The first question was "What is the Hakka flavor? This question is very abstract and difficult to answer. How can I answer it in a way that will appeal to the hundreds of people on stage, that is not similar to the other experts, and that expresses my ideas clearly?
Fortunately, I was the fourth speaker and had some time to prepare. I took out a Post-it note and drew a pyramid structure, first writing down my idea: Hakka flavor is the combination of local customs and wisdom of life; and then I had to be specific to make it stick.
I took the green stem of taro - taro stalks as an example, and wrote three key points: Taichung's Dajia, Kaohsiung's Meinong and Kaohsiung's Koshien region how to cook taro stalks, and their respective episodes are the taro stalks of the three regions of the flavor: Dajia does not eat much taro stalks because they are not easy to deal with, and they are all thrown into the field and allowed to rot as fertilizer; Meinong is stir-fried with a little bit of white vinegar; and Koshien has three kinds of taro stalks: the taro stalks of the three regions of the world. The first is the "Kung Fu", which is a kind of "Kung Fu", a kind of "Kung Fu", a kind of "Kung Fu", a kind of "Kung Fu", a kind of "Kung Fu", a kind of "Kung Fu", a kind of "Kung Fu", a kind of "Kung Fu", a kind of "Kung Fu", a kind of "Kung Fu", a kind of "Kung Fu" and a kind of "Kung Fu". I used the taste of taro stalks to convey how different terroirs affect the taste of the Hakka people's food.
The moderator noticed that I was using sticky notes to take notes, and also observed the body language of the audience. "When people hear that it's your turn to share, they will listen attentively and lean forward slightly." I replied that speaking vividly and interestingly is the only way to engage the audience, but it is also important to stay on topic and avoid losing focus.
Speeches need to be lively, and essays need to be even more so, in order to spark the reader's interest. Speaking can interpret the listener's expression and body language, writing without the reader in front of me, it is difficult to judge, we have to rely on the reader's empathy.
Plot to rely on the joints, let the article run
In the plot force before the course, emphasize precision, ideas, phrases are precise, the next to learn how to make the article vivid.
Vivid is the picture of action, action words rely on verbs, sentences and paragraphs with verbs, will immediately live, full of active and positive power.
Paragraph thinking, nouns and verbs are key. Stephen King said in "This Thing About Writing": "A sentence is a paragraph with a clear meaning, containing nouns and verbs, complete ideas leap from the writer's head to the reader's heart, with any noun plus a verb, there is a complete sentence."
The structure of a pyramid is like the skeleton of a human body, a stabilizing piece of hardware, but without the power to drive it, it's raw. Plot forces are the joints that allow the pyramid to run, the software that exerts critical power.
Next, take a look at three different types of articles and how to use verbs to make the content come alive.
■ The first type
Talking about personal experiences, observations, narratives, and travelogues, you can refer to the first two paragraphs of the first chapter of The Canal of Time, "The Story of the Toyohama People's Dinner Table":
Analysis
These two paragraphs are mainly nouns connected to the verb. a sense of picture. The theme is to observe how Amis Chef Yew Chung picks sea vegetables. I wrote a big scene with waves and depicted how Yew Chung, who was in the middle of it, had to fight the sea in order to pick sea vegetables.
■ The second type
Write about your own life experiences or views on life, as well as short stories about your life. Adding verbs in moderation will make the writing more confident. For example, I describe my daughter's journey to join the varsity billiards team in Going Your Own Way.
Analysis
Within every few sentences, there are verbs and almost few adjectives. These verbs are reinforcing the picture and giving the reader a sense of being there. If too many adjectives are used, it reduces the sense of picture.
■ The third type
Prefer to discuss the theme of communication, the use of verbs can increase the tone and enhance the sense of picture, which will not make the rational analysis of the text is too boring, but also help the reader to understand and deepen the impression.
The second curve of life can be created by referring to Chapter 6 of The Opportunity Effect, "The Attack of Self-Sabotage".
Analysis
A good plot uses more verbs and relatively few adjectives. The problem with adjectives is that they are vague and do not express enough precision and depth.
In the previous paragraph, I used two paragraphs to describe Chef Yiu Chung's adventure in picking sea vegetables, or I could have just written a few sentences and brought it up: "Chef Yiu Chung, an Amis, was brave enough to take on the challenge of nature and work hard to pick sea vegetables." But readers will not be impressed, nor will they know that they originally had to listen to the waves and watch them, that there was a big wave after four small waves, and that they had to crouch in the seawater, picking sea vegetables and putting them in a mesh bag at their waists.......
To make good use of the verb, the writer will have to observe and visualize more, and to carefully describe the details, the movements and the changes, as if he or she were making an action movie. Tightly paced to create your own writing character.
Plot is all about details, and becoming a director of words
Plot is not just about action, but also about using details to create a sense of image. For example, when I describe the actions of Yew Chung, in addition to the verbs, I also add a lot of details that describe the scene, which will make the reader feel that they can see it all, full of realism.
Details are not minutiae. Many people often write a lot of details, but people do not know what to write a sense of confusion. The problem is that the details do not follow the theme, resulting in the reader does not know why to read these, and therefore out of focus.
The details need to stick to the topic to make sense. Therefore, we need to pick and choose from the mass of details to find the ones that best fit the theme and make the most sense. Reasoning Writing Secrets points out that the secret to making the text come alive is precisely the details, and that a persuasive detail is better than a whole page of description.
In Chapter 2 of The Opportunity Effect, "Deliberate Chaos," for example, there's a paragraph that talks about a problem with my toilet, and the process of finding a toilet expert on the Internet and asking him to come and install the toilet. (The underlined part is a detail.)
Analysis
In the first paragraph, I focused on the punctuality of the repair specialist, carefully writing down that he would bring a variety of tools, conveying the idea of being well-prepared. The second paragraph describes him as polite and attentive as he asks for the customer's opinion first and also carefully installs the toilet. The third paragraph deliberately writes that he kneels to scrub the floor and speaks with confidence, showing the importance he places on his profession. Without these small details, it is impossible to feel the characteristics of this toilet expert.
Wonderful details create a strong sense of picture. English writing books have a famous saying, "present, not narrate", emphasizing that do not always narrate, but to present the picture, let the picture speak for itself. Picturesque writing synchronizes live in the reader's mind.
Creating a sense of three-dimensionality with details
We often hear the staff ask the director, what is this shot going to be, what content is going to be presented? It's how to take a flat text script and present a three-dimensional picture through the camera.
The perspective of the camera is the perspective of the reader. Want to use the sense of picture, you have to practice as a text director, the text is your lens, take the reader to swim in the sea of words. "The author is like a cinematographer, manipulating the audience's vision as the story progresses, using language techniques equivalent to the different angles of the camera and the rapid switching of lenses." Steven Pinker in Sense of Style: a Guide to Writing in the 21st Century.
There are three kinds of lenses that a literal director can telescope. The "long shot" depicts the location, the big scene; the "medium shot" brings the scene closer, showing the interaction between the characters; and finally, the "close-up shot," which is a close-up of the protagonist. The first is the "close-up" shot, which brings the camera closer to the protagonist and allows you to capture facial expressions, reactions and feelings, as well as the details of the costumes or props.
Take the eighth chapter of The Canal of Time, "The Tale of the Table of the Immortals", for example:
Analysis
The first paragraph is a long shot. From my point of view, I look at the dark, shimmering mountains in front of me and see a moving black shadow.
The second paragraph is a center shot. The camera pulls around the vegetable farmer Lai's elder brother and sees that he wears a headlamp, a long-sleeved shirt, a duck-tongued hat, and also carries a basket on his back.
The third segment is a close-up. The camera is brought to the longbeards, like a column of soldiers standing at attention, and also side by side to show Brother Lai's fingertips, conveying his good work of picking vegetables.
The three shots move from far to near, presenting the hard work and skill of the vegetable farmers in pictures, and giving the reader a clearer understanding of their work.
If this were a narrative, it would only take one paragraph or sentence to finish: "I live in the home of Lai, a longbeard farmer, and pick vegetables with him early in the morning, understanding that he rises at dawn and works hard, and that this day is the same as every day for decades."
This is the difference between a voice-over narrative and a subjective presentation. How do you make a reader empathize? Not by telling them it's pouring rain, but by letting them feel directly that they're being drenched by it.
Plotting should be tangled and emotionally ****ed up
Beyond the verbs and selected details, there's nothing more heart-wrenching about plotting than creating suspense.
Many books that teach how to tell a story mention that the heart of the story is "conflict". Conflict is the engine of the story. Without conflict, there is no story, and without conflict, the story doesn't move forward.
As long as it's a story, there will be conflict. Conflict doesn't have to be saber rattling. Everyone has aspirations and goals, and hopes to go all the way, but the results are often less than expected. When the goal meets the external or internal obstacles, there will be conflict, there will be conflict with the inner tangle, will let the reader produce curious suspense, care about what will happen next. Thus, the story is driven by the process of why the tangle is there and how it is resolved.
No matter what kind of story is being told, the best way to do it is to create maximum suspense in the reader's mind, prompting them to keep turning the pages in order to learn what happens next. Secrets of Speculative Writing emphasizes that plot generates its own cousin, suspense. Suspense will keep you on your toes, reading all the way down the page, eager to find out what happens next.
Thus, there is a simple formula for storytelling; goal + obstacle + kink creates intriguing suspense, an interlocking chain of cause and effect.
Cognitive scientist Carmen Simon points out in Be Remembered So You Can Win that, according to a popular 2015 study by SlideShares, a slideshow content-sharing site, "unexpectedness" is the variable most effective at being remembered over time and triggering action. Whenever people are surprised (whether it's good or bad), it generates extra emotion and attention.
Anything that exceeds expectations and creates a surprise will grab attention and keep the reader reading. Before a TV show goes to commercial, there's bound to be an event that puts an obstacle in the way of the goal, and what to do about this unexpected situation is just going to sell you short so you can't wait to find out.
As long as you master the element of entanglement, you'll have an engaging plot. In addition to writing, can also be applied to the general briefing proposal, if the content is rich, speak head to head, not necessarily attractive. Because there is only the goal, the lack of obstacles, not to mention the kinks that people care about, the audience naturally can not produce a sustained attention to the attraction.
The Opportunity Effect, Chapter 2, "Deliberately Creating Chaos", mentions how "Buy Buy's", which buys directly from farmers, has gone from being an advertising copywriter to giving up a great career to starting a social media organization. He has gone from being an advertising copywriter who gave up a good career to become a CEO who founded a social enterprise by engaging in agricultural marketing. I've analyzed these paragraphs below.
Analysis
Please note two key points. First, the goal, obstacles and kinks are one paragraph after another, and the three elements loop into each other without jumping around. This process creates ups and downs, exceeding the reader's expectations, and the reader is left wondering what to do next.
Second, even with the power of plot, you still need to use the fishbone writing method. Write a fish head sentence to convey the focus of the goal, obstacles and kinks, then a fish flesh sentence to convey the plot, and a fish tail sentence to wrap it up and create a link to the next paragraph.
Plotting is about engaging, impressing and persuading the reader, not just telling a story, but sticking to the topic so the reader gets something out of it.
Here is an example of the story of Jin Xinyi:
Analysis
The last four paragraphs focus on the conclusion to wrap up the story, return to the theme of the courage to accept the chaos, and use the conclusion to strengthen the meaning of the story.
Realistic readers make us more pragmatic, fully utilizing the power of plot in order to take external facts and make them internally real.