There is even a saying: "People who can write novels can of course write essays, and those who can write essays may not be able to write novels."
Is that really the case?
Prose is easy to write, but difficult to write well. Poor prose writing is like speaking vernacular Chinese, dropping your schoolbag and explaining the text.
A good prose has the advantages of both poetry and novel, with both poetic language and novel logic.
A good composition should at least include: beauty of language and beauty of thought.
If prose is divided into realms, I think there can be three realms:
First of all, prose should be able to truly express your feelings. Writing, like oral English, is essentially a way to express yourself, one is oral expression, the other is written expression, and both of them are realizing the function of language: communication and communication.
In life, if a person talks to himself, he will be regarded as crazy. If he writes down what he says to himself, it is writing, which gives us more room for expression.
Among all kinds of styles, prose is the most convenient one to express oneself. Simple and easy to use, both reading and writing are more "approachable".
Truth is a major feature of prose. Unlike novels, prose is true. Prose doesn't need to make up stories to express itself in a roundabout way like novels.
Prose is sincere and frank, like chatting with old friends, soothing nature, writing prose and reading prose all make people feel relaxed.
Secondly, prose is not just copying and pasting life. As a literary form, prose also pursues the form of beauty.
The language of prose is similar to that of poetry, which pays attention to the rhythm of language, the choice of words and sentences, and the harmony of sound and rhyme.
A good essay, with its inherent rhythm, is catchy to read and most suitable for reading aloud.
Do not believe you see fragments of Lu Xun's classic prose;
That sentence is obviously poetic language, with poetic rhythm and aesthetic feeling. It reads like chewing a walnut kernel, and it smells delicious.
Prose language and poetry are both close and different. Compared with poetry, prose has lower requirements for rhythm, and it is not necessary for every sentence to conform to rhythm. Different from the symmetrical and neat form of poetry, prose is intertwined with long sentences and short sentences, forming a patchwork of formal beauty.
In addition, prose, especially narrative prose, combines some characteristics of the novel, which is not only beautiful in form, but also has narrative function, expanding the application field of prose.
Prose not only pursues the beauty of language but also emphasizes the beauty of structure.
Structure is like human body and bones, and language is like the flesh and blood on it. A rich prose cannot be separated from a clear and organized structure. A good structure can make the article look like flesh and blood, rather than a fat head and ears.
The structural form of prose is not complicated, which is nothing more than total score/total score, juxtaposition, progression, contrast, vertical and horizontal.
The total score or total score is clear, summarized and described, showing a rigorous beauty.
Progressive, from shallow to deep, layer by layer, showing a deep beauty.
In contrast, the positive and negative parts of the two peaks confront each other and set each other off, showing a kind of contrast beauty.
Parallelism, average stress, symmetrical structure and balanced stress present a kind of symmetrical beauty.
These are the structural forms that I often use in my prose. Either way, the key is to use it skillfully and suit the content of the article.
The structure doesn't need to be too complicated, just fit, just like the person who suits you best is not necessarily the best. If simple structure is used well, beautiful prose can be born.
Third, prose should pursue ideological beauty. Just like people, the bones are symmetrical, the flesh is full, but there is no soul. Isn't that a beautiful body?
Everything has spirits, flowers, grass, vegetables and food. As long as you can write the soul, nothing can't be written in prose.
Thought is the soul of prose. When it comes to ideas, people think they are profound things, but they are not. If the thought is too profound to understand, it is an immature thought that is not grounded.
Mature thoughts are as ubiquitous as air, filling the time and space of our lives. As proverbs and proverbs, many ideas spread among the people, indicating that ideas are not above them. On the contrary, they are rooted in the soil of reality, blossom and bear fruit in real life and are passed down from generation to generation.
I like the simplest and simplest ideas, such as "to be empty, to be quiet, to believe", such as "to be tolerant is great" and so on, and apply these ideas to my articles to make my articles have soul.
I wrote ordinary chopsticks as "magic chopsticks" because I found the magic of chopsticks: the cleverest thing about China people is that they can combine elegance and vulgarity. The so-called "appreciation of elegance and vulgarity" can also be harmonious, and you can eat like Chun Xue. Chopsticks embody the simplicity of China culture.
This makes chopsticks have a soul, and ordinary chopsticks suddenly seem higher and higher.
The same is true of other things. As long as you put your heart into it, you can find the place to put your wisdom and the right angle to express your thoughts. This writing is called seeing the big from the small. "See the world in a grain of sand", first of all, you have to have the world in your heart to see the world in a grain of sand.
The moral of thought and the promotion of prose realm are inseparable from self-cultivation. You are not Cao Xueqin. Without his ideological height, you can't write A Dream of Red Mansions. It's a long way to go in Xiu Yuan, and the realm of the article is endless.
The main road to Jane, the real kung fu home, the article does not need to use skills. The top heroes in martial arts novels can perform their best kung fu without many good weapons, a wicker and a pair of chopsticks.
Good prose can be without skill. No skill is the highest skill, and the more classic, the simpler. Like Back, it is almost pure line drawing, with no gorgeous colors, only black and white, but natural and simple.
Novels are different. The novel is somewhat mysterious, deliberately hiding the author and avoiding you. The author will make a lot of smoke bombs, which will make the story seem confusing. The more tense the rhythm, the more unstoppable it is, and the more successful the novel is.
This is the difference in style.
If a woman is used as a metaphor, prose is like a peasant girl wearing a Jingchai skirt, and the beauty lies in simplicity and nature; The novel is like a mature woman, full of amorous feelings. It is extremely enchanting, tempting you to approach step by step, but you don't know the true face of Lushan Mountain.
People who write prose like prose and don't need too complicated life experiences. A simple life is an essay. Talking about reading is like sitting in the afternoon sun and chatting with friends, either happy or sad, deep or shallow, scattered or light.
People who write novels need to have rich and even complicated life experiences, so that the plot is attractive, and novels with simple plots are a little dull to read.
The novel is like the red rose in Red Rose and White Rose. Only the soul that attracts people is attractive. Prose is more like white jasmine, and flowers are more colorful only when they are light.
I like prose.
2022-3-5