As a famous contemporary short story writer and stylist in China, Wang Zengqi's novels are full of profound cultural and historical connotations and rich literati atmosphere. He successfully introduced the "artistic conception" in traditional painting art and classical poetry into novel creation and converted to China's traditional Confucianism and Taoism, thus realizing the communication among contemporary literature, classical literature and folk literature. His pursuit of elegant, accurate and relaxed novel language and free and disorderly novel structure provides us with a new way.
If you want to learn to imitate Wang Zengqi's style, there are several very specific ways to start.
The first is language. From the external form of language, we can see several characteristics of Wang Zengqi's literary language:
First, use short sentences-"In order to make the language vivid, write sentences as short as possible, and cut them if you can." Use less long sentences, but don't exclude them. "The secret of language playing is not how to match long sentences and short sentences. Some people say that all my novels use short sentences, but I sometimes use long sentences. You can see how to arrange this long sentence and short sentence. " The alternating use of long sentences and short sentences has the beauty of uneven changes, and the rhythm and prosody changes of language also come from it.
Second, use more scattered sentences, less whole sentences, and occasionally use antithesis. Wang Zengqi once used antithesis, which left a deep impression on people. For example, "there are two big ginkgo trees outside Luohantang, which have a history of hundreds of years." In summer, there are shadows on the ground. In winter, it is full of rehmannia leaves. " A conversation that Wang Zengqi was very proud of. Another example is: "A court of spring rain is full of autumn wind." The language is simple, but the charm is long.
Third, use fewer adjectives-not surprisingly, almost all writers will tell you that adjectives are enemies. Use fewer idioms, especially don't use idioms to write scenery. In an article, Wang Zengqi talked about chatting with his teacher Shen Congwen and talking about a young writer. Shen Lao said that he likes to use idioms when writing about scenery. How to do this? Some people think that overlapping idioms in writing can show their cleverness, which is the layman's view. Using idioms to write about scenery and people, after all, is separated by a layer, "not enough."
Fourthly, in Wang Zengqi's few articles, there even appeared a word list, which is a poetic language. Wang Zengqi also likes to use overlapping words-"Chen Xianggong has a big head, round eyes, thick lips and thick words." Onomatopoeia is also commonly used-"The wild water chestnut with four petals of small white flowers opened a green stump (a kind of waterfowl) and flew away to Lu Lu badminton." The use of these words can make writing colloquial, popular and expressive
Fifth, Wang Zengqi's language is simple and plain as a whole, but sometimes it is steep and steep, which makes people shine. For example, at the end of hutong culture, "some quadrangles still have their original chariots and horses, recording the past glory." There are boreholes that can't get out of the water, and stone chessboards with rounded edges and corners for people to mourn. The west wind is still the same, the grass has fallen, and it is desolate and lifeless. " This last group of four words, such as Qifeng protruding, has the inherent rhythm of classical Chinese, adding another feeling to the whole vernacular language-just like sprinkling a few shrimps in fried Chinese cabbage-more delicious.
Generally speaking, Wang Zengqi uses as few loanwords as possible. He is good at combining slang and common sayings with modern vernacular, classical Chinese and spoken English, forming a style that is both vulgar and elegant, and truly "tastes both refined and popular".
The above is just a summary. The reason why Wang Zengqi formed such a language style is related to his cultivation in classical literature since childhood, especially his efforts in literati's notes such as Rong Zhai's Essays and Meng Qian's Notes, his work experience in compiling folk songs such as Say, Rape and Sing after the founding of the People's Republic of China, his in-depth study of the language of ordinary people during the anti-rightist period, and his reference and absorption of Beijing dialect. Those who are interested in learning Wang Zengqi's Chinese may wish to start from these aspects.
Narrative mode and plot structure
Simply say six words, "whatever, let nature take its course."
In fact, novels can be roughly divided into two kinds-one is a dramatic story novel, the other is a prose poem novel-Wang Zengqi's going to nature is the latter way. There is no difference between the two types, and both can write masterpieces. Wang Zengqi's choice is related to his literary pursuit, and he hopes to open the boundary between prose and novel. It also has something to do with his talent. He once said frankly: "I am not good at telling stories, and I don't like novels that are too like novels, that is, novels with strong stories." The story is too strong, I don't think it is true. "
Therefore, if you want to write Rainbow Zengqi's novels, you must go the second way.
Third, observe and express the perspective and position of life.
Wang Zengqi's views on people and things in his works are straightforward, which is an out-and-out civilian perspective. He doesn't have the sense of superiority of ordinary writers, and he doesn't deliberately look up to the characters in his works. He is one of them.
Wang Zengqi also said that he is a lyrical humanist-this is his foothold for observing and expressing life.
He is a humanitarian and compassionate person. He has a sympathetic and understanding attitude towards most of the characters in his works. At the same time, he is lyrical-his life is not necessarily the most realistic life-which may be beautified and projected by the author's own beautiful heart. So Wang Zengqi said, "I am not pursuing profundity, but harmony." "What kind of feelings does my work contain? Personally, I feel that the feelings of some of my works are sad, such as Career and Ghost Clock. Some works have a kind of inner joy, such as "being ordained" and "making a big fuss"; Some works, such as "Autumn in Yun Qi" and "Different Ice", have turned into a bitter satire because of their helplessness to fate. In some works, the three are mixed and complicated. But on the whole, I am an optimist. "
Generally speaking, Wang Zengqi has a warm love for life-not love-and there are too many words "hot". But for some ugly people and things, he is not without anger and criticism-such as butter pancakes and the death of swans-but he has faded his anger and impatience and deeply hidden his hidden pain. ...