Internet literature is vigorously and vividly growing in this era, with its infinite imagination, with its cuteness, with its realistic contemplation, giving hundreds of millions of readers in this country various forms of energy and vitality, creating new miracles and possibilities.
The vigorous development of online literature began with the original intention of writing, became an opportunity of the times, and is inseparable from the hard work of all writers bit by bit. Whether it is the experience of knowing the destiny of heaven or the new wave of the Z era, their eyes flash the same light, and every bit of their thinking about writing has experienced countless days and nights of "like cutting, like grinding".
By launching the special topic of "Online Literary Masters Talk about Writing", China Writers Network relives the original intention of online literary masters with many readers, and shares their literary concepts and creative details. We believe that diversity and excitement will be presented here.
Writer Profile
Rectangular patches
Zhi Bai is a member of the Chinese Writers Association and a contracted writer of Zongheng Chinese Network. In 2011, he began to create online literary works, and has published more than ten works so far. With 12 years of working experience as a factory workshop worker, he spent most of his spare time reading books, and then gave birth to the idea of writing books. In 2017, he entered lu xun college for further study. The work "Changning Imperial Army" was selected for the 2018 China Online Novel Ranking sponsored by the China Writers Association and has been translated and disseminated overseas.
Thousands of mistakes, there will be a true self
Many friends said to me after watching "Changning Imperial Army" that they felt that it was completely different from what I had written before, and there was a qualitative leap. They asked me, more than ten years after writing the book, I have such achievements and changes, how did you realize it?
What a trick, but in ten years and three thousand six hundred days, I have traveled too many wrong roads, and finally found a right one.
I have never felt that I am not a naturally intelligent person, some friends who have just started writing books want me to share some experience of how to write good works, I can't say it, I am more afraid that the explanation is not right and it will be wrong, the only thing I can do is to sincerely share my not smooth writing process.
When I first started writing, I probably saw that the famous artists wrote well, and I began to follow the trend. My writing journey in the first few years was mainly based on borrowing, and I did not have my own style and characteristics. The words used are only superficial words, but there is no famous idea, and it lacks a vast knowledge reserve.
After a few years of writing, there was no improvement, and the only thing that could console itself was "persistence".
Now it seems that at that time, there was also a problem that needed the most reflection, that is, I could not write the results, and I did not think that I had deficiencies in all aspects, but that I was sure that this was the only thing that Huai Cai did not meet. When this kind of thinking reaches its extreme, there will be a kind of pathological pride that "the avenue is like a blue sky, and I can't go out alone".
The more this is the case, the more we can't see the essence of those excellent works, but I can't look at it, I don't know its fire, I don't know why it is fire, in fact, I have already developed jealousy in my heart. Until one time, I had a deep conversation with a few friends about the changes in online literature.
In fact, at that time, I did not think too seriously about online literature, some small achievements, smug and not enterprising. And he also has the illusion that if something goes wrong, it means longevity.
In that chat, everyone mentioned the impact of the short video industry on online literature, why is short video so popular? Aside from being more intuitive, what else is there to think about?
When you think about it, there are three words worth pondering — completeness.
A good-looking short video, even if it is only ten seconds, the content it expresses is complete. Perhaps the average person will feel that this is just a funny video, where there is so much truth. But within ten seconds, the antecedents, processes, and results all came out. Even if it's just a video of someone walking on the ice and accidentally slipping over the ice for a few seconds, the antecedent is the ice surface, the process is walking, slipping and the person watching this video is laughing, it is the result.
A qualified short video, the content must be complete, then what about online literature?
In the past, I used to use large pages to lay the groundwork, and then write the climactic part at the last moment. However, with the acceleration of the pace of life, this way of writing is gradually no longer suitable for the current reading group. And, is the content of my own work highly complete?
Shortly after this long conversation, I began to create "Changning Imperial Army".
I strive to have a core content in each chapter, and this content must be complete, rather than using many chapters as in the past, and maybe even tens of thousands of words to pave the way.
Each chapter has a complete content output, which allows the reader to be recognized to some extent. This chapter is not "water", it is the minimum requirement.
If this chapter does not have a plot climax, there must be emotional catharsis, and if there is no emotional catharsis, there must be human brilliance. If the protagonist does not have the brilliance for a while, then let the supporting characters begin to shine.
But these are not the whole of a work's completeness, while each chapter has a separate complete content, and then use a few chapters or a dozen chapters to write a larger and more complete story.
So I've always felt that it's even more difficult, very, very difficult to create online literature now, and the difficulty I'm talking about now is not just structural.
These things are only the basic requirements of the work, and when I conceived the story of "Changning Imperial Army", I kept asking myself - if this story can't move you, why do you expect it to move others?
What is touching? Empathetic resonance.
The words used to write the "Changning Imperial Army" are still those words, but the meaning expressed by these words is different. After more than ten years of writing, I have gone through thousands of wrong paths and finally found my true self.
Buy something at the market, if it is not real materials, even if it is not worth it, you will be unhappy. If the things expressed in the text are not true feelings, readers who support genuine reading will probably be in the same mood as buying fakes.
The core of the book "Changning Imperial Army" is the self-improvement of the nation, and every hero in the book is not completely imaginary, he exists in our world and around us. Maybe one day, it will be you and me.
The question of empathy is directed at the reader. I've talked to friends about this before, and most of my friends are people my age. When we talk, we often mention a sentence - ten years of empathy.
Readers of earlier generations seem to have been accustomed to the protagonist of bitterness and hatred since childhood, and are accustomed to the growth process of bearing the burden of humiliation. They suffer a lot and can empathize with hardship and forbearance.
The growth process of the "post-90s" has nothing to do with the depth of bitterness and hatred, and it is not without bitterness and hatred that it is superficial. When young readers read novels, they picture lightness and pleasure, and picture sensory enjoyment, rather than empathizing with hatred and suffering.
I agree with this, and I hope that every generation in the future should remember the hard years of the martyrs, but they will not have to go through any catastrophe. And it is undeniable that after the "post-90s" grow up, there will be new changes and progress in quality, upbringing, vision, and attitude towards life. Writing also learns their mindset, learns their positivity, and catches up with their progress.
What I hope I can do myself is to be able to create with a young man's mentality when I am white-haired. Let the reader smile and think when he sees the work, this old man is a bit interesting. Then they suddenly remembered something as they reminisced... This old man has something.
Looking back at the wrong path I've taken, I've never been qualified to say to young creators what's wrong with you, the only thing I can say is "I was wrong somewhere." The thorn-and-thorn predecessors who walked ahead of me turned back to our generation and said the same thing.
Online literature has always been carrying out self-evolution, and the power to promote this evolution, online literary authors may not be the main one, it is the reader who is driving this process. When readers adapted to the existence of short videos, they also directly promoted the evolution of online literature. This evolution definitely does not refer to faster meals, but to the integrity and positive direction of content.
A short video work with tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of clicks must not promote false evil and ugliness, but must be true, good, and beautiful, and the same is true for online literature.
We read the words left by the famous masters of the past few thousand years, such as "The king does not see the water of the Yellow River rising from the sky", such as "drunkenly picking up the lamp and looking at the sword, dreaming back to blow the horn and camp", the heart is surging and the people are shocked.
I think that in a few decades, hundreds of years, future generations of people will read today's online literary works and comment on the predecessors, which is the goal we are striving for now.
Finally, I end with a confession of the protagonist in the book "Changning Imperial Army": "I am just an ordinary person, and my biggest dream is to have enough to eat, wear and warm, and have spare money, but if one day in the future, the country and the nation need me to fight for the rest of my life to do something, I am willing!" ”
(Column Planner: Yu Jing)