Chapter 44 on writing

When I was studying in middle school, my husband said to us: "When writing an article, you must have a good beginning. Only when you start well can you catch the readers' attention. You must also have a good ending. Only when you close it well can you have an aftertaste." We all nodded. understand.She continued: "It must be good in the middle—" Before we could tell why, we had already roared with laughter. But today, when I finished writing a novel, copied it, read it again and again, and finally shook my head and tore it up, I thought of what the teacher said, and I couldn't help feeling sad.

Is writing really a chore?Writing is nothing more than expressing opinions, and speaking is also expressing opinions. It may not be that writing is more difficult than speaking.In ancient times, paper and pen and ink had not been invented, and valuable records and teachings were written on bamboo slips with lacquer. The procedures were extremely cumbersome and troublesome.Later, when I had paper and a pen, I could do it with a single shake, and the nonsense gradually became more and more.Up to now, the printing industry has developed, and writing articles has become a common thing, and there is no need to solemnly publish it.Recently, there is a shortage of paper, and the situation in Shanghai has changed slightly, so the writer has to think twice before writing.

The paper problem is only temporary, and the basic problem remains: people who develop the habit of writing often have nothing to say, and those who do not have the habit of writing have nothing to say.It is not to say that many geniuses starve to death in attics in obscurity.Even more important than geniuses are ordinary people.Generally speaking, most people who have lived half their lives have some real life experience and some unique insights.It never occurred to them to write it down, and as time passed, it was lost.Maybe it's a wise saying, maybe it's just an insignificant and funny gag, but if it adds up, it's a loss of our cultural heritage.For example, I know a wife, a very ordinary typical wife, who has a very subtle observation of hair loss in the elderly.She said: Chinese old ladies used to be bald, but now they are not bald.On the contrary, the old man was not bald before, but now he often has baldness.Foreign old ladies are not bald but old men are bald.why?After research, I came to the conclusion that Chinese women in the old days wore too tight buns and pulled their hair back painfully, so they were prone to baldness.Men did not have the habit of wearing hats before, but now Chinese men, like Westerners, cannot do without hats for many years. Wearing hats hinders the health of hair, so more and more bald heads are gradually increasing.But foreign women also wear hats, why not bald?Because foreign women's hats are big and small, sometimes pressed between the eyebrows, sometimes nailed to the back of the head, and change positions from time to time, so it will not affect the youthful vitality of the scalp.And so on, there are many words worth remembering. If professional literati said it, I would not dare to plagiarize it openly.

Professional literati are over-expressed in "self-expression", so that they moan without illness, while ordinary people do not perform enough and feel bored.When he was young, he dared to speak, but no one paid attention to him.In middle age, he has a status in the society, and his words are quite important, and everyone is willing to listen to him, but he is trying to learn to be a man, blindly accepting negativity, avoiding cold words when speaking, and always choosing the familiar ones. , echo what others say.When I get older and retire, I am less responsible and can speak freely. Unfortunately, most of the old people are always nagging, and people are impatient to hear them.This is one of life's great tragedies.People who really lack an audience can go to teach and have a bright future in the lecture hall. It is up to you to play, and whoever yawns will be deducted points-there is nothing more enjoyable.The next best thing to do is to invite people to dinner, and they have to feel a little bit wronged, listen to your big talk, deduce when the world war will end, or reminisce about your epic first love back then.

In "Xiao Lin Guang Ji" there is a person who specializes in writing fans for others.On this day, I saw my friend shaking a white folding fan, and immediately snatched it to write for him.The friend dropped to his knees.He couldn't help but said: "Writing a fan is not troublesome, why do you have to do such a big gift?" The friend said: "I am not begging you to write, I am begging you not to write." I heard that some literati were taboo in the past, and they were given money to tell them not to write. I am afraid that people who lack social awareness like me will not enjoy this kind of blessing.

Li Liweng said in "Idle Love Occasionally" that "composition in the field, there is a way to deceive the master into the game. At the beginning of the book, there should be a strange sentence that is eye-catching, so that one will be surprised and dare not discard it. At the end of the chapter, you should captivate your soul with flattering words and make them linger on the scroll. If it is difficult to say goodbye suddenly, this is the method.” It is also shocking, dazzling, and coaxing, charming, and steady. It seems to be close to the way of a concubine.Starting from this point, we can discuss the relationship between the author and the reader.

There is an idiom in the West: "The poet speaks to himself, but the world overhears him." The poet writes poetry purely out of nature, and there must be no other people in his mind.But on the one hand, our school education strongly warns us to avoid talking to ourselves when we compose, and we have to take readers' reactions into consideration at all times.It is safer after all, unless we really know that we are exceptional geniuses.To cater to the reader's psychology.There are two ways to do this: (1) Say what others want to say, and (2) Say what others want to hear. It is said that what people want to say is to express their grievances on behalf of the masses. If it is done well, it is not difficult to sing a hundred harmony.However, general public opinion often expresses dissatisfaction with left-wing literature, that is, "diagnosing the pulse without prescribing a prescription".In desperation, prescribing a prescription is nothing more than a massacre of class struggle.Today's intellectuals talk about ideology, just like scholar-bureaucrats in a certain period talk about Zen. They don't necessarily understand it, but everyone can talk about it, and they talk a lot and wonderfully.Women seldom suffer from this problem. It can be said to be a kind of "man disease". I don't plan to talk about it here.

Take a step back and focus on describing the difficulties of life.Of course, everyone complains that life is not easy, but you keep talking about how hard it is, and there are even more bitter people who say: "What is this?" The richer people also feel unhappy because you block His mouth was closed, so that he could not complain. So, say what people want to hear.What would you like to hear?The softer the better—in other words, the more obscene the better?This is a very common misconception.Let's compare it with .Regardless of the literary value of the two—the public’s choice is not entirely based on literary value—why is it so much more popular, and only hear those who are familiar with it, but not many?But looking at novels that are widely sold today, what is passed down from family to family is not the "sweet and passionate" ones, but the gentle, sentimental, and petty-bourgeois love stories.So it's not a problem whether it's obscene or not.

Vulgar tastes should not be confused with pornographic tastes, but it is an undeniable fact that among the vast number of people, low tastes exist.The article is written for everyone to read, relying on just one or two friends, you read mine, I read yours, after all, it will not work.To win a large number of readers, we must pay attention to the limitations of the interests of the masses.The authors feel the depression of the melodrama, and intentionally cater to the vulgar taste.People who deliberately cater to vulgar tastes are mostly self-important and don't take readers seriously, which is the root of failure.Neither believe in their ways, but also use their ways as a call, the result is their shallowness but not their sincerity.Readers are not fools, and soon figured it out.

If you want low-level fun, you have to type it out of it.We don't have to draw such a clear line between people and me.We ourselves also like to read Zhang Henshui's novels, and we also like to listen to Minghuang's secret history.Put yourself among the readers and know what they want.Give them whatever they want, and give them a little more—if the author has anything to give, he can just show it, and he doesn't have to say, "I'm afraid this is not acceptable to ordinary people, right?" prevarication.The author can give as much as he can.The reader takes what he can.Like, most people see it several times in their lifetime.As far as I am concerned, I read it for the first time when I was eight years old, and saw only a little excitement. After that, I read it every three or four years, and gradually got the outline, style, and brushstrokes of the characters' stories, and each time I got a different impression.Looking at it now, I can only see the troubles caused by the interaction between people. ——The individual's appreciation ability is limited, and it is always "one for ten".

"One for ten" is nothing but an ideal, a standard.Let's be more practical and talk about the joys and sorrows of writing novels.A novel, if you want to make people cry, you have to make yourself cry first.It would be good if I could cry a lot, but the sorrow I write often belongs to the kind of "like bandits washing clothes". (The background of my work is taken from the poem "Bai Zhou": "... There are brothers, you can't take it... Worry is quiet, and you are angry with the small group. There are many people, and they are insulted a lot.  … The sun lives in the moon, and the hustle and bustle are small? The heart is worried, like a bandit washing clothes. Quietly think about it. Can’t fly." I especially like the metaphor of "like a bandit washing clothes". Dirty clothes piled by the basin I am afraid that male readers can not appreciate the smell of it? People in Jiangnan have a word to describe the messy, unclean and congested sadness: "My heart is very 'foggy'." The word "fog number" There seems to be no equivalent noun in Mandarin.) It's a story, so it has to be a little dramatic.Drama is conflict, it is tribulation, it is trouble.Even P. G． A comic novel like Wodehouse's also has to lure the protagonist step by step into troubles, deeper and deeper, and then get him out.Pleasure is such an uninteresting thing—especially the happiness of other people, that no play can use it as its subject.For example, "Records of Boudoir" and "Records of Leisurely Love" are inconvenient to be put on the stage at all. No wonder the self-pitying Shen Sanbai in the drama is a bit distorted. To write a novel is to create trouble for yourself.When I write novels, I always write to a certain place in each article and feel that I can't write any more.What hurts me most is the recent work "When I was Young", I have just overcome the obstacles with great difficulty, and I can go down the river, let go of writing, the story is over.I can't help but decide on my own...I'm afraid life is like this, right?Life is trouble, and it is better to die than to be afraid of trouble.The trouble had just ended, and so had the people. The motivation for writing this article was originally to complain, but I still said some jokes conscientiously in the middle.Why are a group of literati willing to stay in the "literary prison"?I think the final analysis is because of the charm of the text.For example, we have an old-fashioned red lacquered leather box in our house. Inside the lid I found the following lines printed in squares: Gaozhou Zhongtongji shop opened in the old warehouse lane on the left side of the Town God's Temple in eastern Guangdong Province. Self-made home leather suitcases, clothes, hats and boxes for customers. Please recognize the signboard as the record of the 15th year of Guangxu Standing on a stool, I read it twice with my hands on the lid of the box, and copied it down because I liked it.There is also a large banner in the sesame oil shop, "Self-made small ground sesame oil, hygienic sesame sauce, white peanut butter, tin sugar wholesale".Although it is a modern popular text, it seems to be separated from us by a layer, and it is a bit mysterious. However, my favorite is still a few formulas in Shenqu: Watching Xiaoxing at five o'clock and three o'clock, all civil and military officials go to the court.Donghua Longmen civil servants go, Xihua Longmen military generals go.Civil officials write to secure the world, and military generals mount their horses to determine the world... As usual, this is sung by the prime minister of the current dynasty or the minister of the Ministry of War, and then he thinks to himself and brings up various problems in the private life of the "old man".If it is sung by the madam, it will continue with the self-narration of "Old Body".Whether it is an "old man" or an "old man", a "lonely king" or a "sorrowful family", they all have the same view of the universe - what a naive and pure social order: "Civilian officials write to secure the world, military generals set the world on horseback !” Thinking makes people cry.