How to write a novel well?

(1) people. Characters are the backbone of the novel, and the key to the success of the novel lies in whether the characters are realistic and whether the images are full. It requires the author to deeply, richly and Shakespeare-like reproduce all people in life through painting, metaphor, contrast, dialogue, action and psychological description. The author's philosophy and aesthetics, as well as the theme of the novel, quietly flow into the reader's mind through the characters. How to portray characters? Lu Xun's "comprehensive method" is more practical: "Take all kinds of people and synthesize one person" (Complete Works of Lu Xun, vol. 6, p. 423), "Often the mouth is in Zhejiang, the face is in Beijing, and the clothes are in Shanxi, which is a patchwork role" (Complete Works of Lu Xun, vol. 4, p. 394). Why is "piecing together characters" more vivid? Because writing a novel can't stick to real people and stories, the characters in the novel must be typical. And typicalization-from many similar prototypes in life, the essence of the same kind is concentrated on the characters, making their personality more distinct than that in life. That is, from the beauty of life to the beauty of art, from the truth of life to the truth of art, for example, Ah Q in The True Story of Ah Q was abstracted by Lu Xun from many similar Ah Q in that era. It looks like this and that, but no one looks like it. It is a truly typical, personalized and artistic "this one". What we should pay special attention to here is that Lu Xun's "patchwork" of such characters stems from life and re-creation. It is not a simple one plus one equals two, not a physical change, but a chemical change, just like dihydrogen plus one oxygen, which becomes a kind of "water" that is neither hydrogen nor oxygen-a brand-new "personality". ?

(2) the plot. This is the second element of the novel. What is the drama? Gorky said: "That is, the connection, contradiction, sympathy, disgust and general relationship between characters-the history, typical growth and composition of a certain character." In short, the plot is the history of the characters. The development of characters depends on plot, the development of characters' stories depends on plot, and the contradiction between characters depends on plot. It can be said that the plot is the most important factor in portraying characters. The more vivid the plot, the more vivid the characters are. Gorky's "Mother", Yang Mo's "Song of Youth" and Liang Bin's "Red Flag Spectrum" all revolve around the characters, paving the way for their growth and providing heaven and earth for their personality conflict and transformation. So every character is vivid and lifelike. As a service for the characters, the plot must conform to the logic of life development. Whether it is the thrilling plot in the storm or the ordinary plot in daily life, whether it is the causality and inevitability of the plot, or the contingency and suddenness of the plot, it can't be empty and subjective, but it comes from life. After screening, refining, processing and transformation in life, it really becomes the inevitable destination of the development history and character growth of the characters. The Troubled Life written by contemporary female writer Chi Li arranges various plots through the troubles that the protagonist feels like a daily running account, and then calmly displays them one by one. Express the macro of "life" with the micro of "one day"; With one person's "small world", I saw the "big world" of millions of people. The reason why it can give readers such a deep impression and feeling is that every plot in this short story comes from real life. Everyone who has lived in the city, especially ordinary workers and small civil servants, has this experience to some extent. From this, a conclusion is drawn: when designing the preface-beginning-development-climax-ending-ending of any novel plot, we should pay attention to its life. The closer the plot is to life, the more it can enrich and deepen the characters, and the more it can reflect its artistic charm and appeal. ?

(3) details. This is the third element of the novel. If the plot is a person's skeleton, then the details are the flesh and blood attached to the skeleton. If there is only a good plot and the details are not full, then the characters portrayed are like anemia and emaciation, pale and unable to stand up. So the famous writer Lee Joon said, "The plot is easy to handle, but the details are hard to find." In a sense, this is true. No matter how good the plot is, it depends on the combination of details. The details are true and the plot is true. Only when the details are vivid, the plot will avoid concepts and formulaic, and will bring readers a rich flavor of life. Please read a passage on page 573 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: "Yun Shang holds a knife in his right hand and Lu Su's hand in his left, pretending to be drunk:' You invited me to dinner today, not mentioning Jingzhou. I'm drunk now, and I'm afraid I'll hurt my old feelings. I'll invite you to Jingzhou for a meeting to discuss this matter another day. Lu Su was out of her wits and was dragged to the river by Yun Chang. "。 Lv Meng and Gan Ning each led their own troops out. They saw Yunshang holding a broadsword and holding Lu Su personally, fearing that Lu Su would be injured, they dared not move. Yun Chang reached the boat, but he just let go and stood at the bow to say goodbye to Lu Su. Sue was as stupid as a fool, watching the boat go with the wind. The above is the last detail in the plot of "Guan Yunchang going to the meeting alone" in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Yunchang's drunken language, Yunchang's momentum of pulling Lu Su to the river with a knife in one hand, Yunchang's farewell on the boat, and the way that Monroe and Gan Ning were afraid to move, and Lu Su was too scared to speak ... pushed the plot ending of "going to the meeting alone". The images of Guan Yunchang and Lu Su leap between the lines. One point to emphasize here is that the smallest unit of these plots, whether it is action details, psychological details, dialogue details, portrait details, expression details, environmental details and so on. , can only come from social life, work, study, entertainment and rest, from the words and deeds, emotions and psychological activities of all kinds of characters, we must closely focus on the central plot of the characters, and we must pay attention to their life and accuracy. ?

(4) environment. This is the fourth element of the novel. The formation of characters' personalities, the development of plots and the rendering of details in novels are all inseparable from the environment of imagination. Environment is generally divided into natural environment and social environment. The natural environment refers to the natural conditions of characters' lives, and the social environment refers to the political, economic, cultural and social conditions of characters' lives in a certain historical period. These two environments are the space for portraying characters and the support of plots and details. Only writers who are good at describing these two environments can write novels harmoniously and uniformly by using the background, form, atmosphere, structure and color endowed by the environment. Jia Pingwa, a contemporary writer, handled this very well. His novels, such as the twelfth lunar month, the first day of the twelfth lunar month, Jiwowa people, Three Stories of Shangzhou and Impetuousness, make full use of the natural and social environment in which he lives, and integrate the local yellow plains, wild and romantic scenery, heroic house buildings, gorgeous utensils, and folk etiquette, songs, sacrifices and divination. Please see the following excerpt from the twelfth lunar month, the first month:

"This place is small, but it is a famous town in Shangzhou. To the south is the Qinling Mountains; The Qinling Mountains meander, but it is gentle here, and a stone peak gathers alone. If this stone peak is in the shape of a glyph, it is a word "Shang", and if it is in the shape of a human figure, it is a sitting Weng. However,' if the mountain is not high, there must be spirit'. During the Qin Dynasty, there were four famous mountains: Dongyuan Gong, Jiao Lizhong, Qiliji and Huanggong Xia. They live in seclusion here, hungry for purple berries and thirsty for stone springs, but they are famous in history. As a result, the land was spread out, and this place was narrow to the right and far to the right. Which one in Shangzhou doesn't know? There is water in front of the town, and there is no dragon in the water, but there are giant salamanders, and the water is also named. Unexpectedly, Shaanxi, a land located on the west bank of the Yellow River, turned into a show and was simply attributed to the Yangtze River basin. ?

It is inevitable that there will be outstanding people. Han, 6 1 year-old, is often excited about this. He keeps a local history of Shangzhou at home and reads it carefully with a pair of broken reading glasses in his spare time. When you are full, you will know the allusions of the descendants of the previous dynasty and the anecdotes of the official unofficial history. As for the eight scenic spots in Shangzhou and the eight scenic spots in this town, they know everything. One of the eight sights of the town is "the winter morning fog covers the town", so there are many people who get up early in winter. But most people who get up early are farmers. They get up early to pick up dung, and fog is an obstacle for them. Less than half are cadres. Cadres look at fog, and they also look at fog, and they don't know much about it. Who can get up early to watch the fog, and who can see the joy after watching the fog? That's him, Han! "?

Jia Pingwa's description of this environment: the natural form is vivid; Historical traces, telling stories; Social conditions, scenery. The characters in the play, past and present, local farmers and on-the-job township cadres, along with mountains, water and rocks, naturally float in front of us, while Han, one of the protagonists, walks out of the stage with measured steps like a man in the fog after the fog slowly dissipates. This is to set off people with scenery, express scenery with people, and combine scenes to complement each other. ?

The four elements mentioned above are the main genes of the novel. If you master these four aspects, no matter what type or form of novel you write, it is a preliminary introduction. ?