Writing articles is not a mysterious thing—50 writing maxims from Mr. Ye Shengtao

1. Now I want to tell readers that this article is not written for entertainment when you are full and have nothing to do. It’s not like I’m afraid of being regarded as a nerd or idiot, so I have to find a few words to say and then reluctantly write. Every good article must be written for a reason. I have an experience and a meaning, and I feel that it is a little different from ordinary experiences and meanings, or it is fresher, or it is particularly profound, and it is worth writing down as a record of my personal life, and can be used for reference when needed in the future; for this reason, The author just picked up the pen to write the article. Otherwise, there are a few or a majority of people in his mind. Due to the relationship between them, he must confide his experience and thoughts to them. For this reason, the author picked up the pen to write an article. The former is for oneself, the latter is for others. In short, it is not a game of pen and ink.

2. But you must know that the purpose of composition in school is to practice writing. To practice, you have to find some questions to write, just like in arithmetic class, in order to practice calculations, you must do some application questions. Moreover, teachers who are good at teaching students all know their students' details well, and the questions they ask will never go beyond the students' experience and meaning. Although the students did not want to write any articles, after the teacher reminded them, they felt that they had much to write.

3. Writing articles is not a mysterious thing, it is a difficult thing. The material of the article is experience and meaning, and the basis of the article is language. As long as you have experience and meaning, as long as you can speak, and you can read and write, you can write articles.

4. The so-called good article is just that the materials are carefully selected and the words are precise and thorough. If, in order to write a good article, you seek precision of experience and meaning, and precise and thoughtful language, then of course you are putting the cart before the horse. But in fact, if a person wants to live a meaningful life in society, he must have precise experience and meaning, and precise and thoughtful language. It's not for writing articles, it's for life. Anyone who has undergone such cultivation will often feel that there are many articles to write, and the articles written are often good ones.

5. Life is like a source, and articles are like streams. The springs are abundant, and the streams are naturally lively and lively day and night.

6. Now we have to believe that anyone can write articles. The workers in the workshop can write articles, the farmers in the fields can write articles, the power supplies in the shops, and the stevedores on the docks can all write articles: because they each have their own lives.

7. Writing articles is not an embellishment or decoration of life, but life itself. Most people need to be literate and practice writing, not to give themselves the title of "scholar" or "writer", but just to make their life richer and more fulfilling.

8. Reading and writing are both behaviors in life, and any behavior must be developed into a habit. For example, sitting upright and standing upright are beneficial to health from a physiological point of view. But you must not think about your sitting and standing postures every time you want to sit or stand.

9. Temporarily bringing out some knowledge, how reading should be, and how writing should be, wouldn't it be necessary to break the full interest into pieces? Therefore, the knowledge of reading and writing must be turned into a habit, and you can benefit from it unconsciously. That is the real benefit.

10. There should be no unnecessary words when speaking, and there should be no unnecessary sentences when writing. Since readers can naturally understand it, it would be superfluous to write it down clearly.

11. When reading an article, if you don’t understand its main purpose and only know bits and pieces, it is equivalent to reading in vain.

12. Recording something, describing something, expressing an opinion, expressing an emotion can all become an article. Write down what you see with your eyes, and of course it becomes an article.

13. The author must write about a situation that interests him and makes him feel interesting. As for those ordinary scenes, although I can see them in my eyes, I will never be happy to pick up a pen to write about them.

14. There is more than one way to describe scenery. Some authors do not show their faces and only use words instead of pictures of landscapes, revealing them to readers one by one. Some authors themselves act as the protagonists in their stories. He runs around, looks around, and tells readers what he sees and feels.

15. Therefore, expressing feelings does not mean piling up words such as "happiness" and "pain"; these words can be used at all, and other methods can achieve the effect of expressing feelings. If you write down the origin and process that aroused your emotions, no matter external things or inner changes, write them according to what you felt at the time, then you will express your emotions. When others read your article, although they have never been exposed to those things and experienced such changes, through the medium of the article, they feel as if they have been exposed to them and happened, and they are naturally moved by the results.

16. Most of the articles that express emotions are narratives. Without things, feelings cannot arise. Any emotion is derived from the negotiation between the individual and the people, objects, and accidents surrounding the environment. Therefore, apart from narratives, there are very few purely lyrical essays. Similarly, narratives that only have the purpose of recording narratives are of course narratives; if there is a feeling infused in them and the author's original purpose is to express a feeling, then it is a lyrical essay.

17. Essays are the freest articles. The form is not fixed, and the subject matter can be taken anywhere. Unlike letters, letters have a popular style. If you don't write according to the style, people will say you don't understand worldly affairs. Unlike biographies, biographies must describe the important words and deeds of the characters. If you describe one thing and miss three, people will say that you have made some omissions.

18. An essay can be said to have no scale. It can be written in a few words or a small fragment drawn from a large area. A thought spreads like a vine until the top and root of the vine are gone. It can also be closed. As for the subject matter, anything within real life can be used as the subject matter of the essay.

19. The author's hand-written essays and the readers' pleasure in reading the essays are all for fresh interest. ...The fresh taste can only be determined by the author himself. He feels it is fresh, but at the same time he expects that some people will also find it fresh. This essay is worth writing.

20. The so-called enthusiasm comes from nature and environment. With enthusiasm, and when encountering an environment that is not hindered or even encouraging, the enthusiasm in the chest burns like a fire. However, the external manifestations of enthusiastic people, such as attitude, speech, composition, etc., may not all be the same. Can be divided into two factions. One group is that although they have enthusiasm in their hearts, they are still so dull on the outside. The other faction is not the same. He is as enthusiastic on the outside as he is on the inside. No matter an attitude or a word, he does not hide the enthusiasm in his chest.

21. The article must be derived from real life. Trying to write down things that you have never experienced in real life is bound to fail. Of course, people don’t need to pay attention to their own lives because of these articles, but as a human being, they have to shoulder human responsibilities and pay attention to their own lives. Only with a fulfilling life can there be good articles.

22. Materials like this are not forced to be written down, but are intertwined with the author's thoughts and emotions. When written into an article, it will naturally become an outstanding article and be appreciated by readers.

23. Human life is very complicated. People cannot just tell each other what they have come into contact with and what they know. They must also teach each other the principles they have discovered and understood. , confirm each other and enrich each other's knowledge. Therefore, when writing an article, you can't just write a narrative, but you must also write an explanatory text.

24. The quality of expository writing depends on the accuracy of the principles discovered and understood. The discovery is accurate, the understanding is accurate, and what is written down is the best explanatory text, unless there is something wrong with the text.

25. The expository text explains the truth. The truth is attached to things. It is not something that can be "visible by sight or knowable by touch". Sometimes it is not easy to understand. In order for readers to understand, after explaining the principle, it is best to point out some examples.

26. Going further from the expository text, it also explains a truth, reason, relationship, etc., but at the same time it is accompanied by a desire to persuade the reader and make the reader obey. At this time, the principles, reasons, relationships, etc. become the author's opinions. In terms of the style of the article, the article becomes an argumentative essay.

Expository essays are successful based on "explaining things clearly", while argumentative essays are successful based on "persuading others".

27. When writing an article, of course, I hope it will have the greatest effect.

What is the greatest effect? It is to make readers understand deeply and move deeply after reading it. If it can only make readers understand to three or four points and move them to five or six points, then the maximum effect will not be achieved. The author's current real-life experience is limited to his writing skills, so he may not achieve the maximum effect anyway. But a person who writes seriously will never give up this goal and always work hard towards this goal.

28. A meaning can be expressed in more than one article genre. But among these many genres, there must be one that is most suitable for the meaning itself and the current readers. It is necessary to choose the most suitable genre so that the meaning can be expressed exactly as it is, and readers will be deeply understood and moved.

29. In many articles, the author almost does not express his own meaning at all, or only expresses part of it and leaves the other parts. Not expressing the meaning at all does not mean that there is no meaning, but that the meaning is hidden behind the article. The hidden and contained meanings are left to be discovered by the readers themselves. Readers discover the meaning from the article themselves, and their understanding and emotion are deeper than receiving the meaning directly from the author. Therefore, once you have an idea, should the teacher take it out, or take out only part of it and keep the other parts? This is another thing that should be considered before writing.

30. Among the ancient and modern biographies, there are many biographies written with created characters like ("The Biography of Mr. Almost"). The author generally writes this kind of biography with a meaning in mind. He does not reveal the meaning and allows readers to understand it on their own. The function is similar to a "fable". After reading a general biography, the result is to get to know one or several real people in the world; after reading a biography like "The Biography of Mr. Almost", the result is to understand a certain meaning that the author wants to express.

31. For a person, although his words and actions are generally the same as those of many people, there are always "little differences", and he also has his own attitude and method of dealing with others. Putting all these together, people will have a deeper understanding of him. Not only his voice, but also his face, every word and every move feels that he is marked by him: this is this person and not another person.

32. If you focus too much on one or two words, it will often become delicate and unnatural. Paying attention to each paragraph is exactly the so-called method of "spreading ink in large areas".

33. Most people often think that humor means making wisecracks, laughing and joking, or making fun of life and society. This is a misunderstanding anyway, and humor is anything but.

34. However, reportage teaches that reportage and literature are married. General readers often don't bother to read reports on practical articles, because they will know that they are nothing more than this if they don't read them. But this is not the case with reportage. Readers are attracted to it and read it vertically to know what it is.

35. (reportage) is not a matter of dealing with matters. The author is very familiar with the situation in a certain aspect of society, and the situation in this aspect is not just the trivial matters surrounding a few people, but major events concerning the entire society. A strong desire stirred him. He must tell the public everything he knew. Otherwise, it would be like hiding extra rice secretly among the hungry people, which would be an unforgivable selfish act. So he picked up his pen. He stands from the objective standpoint of the public, has a broad vision, is thoughtful, and captures the real situation.

36. What to write? Instead of writing some empty comments, it is better to write some personal experiences. Therefore, when discussing how to promote a new life and how to make the country strong, it is better to describe a certain event that has been experienced than to express feelings for one's hometown and town. These are only limited to personal aspects. It would be more meaningful for weak countries to promote it and use a certain aspect of the society they are familiar with as writing materials.

37. Because writing an article is just like speaking, it depends on the author's mood at the time and the relationship between the event. When you want to scold, you can naturally scold, and when you should be rigorous, you don't have to be deliberately lax. , this is the so-called "sincerity", which is the basic quality of a writer.

38. It is an attitude that is impassioned, emotionally stimulating, and even abusive. Narrative reasoning, complete rationality, and being as rigorous as a judge making a ruling is an attitude.

It does not suppress emotions, but it does not allow emotions to be overindulged. It blames those who deserve blame, but there is forgiveness and deep expectations in the blame. This is another attitude. ...I just feel that the author has a passionate heart, and the beating of his heart is not even a bit weaker than that of the petitioning students, but he suppressed it and only expressed it in some plain language; the plainer the language, the better It was thought-provoking, and we were deeply moved.

39. The same is true for writing a preface. If you can only say some nonsensical compliments, you don’t have to write it, and readers don’t have to read it.

40. In common parlance, writing an article must be "meaningful." Since writing about rituals (referring to speeches) is passive, it is inevitable to "make something out of nothing." People with rich experience can write very good articles even if they "make things out of nothing". Some of their meanings are what they usually live there, and the knowledge is temporarily organized and coordinated, so that there is no trace of far-fetchedness, and The compositions in the pillars are no different. Therefore, a few ordinary sentences are very important, and there is no meaning accumulated there. "Nothing" will never "give birth" to "being". ...The article on ritual is not something that can be casually perfunctory. First, it must be interesting. Second, it must be appropriate to the situation at that time.

41. Therefore, writing a travel note is the same as writing a diary. You must first give up the ambition of completely recording it, because this is impossible and unnecessary. Neither travel notes nor diaries can record everything. You can only choose a few parts from a series of lives to write down.

42. What was the feeling at that time? No matter where we are, there are many things surrounding us. These many things do not break into our thoughts one by one. To us, most of them are as if they are not there. Only the few items that catch our attention make us feel their presence. And the same thing will appear different when he feels it just because of different environments and different moods. Don't ask how that thing was at other times, just talk about how it felt this time. This is the so-called feeling at that time.

43. Write an article to tell others what you have seen and heard. It can capture the feeling at that time and describe it in sequence, so that people feel like they are there... As for literature and art, the emphasis is on making people moved and appreciated. The latter method is suitable. A well-educated author can write as if he were writing about his feelings at the time, so that readers can have the pleasure of being there at any time.

44. Description is not a rigid copy of actual things. Use appropriate words to express the external and internal characteristics of things, so that people can understand it as a whole. This can be considered a description of home.

45. To describe a character, appearance, attitude, clothing, etc. are often used as a foil for the character. They are only really necessary when they are enough to show the character. Although it is about the environment other than the characters, the focus is on bringing out the characters' personalities.

46. Poem writers often capture everything that happens at that moment when the emotion and the situation are related, as the material for his poems. ——This applies not only to poetry, but also to painters painting and sculptors carving.

47. As with compositions, you might as well find materials from your imagination. The most important thing is that although it is imaginary, it does not violate reality. In other words, imagination must be realistic and make people feel that this scene really exists before it can be used as writing material. Situations in poems do not have to come from imagination. The author's own emotions and personal experiences are also good materials for poetry. Many good poems in ancient and modern times were written using this material.

48. If you want to read a poem that feels harmonious and rhythmic, in addition to using rhyme, you must also pay attention to the intonation throughout the sentence. Some do not use rhyme, but the tone still needs to be paid attention to.

49. What you say is here and what you think is there is a common thing in life. If the playwright wants his work to be seen as realistic, he has to work hard on this. He puts himself in the position of the characters in the play, imagines what they should think in their hearts and what words they should say in this situation, and then writes down their dialogue.

50. The author describes in detail the places that can highlight the distress of Yu Na (name). In some places, the author not only describes some modalities, but also writes about the meaning hidden in the modalities, teaching us to follow them to a deeper level.