Flat in see

We always say that "artistic creation comes from life". Of course, every detail and event in life can be used as material for writers to write about, but if we put all the bits and pieces of life into writing, I'm afraid we will also "indigestion". Therefore, while we know how to make choices, we should learn to observe life and dig out the material worth writing about. In today's lesson, we are going to talk about how to find valuable life material.

First, learn to record and observe the people and things you encounter.

Everyday life is quite trivial, and it is impossible to record all the people and things we meet. Although we meet millions of people every day, it's very difficult to actually visualize any one of them. However, if you conduct profound research and observation on a thing or a person, you will find that, in fact, every plain character is three-dimensional, so you should learn to pick their impressive things or people for simple record and description. Let's say you're on the subway and you see a passenger who gets your attention because he or she is dressed conspicuously or acting strangely. You can be patient and observe and speculate.

In this regard, we mainly look at the eye, then listen to the ear, and finally use your logic and imagination. Eye view is the person's physical attractiveness, clothing, behavior, and so on; Ear listening is paying attention to what the person's words are saying. You can use your logical thinking and imagination to make inferences about what is going on with this person or their personality traits by seeing and hearing the information you receive.

Of course, we can't ask everyone to be Sherlock Holmes. As ordinary people, we need to do is pay attention to a person attracts you, his demeanor even tiny movements, and then through the information roughly infer what kind of man is this, why did he so dressed up, for example, what does he do for a career, the destination where to go, do something, and so on, the last to your ideas and the appearance of the people with a few hundred words recorded quickly, This is good character material. When you write, you can build on the material of the character to develop the appropriate imagination to make him become the character of the novel.

Again, what happened and every day, we can also use the method selectively recorded, such as travel to visit a scenic spot, tour, but also can stay down to see the spots on the nameplate of the above introduction, or listen to the guide and the interpretation of the locals, to excavate the scenic spot behind the stories and legends, etc., can also take phone cameras photographed, Go back and look at the picture and imagine what might have happened here.

Of course you can do the same as a travel writer and create a faithful description of the site. For example, you walk into a lane in Shanghai. You can write down everything, including what you see, who you meet, and what happens to you. As soon as I walked in, I saw the brick wall or the high and low power lines and a family, or the old man sitting at the door. Although in real life you might just observe and record at random, but when you really put pen to paper, your story and scenario would need to have clear logic and rich picture, if you pass this closely observed the meticulous description, will be able to give readers the sense of strong, also exercise and improve their writing level.

Second, start with what you are familiar with and interested in.

When we were young for the first time to write a composition, most people are racking their brains and can not write, this time the teacher will say to pick your own familiar things to write, the accumulation of material is the same.

I believe that everyone has their own familiar place and interests, but if really let you make some detailed description, you found yourself was speechless or stay on the surface, such as a park is a place where you used to, you may know how big the park, the scenery, but to speak of, such as construction of the year, representative of plants and animals, Details such as the history of a particular statue may not be known.

In addition, everyone's life experience is different. What is familiar and interesting to you may not be familiar or interesting to others. Therefore, it is suggested that before writing, you might as well go to see the place that you are familiar with or interested in, and carefully think about why this place makes you like. Is it good memories or unforgettable scenery and so on. In addition, the time of going there is also very important, because people have different moods from moment to moment, so when I look at the same things in different moods, I will feel different feelings and harvest different things. For example, I will take a walk along the Suzhou River from time to time, and the mood and harvest will be different each time.

Secondly, it is necessary to dig deeply with a purpose. The history, culture and background of a place are often more than you can get just by feeling it and experiencing it. And this data often gives depth and thickness to our descriptions. On the basis of self-perception and objective understanding, I believe that even if people are not familiar with the place you are familiar with, but through your writing, people will definitely want to go to the place you are familiar with.

Must be familiar with my work friends must surely know there's a suzhou creek often appear in my work, whether it is a river, the night of the long series or recently published the endless summer, I all scenery on both sides of the river and had a more or less, because there is a place where I grew up living, decorated with my childhood and growth of memory; Another example is that most of Mo Yan's works take place in Gaomi, where Mo Yan was born and grew up. He is very familiar with the local landscape and customs, so he can write related stories easily.

Third, use your imagination to change the elements and make life work again

There used to be an old song called "Shadows on the Fence", and there were a few words in it: The star was the same star, the moon was the same moon... I think you often see mountains as mountains and water as water in your life. Even after a long time, you may feel that things around you are very boring and boring, and you can't observe anything valuable at all. In fact, the writer's life is like most ordinary people, not like the movie or novel all day adventure and live in the ups and downs. Would anyone be devastated if this happened every day? So we have to learn to grab those special things and feelings from ordinary life, which requires you to add the wings of imagination.

For example, if you work and home every day, I believe that everything on the road is similar. After a long time, you will not find any difference, and you will even get tired of this step-by-step pattern, let alone find out what can be accumulated. However, the more common the scene is, the more distinctive we can be. So I suggest you try to make some imagination and assumptions, such as walking the opposite way to your commute, what would happen if everyone on the subway switched to cycling, what would happen if the features of the buildings around you changed to something else, or even something completely opposite to what they already have? In this way, the boring things in front of us will not become alive?

Reality has its limits, but imagination is always free and unconstrained. However, no matter how fantastic the imagination, it can not be completely divorced from reality. For example, some fairy tales and fables we read when we were young, such as Thumbelina, the Match Girl, The Frog Prince, etc., these works are rich in imagination and based on real life. In fact, the creation of the novel is also through the observation of the dribs and drabs of life, coupled with the full play of imagination collision. However, this imagination is not unrestrained, but to construct things and images in line with the plot and theme of the novel through imagination. Although some images deviate from the reality, because these exaggerations and "excesses" are made based on reality, they will give readers a stronger psychological impact.

I'm going to read you a little bit from my novel The Terrible Wedding Night of Fagello.

"From grade three to Grade one, I lived in Caojiadu at the junction of Putuo, Jing 'an and Changning districts. In my young mind, suzhou river three officer TangQiao (now called jiangsu bridge), there is between the hospital building, but the iron door closed forever, glass covered with a thick dust, seems to never open, also can't see inside closed? Later that baidu know it is crossing the people's hospital of cao family, has been closed for almost 30 years.

In the evening, we organized a group to Caojiadu, which was not far from the company.

Thankfully, the dark building of my childhood memory has not been torn down and stands alone by the Suzhou River. There's a new Gothic Catholic church up ahead, so you can't see it from the road."

All the places I'm talking about in this clip are real; The characters in the story are based on archetypes, but the stories that follow are fictional, and one might say, well, that doesn't seem very logical, right? In fact, I think the logic in real life is not completely applicable to the novel, and the novel should follow its own internal logic. As long as there is no logical loophole in the novel and it can justify itself, it is considered a qualified work.

In fact, we have too many things in daily life to writing, such as a pair of lovers are quarrelling, silently walk the lonely old man, the stray cats in the park, or even a simple conversation, can develop to a great novel, we don't know why couples quarrel, the old man why so lonely, why will become a stray cat, stray cats All we need is careful observation and imagination to climb over the walls of reality.

Learning to observe and use imagination to accumulate writing material can be said to be easier to know than to do, it is throughout every moment of life, but I believe that once you get used to it, no matter in life or writing, it will be of great help to you.

Imagine that a building disappears on your way to work or school today. It can be the most visible building or the one you don't usually notice. What happens next?