Are there any skills in writing novels?

A guide to the writing skills of youth campus novels 1. Be good at people-oriented and carefully organize stories. The plot of any novel is indispensable. Why is the plot indispensable? The important role of plot in novels is at least reflected in the following four aspects: ① The various materials of novels are often organized through the clues of plot development. "A proper plot can weave many confused thoughts, observations and acquired knowledge." (2) The character of a character should be expressed through the plot. Only with the development of the plot can the character's character be embodied and developed. (3) The plot of the novel is often loaded with certain social and historical content, and the theme of the novel is often expressed through the plot. (4) The plot of the novel can arouse the reader's voice and evaluation emotions, enhance the modernity of the novel, and abandon the single method of completely telling the story by the narrator, which often breaks the sequence structure of the story. However, the use of various techniques makes the work still maintain the continuity of time series and the integrity of the plot. In other words, it can be considered as a psychological novel that mainly expresses the "stream of consciousness". On the surface, time and space are reversed, the past, present and future are chaotic, and the atmosphere of the times, places of people and specific environments are interspersed. However, according to the stream of consciousness of the characters in the novel and the causal relationship between events, the plot is still complete in the change. In writing novels, writers generally have two tendencies in plot setting: "strengthening" or "diluting". In novels with "intensified plots", authors often use sharp, thrilling and bizarre plots to express characters, and the authors often temper and test characters in sharp and harsh contradictions, resulting in tense, intense, ups and downs atmosphere and dramatic climax. The advantage of this novel is that it is attractive and gripping. The disadvantage is that it pays too much attention to coincidence, losing some sense of reality, making people look like "drama", being too dramatic, and often losing the sense of openness and farsightedness of life. Sometimes too much emphasis on the plot will make the characters do nothing under the arrangement of the plot, and it is difficult to express their own personality. Novels with "diluted" plots do not write so many coincidences, accidents, contradictions between life and death, and great suspense, but strive to write the richness and simplicity of life itself, as well as the meaning and meaning in the ordinary. A novel with a "diluted" plot has the advantage of maintaining the natural quality of life, but it is easy to write loosely and uninteresting if it is not handled well. Strictly speaking, the so-called "enhancement" and "dilution" are only different aesthetic pursuits of the author, and do not determine the quality of the work itself. A good plot, whether it is "downplaying" or "strengthening", should be true and vivid, write the characters' personalities and show certain social life contents. No one wants to read a false old story. No one wants to see a plot that is superficial, divorced from the reality of the characters and can't reflect the content of the community life. Writing novels, under normal circumstances, is often based on specific life feelings. In real life, the author was moved by some events and characters, and felt that these feelings could be written into novels, so he extracted a relatively complete plot on this basis. In writing, the common methods to extract the plot are: (1) based on the trunk, enriching the flesh and blood, finding an event in the author's life, which is relatively complete and meaningful. The author often does not make major changes to such events, but fully mobilizes his own accumulation to enrich and enrich this event. (2) The author saw or heard a story in his life and found it interesting, but a specific link was not ideal, so he made some changes. (3) Grafting, kneading and synthesizing many people and things that the author has heard or seen at different times and places, and integrating them into an organic whole through processing and transformation. (4) According to emotion, the author of link fragments has accumulated many vivid details and fragments in his life; But there is no direct causal relationship between these details and fragments. At this time, the author often links it into an organic whole through his own thoughts and feelings. (5) According to the cause and effect, the author infers from the ring that he finds a fragment, a scene and a detail in life very interesting, but he feels that he lacks relative independence and is not full enough. Therefore, according to the possibility, implication and stipulation provided by this fragment itself, we can trace back and pave the way for its development so far and guess the result of its development. (6) According to the characters, infer and guess that there is a mature character image in the author's mind, put this character in the specific interpersonal relationship and environment in his mind, and guess what the character will do and do according to his own personality, so as to conceive the plot of the work. Generally speaking, there is a difference between personality-based deduction and causal deduction. What we usually call causal deduction refers to the obvious and direct causal chain from cause to result or from result to cause. It is often a simple single line, and a clear result can often be deduced from a certain reason, which does not contain many complicated reasons and changes. However, a person's personality is a very complex synthesis, which is always full of contradictions and struggles, often changing from time to time, from person to person and changing rapidly. There is no fixed pattern and procedure, which is richer and more complicated than simple causal logic. No matter how you refine and weave the plot, you should handle the relationship between the characters and the plot. The usual textbooks define the plot as the development history of the characters, which is actually right and wrong. If "things start with people" and "things show people", the plot will naturally become the history of character development; If we fabricate plots and focus on interesting and legendary events, we will fall into the evil obstacle of "plot for plot's sake", and it is difficult to become a "history of character development", which gives people a profound aesthetic feeling. So a good plot should be the history of the development of the characters. Second, we should be good at arranging the structure of short stories. Novel is a kind of language art that sees the big from the small. The selection of materials should be strict and the excavation should be deep. Although it is not necessarily a major social theme, it must reflect great social significance. At the same time, the structural arrangement should be ingenious and meticulous. The common structural forms of novels are as follows: (1) The plot structure takes the occurrence and development of events as the structural line, and the development of novels is completely based on the causal relationship between events. The occurrence of events is often manifested as a series of causal chains, connecting the preceding with the following, interlocking and closely related. Clever writers often distort and reverse the plot, which makes readers feel strange and surprised, but the novel is still based on a fairly complete story structure. The development of plot structure generally includes beginning, development, climax and ending, and some have prologue and ending. According to the clues of plot development, it can be divided into single-line structure, double-line structure and three-line structure. The single-line structure is often one person, one thing and one line running through it, with simple plot and occasional twists and turns, twists and turns, ups and downs, etc. But no matter how it changes and repeats, the plot clue is always single. Double-line structure is characterized by overlapping or parallel plots. Generally speaking, the structure of more than three plot clues is not easy for beginners to master. Plot structure is the most basic structure of short stories. Its advantages are action and attraction, which conforms to the aesthetic habits of ordinary people, but it also has its limitations: ① Taking the event as the structural center, the author's attention stays on the vividness and interest of the story itself, and it is easy to weaken the characterization if it is not handled well. (2) The development of the characters or the expression of the author's feelings need enough space, but the plot structure attaches importance to the vertical connection of events, and it can't give more space for the characters to develop in the horizontal display, and it is not allowed to deviate from the specific time and space provisions stipulated in the plot. The author must always grasp the clues of plot development and keep pushing forward, which limits the author's creative talent. (3) In order to keep the integrity of the story, the author often has to cram scenes from many generations into his works, which often loses its luster and is not conducive to characterization. (4) The plot structure refines the kaleidoscope-like life into a complete life process from beginning to end, so that all the factors in the novel are subject to the causal chain of plot development without any drift. In doing so, it is easy to lose the authenticity and richness of life, giving people the feeling of fiction and distortion. These restrictions should be paid special attention to when arranging the plot structure. (2) Prose structure Some people think that plot novels are too distorted, try their best to avoid that wonderful and dramatic plot, and try their best to describe life according to the natural form of life, thus producing a prose novel. Prose structure abandons the plot mode from the beginning, development to climax, and then down to solution. It does not have the usual tense and concentrated plot, nor does it talk about suspense and gripping dramatic effects. It seems to be just some seemingly fragmentary fragments, which are similar to daily life, and do not clearly show "beginning", "bearing", "turning" and "combination". It is like a tree, its branches and leaves naturally extend in all directions, each with its own space, and the relationship between time and space is scattered. However, a careful understanding shows that there is an inherent connection in the free stretch, which is a bit like the "scattered form and scattered spirit" of prose. Prose structure often gives people natural beauty. However, it is difficult to write because it deliberately abandons the dramatic plot and deliberately downplays the direct and obvious causal relationship between events. It gives up gripping stories and needs to be written profoundly, beautifully, credibly, reasonably, with relish and beautifully. Although it is written in an open and casual way, it should not be chaotic and loose, but should be organic as a whole. (3) Psychological structure Psychological structure, also known as "stream of consciousness structure", "emotional structure", "mentality structure" and "psychoanalytic structure", is a new structural method of modern novels. It does not arrange the structure according to the causal law and time-space relationship of things. Instead, the material is organized according to the process of the psychological activities of the characters, and life fragments are connected through the inner activities of the characters such as memories, associations, flashes, inner monologues, hallucinations and dreams. In this structure, the story in the traditional sense is invisible, the internal order replaces the order of events, the psychological time and space replaces the physical time and space, and the scenes, fragments and details of life will be mainly displayed through the screen of the characters' hearts. And this kind of display has rotation, inversion, light and shade, jumping, inversion of time and overlap of space, decomposition and reorganization of time and space. Psychological structure is the main structural mode adopted by psychological novels, but it is different from psychological novels. Psychological novels focus on the psychology of characters, while psychological structure focuses on the psychological performance of characters and the reflection of real life. The "psychological structure" adopted by contemporary writers in China is also different from the "psychological structure" skills adopted by western modernist "stream of consciousness" writers. Generally speaking, they all take the flow of character consciousness as the structural framework of the novel; The description of the real scene only serves as a support point for the flow of role consciousness; The reverse integration of time series, the jumping insertion of free association plot and conscious monologue in psychoanalytic form are also their common methods. Modernist writers emphasize that the flow of character consciousness is illogical, irrational and ever-changing Therefore, the stream of consciousness in their works is fleeting, chaotic and irrelevant, just like scattered colored dots flickering vaguely, with a weak sense of picture and obscure reading. The stream of consciousness described by China writers is often retrospective, emotional and rational, and the picture is relatively complete. The concatenation of countless psychological fragments often constitutes a complete plot, reflecting rich social life content. The advantages of psychological structure are as follows: (1) Structuring the work with psychological flow, so that everything in the work can be projected from the hero's spiritual screen, and the narrator's methods of narration, evaluation, description and discussion are abandoned, which has new qualities that traditional novels do not have. ② Psychological structure is not limited by objective time and space. Events in different places and at different times can be described at the same time, staggered or spread radially, which increases the capacity of novel expression. (3) With the stream of consciousness as the structural framework, between the scene and the action of the characters, we can omit those transitional descriptions that tend to make the atmosphere dull and slow, get rid of some shackles of pursuing the coherence and integrity of the story surface, and use the materials flexibly. It is conducive to revealing the inner world of the characters' spiritual world and fully revealing the truth of the characters' hearts. But the limitations of psychological structure are also obvious. First of all, according to the structure of psychological process, works are easy to be written in a protracted, trivial and obscure way, which often requires readers to rearrange and explore. On the other hand, in this kind of works, the characters often think very delicately, but they don't do it clearly, which makes the characters introverted and vague. Using psychological structure, we should pay special attention to overcoming this problem. (4) Montage structure Montage is a technique learned from movies. Similar to the plot structure, there are often certain plot clues, but the methods of expressing the plot are different. Its plot, often with a strong sense of the picture "sub-lens"-like fragments, leap forward. Between the fragments, the procedural explanation is cleverly omitted. At the same time, it often takes time as the warp and space as the latitude, and narrates the life fragments of different times and places in a staggered way. Through the combination of a group of "shots", it shows the formation and development of the characters' personality, as well as the coherence and advancement of the plot. By using this structure, we can break through the limitation of time and space, flash the main plot, omit the tedious explanation process, have a bright rhythm, a strong sense of visual image, be interspersed with nature, and change without disorder. But to master this structure, you must be familiar with the art of film. (5) The plate structure consists of several relatively independent "plot plates". In this way, after describing a character or scene, the author often puts it aside to describe another character or scene. Each part is self-contained, with independent plot content, forming an independent "plot plate". There is no direct connection between the general "plates", and even the turning sentences are abandoned, as if the preface of completely unrelated "plates" were directly combined. But after reading the whole article, readers can connect the contents of each "unit" through the invisible ideological clues inside the work. For example, Zhang Shishan's four unrelated stories. This structure also breaks through the narrator's mode of telling a complete story and expands the capacity of the work. But if it is not handled well, it is easy to lengthen the length. When writing, we should pay special attention to the relationship between "plot plates", which is neither direct nor internal; At the same time, we should also deal with the complexity of the "plot plate" and not write it into a novella with many clues. The structure of the novel is rich and colorful. Learning to write a novel, it is best to start with the "horizontal" and "vertical" plot structure. Mastering these two basic forms will provide a foundation for further improvement. Art attracts readers. 1. The artistic task of novels (1) The fundamental task of novels is to construct and express people. 1. Personality and psychology, as human structures, are very broad concepts. Although they all have their own essential rules, they can still be loosely understood. Personality and psychology, as two important concerns of human construction, have become the fundamental creative goals of novels. 2. The deconstruction of characters has made great progress in the exploration of novels in the new period. In the process of absorbing foreign literary theories, especially western modern literary thoughts, the concept of novels has undergone profound changes. If the artistic form is highly simplified, then this change is fundamentally only one point: that is, the deconstruction of the character's personality. Contemporary novels, whether it is the natural exposure of the original ecology of neo-realism, avant-garde novels or the desire to spread novels, are all embodied as a kind of interest. It is an infinite extension and deep exploration of human psychology. The philosophical reason here lies in the fact that man is from construction to deconstruction. Of course, this decline is not only implemented from the moral purport, but also the moral deconstruction is an important task. The more important goal of human nature is to reconstruct human existence. In other words, the novel no longer carries the realistic expression of social life scenes, but the construction of human values on this basis. Wei Hui's and Mianmian's novels at least present people's urban desire and depravity experience as a kind of human value-even if it is really a kind of human depravity, it is still a way of human existence, a gray tone and erotic confusion. Even an ugly state of being. From the artistic form, the novel moves from the fiction of plot and characters to the truth of human psychology and its value. Starting from the avant-garde, the novel gradually moved away from personality and psychology, and showed such a purport in moving towards a broader and more natural human nature: from fiction to symbol. 3. Historical concern and realistic criticism of people and their existence. The history of novel development in the new period proves that it is difficult to cancel the classical novel theory from any aspect. Or it is impossible. China's modern novels, represented by Lu Xun's creation, are rooted in China's cultural tradition and fully absorbed the essence of western literary thoughts and theories. The basic idea is the historical concern and realistic criticism of people and their existence, and the humanitarian interpretation of characters' personality and psychology. It is essentially a description and construction of existence, so it is full of vitality. Our novel theory can not be divorced from this tradition without seeking other ways, especially as a learning paradigm of novel writing, it must have basic theoretical feasibility and practical plasticity. Accordingly, we should discuss the fundamental topic of novels, personality and psychology, and do some research on people's consciousness psychology and stream-of-consciousness novels, all for learning. It goes without saying that what is important is self-exploration and research in the process of reading and writing. (2) The "three elements" of traditional novels: plot, characters and environment. As mentioned above, novel is a narrative art with the purpose of shaping characters' personalities and revealing their psychology. To achieve this goal, there are two ways: one is through plot narration, and the other is through psychological description. Traditional novels mostly take the former road; However, since the new period, many novel explorations have deviated from this mode, or psychologically turned novels into streams of consciousness-this is a departure from tradition and a move towards modernity. However, even the symbolic novel still retains the flesh-and-blood part of the real plot in its symbolic system, and does not deviate from some provisions of the plot novel in narrative, so it cannot be said that it is completely divorced from the traditional novel theory. Here we divide traditional novels into three types according to this understanding: stream of consciousness and symbolism. 1. Story-based story novel is a typical traditional novel, and its fundamental stipulation is that there is a story that can express the psychology of the characters and reflect the growth process of their characters. What is the plot? The essence of the plot is contradiction, which can be grasped from two angles: first, the contradiction between alien forces and abstract forces between man and the outside world, which is called the contradiction of fate; First, the contradiction between people and their own emotions, desires and the concept system that is often alienated into no self is called personality contradiction. These two contradictions often transform each other. The plot and characters of story novels are all expressed in the form of storytelling. The narrator is the author himself or an outsider from this angle. Generally speaking, this model pays attention to the twists and turns of the plot and the psychological and personality changes of the characters. Paying attention to the interaction and restriction between environment and characters, and grasping characters and stories in a three-dimensional and comprehensive way beyond time and space are generally called "three elements" Its narrative mode is a very typical traditional story mode. (2) Characteristics of Stream of Consciousness Stream of consciousness is the stream of consciousness, that is, the natural flow of ideas. It has three characteristics: first, it transcends the real time and space, and forms psychological time and space with the natural activities of consciousness as the clue; In this sense, the stream of consciousness belongs to the category of psychology, and of course it should follow the laws of psychology and present the natural and complex situations of psychology. And because it completely follows the psychological law of stream of consciousness, it is better to say that it is more real and fully reflects the spiritual world of the characters; Here, subject and object, subjective and objective, content and form are the same as consciousness itself. Thirdly, in the stream of consciousness, there is no second narrative subject besides the conscious subject. Narration and description, lyricism and even discussion are all natural manifestations of consciousness and psychology, so both the author and the reader must form communication and enter each other at this point of consciousness. Only in this way can readers participate in the creation and understand its significance. (3) As a narrative mode. The construction of the whole text is the process of stream of consciousness. First, it has a psychological process, and we can roughly see the direction and trend of the stream of consciousness. Second, it has the main content, but it is far less simple and clear than psychological description, and it is generally a multi-level and multi-angle natural heteromorphism; Third, it completely abides by psychological laws, unifies objective things in a flowing psychological form and forms a new form. Third, the fundamental characteristics of modern western novels: symbolic and psychological modern novels are even more broad concepts that cannot be defined. It is meaningless to define the history and cultural evolution of human society with any philosophical and cultural trend of thought here. We are just discussing a form, its internal mechanism and external characteristics, and its artistic composition. First, psychology. These are two basic elements of modern novels. 1. Symbols are the same as psychology. The concept of symbol in the general sense has nothing to do with the symbol in modern novels. As far as modern novels are concerned, symbols refer to a formal component that is structured and completes the novel genre. That is, the whole plot and characters lie in the contradiction between plot and characters and their development and changes, as well as the relationship between characters. As a complete symbolic structure, they realize the statement of novel discourse. Simply put, modern novel is a symbol and an allegory, which is fundamentally divorced from the real life theme held by realistic novels in the abstract and rational sense. It is basically formal. So is psychology. Modern novels are basically a kind of psychological expression, a psychological transcendence of the historical form of the real society, and an abstract summary of human existence and lifestyle. An interpretation of value and humanity in the ultimate absolute sense. This interpretation is twisted, abnormal, absurd and scary. In other words, the modern novel itself is the display of distorted and abnormal human nature, the existence of fantasy and strangeness, and the ignorance of psychological terror in modern society. This has nothing to do with the critical performance based on a higher sense in realism. 2. Symbol and shaping In terms of formal construction, modern novels are abstract, and the performance is fable. As far as its way of thinking is concerned, it is also an image with the characteristics of dreaminess, absurdity and ugliness. The traditional aesthetic system has been unable to summarize modern novels. There is a basic fact, realism (including myths and epics before romanticism and classicism, etc. ) has lost its position as the subject of novel art; They are only used as symbolic or psychological materials, as a kind of leftover bits and pieces, and become the material materials of forms and symbols to meet the needs of symbolic forms or psychological construction. Their objectivity and reality are dead. However, as one of the modern forms of human art, they have not gone far in terms of people and their "soul". It only changed a sick body and an upside-down limb for this reason. This kind of soul-concern for people and their existence-still exists, which makes modern novels inevitably leave some broken bones and a little residual heat in the formal factors of their artistic construction. The traditional body of death is haunted in a fable or symbolic sense. We can't make the concept of modern novels easy to understand. In the description of specific cases, only a superficial analysis can be made, and only two preliminary styles can be introduced to prove it: symbolic novels and psychological novels. 3. Symbolic novels have completely divorced from the logical provisions of real scenes. Become a formal abstraction of a reason or meaning. It is to summarize a certain reality or a certain meaning, but it is essentially just a form and a construction: the plot itself is a metaphor, and the character is only a symbol in the whole symbolic system. Of course, characters and their relationships can transcend real time and space, be reconstructed in symbolic or innuendo sense, and become a symbolic structure. 4. The same is true of psychological novels. In a word, psychological novels are not realistic descriptions of characters' psychology, but symbolic expressions of authors' psychology and dreams. The plot, whether it is the characters or the environment, is fully psychological and dreamy. Obviously, psychology here is not a psychological scientific analysis of biological meaning, but a symbolic genealogy of meaning and feeling. Deformation, image, schema, illusion and dream have become common symbols. As a whole, they are a psychological entity, and images and dreams are systematic and schemata.