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 idea of mini-novels, like other forms of novels, is sometimes not clear at a glance, and sometimes it is not a theme, 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, tailoring 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.
To treat the characteristics and skills of mini-novels, we should first understand and master them, practice hard at a higher starting point under the guidance of theory, and then use them flexibly, even without contact, so that they can play a role at any time in the subconscious. You can also imitate it. Copy forms and skills, carry forward the essence, induce them, strive for innovation and express their ideas. The above characteristics, especially "learning from others", have met some structural requirements of mini-novels. Here is another model for beginners to learn.
The mode is as follows:
From "love at first sight". There are three ways:
▲ Arouse suspense and interest. For example, the sentence at the beginning of "Clouds" is somehow uninteresting, and even the top of the mountain is covered by a cloud.
▲ Cut to the chase and enter the plot. Often the beginning is a dialogue between characters.
▲ Implicitly speaking, the winding path is secluded. Often describe the scenery, set off the bedding, have care and bedding.
There are three basic types of intermediate structures:
▲ twists and turns.
① Single-line twists and turns, full of twists and turns. For example, Wang's "Puffer Fish" describes the process of a farmer who committed suicide because of poverty in the social background of the 1920s and 1930s: he got back the poisonous fish and saw the children in high spirits; Afraid of seeing the horror, I came back to see my wife and children waiting with a smile; Eat and die, but because the fish has lost its toxicity, it will still be painful to die.
② Two lines intersect and are connected internally. One person and two things, or two people; It can be two bright lines, or one bright and one dark, which set off each other. For example, in Xiaoxing's Summer Diary, the father made up fake materials and the son wrote fake diaries. After the father beat and scolded his son, he had to smile bitterly when he wanted to write materials again.
(3) Repeated circulation, seeing differences is the same. For example, in "Wonderful Cyclic Inequality", there is only one vacant seat on the bus, and the conductor does not let the old lady sit, but let the "head" sit. After the driver got on the bus, he drove the "chief" away and let the manager sit down. The manager's mother-in-law is an old lady. Another example is "All Blind". A pair of young people are madly in love, get married and divorce, and see a pair of blind people holding each other's hands.
(4) Before and after the contrast, bimodal confrontation. For example, after an amateur author wrote "Change", he published two manuscripts in a row, and the unit leaders held different attitudes.
(5) If you want to improve, you should suppress it first, and if you want to suppress it, you should improve it first. The former takes "Yang" as the main body, but he first wrote on "inhibition" and suddenly turned to "Yang". The latter is the opposite. This has produced unexpected plot development and strengthened the artistic effect of complementary opposites.
▲ Re-meaning and re-meaning. Miniature novels should be big with small hints to achieve the sublimation of meaning; To talk about the meaning beyond the image, the implication will arouse the reader's imagination. Mainly used: ① symbol. A concept or another image is implied by concrete objects, but it only plays a structural role, unlike the central image described in poetry. For example, in Muzzle, when a reinstated leader shot his prey with a gun given by others, he learned that the "muzzle" that came in through the back door was also aimed at him. Pun. For example, I can't figure it out, which says that college students who don't work hard for ten years are not as good as college students with poor jobs, so they can't figure it out. 3 metaphor. For example, in "Explosive Banquet", it was written that the little grandson set off firecrackers at the banquet, and the new manager whose grandfather was under forty set off firecrackers: "You didn't become a county magistrate until you were eighteen! Dad became a factory director in his early thirties! " 4 ellipsis. This is a blank metaphor. For example, in Falling Fruit, the old doorman was beaten before the fruit on the jujube tree at the door was ripe after retirement. He wrote to the factory director: "Even dozens of gluttons can't be managed, but the factory is still in charge." Then, the plot of the factory director's campaign to rectify the factory atmosphere was omitted, and it was written that the master received a pack of red dates the next year.
▲ Adopt the specialties of other styles and artistic schools.
The ending should be clever and "look back and smile". There are three main types:
▲ Make the finishing point, echoing from beginning to end. For example, "Floating Clouds" failed at the beginning, and there seems to be a cloud on the peak, and the cloud at the end is gone.
▲ Come to an abrupt end, implicit and meaningful. For example, a 200-word calligrapher asked the director to write two good words at the calligraphy exhibition, namely "agree". Faced with amazement and demands, he had no choice but to say, "The number of words that can be written well …", which ended with endless charm and great artistic ability.
The above two endings can only arouse the readers' short-term excitement, and the best ending is:
▲ Surprise and excitement. That is, the "O 'Henry Ending" is characterized by "cleverness". The whole layout serves the ending. The reader thinks that the plot evolves eastward, but the result is westward, shaking the burden and showing the cards. This ending breaks the usual structural technique of plot development, gives people a sense of freshness, deepens the theme and increases the capacity. The well-known "The Gift of the Magi" is like this. A poor couple took pains to give gifts to each other during the festival, but it was useless to take them out at last: one sold a gold watch to buy a comb for his wife, and the other cut off her long hair to buy a watch chain for her husband. Another example is the "Window" in Australia. The patient by the window paints the beautiful scenery outside the window for the patient in the corner every day, adding luster to the pale life. But the patient from the ruins and a corner found a good position by the window. When he looked up, it was just a high wall outside the window.