Speaking of readers, doesn’t anyone think my genre is weird?
My book can be said to be a novel, but not entirely.
To put it simply, I wrote the biography of Shao Thief according to the timeline.
I used to say that I didn’t have an outline, but many people still didn’t believe it. I wrote more than 10 million words in my last book, but I still didn’t have an outline. All the plots were deduced on the spot as I was writing them, and there was no prearranged plot. At most, I had to deduce it to a certain point.
At the first step, I choose one of several possibilities and continue to deduce it.
The way the timeline is written means that in each year from Shao Thief's perspective, what he has done, what difficulties he faces, what tasks he has, and what his life is like.
This book will probably be written until the day Shao Thief died. Finally, it will take stock of his merits and demerits in this life and draw a final conclusion. At the same time, it will enrich the details of this country, because he and Shao Thief have achieved mutual success.
Some people say that we should write about Yi Ding, Cheng De, etc. That is the way to write a novel, but what I wrote is not a novel, it is a real-life deduction based on the timeline.
There is currently nothing to write about in the Hebei feudal towns. They are all boring siege battles. Recently, they have been briefly described through narration.
I deduced that the Hebei vassal towns were mainly defensive, and there were no other tricks, just like the five dynasties in history when they attacked Hebei.
And because of the stubbornness of the Hebei soldiers, you won't be able to win it for a while.
I can't write "a year flies by", right? That's the way novels are written. Novel authors will artificially create dramatic conflicts and create plots that could not exist, even if it is unreasonable.
I will try my best not to challenge rationality or lower the settings to cater for dramatic conflicts.
Historically, the Later Han Dynasty attacked Li Shouzhen in Hezhong and held the city for three years.
Du Yanqiu besieged Yi Ding for a year.
If you were to write a novel and the protagonists were these people, would you write to the readers three years of life under the city?
But the author of the novel will most likely not let the protagonist attack the city for so long, and it may be broken in a few months. This is to reduce the rationality for the sake of dramatic conflict.
The protagonist led troops to besiege the city for three years. Good guy, all the perspectives are here. Three years is a long time in any category except novels about cultivating immortals. If you write like this, will readers still read it?
I have always tried to find a balance between rationality and cool writing, which is also necessary.
My point has always been:
Keep a balance between rationality and pleasure. If there is a conflict, rationality takes precedence.
Try to restore a real world. This method is to fill in details, which some people call "water".
For example, the official documents in my book are all in parallel prose, which is in line with the reality of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.
It can be seen from this chapter that the vast majority of readers are not interested in these official documents. They may have crossed them directly when reading them, but I spent a lot of time to make them. Through the original historical texts, deletions, deletions, and changes, the allusions cannot be used.
Wrong, you should try to maintain the symmetrical format of parallel prose.
Sometimes, it takes me several hours to write an official document until late at night. Although no one reads it, I don't care. I think it is a necessary detail to create a real world.
You must have a rigorous attitude when writing. Since you are already simulating the world, you might as well be realistic and reasonable.
For the characters who appear in the book, I must strive to be precise and make no mistakes.
I don't care if people complain about the plot. But if the historical details are wrong, I will be very embarrassed and ashamed, because it shows that my historical skills are not good.
Sometimes due to the lack of historical data, in order to verify the details of a character, I will research for a long time. Several hours is common, and I often work until three or four o'clock in the morning, which delays my writing.
I even read the compilation of epitaphs from the Tang Dynasty, Liao Dynasty, early Song Dynasty, etc., trying to be accurate.
But the character I'm looking for is probably just a small character, a sidekick, who won't appear for long.
Is it worth spending so much time researching the details and even the family tree origins and life history of a supporting actor? I think it is worth it. Because I do not allow my historical details to be wrong, which is irresponsible for the real simulated world created by the entire book.
If you are lazy once, you will be lazy next time. Over time, the details of this book will no longer stand up to scrutiny.
Many readers or authors say, "Novel is just a pleasure to read," "I'd rather read a history book," "Why should I be more serious about it," "Don't read it with your brain," and so on.
Yes, I respect other people's opinions. But I will stick to my own.
I spend most of my time studying historical details and deductions, and then write them into the book. People may not think about it at all, but I will continue to write like this until the book is finished.
What I write is a "history book", which is to simulate another possibility and another society that does not exist in history.
If you don't like reading this history book, you can read something else.
There are many books in the Qidian History section that are actually very enjoyable. The historical details in their books may conflict with my book. Which one is correct and which one is wrong? Everyone has their own judgment and preferences.
Finally, I would like to emphasize again that this is a real-life deduction without an outline, a biography of a character, with the perspective of the protagonist as the main body, and the others as branches, all composed together.