The Paper's reporter Fan Jialai intern Zhang Wanzhi
On November 20, Reading Group announced that the "Reading Origin University" was officially established, "becoming the largest incubation center for creative writing talents in Chinese in China, and contributing to the online literary ecology", which was the original vision of the university.
According to reports, in addition to the online learning platform and online community to provide systematic course configuration and communication space for writers, the "Professional Writers Training Camp" provides students with a number of courses including online literature business writing theory, online literature writing and technology, online literature fan operation, online literature writers' professionalism and case analysis.
The mentor lineup of the starting university is quite important: the well-known writer and screenwriter Liu Heping served as a special consultant, and Chen Dong, Chen Tong, Ge Hongbing, Talking Elbow, Li Xiao, Ouyang Youquan, Xiao Jinghong, Xi Xing, Yu Fei, Yuan Zixian, Zhou Xili, and Squeak served as the first batch of mentors. In this list, there are both online writers, film and television screenwriters and experts and scholars.
"This is a landmark event in the development of Online Literature in China." Ge Hongbing, a professor at Shanghai University, told the surging news reporter. "The cultivation and promotion of online writers has a professional system and channels, which means a major breakthrough in China's online literature talent training system."
Online writers took a group photo at the scene of the "Starting Point University".
Online writers have "universities" that focus on practical training
Why set up a university for online writers? Hou Xiaonan, vice president of Reading Group, believes that the reasons are mainly due to three data: Among the new writers in 2018-2019, 74% of the new writers of Reading Group are post-95s. According to internal surveys, more than 80% of writers believe that the guidance of editors is very important. However, at present, most of the writer training on the market is mainly based on the output of the writer's personal writing experience, which cannot meet the needs of the actual improvement of the writer.
Yang Chen, editor-in-chief of Reading Group, told the surging news reporter that many online writers are talented and talented, but because of the lack of guidance on the overall practice of commercial online texts from creativity, human design, plot promotion, etc., as well as the understanding of the business model of online texts, it is a pity that the success rate of works has been affected. "The development of the cultural industry needs to be promoted by fine products, and if the shortcomings of writers can be filled through training, it will be of great help to their personal growth." For a large number of newcomer writers, practical training and guidance based on systematic combing is the most practical and most needed. ”
Yang Chen introduced that the curriculum of the starting university will include two parts, online and offline, and there is no threshold limit for the students themselves. The online courses are taught in grades, and according to the individual situation of the students, they are provided with courses of the corresponding level, and the writers with zero experience also have beginner courses to choose from.
In terms of the content of the training, from the initial creative incubation to the establishment of the novel world view, the character design, the outline, the beginning of the story and the promotion of the plot, each link occupies an irreplaceable position in the curriculum system. "The whole training is closer to the actual battle, and it is necessary to constantly communicate with the students and give timely feedback in the teaching process; at the same time, the teaching itself is also the process of writing, and when the whole course is over, a book is written."
What courses can students take at this university? The list of "Online Literature Business Writing Theory, Online Literature Writing and Technology, Online Literature Fan Operation, Online Literature Writers' ProfessionalIsm and Case Analysis" is a "curriculum" revealed by Yang Chen. While training and incubating writing skills, the starting university will also integrate with the market and evaluate the commercialization of students' works.
In fact, training online writers isn't the only goal of starting college. Writers' training courses will be followed by screenwriting courses. Yang Chen said frankly, "Whether it is a screenwriter or an online article, on the whole, the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain are still in a relatively 'hungry' state for the need for good content." In order to consolidate the online literature industry, the training objects of Yuwen Starting Point University include the upstream and downstream of the entire cultural and creative industry, and it is hoped that all such talents who need to write stories and tell stories can be trained. "In the training of writers, some upstream and downstream knowledge will also be involved, so that online writers can understand the adaptation of the downstream of the industrial chain and help writers and screenwriters better collaborate."
Liu Heping, specially invited advisor of Reading Starting Point University, delivered a remote speech.
The "writer ecology" continues to make progress and cultivate high-quality content talents
The professionalization of online writers is slowly on the right track. In the view of the writer "His Majesty the King", the online literature industry is in a golden period of development, showing a healthy and diversified development, and there are more and more fine adaptations such as "Qing Yu Nian". "Even if the IP adaptation is not successful, you can rely on the income from writing to meet your own life."
The writer "Back to the Truth" believes that although short videos, games and other forms of entertainment are prevalent at present, the charm of words cannot be replaced. "The content expressed in a video can be achieved with a few hundred words; while the text content of 10,000 words is made into a video, but it takes a lot of cost." In terms of content collision, the content expressed by words is the most sufficient: a successful author can mobilize the reader's own imagination, and the reader's happiness is far greater than the fixed picture of the video. Novels, videos, comics, anime, games, these five types of products can not completely squeeze each other, they have a mutual promotion effect, which means that the prospects for future online adaptations are very impressive. ”
The writer "Talking Elbow" said, "It is a great honor to be one of the first special tutors of the University of Reading Beginnings." I myself wrote halfway out of the house, and I knew exactly how hard it was to be an author. Now is the best era of online literature, the era when we can live with dignity on words. This era is not easy to come by, not only the foundation cast by the previous generation of writers has laid the reader base, but also the continuous maintenance of our industry colleagues and editors. Now that the University of Reading Has Been Established, I feel very happy to have the opportunity to contribute a little to the industry. ”
With 8.9 million authors and 13.4 million works, the steadily growing online literature industry chain has become a landscape in the cultural industry. The discussion on the system and ecology of the online literature industry once became the focus of public opinion. In this regard, Yang Chen introduced that the ecology of reading articles for its writers is constantly upgrading. For example, in June this year, a new contract system between the platform and the author was launched, that is, the "single optional new contract", which gives more choices on the basis of fully respecting the writer's wishes and reshapes the writer's platform relationship; in August, the editor grouping system was reformed and upgraded, so that the works received more effective attention and guidance.
In September, Yuwen upgraded the welfare policy for writers and launched the "Professional Writers Star Program" to improve the service level of writers in many aspects such as writer support, writer care, writer training and brand operation; launched the "Young Writers Support Program", starting from four aspects, such as creative incentives, creation competitions, honor lists and traffic support, to help young writers broaden their upward channels and development space.
Cheng Wu, CEO of Yuwen Group, believes that the establishment of the starting university is a key measure for the construction of "Writer Ecology 2.0". "The core of the content industry is always the creativity of people, and we hope that through the cultivation of high-quality content talents, we will create an abundant and organic source of living water for China's cultural and creative industry."
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang