Don't make excuses: Even if you can only write one page a day, you can write a 365-page book in a year. If you really can't write, please write down a 250-word excuse. In this way, you will still write something every day.

More importantly, either you can't stand making up excuses and start writing, or you can just look away and stop wasting time imagining that you can become a writer.

Don’t think of yourself as too smart: Don’t look down on your readers. Things are not accepted because your readers are not good enough?! Braggart!! Please keep your feet on the ground, because your readers are all people from the earth.

Don't try to show off your knowledge: good writers can express complex ideas in simple descriptions.

Even if you have professional knowledge or vocabulary, it is enough to provide the reader with the information he needs to know. If your article requires readers to check the dictionary every two or three paragraphs, the readers will not be able to read it. No one likes to show off.

Man, novel readers can smell these people from a mile away.

Don’t expect miracles: writing skills are honed through continuous practice

It takes at least ten years to train a doctor. In this case, how can anyone think that it only takes a few days, months or a year to become a professional writer? Writing is very similar to cycling, it requires constant failure and practice.

.Writing a good novel is not easy. On the bright side, if good novels are readily available, then your masterpiece is nothing, right?! You need to have confidence and spend time to improve your writing skills. Write first

Where do you want to be in your creative career in the next five years? Cut your final goal into several small goals and start pushing forward. Where do you want to be in four years? The year after that, the year after that, and then next year.

What goals? Carefully put away the list of goals you hope to achieve, start working, and be patient and force yourself to work hard. Write down the skills you have learned, and check whether you have achieved the goals you set after one year. You will

Be happy with your progress. Even if you can't sell your work yet, you'll be closer to your goal.

Don’t waste time warming up: start with a compelling story

Don't throw a bunch of setting description at the beginning of the story. An engaging novel begins with someone's reaction to fear or threat. As humans, we are instinctively attracted to fear. If your story

It starts with a climber clinging to a rock wall with his fingernails, and I guarantee the reader will want to know what happens next. If your story starts with a little girl trying to stand in front of a bunch of harsh critics,

Fearful of giving a piano recital, readers will immediately become interested in her situation.

Good stories begin with fear and threat.

Fear doesn’t have to come from sex or immediate danger. Think back to your own life, when did you feel like you were scared to death? Maybe it was the first day of school, maybe someone died in the family, or someone got divorced? Maybe it was

Are you going to give a speech in front of a large audience?! Maybe it’s your first date? Or maybe you’re moving?

Even if it is a good thing, anything that creates stress will be a threat of fear. How can I say this? Human beings have the habit of being content with the status quo. When we are in a familiar and comfortable environment, we will be too lazy to make any changes.

.But when change happens and the world we know is shaken up, we feel uncomfortable.

A threat has emerged.

The threat comes from change.

Now you know where your story begins, and it begins with [change].

A stranger got off the bus.

A new family moves in.

You received a telegram.

These are all good times to start a story.

When writing a story, don’t start from before the [change], and don’t throw out a bunch of background settings.

Don't start with an incident that has nothing to do with the story.

Don't start long after the [change] has occurred, as this will confuse the reader.

Where [Change] begins, the story starts there. The background setting is left to the author to deal with slowly. Readers don't care about these things, what they want is [Change], what they want is fear and threat, and they want to know

The character's reaction to this event.

Remember what the reader wants. Don't impose the author's concerns on the reader. You must give the reader what she wants at the beginning, otherwise the reader will not want to read any more.

What she wants is a threat.

Threats often come from change.

Write down 10 times in your notebook when you felt most threatened or scared to death. Everyone may remember the moments differently, but I bet you, they all had something to do with change.

When you understand this, you can then make a list of ten changes that you think would be suitable to use at the beginning of the story that would threaten the change. Whether it is personal experience or imagination. Next time when you write a new

When you hit a wall at the beginning of the story, take out this list and you won't have to worry about heating up the car, and you can get to the point of the story directly.

ps.1 (I think this point is very important, and I have almost translated it, but I don’t fully agree with his ideas. Please use it at your own discretion)

ps.2: I think these 38 points are basic formulas. The so-called creation means [bringing formulas into the door and cultivating them personally.] Almost all good works follow most of the formulas, but those who follow the formulas do not necessarily mean they are good works. Just like Sun Tzu's Art of War.

, is a book written to help people win battles, but not everyone who has studied the art of war will definitely win the battle...

Don't describe the sunset: don't write a running account, spend time describing trivial things

When readers read novels, they need to use "description" to describe the settings and characters so that they can truly interact. However, some authors are often too involved and spend too much effort on description. They often stop to describe the sunset in the middle of the story.

Thinking of writing beautiful prose as their goal, they forget that when they stop to describe how long something is, the progress of the story also stops. s is an author who is good at writing western short stories and novels.

, in one of his award-winning works, he spent several pages describing a sunset. It was a professional work that deviated from the norm but was brilliant and moving.

But it is only true under this special condition. Adams laid out and designed this scene to tell readers that a terrible threat is coming. When night falls, a group of thugs with a plan will attack the protagonist's lonely small camp to kill him.

Based on the above reasons, every word describing the sunset is meaningful and full of pain and suspense.

No matter how poetic those descriptions are to you, only on some special occasions can you spend a lot of space describing them. Novice writers spending a lot of time describing sunsets often become a classic joke among veteran writers or publishers.

On some occasions, you just have to say "like the rose-colored caressing dawn" and you will be surrounded by knowing smiles.

From the previous part, we know that in novels, the plot has to keep moving forward, and description will stop the story. Using a lot of settings or character descriptions in the novel is like a physicist facing the "electronic test"

"Uncertain Law" but trying to describe the same impossibility of electrons. "If electrons know exactly where they are going, they don't know where they are, and vice versa."

I think what he is saying is that if you want to describe something in great detail, you must stop 'action'. But without action, description is meaningless.

So every time you want to give your readers a bunch of detailed descriptions, the story you want to say will be suspended. Readers are attracted to your story and the ongoing plot, not to the exquisite prose. In other words,

, don’t you need any description in your story? Of course not. Description should be used carefully, revealing little by little, so that your readers can see, hear, and feel the world in your story.

But please be careful, 'the description must be released little by little at a time', rather than thrown out in one big page.

I'm definitely not the first person to warn that 'poetic' descriptions can bring a story to a halt, but this problem comes up time and time again in newbie articles. There are two reasons why this happens again and again, either the author is

If you don't understand the essence of the novel, or the author loves what he writes too much, and allows arrogance to overtake his reason. "Exquisite writing" often slows down the pace of the story and creates a gap between the reader and the story.

Please note that in addition to trees and sunsets, the description also includes the "character's heart and thoughts." Newbies often stop the whole story just to describe the character's heart.

Of course, you must get into your character's head and heart, and you must reveal certain opinions to the reader so that the reader can understand him, sympathize with him, and identify with his actions. But in a good novel, even

In long novels, the length of describing the character's heart and emotions is often very short. A competent writer will not say much (description), but express a lot (action).

Today's readers will expect you to drive the story, not discuss things.

So you can think about the 'communication system' of your novel. There are many ways to convey information to the reader. Different methods can produce different story rhythms:

1. Exposition: This is the slowest way to slow down the pace of the story. You give information directly, and nothing happens. You give information directly to the reader, such as personal autobiographical background, height and weight, social status and other information. Some

Information must be read by readers, but when you provide information to the encyclopedia, the story cannot make any progress. ive): The actions and interactions of the characters on stage in the story begin to appear. But no comments or explanations are given for their actions.

, just like watching a stage play, most of the stories are of this type of description. This method of storytelling will make the plot advance quickly.

4. Dialogue: The character's dialogue, with few actions or inner thoughts, is like a quick back and forth in a ball game. When the character is under pressure, the dialogue will be short and fast.

5. Dramatic summary: The fastest kind. When drastic changes occur, it is better not to act out the scene as described, but to use summary to speed up the story. Like this time, it would have taken six months.

Pages of car chases or quarrels may need to be condensed into a single line.

If your story moves too slowly, you can analyze whether you spend too much time describing sunsets (or other things) without making good use of dialogue or summary. On the other hand, if your story moves too fast, maybe you can change some of the summaries.

Turn it into a description, or use the description a little as a breathing space, such as writing about the scene or what the character is thinking.

In doing so, you'll realize how to be more like a novelist and realize what methods can help you sell your work. You'll learn how to make your stories powerful, rather than beating around the bush and choosing

Proper 'communication system' - to keep the story moving forward smoothly.

Don't use real people directly in your story: use exaggeration in moderation to create attractive characters.

Don’t write weaklings: create actionable characters by giving them story goals.

Don't get stuck in trouble: the story should be full of meaningful conflict.

Don’t make senseless events: use motivation and background to add logic and rationality to your novel.

Not long ago, my student Willie came into my office with another new story of his. I was reading this story while sipping my second cup of coffee.

"Willy," I finally said, "that story doesn't make sense."

"What does that mean?" Willy asked.

"What I mean is that your characters don't have enough experiential motivation to support their intentions in the story. They keep meeting other people or gaining information by chance. It's not obvious what they say or do.

Immediate purpose."

Willy said expressionlessly, "Is it that bad?"

"Willy, your story makes no sense!"

"Wait a minute," Willy started to defend, "I don't have to be logical, I'm writing a 'novel'!"

This is another obvious wrong idea on Willy's part. For novels, they need to be believable and inferential, and the most important part is imagination and originality - so if anyone wants to care about the story,

logic and credibility, that is, wanting to challenge someone’s artistic talent.

In fact, maybe you have begun to notice that it is just the opposite. Because in order to make people believe, novels must be more reasonable than real life in order to be convincing. In real life, things can happen without reason. But
To be continued...