Modern self-media is very developed, and everyone has the opportunity to express themselves. That's a good thing, however, there's more boring nonsense.
Zhang Ailing also had similar feelings.
She said that in ancient times, paper, pen and ink had not yet been invented, records and instructions, written in lacquer on bamboo jane, the procedures were extremely cumbersome and troublesome, people rarely had the opportunity to express their opinions in writing, so in terms of style, they always tried to be short and subtle, but, in the era in which she lived, there was paper and pen, no matter who could talk about their opinions, nonsense articles were more.
Zhang Ailing: Amazing views, always "to give one to ten"
Therefore, she humorously suggested that people who have a lot of ideas and really lack an audience can go to teach, open the sky in the lecture hall, play at will, who yawns, who deducts whose score, it is really no longer painful.
As a last resort, paying people to dinner, the invited person can't help but be aggrieved, listen to you infer when the world war is over, or reminisce about your first love that can be sung and wept.
This suggestion obviously involves Zhang Ailing's essay concept: the views should be amazing, the text should be refined, otherwise, there is no need to publish it.
Zhang Ailing also pays attention to the relationship between authors and readers.
She quoted The composition method that Li Yu said in "Idle Love and Occasional Mail": "Composition in the field, at the beginning of the opening volume, when it is dazzling with strange sentences, it is shocked at first sight and does not dare to abandon it." At the end of the final chapter, the soul is absorbed with flattery, so that it lingers in the scroll, if it is difficult to quickly say goodbye", I feel that Li Yu's composition method must be amazing and dazzling, and it must be coaxed and flattering, which is close to the way of a concubine.
In fact, I don't agree with the author's efforts to please the reader.
She also mentioned that some authors in order to cater to the preferences of readers, specially write low-level interesting things, take the reader as a fool, which is actually a manifestation of not believing in the reader's ability, and take "Jin Ping Mei" and "Dream of the Red Chamber" as an example, saying that it is obviously more familiar with "Dream of the Red Chamber".
Of course, she also opposes the author's self-talk, or relying on one or two acquaintances alone, you see mine, I look at you, she believes that this "can't work in the end, we should win more readers." So how do you balance the two?
I think modern self-media people have more or less this confusion, is it better for me to write my heart by hand, or is it better for me to write the reader's heart by hand.
The advice given by Zhang Ailing is: First of all, we must take into account the needs of the reader, that is, an author should consciously have the consciousness of saying what the reader wants to say and saying what the reader wants to hear; and then on this basis, plug in the personal things that the author wants to express.
She said that "Dream of the Red Chamber" is always "to give one to ten", and the meaning of good words can never be read. She appealed to authors that "to give one to ten" should be used as a kind of composition pursuit and standard. I think that's the secret to her success in popular literature.
Lin Yutang: First be a person, then compose, the text should be humorous, and there is a husband's temperament
When she was a teenager, Zhang Ailing once regarded Lin Yutang as an idol and longed to be more prominent than Lin Yutang. So, what composition secret does Lin Yutang rely on to make a big splash?
He believes that to write a good article, the first thing is to "be a person". The so-called "being a person" is not a "person" in the sophistication of human feelings, but a person who is worthy of parenting, not violating the master's teachings, making friends, and believing in words.
Perhaps the meaning of Lin Yutang can be understood in this way: when people do it correctly, the skeleton of Wen will also stand. He thinks this is the key point of the composition.
However, Lin Yutang also advocated that people should be as disciplined as possible, and the writing should be "interesting". He said that you can seriously run the railway and run the primary school seriously, but the text is also in this style, it is inevitable that it will be too serious and tasteless, and the reader will be disgusted and unwilling to look at it anymore.
These two propositions of Mr. Lin Yutang are perfectly practiced in his prose. For example, the "skeleton" is positive, and the "skin phase" is good, which is the last real beauty.
In fact, in the face of the countless self-media articles that emerge every day, in addition to the theme to be "positive", the most impressive thing is "interesting", it even exceeds the profound, because the fun itself is a kind of profound, profound and makes people extra relaxed.
How to cultivate an "interesting" temperament, Lin Yutang's advice is to think more about the lightness of chatting with people after tea and dinner, because at that time, unless special, you must not have put the spectrum of a gentleman.
Well, you can look for this state.
Lin Yutang also warned young people that since they are ready to become an author, they should not let themselves become prostitutes, and the articles should be a little husbandly, and they should have a little courage, saying what they say in their chests, not going with the flow, and not flattering the world.
These remarks seem to be the concretization of "learning literature before learning to be a person."
He once said, "To truly understand a person, you only need to see how he uses his spare time", and said, "Ordinary people cannot appreciate the joy of this earthly life, because they do not love life deeply, making life ordinary, rigid, and boring."
Yes, Mr. Lin Yutang is asking us to appreciate the joy of earthly life in addition to a good job, if you really make good use of your leisure time, you really appreciate the beauty of ordinary life, then all your texts will become very vivid, interesting, unique, how can you worry about writing a good article?
Lu Xun: Have a sincere intention, go to whitewashing, less pretentiousness, don't show off
Mr. Lu Xun and Mr. Lin Yutang are good friends, but there are also times when opinions are different, in the end, the two of them are people with different composition styles. Mr. Lin Yutang pays attention to the joy of earthly life, while Mr. Lu Xun pays attention to exposing ugly phenomena in society.
Even when talking about the secret of composition, Mr. Lu Xun still laughed and scolded, for example, he said, in the selection of materials, "I really just want you to write 'today's weather, hahaha...'" This proposal should, of course, be understood from the opposite side. Writing something innocuous is the big taboo of composition.
Rhetorically, Mr. Lu Xun said". This, of course, is also the opposite of the story. In fact, it is to make us pay attention to the ease of understanding of language.
For example, he said that the "Wizard of Oz" recorded the master's chant "flower", and there was a sentence: "The daughter-in-law is a beautiful child's book is wasted, and the brother can smell the sister-in-law's stick is injured." "Meaning, the daughter folded the flowers into a plutonium, although beautiful, but afraid that the son would abandon the reading; the lower link is more puzzling, it is his brother who folded the flowers, there is no vase, he inserted them in the crock pot, in order to smell the fragrance of the flowers, his sister-in-law, in order to prevent the gradual development of the flowers, actually broke the flowers and the jar together. Roughly this is what it means. But when you first read this picture, it is easy to understand that my brother smelled the jar and was not allowed by his sister-in-law.
This is a mockery of the ominousness of the language. He also mentioned that in that era, there were often tamed four immortals and six immortals, and the magnificent sacrifice texts, the tie-ups, the declarations, and the electricity were still checked in the dictionary, turned over the books, peeled off its outer decorations, and translated into vernacular, "Try to see what kind of things are left!" ”
In addition to "hazy", there is also "difficult to understand".
Mr. Lu Xun criticized,
We have always admired the temper of "difficulty", eating three bowls of rice per meal, no one is surprised, some people want to eat eighteen bowls per meal, they solemnly write on the notes; no one can see with their hands, and they can set up a tent to sell money with their feet; a picture, plain, is packed in a box, digs a hole, turns into a diorama, and people open their mouths to look at it enthusiastically. Moreover, the same thing, which has been achieved with hard work, is more valuable than what can be achieved without effort. For example, to burn incense in any temple, to the mountain, it is more precious than to go to the flat ground; three steps and one prayer to the temple in the temple, and the temple to which the palanquin is carried all the way, even if it is the same temple, the degree of preciousness in the heart of the person who arrives is very high."
This is a wake-up call for contemporary self-media people.
So, what is Mr. Lu Xun's enlightening suggestion for self-media? He said that there is no secret to composition; if you have to say that there is, it is just, "have a sincere intention, whitewash, less pretentious, do not show off."