The authors of Ah Q's novels have a long history, especially Henry, the founder of modernist novels and a famous British novelist. James (1843- 19 16) has a history of more than half a century. Judging from the origin of novel description, the creation of modern novels also evolved on the basis of traditional novel creation. There are so many ways to describe characters that it is unrealistic to say it again. So I will talk about several aspects below, which is a glimpse of the writing skills of famous Chinese and foreign novelists. It is inevitable to leave loopholes. Please correct me if there are any shortcomings. 1. Portrait description 1. The appearance of people with national characteristics is very different, which provides us with very good material for novelists. When a novelist writes a portrait of a character, it means that he has successfully outlined a "window to the human soul", which is an indispensable aspect of writing a character vividly. Famous Chinese and foreign writers have left their own national marks in their successful characterization. In the description of traditional Chinese characters in China, the early works pay attention to simplicity and exaggeration, but there are often formulas. For example, the descriptions of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms are "seven feet five inches long" and "eight feet long". All these are just that they are tall and burly, and both of them have jade-like faces with obvious traces of rhetoric. This description can give readers a strong impression, but the repetition of its words is inevitably monotonous and dull. With the development of China's classical novels, the skills of character description are also improving. It is manifested in the following aspects: First, when portraying portraits, we can grasp the main characteristics of the characters, outline the characteristics of the characters very concisely, and connect them with the inner mental state of the characters, so that the characters can jump to the page. The second is to learn to portray portraits by contrast. Third, gradually learn to see the big from the small, only write one or two of the most vivid portraits, leaving artistic gaps for readers to fill. For example, the portrait of Jin Fan portrayed by the author in The Scholars is extremely concise, with only a few words: "sallow and emaciated, with a gray beard and a broken felt hat." "The author has repeatedly described the thinness and rags of Jin Fan's clothes, as well as his expression of begging and shrinking with cold, which not only highlights Jin Fan's later years, but also emphasizes his poverty. Western traditional novel techniques, on the one hand, pay attention to the detailed description of characters, often making them highly figurative through various rhetorical devices, on the other hand, combined with discussion, make readers not only infected by the vivid description of writers, but also impressed by their witty analysis. This kind, even now, is still used by some western novelists and shows a strong national tradition. There are countless examples of detail description in western works. The following is a description of Princess Luo Ting in Turgenev's book Luo Ting. In Luo Ting, Turgenev gives a detailed description of Luo Ting's figure, hair, skin color, eyes, lips and chest, including clothes. An example of discussion is red and black. In this book, when the writer portrays the portrait of the protagonist Julian, he not only depicts his appearance, but also analyzes it from time to time, and there is also a discussion that reflects the author's subjective feelings towards the characters. This traditional method has been used to this day. 2. Common portrait description techniques. To sum up, although there are differences between Chinese and foreign novelists in describing characters, they generally use three methods, namely, overall description, partial description and description of the moon. Holism refers to the writer's comprehensive introduction to the characters. Not limited to the description of the characters at a glance, but to write the whole picture of the characters. Including the characters' clothes, hands and feet, manners and so on. For example, Lu Xun's portrayal of Yang Er's sister-in-law as a "tofu beauty" in Hometown is a good example. The local description is relative to the whole description. It's a bit like the capital lens in the movie, which can best reflect the character characteristics of the characters and leave a deep impression on the readers. For example, the description of Tigress's portrait in Camel Xiangzi reflects the moon, which means that the writer does not directly describe the characters, but twists and turns who will express them through others' dictation or words and actions. This method has been used in Homer's epic thousands of years ago. For example, this method is used to describe Helen's beauty. Many writers often use this method in the future. 3. The new portrait description of modernist novels. In some modernist novels, due to the high degree of "freedom" and "romance" of the characters, the works often do not follow the routine, but are written naturally by writers in various modes of the characters, so the scattered portrait description should be more in line with the feeling of sticking to life. When other modernist novelists let fictional characters communicate with real characters, their works consciously put a touch of magic in portrait description. In addition, there are some other technologies that will not be described here. Second, the character action description. The action of the characters in the novel is the declaration of the characters. It is hard to imagine that a novel does not describe people's actions. Even if some novels are lyrical, or specialize in describing the mentality, they can't help but write about the actions of the characters. Only someone in the novel must describe this action. China's novels always emphasize action. So I have accumulated quite a wealth of experience in describing movements. Western novels pay more attention to psychological description, but people's psychological activities must also be reflected through actions. So action description has accumulated some experience. The novel world is a fictional way to create a realistic artistic world. There are two contradictions in this. The novel world is fictional, but it is realistic, realistic and artistic. Therefore, the novel must select and process the characters in the works, especially those who play important roles. And this choice is the ability of eyesight and increasing the public, which can fully show the superb art of novelists. Specifically, when describing the actions of characters, novelists often choose the following aspects to deal with the description: (1) Choose the actions that best express the character, the most characteristic and even the most legendary. For example, in The Scholars, the butcher slapped his son-in-law. (2) Description of the series of actions of characters. In order to fully reflect the character and show the styles of different characters, it is not enough to describe only one or two actions of the characters. Novels often choose a series of interrelated actions to describe characters, forming a so-called "behavioral action system". Because this series of actions are dominated by the most characteristic nature, temperament or ability of the characters, these actions often have an invisible red line, such as Xue Baochai's butterfly flapping in A Dream of Red Mansions, Ah Q's catching lice in The True Story of Ah Q, and (3) the portrayal of the psychological actions (also called emotional actions) of the characters. "incoherent", a person's inner thoughts are often expressed in words, but many people's inner thoughts are often expressed in actions, that is, "doing" is "heart" The action of expressing one's heart can be either a big action or a slight subconscious action. Novelists should be good at carefully expressing the behavior dynamics of characters reflecting their inner thoughts. In order to describe this aspect of the characters' movements well, the author needs to be highly familiar with the characters in the works. The most common mistake in this description is stereotyping, which is similar to other authors, so that the special mentality of the characters in his works will lose its luster because of generalization. So the author's innovation is needed. (4) Description of abnormal movements of characters. In the artistic world constructed by novelists, characters often have prosperity and adversity, sunshine, friendship, love, suffering, illness and death, just like in real life. In this way, novelists should not only describe normal behaviors and actions, but also describe abnormal behaviors and actions. The so-called abnormal movements are still normal movements, but only abnormal movements under special circumstances. Sometimes it is particularly important to depict the abnormal behavior of characters in special situations, because depicting characters from multiple levels and angles has a three-dimensional sense, which makes them more vivid and vivid. The single, serial, emotional and abnormal descriptions of characters in novels are not single applications, but often combined applications, which also need to be supplemented by their own practice. This is limited to personal deduction, so I won't go into details here. Third, the details are described. In the description of the characters in the novel, there are some seemingly insignificant details, but they are extremely important for expressing the characters. Balzac said that although the novel is a "solemn lie". But only the description of the details, there can be no fake, there can be no artificial. If the details are also lies, the novel will immediately lose the trust of readers. The very inconspicuous detail description can be said to support the "truth" of the details of the novel and bring the "vividness" of the characters in the novel. Wonderful detail description can make the characters in the works look fresh with its highlights, so no matter how different people understand its importance, detail description needs to be paid attention to. Here are three points about writing a detailed description. First, in the choice of detail description, we should be "true" and typical, oppose "false" and "excessive", and do not engage in gimmicks. An anxious person is allowed to be fictional when describing the details of the characters, but it must conform to the character logic of the characters and let the readers smell the breath of life from doing it. Here the author needs to be familiar with life. It is necessary to collect and sort out some original materials. Nikolai Gogol usually likes to collect banquet recipes, which is a prominent example. Another issue closely related to the authenticity of details is the choice of details. For a successful character, the details can only be good, not too much. Henry, the originator of western modernist novels. James pointed out: "Art is essentially a choice, but it is a choice with typicality and comprehensiveness as its main goal." (See History of Modern English Fiction). The second is to arrange and take care of the details. A good detail often does not work in isolation, but shows its great expressive force in contrast, foil, or crowding round. Third, the use of details, of course, can be clearly used, but it is best not to be too straightforward, and sometimes it is even necessary to "hide". Some contemporary novels that focus on expressing the mentality of characters, after "diluting" the plot, are followed by "hiding" the details. This kind of detail seems to symbolize the protagonist's "hidden" inner activities, which is different from the way in which details are used in traditional novel writing. Novel writers (part two) 1. The language of the characters. The language of the characters in the novel, that is, dialogue, can not only promote the development of the plot of the novel and explain some background materials of the work, but also vividly and naturally express the upbringing, temperament, demeanor and psychology of the characters, which is a great means to express the characters' personality. It is not easy to write a good dialogue between characters in a novel. In order to use accurate words, Hemingway rewrote A Farewell to Arms 39 years ago. Novelists often need to pay attention to the following aspects when writing dialogues between characters. First of all, the dialogue between characters should conform to the identity of the characters. Singing that song on that hill is the most straightforward metaphor. Second, the dialogue between characters should write the deep character of the characters. The third is the dialogue between characters, which shows the new realm of characters. When reading literary and artistic works, people often praise excellent scenery descriptions with "scene blending". In fact, in a good conversation, there is also a wonderful realm where people's words and emotions blend with each other. This realm can be regarded as a psychological description of the characters, because it is spoken from the mouth of the characters, which is particularly real and touching. The fourth is the dialogue between characters, try to be witty, and humor should not be boring and monotonous. Some contemporary experimental novels do not start from the overall thinking of the characters' personalities, nor do they consider the acceptability of the appreciators. Sometimes people will be asked to say something very inexplicable. It's long and boring and difficult to read. In fact, some excellent modernist novels do not necessarily make the dialogue between characters confusing. On the contrary, they often inherit the excellent techniques in classic works and write lively novels, which not only make readers feel happy and relaxed with their unique sense of humor, but also enrich their knowledge with their high wisdom. Second, the character psychology. When portraying characters, novelists should not only describe the external characteristics such as portraits and actions, but also describe the inner world of the characters. In the description of characters' psychology, we should not only learn from traditional skills, but also absorb some new academic achievements, such as new ways that psychology and some frontier sciences can explore in describing characters' psychology. One is to express the psychology of the characters through the description of the scenery. Writing "emotional language" in "situational language" has many manifestations in a large number of excellent works at home and abroad. The second is to express the psychology of the characters through the description of events or scenes. The description of some events and scenes in the novel can not only be fascinating, but also show the character and psychology of the characters, which requires the writer not to forget to describe the characters when writing events and scenes. The third is to show the psychology of the characters through interpersonal relationships. The characters written in novels, like those in reality, are always in various complicated relationships. These relationship networks have produced a very strict and rich image system in novels and other literary works, especially in medium-length and long-length works. Each of them has an image system that cannot be ignored. This image system provides novelists with the most convenient venue for activities. He can write portraits and personalities of characters with the help of his mouth, and also explore the inner world of various characters in wartime through complex interpersonal relationships. The fourth is to express the psychology of the characters through sexual description. The description of sex in the novel is not because of Freud's advocacy. Before him, it had already appeared in the novel. In fact, sexual behavior, as an important part of human life, is not mysterious like people's food, clothing, housing and transportation. In sexual behavior. It can best express a person's ideological quality and mental outlook, and at the same time, it can also see through the socio-economic situation and the fashion of the times. Under the constraint of ethical concept, the description of sex needs the author to grasp that degree. Sexual descriptions in novels are not additives, so they should not be too commercialized to cater to the tastes of some readers. Some successful sexual descriptions can just show the special psychological state of the characters. For example, in Jin Ping Mei, Ximen Qing seduced Huilian. The reason why we should grasp the degree of sexual expectation in the novel is that sexual description is not the purpose of the novel itself, but only a means to express the character and psychology of the characters. A writer's description of anything (including the exposure of the ugliest phenomenon) should be measured, and he must not be just a replica of life, nor should he forget the pursuit of art. Fifth, he should directly describe the psychology of the characters. Sixth, the unique psychological description: the inner monologue of the characters. For a certain kind of speech, there are two kinds of "spoken language", one is talking to oneself, or adding it to the expression in the form of diary or letter. This is the so-called "inner monologue".

Ah Q in Biography