Internet literature masters talk about writing
net literature
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.
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Angry Banana, formerly known as Zeng Dengke, is the vice chairman of the Hunan Provincial Internet Writers Association. The representative works "Alien Survival Diary", "Hidden Killing", "Alienation", "Son-in-law", etc., the TV series of the same name adapted from "Son-in-law" in 2021 has received wide attention.
"Son-in-law" is an experiment
By the attributes of my thinking, I am a standard science and engineering man.
Throughout my student years, I was good at mathematics, physics and chemistry. Chinese composition is the most dragging homework and has never won an award, but I am passionate about writing.
When I was younger, I was keen on mathematical thinking problems, and I would spend one or two hours, or even half a day, solving a problem, and the feeling of sudden openness after solving it made me intoxicated.
The same is true for writing, I can't do this thing well, but I have always been obsessed with it. I started writing novels in the fourth grade of elementary school and went out to work until I went out to work, which was always the most relaxing hobby for me. I love stories like "Ordinary World", and I am amazed by the smooth writing of "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion" and "Me and the Temple of Earth", and I feel that there is a supreme beauty in between, and these three texts are still my most respected works.
At the same time, because my writing talent is not good, I can't write good things, and my long-term understanding of myself is that I will never reach the heights of these authors and texts in my lifetime. But I yearn for the skills of these authors, and I fantasize more than once about how it would feel to write with the same techniques as them. It's like solving a problem, and I wonder what it's like to have this technique in your hands.
Many writers care more about the text, and many of the older generation of writers want to write a classic text that can be placed in a coffin. But in fact, I'm not pursuing this, I'm just pursuing a sense of technological progress, and I want to go to the limits of my own progress as much as I can before I'm fifty — and I want to experience the feeling of having good technology in my hands. I may not be able to reach the level of the masters, but as long as I can solve a technical problem that bothers me, I can have more joy.
One of the most complex thinking questions
Like every article I've written before, "Son-in-law" is an experimental essay.
In the early, middle and late periods of "Son-in-law", there are actually many stages of personal exercise for me, before each chapter is written, I will have a basic presupposition about my personal writing ability, and I will ask each article to reach the limit of my current ability as much as possible after writing it. For each stage of the plot, I will also have a basic preset, after writing, I will analyze whether it is successful or unsuccessful, if it fails, the next stage will continue to exercise.
So at every stage of my writing, there will be short-term goals, medium-term goals, and long-term goals, which may be related to the expression of one chapter or several chapters, the medium-term relationship to a volume in the novel, and the long-term relationship to the intention of the whole book. In the framework of the whole "Son-in-law", my biggest technical challenge in this decade is to do the structure.
I am writing more and more slowly because all the short- and medium-term goals are ultimately under the big goal of structure.
Just the right "package" is the hardest thing to do. You put everything in a box, put it on a seal, and that's "encapsulation." Before a book is written, the final idea is not expressed, so the clues and clues are relatively independent. But the clues eventually sublimated later. Unified under a big idea, there is a sense of unity.
Stills from "Son-in-law"
More than ten years of time, more than five million words, hundreds of characters, a dozen or even dozens of plot lines, and finally they must be just the right sublimation, every day of writing, I can no longer add characters or plots at will, I need to weave with the existing thread, properly complete the transition, just the right line, and every chapter of every day, must also be very beautiful... It's a lot of mental work.
For me, this is the most complex thinking problem, and if one day I can solve it just right, I will get the joy of more than ten years of continuous efforts at once.
Because it is an experimental text, its text itself is not perfect. In the course of more than ten years, a lot of my writing skills are constantly improving, and today I look back at my book and find a lot of corrections, but it has realized the value of its own existence, that is, let me see a lot of technical boundaries.
At the same time, in the process of writing, it makes many readers feel happy, and sometimes it can share some of my phased views of the world, and some readers even say that it is useful, then I will also feel happy. But overall, I'm not a very service-minded web writer, and I often feel guilty about it.
I don't care much about IP adaptations
Over the years, because of good luck, the book "Son-in-law" has received some opportunities for adaptation, filmed TV series, movies, and also began to do derivatives such as animation films and games, and there will be many friends who mention the problem of IP and various problems derived from text.
But in fact, I think an author can be left unconcerned with these issues. Especially in me, I personally don't care much about these things, because I don't have the time and the energy.
When the creator treats the creation itself as a task, you can write a little bit every day, and if your technology has been improved to a very high level, completing the daily writing task may only cost you five or six points of energy.
But if you take the improvement of technology as the goal, you will find that every day's energy is not enough, three days to write out a thing is definitely better than a day, spend half a month, a month to think and brew things, must be more comprehensive than three days. Similar to the book "Son-in-law", many key plots, I have been brewing for four or five years or more, in the past few years to think about it repeatedly and chew it, and then write it out, the effect is good.
Then when your work is doing a good job, there will naturally be some derivatives, at this time, a creator to dabble in derivatives, is undoubtedly to attack the other with their own short, wasted creative time, is a pity. Of course, I don't deny that there are creators who are knowledgeable and can do well, and these people are the objects of my admiration and admiration.
As for whether these derivatives are done or not, I think it reflects some other creator's technical problems, if the derivatives are done well, I will sincerely applaud the skills of this creator, if his skill breakthrough even has my inspiration, I will feel particularly honored - even if it makes something that is not faithful to my original work, if it also makes good things on my basis and can serve the world, is this not a great thing?
Of course, if you screw up... That's when a mediocre work that's not worth mentioning ends up where it should go. As for some people who think that this derivative has ruined your work, I often find it strange, even if there are a hundred derivative works, can they change any word in my work? My work is just my book.
The most romantic thing I can think of
During all these years of writing, I had a romantic imagination of technology. I look forward to the day when I understand and master very advanced skills, and enter the room, when all the clever plot and exquisite writing I can grasp and complete in one go. I think this may have stemmed from an obsession that was born out of the poor writing in the first years.
Then in the imagination of that year, I would assume that I had progressed all the way to about fifty years old, that my writing skills had reached the limit of this life, and that I would use this wonderful skill to write a harmonious literary work. But by now, I've discovered that there may not be a moment like that, and with each round of progress you're going to find more bigger problems.
I have been able to see that even when I reach the age of fifty, I will be troubled by all kinds of literary conundrums, and maybe I will only write slower, not faster. My book is an experimental essay, and the next book must be, and by the time I'm fifty, I probably won't want to stop. Staying is boring.
I don't pursue harmony, my feelings for texts are very weak, and at the end of the day, I'm just a schoolboy who likes to spend time solving thinking problems. What gives me joy is only this process of "seeking knowledge," and once I have knowledge in my hands, joy goes elsewhere.
The first time I wrote a novel was in the fourth grade of elementary school, and it has been nearly thirty years. Thank you for the joy that literature has brought me over the past thirty years. It was a happy process, although mathematics, physics and chemistry also made me feel interesting, but what I chose in the end was literature, we tossed each other to test each other, presumably in the future, there will be sitting on the cradle chair to reminisce about the past of the afternoon, at that time, the sun will be very warm, everything in the yard, also thriving.
(Column Planner: Yu Jing)