How to write a miniature novel?

Miniature novels are also called short stories, ultra-short stories and one-minute novels. In the past, it existed in the form of various short stories, but its later development made it an independent literary style, and its nature was defined as "a marginal modern emerging literary genre between marginal short stories and essays". Tolstoy said: "Short stories are the best schools to train writers." (Literature) Japanese writer Shinichi Hoshino pointed out: "There were works similar to ultra-short stories a long time ago. ..... However, the official appearance of the name ultra-short story originated in the United States. " Most people admire the American writer O 'Henry (1862— 19 10) as the founder. His nearly 300 works have vivid plots and humorous styles. Among them, "The Gift of Maggie" has moxibustion crowds. It can be said that the ultrashort story has three elements: novel conception, rigorous plot and novel ending. In other words, within 1500 words, everything that an ordinary novel should have should be summarized. It can also be said that the mini-novel is a kind of sensitivity, which captures the novel from a point, a picture, a contrast, an exclamation and an instant-a kind of wisdom, a kind of beauty, an intriguing scene and a fresh idea. The writing goal of mini-novels is four words: micro, new, dense and strange. First, micro. Said space is small, not more than 1500 words. Therefore, we must pay attention to the conciseness of words when conceiving and writing, and do not allow redundant words and sentences in the works. Such as Mark Twain's "A Page in the Husband's Spending Book". The full text is only seven lines, but it has the whole plot of a novel. Second, new. Refers to the novel concept and fresh style. Shinichi Hoshino tried his best to pursue "novelty" one minute after writing the novel. He wrote: "Some critics confuse my novels with American short plays, which is inappropriate. I was influenced by American short stories. But I didn't completely rely on it, but played my own unique style and skills. My novel emphasizes a' new' word, giving readers new themes, new knowledge and even surprises them! " To this end, he often uses fairy tales, fables, science fiction, reasoning and other techniques to reflect his unique feelings in real life and express fresh themes through unrealistic themes or realistic brushwork, such as his "Bao Xiu". Of course, the concept of mini-novels, like other forms of novels, is sometimes not clear at a glance, and sometimes the theme is not one, but diversified, which is ok. For example, Frederic Brown, a famous American science fiction writer, wrote an article entitled "The Shortest Science Fiction in the World": "The last man on earth was sitting alone in his room when someone knocked at the door ..." This is very unique and thought-provoking. Third, secrets. It means tight structure. Structurally, the author of mini-novels should try his best to compress and concentrate the time, place and characters as much as possible, so that the structure of his works is concise and exquisite, just like micro-carving crafts. Therefore, we should work hard on material selection, cutting and typesetting. Fourth, odd. It means that the ending should be novel, ingenious and unexpected. The characteristics of miniature novels mostly lie in a "strange" word. Many excellent works by Chinese and foreign writers are often breathtaking in the end. For example, Shao Baojian's "Forever Gate" ended unexpectedly. The second part: the writing elements of mini-novels (there is no clear text)

I once wrote a novel on a whim, but I was criticized as moaning without illness and lacking the basic elements of the novel. I can't make up stories, but I'm still unconvinced that there are no basic elements of novels. The so-called basic elements of novels are nothing more than characters, plots and environments. The plot of a novel generally includes the beginning, development, climax and ending. The environment of the novel includes natural environment, social environment and the specific environment of the characters' activities. Novels should create typical characters in typical environments. This is the most traditional and old-fashioned requirement. Having said that, I can't help laughing to myself. I think of a joke circulating on the Internet. The liberal arts professor at the universities of Noble and Love asked each student to write a short story, demanding that the novel must have two basic elements: "Noble" and "Love". A few days later, the students finished their homework one by one. When the professor reads Chu Fengtou's novels, he is very helpless, because both these elements exist. The content of the novel is: "The princess is pregnant." The professor had to ask him to add some elements of "fantasy". A few days later, Chu Fengfeng gave his masterpiece to the professor: "The princess of Vega is pregnant." The professor was very angry after reading it, so he added some mysterious elements. This time, Chu Fengtou's novel became: "Princess Vega is pregnant. Who did it? " The professor can't stand it any longer. He made the last move, that is, let Chu Fengtou add "religious" elements. A few days later, when the professor read Chu Fengtou's novel with a smug smile, he tore it to pieces. "The princess of Vega is pregnant, OhMyGod! Who did it? " It can be seen that this so-called element statement is not the standard for evaluating articles at all. Novels are very expensive, especially mini novels. But innovation is not just an unexpected plot, the most important thing is the selection of materials and personalized emotions. Moreover, the scope of personalization should be within the strange novelty, and it should not be obscure. Thousands of years of civilization development, no matter how renovated, can not get rid of the general plot framework. Both unconscious identification and conscious rebellion are based on the same psychological state. The hard-earned article is just a temporary skill, just a game, and usually everyone thinks it's too interesting, and then it's interesting and then it's gone. Why do you want to be happy when you see a book and feel sad when you see a book? Excellent works are always the fruit of painstaking efforts. Even if the author thinks it is a game, it is actually the true self in a relaxed state. Now it seems that most people learn to write novels and pay more attention to what elements they have than novelists. In fact, it can be regarded as the necessity of practice and has no influence on the novel creation itself. I'm afraid even the evaluator will look at it from this angle. Just like everyone can learn to draw ink painting now, the standard of public participation in evaluation has promoted the decline of ink painting, and the reason is the same. Generally speaking, the number of words in novels is more than 200,000, the number of words in short stories is within several thousand to 30,000, the number of words in novelettes is between 30,000 and 50,000 to 100,000, and the number of words in mini-novels, short stories, palm-reading novels and one-minute novels is generally within 2,000. I think the Internet is basically a mini-novel. The third part: The characteristics of mini-novels (1): Knowing the micro, knowing the far from the near. Few characters, simple plot. But small but fine, subtle and wonderful, with less wins more, micro reflects macro. Strong sense of reality, fast and light, full of life breath, but wrote the "far" of artistic realm, which makes people linger. (2) Learn from others and be eclectic. It widely absorbs the advantages of other articles and artistic genres, and can be called "fuzzy novel". (3) accurate materials and novel lenses. Micro-fiction is about a point on the surface, which can be called a "lens" in film and television. Flashback and supplementary narration in general short stories should be the description and connection of instant shots in mini-novels to avoid lengthy narration and explanation. (4) Write something special and emphasize emotion. The description of characters in mini-novels is characterized by writing a certain aspect of the protagonist or writing the emotional state of the protagonist. In this way, the novel is not a fixed thing, and it seems that most people have some misunderstandings about it. The first characteristic is obvious. Or with traces of China's subtle sense of justice since ancient times, similar to fables. Even simple love stories can show the gap between people, and even Aphrodite's magic can't make up for the deep gap. Such a simple story of love and non-love can be sublimated into the meaning of all mankind, not just a romantic night. Trust is not only a matter between lovers, but also a cornerstone of this society! The tendency of emotional psychological description is difficult for ordinary readers to understand and accept, which involves the second feature of mini-novels, that is, the fuzziness of genre. Consciously diluting the plot is similar to prose narration, which is probably why others think some novels lack elements! But emotional description is precisely the development trend of micro-novels. If indifference is not understood and expressed by a chaotic stream of consciousness, the overlap between illusion and reality can just show an irrational mentality. But it is too obscure and disorganized, which is one of the reasons why this novel is not understood. Most people still follow the classic ideas and even look at it with curiosity and excitement. Once art became something everyone liked, it began to decline, even though novels used to be so unattractive. But who knows if what is not understood today will become a classic tomorrow? So I still don't say much. The fourth part: the artistic expression of mini-novels. First, we should be good at capturing the focus of our thoughts.

Miniature novels hold life as "breaking it into parts", reflecting that life is "winning by points". It can't write the "face" of life like medium, long and short stories. It must condense the content of social life and its own understanding and evaluation on a certain "point" and illuminate the whole process one by one; Pass a little, but it also includes all. Therefore, it is particularly important to find and capture the focus of mini-novels.

On this point, many short story researchers emphasize it with different terms from different angles.

Lv Kuiwen and Zheng Jiande once pointed out in "Skills of Writing Short Stories": To write mini-novels, we must first "seize those poetic, aesthetic or enlightening moments in life."

Liang Duorong once pointed out in "Minifiction Writing": "Poetry has poetic eyes, literature has literary eyes, and minifiction has bright spots. Miniature novel is a kind of lens novel, which has no complicated plot and complete characters. It needs a single plot, which depicts one side of the character. Therefore, it should be instantaneous focus, so that what you get after focusing is the bright spot. " "Without this bright spot, there would be no molding reaction in mini-novels, and the characters would be mediocre. Without the brilliance of life, there would be no power to shock and infect people. "

Zhao Shuguang also pointed out in his monograph: "Poetry has poetic eyes, drama has dramatic eyes, and micro-fiction also has micro-fiction eyes. Let's just call this eye the' that point' of the mini novel. " With it, the whole article will have life, and with vitality, its significance will be profound. Without it, the whole article will be listless, even because of the lack of life mechanism. "

They all emphasize that the artistic image of mini-novels is composed of a simple, single and rich focus; To write mini-novels, we must first find such a focus.

What kind of point is this focus? Liu Haitao pointed out in the book Theory and Skills of Miniature Fiction that Miniature Fiction should be an image entity. This image entity should be simple, fresh and original. It should contain contradictions and dislocations, with rich connotations, bearing the theme of the novel, including the past, present and future of life. We believe that Liu Haitao's summary is more in line with the actual creation.

The focus of mini-novels should be an image entity, so it is called an image entity because this "core" is the combination of thought and image. It is both visual and ideological. It is not only an image, but also contains the ideological content that the author is aware of. Why emphasize that it is an image entity rather than anything else? Because we only have a certain idea, or a good creative intention, and have no corresponding image, we can't write a mini-novel. If we have wonderful stories and wonderful characters and don't realize its connotation and significance, we can't write mini-novels. When writing a novel, it is not enough to have creative intention. Only intention, no corresponding image, no way to start. It is not good to write a novel without understanding the subject matter. Without understanding, it is impossible to grasp the spirit and soul of the work. Therefore, to write a mini-novel, first of all, there needs to be an image entity that closely combines image and thought.

The focus of mini-novels should be simple and can be explained clearly in just one or two sentences. Why emphasize simplicity? Because the length of mini-novels can only accommodate simple image entities, because overly complex image entities are not the aesthetic characteristics of the artistic image of mini-novels. If too complicated image entities are stuffed into mini-novels, the differences between mini-novels and other novel styles will actually be confused.

The focus of mini-novels should be originality, freshness and novelty.

Any literary creation needs creation. Miniature novels need to create wonderful moments and wonderful points to impress and enlighten people, and "see the spirit in the nuances". It should be a kind of wit, a kind of sensitivity, and a sudden grasp of a scene, a moment and a detail in life; It should be a vision, an artistic nerve, and a penetrating power to see the end at a glance. Mediocre vision and dull thinking are its fatal wounds. Therefore, the focus of mini-novels can only be the author's own search, fresh and unique.

At the same time, the focus of mini-novels should have connotations, contradictions and dislocations, be able to load the theme of novels, and be able to accommodate all aspects of the past, present and future. This is the key to determine the aesthetic value and cognitive value of mini-novels.

Miniature novels are not written by hand. It is not a small talk, not a pastime after a meal, but an art form for writers to grasp the world and life. It should be like what belinsky said: "With one feature and one sentence, you can vividly and fully show what you can't show in more than a dozen books." . It should be a simple, clear and intelligent way. The author's subjective consciousness, emotional thinking and ideological confusion should be confirmed from it, which is plain and straightforward and can not arouse readers' interest. Therefore, this core, this focus, must contain contradictions and dislocations, can carry the theme of the novel, can contain society, politics, life and history, and make people think; You can see richness in simplicity and richness in simplicity.

Where does this focus come from? First, simple and single contradictions and dislocations are found in life; One is to transform some unique feelings in life into contradictions and dislocations.

Be good at refining focus points

When writing a mini-novel, the first thing is to find the focus of the novel. The author either directly finds the focus point with contradictions and dislocations from his life, or transforms his own life feelings into the focus point with contradictions and dislocations. No matter which form, it is inseparable from further processing and refining. Because the initial focus is not necessarily deep, it needs to be typified. At the same time, there is only one focus, and it is still impossible to construct a plot or a novel. It has yet to be "gestalt" and woven into a relatively complete and simple plot. There are two tasks to be done here: first, typify the focus point so that it can load more life content; The first is to gestalt the focus, extending back and forth around the focus, making it a simple, comprehensive and complete plot.

Yu Debei's "Hangzhou Road 10" describes an unemployed youth who is bored and desperate about life. Once he played a boring letter sending game and wrote a letter to his fabricated address, telling his pain and despair: "Hangzhou Road 10 Yuan Xiaoxue". Unexpectedly, he received Yuan Xiaoxue's letter from Hangzhou Road 10 on time every month, encouraging him to live bravely. He pulled himself together and paid a return visit to thank Yuan Xiaoxue. Unexpectedly, this "Yuan Xiaoxue" turned out to be a famous disabled psychology professor who died of cancer two months ago. The old professor left a stack of letters before his death and asked his wife to send one every month. This is a work that appeals to people to communicate with each other with sincere love. According to the author, this novel has two original materials: first, the author did play such a letter-sending game in his life, but it was really a girl like Yuan Xiaoxue. She had died quietly for three days when the author visited her on the yellow autumn leaves. The second is the story of an old professor who was listening to a stranger at a small station. In the contrast between the material and the work, we can see that the contradiction in the work is misplaced: "I sent a boring letter, but I received countless serious and sincere replies", which exists in life, but he did not copy it, but turned the girl in the prototype into a professor of psychology for the disabled, pinning his feelings, ideals and understanding and evaluation of life on this incident. At the same time, he also processed and transformed the basic plot to make it more complete.

Writing "Little Japan" in the Black Sea is another case. The novel is about a scholar girl who is forced to get married with a feeling of refusing to talk to others and finally dies of depression. Where did this novel come from? According to the author, "One day, I went home to visit my relatives. In the seaside park, my mother pointed to a curly boy in front of me and said,' That's your classmate Japan. The girl who loved him was fine, but she died of illness. Die a fair death. "Mother let out a deep cry of" miserable ",and suddenly an electric shock spread all over my body. I grabbed my mother and asked her to tell a story about "Japan". The tragic girl refused to get married and tell anyone about her feelings, which made the decline and glory of life disappear in an instant-although the girl died tragically, her extremely lonely and fragile soul was more persistent and sincere, which expanded the vitality of life. "

From the author's introduction, we can see that the initial feeling of life is not contradictory dislocation, but a single sense of confusion: a girl died with an inner secret that she refused to tell. It is only after the author understands the relevant things and adds his own thoughts and comments that it is transformed into an image entity containing contradictions and dislocations: "an extremely lonely and fragile soul, so it is more persistent, more sincere and more energetic"-here, the author transforms a single and simple feeling into contradictions and dislocations, thus making it acquire the characteristics of a mini-novel. After the author obtains this focus, the core and soul of the work are determined. The author's further work is to make this image entity gestalt and vividly and completely reappear through the extension of the plot.

When talking about novel creation, writer Lin Jinlan said: "According to my study experience, the conception of novels is generally like this: you accumulate something from your life and find a' core' ..." After you have a' core', you have to go back to your life to find out which meat is suitable for growing on this core and which is not. Not all meat can grow on this core, so you just put it on and paste it. "Lin Jinlan's words can be said to be a good illustration of the idea of short stories. The so-called "gestalt" is to make a reasonable imagination according to life and let the "focus" grow the right "meat".

Be good at "highlighting" the focus.

When writing mini-novels, we should not only capture and refine the key points, but also be good at strengthening the key points. If the focus is scattered and lost in the whole plot, the novel will be written and there will be nothing wonderful. Some learners, with good ideas, write flatly, one of the reasons is that they don't know how to strengthen the key points.

To show the focus perfectly and let it illuminate the whole article and the reader's mind, the first thing to do is never forget this "point" in your mind and always focus on it. On the one hand, the author wants to generate many branches from this "point"; On the other hand, he wants to project and pay attention to this "point", where Wan Chuan enters the sea and green leaves help flowers.

The condensed focus of mini-novels is often expressed as a core detail. In mini-novels, this core detail is not a local ornament, but a global art hub. In the whole novel structure, it is the central detail, and it is the climax detail in the whole story development process. It is the emotional focus of the whole novel and the finishing touch of the whole work. If it is removed, the whole miniature novel will cease to exist. Therefore, when developing other plots and details, we must take this as the starting point, just like snowballing, no matter how we roll, we will never leave the core.

If you want to show the focus perfectly, you must know how to use certain plot skills. We usually use contrast, rendering, sharp turn, exaggeration, coincidence, repetition, concern, suspense and so on. The successful application of each technique may make the focus of the novel stand out in an instant. For example, Meng Weizai's illustrations depict the interaction between father and son. The son painted his father with a small head and a big body, indicating that this is "one of the illustrations in the history of father's thought". After reading it, the father drew "one of the illustrations of his son's growth history" and drew his son a big head and a pencil-like body. The focus of this novel lies in the contrast between the two paintings. Another example is Lu Dongzhi's novel "Ah! ! ! ! ! ! "It's about two children playing games under an old tree:" We are both wooden heads, unable to speak or move. First, don't laugh, second, don't move, and third, don't whisper to each other to see who has the strongest will. " It's hard to know what the author is saying just by watching this clip. However, when the author repeats this passage for the sixth time, the meaning of the work is sublimated: we finally see that there is something stupid and unreasonable behind this most accustomed game. We have witnessed the strangulation of children's nature, and even experienced a negative psychological set formed by the sui temperament in the national tradition. From these examples, we can see that plot skills are by no means dispensable for mini-novels. Some important and ingenious plot techniques almost constitute the whole mini-novel itself. To write mini-novels, you should be familiar with these plot techniques.

Pay attention to the characteristics of language expression.

Miniature novels have small carriers and great connotations. To achieve small carrier and large content, special attention should be paid to simplicity and implication in language expression.

Mini-novels are so short that there is little room for preaching. Any procrastination and tedious words may destroy the artistry of the novel. However, mini-novels are not embarrassing or shabby, and they are equally leisurely in a limited space. This is related to its writing skills. Miniature novels often get straight to the point and often use line drawing. A beautiful place is beautiful, and a simple place always abandons all unnecessary descriptions. Mini-novels always hide the description of the environment in the development of the plot. The expression and psychology of the characters are hidden in the actions and dialogues of the characters as much as possible.

Miniature novels try to carry a lot of content with a small carrier, and they should be as subtle as possible in language expression. Miniature novels are good at leaving artistic blank, and often write a corner, leaving readers with more imagination and supplementary space. Miniature novels always speak with images, which are hidden, cited and not published, leaving the meaning to the readers to taste. Miniature novels often like to use puns, symbols, profile descriptions and other techniques to let readers understand the meaning, "the territory outside the country" and "the image outside the image". Miniature novels always hide the truth, and draw the truth from the truth for readers to create again. Every practitioner should carefully consider these expressive features.

As far as short stories are concerned, "discovering the meaning of materials" is more important than "expressing the meaning of materials". Whether the novel can be "discovered" is the first and most important criterion to measure the artistic talent of short story writers.

Part VI: Writing skills of mini-novels.

Gestalt psychologists believe that when a healthy person is faced with incomplete or blank gestalt stimuli, he will involuntarily have a tendency to change them and make them a perfect structure, thus causing an enterprising, pursuing and nervous psychological activity. "Blank" is a part consciously set aside in artistic creation to fully express the theme, and it is an "undefined suggestive space that can arouse readers' imagination". As for mini-novels, its participation law determines that the success of works is closely related to the setting of blank space in sketches, which can be called blank space art. No style needs blank space more than mini-novels. Blank space is the key to improve the artistic conception of articles and a panacea to beautify articles and attract readers.

However, how do mini-novels express their thoughts and feelings by creating blanks? The so-called "blank space" simply means that when writing, you should control your pen and think about every sentence you ponder-in this way, you can make the sentence memorable and the article meaningful. Most writers start with characters, plots and thoughts, but none of them will deviate from the track.

In the era of various ideological trends, micro-novels often express their thoughts and feelings by omitting the background and description of characters, so that the text can be easily and richly interpreted. French writer Holly wrote an article "What's Left of the German Army", with only 200 words. The full text is reproduced as follows:

The war is over. He returned to his hometown that he had taken back from the Germans, and he hurried along the street under the dim street lights. A woman grabbed his hand and said to him in a drunken voice, "Where are you going?" Are you going to my house? "

He smiled and said, "No. Don't go to your place-I'm looking for my mistress. " He looked back at the woman. The two of them are walking under the street lamp.

The woman suddenly cried, "Ah!"

He couldn't help grabbing a woman's shoulder and facing the light. His fingers are embedded in the woman's flesh. Their eyes sparkled. He shouted, "Joan!" Pick up that woman.

(renamed translation)

It's just a simple little scene. Women, men and writers don't need a single pen and ink to write things before the war, and they don't need too many adjectives to describe the expressions and reactions of the protagonists. Instead, they let a series of fragments float in our minds randomly and irregularly. Contrast before and after the war: bustling past, warm dating; Cold streets, dissolute women, rich meanings come to the fore: the pain brought by war to the city, the distortion of human nature ... the author's thoughts and the protagonist's feelings are unknown, all of which are re-examined by readers. This is a common blank technique in art, which does not use pen and ink to describe the background and image of characters, and almost ignores the environment. Only focus on writing one or two meaningful scenes, leaving a blank in the description of characters and the narration of thoughts and feelings. However, just the right blank space covers up the unexpected rich content, just like the painter wants to draw a full apple, and only the bright spots can make people drool, just like Homer only wrote the comments of the elders and the recognition of the people when he wrote Helen. Roland barthes believes that when reading a work, readers should not only passively accept it, but also actively think about it to supplement what the author has not written. In this way, the reader will participate in the creation with the author in a mobilized and excited state, and finally complete the work. From the perspective of acceptance, literary works can be divided into readable works and writable works. The more space this article leaves for readers to experience, the more satisfying it will be. In "Few Germans Left", the screenwriter let us see a forest from a leaf. This kind of coverage ability is extraordinary, and art has become a "hero".

In mini-novels, setting blank spots or uncertain endings will make the expression of thoughts and feelings more profound and diversified. For example, Huang Jianguo's "The Last Red Fuji" sets the protagonist in a crazy state, "Portraits and funerals in the orchard → Curse → Find and pick apples → Recall history → Eat apples → (climax) force dogs, kill dogs → saw trees". At first glance, these details are not necessarily related, but they seem logical. The author went his own way and wrote that the protagonist even insulted and killed the loyal dog for the sake of Apple! However, the last sentence "Later, under the starry sky, he began to saw trees one by one." It is quite a bit "the end of the whole play". We know that we were originally in a confused state, but the protagonist is the most sober. This sentence not only explains all the strange behaviors in front of us, which leads to the effect of pending judgment, but also is a classic blank, which makes the work enter a profound ideological realm and has a lingering shock. We can't help thinking, why should a farmer personally destroy his ten years of hard work? In the limited space of mini-novels, the climax can only be arranged in the ending. By creating blank spots, it gives people an abrupt or unexpected sense of shock, which not only encourages readers to participate in trying to figure out the author's mind, but also is the key to ideological sublimation. It can be said that the success or failure of a miniature novel depends on whether the ending part can leave meaningful thinking space. The author once said: "In a sense, the writer just completed the backbone and trunk of the novel. It is not a simple explanation of this article, but to expand the space of the work and excavate the hidden parts, thus reviving into a leafy tree. " He himself used a lot of details in this mini-novel, but the more he wrote, the more leisurely he became, which made you feel unreasonable. In the end, everything is inevitable, which fully embodies his ability to leave no emotional blank and makes his works full of meaning. Another example is kuprin's Happiness, which is a bit like a fairy tale. The cruel emperor killed countless "wise men", but the phrase "fools have immortal thoughts." It is the sublimation of the theme that makes the work come to an abrupt end at this time, leaving us with deep thoughts that words can't express. This is saying the right thing at the right time. Some authors are unclear or deliberately unclear, so let readers try to figure it out for themselves. A novel needs a kind of magic, a kind of magic that attracts the reader's interest, attention and imagination and pushes him to finish it. In addition to tense plot arrangement, proper plot blank is also an extremely useful weapon and the mainstream means of artistic blank in mini-novels. According to the detailed description in Teacher Liu Haitao's Rules and Skills: A Study of Miniature Novels in the Transitional Period, there are three methods: beheading, amputation and pinching, which are analyzed in great detail.