Authors of best-selling novels are often good at creating tensions and ups and downs to attract readers to immerse themselves enough with the tensions. Jin Yong is a master. However, to think that he only uses tense and coherent brushstrokes is an underestimation of his jianghu skill.
01 Jin Yong used an idle pen
Jin Yong's novels often give people a sense of coherence and tension and ups and downs, but sometimes he also uses idle pens. After Yan Honglie followed the short and fat man Han Sanye to the Drunken Immortal Building, Jin Yong used the following idle pen.
This drunken immortal building is next to the South Lake, the lake surface is light smoke and mist, several small boats are swaying in the middle, and the water surface of the half lake is floating with green oil and oily diamond leaves. This Jiaxing is a famous city in ancient Yue, and the plums produced are sweet and fragrant like fine wine, so this place is called drunken plum in the spring and autumn. At that time, the Yue King Gou Jian once broke the Wu King's Lu here, which was the passage of communication between Wu and Yue. There is another local famous product, which is the green hornless diamond, the diamond meat is sweet and tender, fragrant and crisp, the crown of the world, and it is the most rhombus leaves in the lake. It was spring, and the green leaves of the water were like a flood of green glass covered with pieces of emerald.
Why did Jin Yong use such a spare pen here? The so-called idle pen refers to a description that is not directly related to the plot of the logical line. It generally describes scenery, trivia, or something similar.
Idle writing is often intoxicating, which can greatly relieve the reader's nervous emotions, pave the way for the unfolding of the next more tense plot, and also accumulate the psychological energy for the reader to turn into intense reading again. Sure enough, after Yan Honglie leisurely saw the emerald-like green leaves on the lake, the plot immediately turned into tension, "Yan Honglie was enjoying the scenery, and suddenly saw a fishing boat in the middle of the lake rowing like a fly." ”
02 Typical idle writing in "The Trick of the City"
Jin Yong's use of idle pens is not exclusively used in "The Legend of the Eagle Shooter", but is used freely in many novels. For example, in "The Trick of The City", he used idle pen many times, and he grasped the rhythm of the narrative very well, so that the plot was tight and loose. It is also between a tight and a loose, which drives the reader's emotions to rise and fall, and also allows the reader to have further room for development after a full rest. A typical example of this is in the fifth chapter, "Rat Soup.".
In the previous chapter, Jin Yong has been describing fierce fighting and resistance to danger, and the reader's heart follows the protagonist's encounter and is mentioned in the throat eye. At the beginning of the fifth chapter, Jin Yong obviously slows down the rhythm and describes the environment of the characters' activities and the people's diet at great length.
The terrain below Gangneung is flat, the Yangtze River meanders between Xiang'e and Hubei, and the haohao flows eastward, and the boat slowly floats with the river. I saw the towns and villages on both sides of the Yangtze River passing by the boat. The boats that came down from the upstream only had sails and bridges, and one by one they crossed him. As the people on board passed by the boat, they all gave a curious look of surprise to Di Yun, who had long hair and a bloodstained face.
Nearly evening, Di Yun finally had some strength, and at the same time, his stomach grumbled incessantly, and he also felt very hungry. He sat up, picked up a boat board, and slowly rowed the boat to the north shore, thinking of buying some food in the small restaurant. The area is very desolate, and there is no family to see. The boat turned a corner along the river, and between them were three fishing boats tied in the shade of the willows, and the cooking smoke on the boats rose. When his boat approached the fishing boat, he could only hear the sound of frying fish in the pot on the boat, and the aroma came straight to him.
He rowed the boat over and said to the old fisherman on the stern, "Old man who fishes, sell me a fish to eat, okay?" When the fisherman saw that he looked terrible, and was afraid in his heart, he was unwilling, but he did not dare to refuse, so he said, "Yes, yes!" "I put a fried blue fish in a bowl and sent it over the boat. Di Yun said, "If you have rice, buy a bowl to eat." The old fisherman said, "Yes, yes!" "I gave him a large bowl of brown rice, mixed with a large part of sweet potatoes and sorghum.
Jin Yong's idle pen here describes the twists and turns of the Yangtze River, the arrangement of towns along the road, and the green fish, brown rice, sweet potatoes and sorghum, which are the foods in life, which are extremely lifelike and can naturally dilute the tense murderous and confrontational atmosphere of the previous chapter.
Reading this, the reader seems to be able to see the shapes of those things, and even more seems to be able to smell their fragrance. Without contradictory independence, the tempo will naturally slow down. As a result, the tension aroused by the fierce murder in the previous chapter was invisibly relieved. The reader's reading fatigue is also relieved. The reader's mood is also greatly alleviated, and there is a rare space for rest.
Unconsciously, Jin Yong used this paragraph to effectively massage the reader's nervous nerves, help them recoil the reading energy, and lay the foundation for the reader to follow the following plot. Sure enough, the demon monk quickly caught up with him and engaged in a life-and-death struggle with Di Yun.
03 Idle pen will have a big effect
Idle writing seems useless, but in fact it is of great use. This great use is that it is a necessary part of the expression of the whole successful novel, and it can even exist as one of the necessary techniques for the establishment of the novel as a "slow pen" corresponding to the tense and undulating "urgent pen".
Its great effect is first reflected in the fact that it can help readers soothe their emotions. Many times, the reader's emotions are immersed in various suspense and fierce battles, but it is inevitable that they will be tired. Therefore, the emergence of moderate idle writing can give readers a rare breathing.
In addition, idle pens can divert attention. Diverting attention is also necessary. Many times, in order to better see the essence of things, readers need to think moderately about the content contained in the novel and the essence of their thoughts and behaviors, so the existence of moderate idle writing is needed to release the thinking of the plot while relieving emotions. In this way, the line of sight can be diverted so that the focus is on what is important.
In fact, the idle pen itself is also part of the tension fluctuations. Yes, it can also create rhythmic ups and downs. The so-called volt itself means slowness. Slowness in fiction can be created by many techniques, such as slowness in speech, slowness in action, and of course, it can also be made by including concentrated idle pens.
For the reading experience, idle writing can be deeply immersed. Readers who are in a nervous mood, when faced with a sudden idle writing, will slow down in their hearts and let the original tension go deeper into their hearts in the comparison. In this way, driven by comparative relative values, the reader's emotions and cognition are more likely to be immersed in the plot of the novel.
04 How to use a spare pen
Since idle writing has such a powerful role that it can even become one of the necessary techniques for the success of novels, how should it be used to be effective enough?
After a series of tensions, it is possible to start the idle pen. If you are too nervous, the reader's emotions will be greatly pulled, and they will be very tired. This is not conducive to the formation of a continuous positive reading experience. Therefore, after a series of tense advances, the reader's reading mood should be soothed with moderate idle writing.
Before the arrival of greater tensions, it is also possible to use idle pens to create potential energy. If a larger and more intense struggle needs to be depicted in subsequent episodes, then it is also necessary to use idle writing to create potential energy. The tiger will leap, and it will squat, which is the truth. Only by using the "squat" of idle pen can we accumulate a greater leap of energy.
But idle writing should be moderate. As long as it can ease the reader's emotions or pave the way for the fierce battle that follows, it is a task. Idle pen can not be used more, if used too much, it will make the reader's mood too relaxed, they will be likely to play. In addition, the more idle pen is used, the greater the tension of the plot will be greatly diluted, and the integrity and consistency of the plot will be damaged.
Through the above several use methods, the idle pen used by the author can present greater technical stability, so that the novel expression is more rhythmic.