The seventh "Youth Literature Award" with the goal of "discovering writing geniuses and cultivating literary giants" was recently announced, among which the second place in the novel award was spent by Liang Sishi, a doctoral student majoring in ancient Chinese literature at the College of Literature of Zhejiang University, and her work "Worm Island" is also the only winning work in Zhejiang Province in this award.
From 1980 to 1984, the "Youth Literature Award" was held for five consecutive years, and Wang Anyi, Su Tong, Liang Xiaosheng, Han Dong and other writers who dominated the literary world have all won the award. After the reopening of the 35-year suspension of the Youth Literature Award, each award was awarded to only 5 university students. Liang Sishi's "Worm Island" has undergone three rounds of review and stood out among 65 novels. This is another literary creation award that Liang Sisi has won since winning the bronze medal in the National College Students Creative Writing Short Story Competition in April this year.
When it comes to winning the award, Liang Sishi is very calm. She said that she always maintained a stable mentality, maintained insight into life, and maintained the enthusiasm of writing. Of course, successful creation is inseparable from the accumulation of reading, and reading has shaped her aesthetic.
Write the power of youth with creation
"Everyone has become an island, their eyes looking confused, floating alone in the endless sea." Worm Island constructs a primitive fictional space that incorporates elements of magic and mythology. Although it is the first attempt at novel writing, "Worm Island" has no lack of temperature and philosophy. The award speech of the competition reads: This is a novel that embodies the ambitions and aspirations of young writers, and the author uses allegories and symbols to gain insight into people's ignorance of their own nature and give their own thoughts on ultimate salvation.
In the face of the "Youth Literature Award" draft, Liang Sishi showed a positive attitude, "Since there is an opportunity in front of me, I think I should grasp it", "Worm Island" is written for the "Youth Literature Award", "Sometimes write 7,000 words a day, sometimes write more than 10,000 words, and I will always write when I am free." ”
Opportunities and challenges coexist, and Liang Sishi's creation is not smooth sailing, and the biggest confusion once put the creation stranded for three months. In the face of unfamiliar novels, she is good at short and medium stories, and she is stuck in: how should the story move forward? How do you sort out the changes in your characters? Clueless, she chose to meditate in stranding and capture inspiration in life. During this time, she often photographed all kinds of passers-by on the street and went to the theater to watch various performances, and she said that things with a sense of picture can touch her and inspire her. In the end, in the repeated switching between meditation and pen, she thought of using a single chapter to build independent units to structure the whole article and successfully conclude the manuscript.
Facing difficulties in the storm and striving to write the power of youth, Liang Sishi believes that "powerful authors will be able to stand out and let more people know themselves."
Long writing road, when the girl chases her dreams
For Liang Sishi, the long road of writing has been twelve years.
She began to create from the fifth and sixth grades of primary school, participated in the new concept essay competition in high school, won the second prize, submitted "New Essay", and won the first manuscript fee in her life. Later, she successively published works in magazines such as Fujian Literature, Works, Young Writers, and Yanhe, and the outline of her dreams became clearer and clearer in her persistent exploration.
The picture shows the second half of the "Yanhe" monthly magazine 2021 Issue 7, Liang Sishi's "Girl on the Cliff" was published on the top and listed on the cover
At the beginning of the dream, Liang Sishi also suffered setbacks: the first novella was successively invested in several magazines, all of which sank into the sea. Fortunately, there are good teachers and friends on the way forward.
"After submitting an article to Fujian Literature, I quickly got a reply from the editing teacher, and that was the first time I published a novel in a provincial journal." Liang Sishi recalled that at that time, the editor took the initiative to talk to him on the phone, the tone was warm and generous, and they chatted freely about the books they read, the techniques of novel writing, and the works of modern and contemporary writers.
"Creation does not have to be limited to immediate achievements, it should be gradual" "You can start by imitating the writers you like, and then explore your own style"... The editor's encouragement greatly touched the unknown Liang Sishi and prompted her to officially embark on the road of novel writing.
The picture shows "Fujian Literature" in 2014, No. 2, Liang Sishi's early works were published on the above
"Writing does require perseverance", although she thought about giving up halfway, but in order to give the characters she wrote a complete story, she chose to persevere. For Liang Sishi, creation is a spiritual harbor for people to comfort, "when I write, I feel that my heart is full of a sense of belonging and satisfaction." Even with a large number of research tasks, she will regularly carry out quantitative fiction creation while ensuring that academic research is carried out.
A library is like a small library
Academic creation is not wrong
In addition to creation, Liang Sishi maintains the habit of reading every day, and books precipitate her temperament and creative style. She said: "Yasunari Kawabata's quiet, elegant, and silent oriental charm has always influenced me to this day. In Shen Congwen, I learned from the experience of writing and got the aesthetic stain. I like Cao Yu's drama very much, in addition to the literal beauty, there is also a deep connotation of reality, which makes me have a new thinking about the depth of my writing. ”
Because of the huge amount of reading and the lack of a desire to stay in the library, Liang Sishi has a habit of storing books. "I will buy new Chinese modern and contemporary poetry novels or foreign literature, and with the storage of e-books, I can open a small library myself." Books enrich her core and provide reference for her creations.
In addition, for Liang Sishi, creation and study complement each other. The various theoretical knowledge I gained academically laid the foundation for creation, "especially after I came into contact with ancient novel theory, I gained a new awareness of the structure and layout of novels, and when I wrote, I was more like building a house to add bricks and tiles, rather than writing casually." And my major also needs to read a lot of literary works in the creation, and draw nourishment from the works of various writers. Just recently, following the "Youth Literature Award", Liang Sishi won the bronze medal in the second National College Students Original Literature Competition.
For literary creation, Liang Sishi also provides a few points of his own experience:
1. Learn to record the life, news, and gossip around you. Real-life examples can be "modified" to be written into novels with aesthetic value.
2. Novels are written around characters, and multi-faceted character images should be created to avoid flattening.
3. Balance learning and creation. Focus on work and study, and use free time to create.
Text reporter: Zhejiang University People's Number Qingyu Yao
Images courtesy of respondents
Editor today: Fu Hangying, student journalist group of Rong Media Center of Zhejiang University
Editor-in-Charge: Zhou Yiying