Where does the word "novel" come from?

The word "novel" was first seen in "Zhuangzi · Foreign Things": "The novel is decorated as a county magistrate, and it is far away from Dada." (Novel means "trivial words, not the place of Taoism" , Qian, pursuit; county magistrate, good reputation.) "Trivial words" and "simple knowledge of the byways" are the original meaning of novels.

Huan Tan said this about novels in his "New Theory": "If a novelist combines Congchan Xiaoyu, draws recent examples and discusses them, and writes short books to manage his body and family. There are considerable words to say." (The novel is still a short book about "governing the body and managing the family", rather than a "big road" for political transformation of the people.)

Ban Gu believes that the novel is "street talk and Taoism". "Tingtu (same as "Tu") said "The Creation of the Writer", although he believes that the novel is still a small knowledge and a small way, but from another angle it touches on the characteristics of the novel that emphasizes fiction and is rooted in life.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the reformists Liang Qichao and others vigorously advocated the "revolution in the novel world", and the theory of novels took on a completely new look. The status of novels has increased unprecedentedly, and they are even regarded as the "soul of the nation", "the root of official history" and "the best literature". They are no longer insignificant "street talk" or "trivial remarks".

Novel is a literary genre that focuses on character portrayal and reflects social life through complete storylines and specific environmental descriptions.

Novel has three elements: characters, storyline, and environment (natural environment and social environment). The main means by which novels reflect social life is to create characters.

We call the characters in novels typical characters; this character is created by the author based on real life. He is different from real people. He "mixes various things and combines them into one". Through such a typical character The image reflects life and is more concentrated and universally representative.

The novel can use a general introduction or a specific description to create characters. It can describe the character's appearance or describe the character's psychological activities; it can include the character's actions and dialogue, or the author's words can be appropriately inserted. Discussion; it can be written from the front or sideways.

Novel mainly shows the character and the center through the storyline. Stories come from life, but through sorting, refining and arranging, they become more concentrated, more complete and more representative than the real things happening in current life.

The description of the environment and the creation of characters in the novel are extremely important to the central idea. In environmental description, social environment is the focus, which reveals various complex social relationships, such as the character's identity, status, historical background of growth, etc. The natural environment includes the location, time, season, climate, scenery, etc. of character activities. The description of the natural environment plays a great role in expressing the mood of the characters and exaggerating the atmosphere.

Perhaps it is because of the ancient principle that "literature has no fixed rules", or more likely because of the dizzying changes in literary and artistic trends in recent years. First, the timing rule was found to be a scam, and then a large number of trendy authors The plot and story are destroyed, and the novel actually makes people feel like they are stuck in a fog. At first, it is unclear, and at the same time, it is so mysterious.

What did Jia Pingwa say? He said: "What is a novel? A novel is a kind of speaking, telling a story. We have made many efforts - there are already so many writers and works in the world. How can we pass by them and still go away - In fact, they are all trying to come up with a new way of saying it." ("White Night·Postscript")

No matter what others say, since I want to write a novel, I will write what I think it is. This is what I, Zhao Wenhong, said. I think novels are a literary genre that uses description as the main method to depict the typical characters of typical characters.

The so-called typical character mainly means that there is something in this character that can reflect the author's ideological intention. Through the typical portrayal of this character, the author's writing intention can be realized, it's that simple. As for typical characters, they serve typical characters and serve the needs of art.

The teachings in the textbooks should not be discarded. Experts have summarized the characteristics of novels: shaping characters as the main means of reflecting or expressing life; having a relatively complete and vivid plot; having specific, Typical environmental description. Character, plot and environment are called "the three elements of novels".

Experts have also scientifically divided novels into categories. The less controversial method is to classify novels in terms of length. There are four types of novels: novels, novellas, short stories and micro-novels.

Due to the difference in length, these four types of novels have different characteristics and expression methods in writing. In actual creation, it is very important to understand the subtle differences between them. For example, in terms of material selection, if you want to use a theme suitable for a full-length novel and forcefully apply it to a micro-novel, the thing you write will definitely be very tasteless.

Short stories are relatively short in length and capacity, generally less than 20,000 words and more than 2,000 words. The characters are concentrated, the story is simple, and the structure is compact. Often a typical aspect or fragment of life is intercepted and depicted in a concentrated manner to remind the meaning of social life. It often uses a protagonist and a clue to only write about what happened in a few hours or days, but it requires readers to think of more distant things after reading it.

Micro-novel is shorter, ranging from dozens, hundreds to two thousand words. The plot is simple and the characters are few. Most of them are based on a small thing in daily life, containing praise or criticism or philosophy.

In English, the original meaning of the word "FICTION" is fiction. The fictional ability of good writers is always outstanding without exception. Fiction cannot be separated from imagination, so what is the basis of imagination?

The fiction of a novel depends on the writer’s culture, knowledge and experience. Fiction is artistic and has standards.

There are three types of writers: observational, experiential and imaginative. French Maupassant was an observant novelist. In 10 years, he wrote 60 novels and 300 short stories. The writer has been an experiential type since Weixi. He stayed in a labor camp for more than 20 years, suffered various tortures, and had many people die around him. He had personal experience. The young writer Su Tong's "A Group of Wives and Concubines" and "My Life as an Emperor" were all created based on rich and peculiar imagination.

From another perspective, I divide writers into two types. One is easier, that is, translating life materials into literature, and other writers can learn to do this. The other is more difficult, as their works provide great possibilities for the novel itself from content to form. Therefore, they have a kind of irreplaceability, and no one can confuse them with other writers. There is nothing that others cannot achieve through technical training.