of the specific activities of the characters. The complexity and depth of the story.

In the embodiment of characterization, in addition to writing about what and how the characters do, they generally write about why the characters do what they do, and then portray the characters from the external actions and internal moods, and even concentrate on the inner world of the characters, thus shaping the psychological characters that are not found in the traditional novels, but are more capable of playing the novels' specialties. There are many famous novels of this kind, such as Mérimée's <>, Turgenev's <>, Jack London's <>, Chekhov's <>, Maupassant's <>, as well as contemporary works in China, such as <>, <>, etc. The novels of this kind have been widely published in China.

3. Ambient fiction.

To infect the reader with the artistic mood of a particular atmosphere. In this kind of novel, it can be divided into three kinds:

First, psychological and emotional type. These novels do not portray characters, but only show a "situation", a "state of mind". They are not through the storyline or character action, but through the complex, subtle inner consciousness of the characters, emotional activities to play the art of infection, so that readers to "feel" the atmosphere of the work, to "experience" the life of the mind touch. For example, Western stream-of-consciousness novels and some contemporary Chinese stream-of-consciousness works are of this kind.

Secondly, there is the scenic mood type. This kind of work has no subjective mediator on the surface of the author or characters of the work, and only "objectively" depicts a certain kind of social scene, natural landscape, or the behavior of the characters. Because of its dense with a specific artistic atmosphere, so make people read the net to produce a sense of enlightenment and a sense of beauty. For example, Lu Xun's "show", He Liwei's "white bird" and other works, is such an excellent chapter.

Third, the internal and external integration type. The objective environment and subjective feelings are blended into one, resulting in a kind of artistic atmosphere of harmony. This type of work, such as Wan Zhi's "sunset in the net", He Shiguang's "Joy", Yang Yongming's "sweet iron, fishy iron" and so on.

4. Abstract fiction.

Abstract fiction refers to its artistic embodiment. According to its quality, it can be called "philosophical novel" or "symbolic novel".

This kind of novel is characterized by abstracting the connotation of the real social life, philosophically interpreting it through symbolic literary images, and then expressing a certain idea, thought or emotion. Most of these novels raise and explore philosophical issues, often within a larger time and space, to the reality of society and life as a whole. Therefore, the characters of abstract novels are not the embodiment of individuals or personalities, but often "people", "human beings", "life", "self", "self", "self", "self", "self", "self", "self", "self", "self", "self", "self", "self", "self". ". "Desire" or an abstract representation of some social force. The plot is also symbolic, an abstract interpretation of real life and social conflicts. Its inner environment is also mostly generalized and abstract, not a true reference to the real environment. Certain chapters of Western modernism, such as Kafka's The Metamorphosis and The Castle, and ?apek's The Universal Robot, belong to this kind of novel. Modern Chinese works, such as Lu Xun's The Passerby (generally regarded as an essay, because it is compiled in Weeds, but in terms of literary mechanism, it is a novel), Zong Pu's Head in the Mud, Gan Tiesheng's Gray Moths and White Moths, and Cai Kang's Empty House can also be categorized into abstract novels.

The above four types of novels are simultaneously listed in China's contemporary literary world, each with its own outstanding chapters, a variety of colorful, rich and prosperous novels have made their respective contributions.

Some critics have put forward a thesis that novels seem to be divided into several grades, from low to high: plot novels, date character novels, date atmosphere novels (or psychological novels). And it is asserted that plot novels and even character novels will eventually decline and die out, to be replaced by psychological "introverted" novels. This is biased and naive. The main reason is that they simply do not respect the reality of contemporary novel creation and the rich and diversified aesthetic interests of readers from all walks of life. In any case, the undeniable reality of the world of fiction is the blossoming of a hundred flowers and diversified competition.

The discovery of the novel

As far as the short story is concerned, "discovery" is more important than "performance". The ability to "discover" the novel is the first and most important criterion for measuring the artistic talent of short story authors.

How to discover? Below, we talk about it in four steps.

The first step is the foundation of life: accumulation and feeling.

To be able to "discover" a novel, you must have a deep foundation in life. First of all, we must be able to feel life, have a precise and unique grasp of life, before we can extract the "real gold" from it.

What is the basis of life? What is "life"? Some people understand from the width, that the author of the novel should go to the widest possible field of life to increase insights, expand their horizons, so there is a "deep into the workers, peasants and soldiers, in-depth practice of the three major revolutionary struggles," the call. Some people from the depth of understanding, that not everything, as long as deep into the specifics of life, you can write a new, thought-provoking works, so there is "everyone around a deep well of life" said. We think that the proper way to put it should be: to feel and recognize as many aspects of life as possible, so as to gain a deeper understanding of society and life. The Spanish writer De Livis said: "It is the novelist's task to observe the essence of the characters and to capture them in his works. Living in Buenos Aires, London or New York does not subtract anything from the novelist, nor does it add anything; experience is gained not by the density of the population of the place of residence, but by observing life with open eyes. ...... Cosmopolitanism arises from a sharp, deep observation of a piece of the world, even a small piece of it, and through it reflects the whole world, the whole of life. ...... The noblest task of the novelist is to write well about the piece of the world in which he has the honor to live." That is, to feel the life you know is primary. This is not, of course, an argument against writers broadening their horizons. De Livesey, meanwhile, on the role of his "travels around the world," argues that the greatest reward for having traveled through Europe, Africa, and the Americas was the rediscovery of his homeland, the Castile that his novels were supposed to be so y rooted in!

For the author of a novel, the accumulation and feeling of life are indispensable, but the feeling is even more important. Using a notebook to collect and record all kinds of material is naturally not bad, but if you don't use your mind to really participate in life and experience life, then no matter how much material is recorded, it's often useless: because it's just the material you hear, not the life you feel. A. Tolstoy once said, "A journal, this is nonsense. Only very little needs to be written down. Instead of writing life down in a small book, you should engage with it! I offer this as a complement to 'observation'."

Step 2, Trigger Point Opportunity

After accumulating a large number of deep feelings about life, on this basis, it is easy to generate creative impulses: the collision of a certain trigger point causes inspiration, forming an opportunity to write. The opportunity to write arises from the combination of life feelings and artistic imagination.

As long as one has a certain accumulation of life and a certain artistic quality, trigger points can be generated anywhere. Wang Meng said: "It may be a synopsis of a story, it may be just a picture, it may be just a lyrical monologue or a cautionary tale, and it may even be just a description of a landscape or a portrait of an object ......." In fact, how much more than that? A flash of thought, a dream, an emotion, a feeling or even a cool breeze, a drizzle, an old tree, a falling flower ...... may become a trigger point, leading to a creative opportunity.

Trigger points give rise to a strong creative impulse, so that the author has no time to care about it, voluntarily waving the pen, indulge in pen and paper, seemingly involuntarily, a novel will be "magically" produced. And, sometimes even the author can appear more than the excellent chapter of the author is also surprised date this is not uncommon to see. But more often than not: after painting in the heat of the moment, when re-reading in silence, often greatly disappointed. Such as Liu Feng said: "Fang its take hold of Han, gas times before the resignation; and the piece into, half folded heart began. Why? The intention to turn over the empty and easy to strange, the words of the real and difficult to trick."

So, the trigger point, the opportunity to produce, can not be said to have "discovered" the novel. It merely provides an "opportunity" to begin writing. One must move on to the next step in the discovery process of the novel.

The third step is to conceptualize the intention.

Intentions refer to the directed imagery and associations of the future content of the novel after inspiration has been triggered.

There are two types of conceptualization intention: artistic perception and conceptual interpretation.

Artistic perception type, the common ways are:

Association. The author through the outside world or the inner touch of a phenomenon, leading to another phenomenon or thing associated with it; and then make the second and even the third and fourth associative imagination, and then form a certain range of associative picture. This way, the author does not have prior material preparation, but completely by the image of the time thinking, for example, because of some special features of the environment, so that the author thought of a familiar atmosphere; and because of this atmosphere associated with certain people, things, and because of these people, things, think of the relevant slice of life ......

Birth of the type. The writer is due to a certain objective scene. Personnel, feel the profound or peculiar connotation, in order to explore y, so the objective scene, personnel as the center, to develop to go, will be related to the various aspects of the content, vertical and horizontal mobilization, dig out, and then determine a certain writing intention.

Detonation. The writer's heart contains some kind of established emotion, suppressed chest without expression, and suddenly triggered by the outside world, found the appropriate credentials or vent, so, with the feelings of the situation, to play on the subject. This external trigger can be a person, can be a thing, can be a scene, can be a situation ...... will be the external trigger due to the penetration of the inner feelings, enrichment or lead, sublimation of the art of the poof, for further orientation to excavate.

Conceptual deduction type conceptualization intention refers to the author's mind in advance of a certain concept, a certain thinking, when a certain opportunity is found, will be this concept, thinking, filled into the specific life in the real content, and through the exact, natural life process, will be the concept of gradual embodiment or deduction. As long as not contrary to the reality of life, and in the image of thinking under the participation of natural, artistic display, the concept of deduction type of conception intention should not, and can not be denied.

Lu Xun, for example, wrote "The True Story of Ah Q", that is, in his heart there has long been a kind of critical conception of the then "national character", "lamenting its misfortune, angry at its indisputability", and has always wanted to reflect it through the novel, in his own words, that is, Mr. Lu: "In his own words, Mr. Wang said: "It seems to have been in my mind for several years, but I have never had any intention to write about it. Because "to draw the soul of such a silent nation is really the first difficult thing in China." It was not until a certain "opportunity" that this established concept was realized through the image of "Ah Q". Even after the publication of the novel, Lu Xun was not sure whether he had fully expressed this established idea: "Although I have tried to do it, finally I am not quite sure whether I can really write the soul of our countrymen in the modern age. Can we say that "The True Story of Ah Q" is not an excellent chapter?

As for certain novels of the Western modernists, such as some short stories by Kafka, Grier, and Marquez, it is more obvious that they are interpretations of ideas through abstract artistic character. At the same time, we cannot deny their value.

There is no superiority or inferiority as a type or manner of conceptual intention. Only one thing should be noted: for the lack of artistic training of the author, the use of conceptual interpretation of conceptualization is easy to produce graphic conceptual works.

The fourth step, the structure of the nucleus.

The structural nucleus is the birthplace, the core of the novel's structure, the imagery entity that initially combines ideas and images.

After the author's imagination and association, his initial creative impulse has been combined with concrete and rich life images, and he has taken another step towards the concrete realization of novel creation. In his mind, there is already a broad picture of life, a human scene or a mental image related to his creative intention. It shows that the author's thinking and searching about life, society and life have been initially oriented to the idea, and at the same time find a group of objects to express the image.

But up to this point, not to be in a hurry to write, hastily written. Because, at this time, the author of the state of mind of all (including ideas and image group) although there is a preliminary bag, but still very unclear, very incomplete, still lack of organic grasp, sometimes in a kind of fluctuation, fleeting state, still has a great deal of variability.

So, the next step is in the conceptualization of the intention on the basis of the generation. Imagined ideas and groups of objects for further analysis, selection, stabilization, stereotypes, that is, the main contradictions of the novel, the novel's character and character relations, the novel's orientation and depth of purpose, should be the basic conception.

Here, the structural nucleus appears, and the novel is really "discovered".

The structural nucleus is not an abstract thematic idea, nor is it a general subject matter, but it is the main fact that contains the energy of a great thematic idea and has a high degree of attraction and adhesion to all the contents of the subject matter, and it is the most revelatory and expressive imaginative entity that initially combines the idea and the image. Therefore, it is impossible to form a good idea, and of course it is difficult to find a good novel, if one emphasizes too much on the sensory or even intuitive component of the idea and excludes reason altogether, or if one emphasizes too much on the conception and does not take into account the image and its authenticity and naturalness. Contemporary American writer Joyce Oates also said, "I think that image and idea, both of which are gradually formed together in some strange way, create a satisfying, best-of-both-worlds structure."

For example, the thematic idea that Lu Xun's Medicine seeks to express is the ignorance of the masses and the sorrow of the revolutionaries during the Xinhai Revolution, or rather, the sorrow of the revolutionaries brought about by the ignorance of the masses. However, the work cannot be structured by such an abstract theme alone. In fact, the core of the structure of "Medicine" is the shocking fact that "the blood of the revolutionaries was eaten by the ignorant masses as medicine", which obviously contains the great energy of the theme.

Generally speaking, the structural nucleus of a short story is a simple fact (external or internal) with profound connotation. That is, a concentrated conflict. For example, Lu Wenfu's "The Wall" has the following structural core: in the face of the urgent need to rebuild the wall, several factions of experts from the architectural design institute held their own views and tugged at each other for a long time; once the wall was repaired by someone else and praised, they competed for the credit one by one and acted as a genius in hindsight. He Shiguang's "old man planting grains" is the structure of the nucleus: a twilight years fortunate to meet the prosperity of the old farmers, would have enjoyed the "Five Guarantees", food and clothing, picking a piece of semi-barren hillside land planting grains, in order to die before a wish: with their own sweat to the difficult times of the marriage of the daughter to make up for a dowry.