Oral nature is the basic feature of stories, the basis for their existence and development in society, and the fundamental symbol that distinguishes stories from other literary genres. Although modern stories have evolved from word of mouth to written stories, their oral nature has not changed. The oral characteristics of stories are easy to listen to, remember, tell and spread, which can be extended to five characteristics, namely, the plot of content, the clarity of clues, the interest of plot, the supernormal thought and the oral language.
1, the plot of the content
Story is a kind of language art that is good at plot. The vitality of the story lies in its spread, and the spread of the story is ultimately the spread of the plot. It can be said that there is no story without a plot, so "good plot" is the natural attribute of the story. The story takes the plot as the main line to meet people's needs of "easy to tell" and "easy to remember" For example, an editorial in People's Daily and a central document have been read 10 times. I'm afraid few people can remember it and say it. But if a lively and interesting story is told once, it will impress you deeply. Even illiterate people can remember, go back and "learn to sell now", and even print it in their hearts, and never forget it. In the process of circulating novels, a lot of descriptions and arguments will be diluted, and the last thing left is the plot, which is why static descriptions and arguments are difficult to tell and remember.
2. Clear clues
Stories require clear clues, which are determined by people's different habits of "listening" and "reading". "Listening" is "one-off", and if you don't understand it, you can't "rewind" and listen again; "Reading" can be repeated. If you don't understand, you can go back and read it again. Therefore, in order to make people understand and listen, it is required that the clues of the story are clear, that is, the clues are single, concise and organized. If there are too many clues, or like some novels, the clues are intertwined and intertwined, which will inevitably give people a sense of disorder and make people unable to listen. The names of the characters in the story should also serve the purpose of "understanding". For example, names like Beard, Scarface, Li Youzui, Zhang Dasha, Li Dahan, and Xiao Zhuge are easy to match with characters, unlike reading novels, where you often have to go back and look up names.
3. Interesting plot
It is not enough for a story to have a clear plot, but also suspense. The so-called suspense is the motivation for people to want to listen and read, that is, the author deliberately sets a puzzle, which makes readers eager for an answer, but they can't get it, prompting readers to read it, and they must get to the bottom of it. If there is no suspense in the story and the plot won't catch people, there will be no market for such works, which is the fun of the plot.
4. The supernormality of thought
If a story has a strong plot, clear clues, repeated suspense and fluent words, readers will feel cheated when they see what they want behind it. There is no market for such works. In other words, the story should have an extraordinary "idea" and a "higher than life" story core, which is the "answer" that readers want. Therefore, a story should have a burden, and a story can only have one burden, which is set at the beginning and finally solved; There can also be several burdens, which are constantly set and solved.
5. Oral nature of language
Compared with written language, spoken language is easy to understand, natural and simple, vivid, catchy, easy to inherit and remember, so stories are generally written in spoken language, not wrinkled and difficult to tell and remember.
I think a work can be called a story if it has the above five characteristics.
Of course, the basic characteristics of the story are: oral, collective, variability and inheritance. The story does not depend on the spread of words, but on word of mouth, which is its oral nature; The creation of stories is a combination of individuals and groups. The story has been passed down from mouth to mouth by millions of people in the process of spreading. The process of circulation is the process that the disseminator modifies, processes and enriches the works. The communicator is also a creator to a certain extent, which is a collection of stories. The same story will produce many different versions in the process of circulation, which is the variability of the story; Although there are many versions, most of them are similar, and the story outline has not changed much. This is the inheritance of the story. I don't need to repeat it here.