Butterfly transformation, also known as metamorphosis, generally refers to a great metamorphosis in a better or more perfect aspect in dormancy, similar to the process of a caterpillar completing the process of becoming a butterfly in the chrysalis, and the moment the cocoon is broken, it is a butterfly transformation. Extended to the human experience, the progress made through pain and suffering is called the transformation or sublimation of the soul.
The process of writing is like a chrysalis in a prison. You are woven into a thick cocoon by a thousand threads. There is no one to help you, and if you want to be reborn and free, you can only rely on yourself, little by little, to bite through the shell from the inside, to break out of the cocoon from the darkness, and come to a world where you can see the sun. The moment you break out of the cocoon, you become a beautiful butterfly.
Writing in the true sense of the word is like a long, lonely night walk. Boundless darkness surrounds you, with no travel companions to talk to, and no caravanserai to rest. You walk alone in the boundless wilderness, on the roadless wasteland. How far is the destination? I don't know. When can I arrive? I don't know. The only thing you know is that no matter if it's windy or rainy, you can't stop, you have to move forward without hesitation. Only by getting rid of this shell of the prison mind can you create a better version of yourself and a better work.
In order to complete the writing of "White Deer Plain", Chen Zhongzhong endured the loneliness and loneliness of the blue light and yellow roll of the snow case in his hometown and ancestral home, and finally completed the writing of "White Deer Plain". The writing span spanned three years, from April 1988 to late March 1992, with several interruptions in between. The drafts and redrafts of nearly a million words were completed in his ancestral house in his hometown of Xijiang Village, Baqiao.
The village where Chen Zhongzhong's hometown is located was still quite closed back then, the houses in the village were close to the northern slope of Bailuyuan on the geography, the TV signal was blocked, and the TV series could not be watched, so he could only listen to "News Network" on the radio, and there was only one dirt and stone road that could lead to the bus station, and once it rained and snowed, he could hardly go out.
In order to complete the writing of "White Deer Plain" in a quiet state, Chen Zhongzhong even changed the writing habit of "day and night" in the past. He stopped working after three or four o'clock in the afternoon, mainly to ensure that he could continue to write tomorrow. In the first two months, I had no experience, and when I wrote well, it continued into the evening, and when I woke up the next day, I felt tired and sluggish, so I decided to finish it a little earlier so that my brain could rest and recuperate.
After I stopped writing, the characters were still gathering in my head. The plot of the story is still developing continuously, and it still can't achieve the purpose of resting, so I have to take some various ways to expel those characters and stories from my mind as soon as possible, so that I can purify myself as soon as possible. He left his desk and sat in the courtyard, drank tea and listened to Qin's voice, turned on the volume of the radio to the maximum, and let the strong music and singing completely expel the characters and stories in his mind.
But sometimes it doesn't work. He prunes, fertilizes, and sprays pesticides on the flowers and trees in his yard, and he finds that when he focuses on a certain task, it works best. In winter and summer, in the evening, he went for a walk by the river, and on summer nights, sometimes climbed the hillside and caught grasshoppers in the thorn bushes with a flashlight. In winter, a wildfire is occasionally set off to burn the wasteland. He found that these methods worked, his mood and mood were quickly adjusted, and he could have a hunch that tomorrow morning's writing would get off to a good start.
Almost every night before going to bed, he has to drink a few glasses of white wine, and then he will fall into a very solid sleep. After waking up in the morning, I used to drink a kind of green tea called "Shaanxi Qing", drank almost a hot water bottle in a row, smoked two cigars, and gradually entered the atmosphere of life half a century ago.
The writing of a novel generally takes a long time and a more stable state of mind, so only in a quiet state of mind that is not moved by external objects can the writer be able to calmly nurture maturity and harvest in the gradual change of seasons, just like the great beauty of nature.
Chen Zhongzhong once said: "The roots of my life experience and art experience are rooted in the countryside of my hometown. As soon as I leave the hustle and bustle of the city and return to the green plains of my hometown, my soul will calm down, the smell of grass and green grass mixed with the smell of earth, which makes people intoxicated, and the smell of rural chickens and cows and sheep and the atmosphere of farm life are the best realm of creation. ”
It is not easy to stick to one's beliefs and aspirations in the process of modernization, and not to be seduced by the world's red dust. A true master of literature must be in a kitsch environment, comfortable with his own hundred years of solitude. When Chen Zhongzhong created "White Deer Plain", he did something that was not easy to do: he adhered to his beliefs and aspirations, and was comfortable with his hundred years of loneliness.