Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 31 Is it so difficult to write a novel?
On the third weekend of October, after coming back from get out of class on Saturday, Tao Yushu actually said that she was going out the next day. Lin Chaoyang was so happy that he thought his wife had come to her senses and wanted to go out and have some fun.

But she was told that a batch of "Foreign Literature Classics Series" would arrive at Wangfujing Bookstore tomorrow, and she had to go early to queue up and grab the books.

Queuing up to grab books would be a fantasy in later generations.

But from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, it was a very normal thing.

It is hard to imagine the anguish of having no books to read for ten years for people in later generations. After 76, the spiritual pursuits of the people that had been suppressed for many years were finally released, and bookstores became a must-visit place for many people in that era when they were relaxing.

Especially in the first few years of reform and opening up, domestic printing paper was in short supply, resulting in the inability of publishing houses to increase their printing volume, which made this enthusiasm for reading even more scarce.

So much so that whenever a bookstore receives a batch of new books, there will be a long queue in front of the bookstore from early in the morning. Sometimes the queue can even stretch for two miles. It is common to queue for a long time but not be able to buy a book.

Early in the morning, Lin Chaoyang was pulled out of bed by Tao Yushu to accompany her to buy books. They arrived at the entrance of Wangfujing Bookstore before seven o'clock, and the line was almost a mile long.

Tao Yushu looked at the crowd in front of him, feeling anxious. "Oh, I should have skipped the meal earlier."

The couple got up at 5:30, had their meal, washed up briefly, and then rode their bicycles here. But they didn't expect that there were many people who were more excited than them.

As long as there is one troublemaker, no one else can live in peace. This is the disadvantage of excessive involution.

"No matter how important buying books is, you can't skip meals!" Lin Chaoyang consoled.

The two of them waited in line until eight o'clock, hoping against hope. As soon as the bookstore opened, the crowd rushed forward to grab the books.

By the time it was their turn, the new book had already been sold out.

"With just a pair of eyes, can you read so many books?" Tao Yushu looked at someone happily leaving the bookstore with more than a dozen books in his hands, his eyes almost staring into that person, and his tone was resentful.

"Wife, it's not necessary, it's not necessary. We are all from the people, we are one family." Lin Chaoyang was really afraid that Tao Yushu would rush up and cause trouble for them. "Ms. Hu from the library is married to someone from Xinhua Bookstore. I'll ask her to buy you a few copies of this book later."

Tao Yushu let go of his obsession and regained his sanity. "It's not worth worrying about favors for a few books. At worst, I can just go to the library and borrow some books to read."

Don't take what you say about borrowing books seriously. These days, popular books in libraries are often not in stock all year round, and the "Foreign Literature Classics Series" happens to be one of them.

Since they didn't buy the book, the two didn't go home, but went to the cinema.

This October, the old man visited Japan, and then several major cities in China held the "First Japan Film Week", screening the three films "The Chase", "Homeland" and "The Fox Story". Soon after, "The Chase" was introduced by the Shanghai Film Translation Studio.

In the past two days, "The Chase" has just been released on a large scale in domestic cinemas and immediately caused a sensation.

Usually when Lin Chaoyang went to the movies with Tao Yushu, she was always not interested. It was not that she was not interested in movies, but the movies shown in the dining room were all old ones, and she had no idea how many times she had seen them.

"The Chase" is a Japanese movie, and it is the first time it has been introduced to China, so Tao Yushu naturally wants to watch it.

For domestic moviegoers in the 1970s, the appearance of "The Manhunt" was nothing short of a visual feast.

The towering skyscrapers and modern facilities everywhere in the film, the suspenseful nature of escape movies, the ups and downs of characters' fate between law and human nature...all the elements of "The Chase" have fascinated domestic audiences of this era.

The movie had just ended and the lesbians walking out were either discussing the tall, handsome and tough Du Qiu, the innocent and lovely rich girl Mayumi, or the skyscrapers and car phones in the movie.

Tao Yushu opened his mouth and said, "How could the four islands of Japan develop to this extent in just thirty years after the war!"

Lin Chaoyang couldn't help laughing when he saw her expression full of concern for the country and the people.

"What are you laughing at?" Tao Yushu said with a serious face.

"Nothing." Lin Chaoyang said seriously, "Japan can develop mainly because it has a good father..."

The golden month of October passed by quickly, and on this day Lin Chaoyang finally received the payment slip he had been longing for.

The full text of "The Shepherd" is nearly 17,000 words. The editorial department of "Yenching Literature and Art" gave him a standard remuneration of 5 yuan per thousand words, a total of 85 yuan, which is almost as much as Lin Chaoyang's two-month salary.

The small treasury has become rich!

The payment slip was sent by Chen Jiangong, who is now almost becoming the liaison between Lin Chaoyang and Yenching Literature and Art.

"Come on, Jian Gong, I'll treat you to dinner!"

After receiving the payment for the manuscript, Lin Chaoyang would definitely treat everyone to a meal, and he had asked Chen Jiangong for help a lot recently.

Chen Jiangong didn't care about eating. "I won't eat. Please help me look at the manuscript first."

Lin Chaoyang almost forgot that he had agreed to be a consultant for "Weiming Lake". He took the manuscript from Chen Jiangong and read it carefully.

"Did your classmates write this?"

"Written by Liu Zhenyun from the 78 class."

“There are so many questions!”

"Jianying and Xiaoping said the same thing. They both felt that there were too many problems and there was no need to change it. It would be better to just return it to him. I thought that Junior Brother had just embarked on this path, so he shouldn't be so unkind. Do you think it can be changed?"

Lin Chaoyang touched his chin, his face thoughtful, "It needs to be changed drastically."

He took out the pen from his chest pocket, unscrewed the cap, and before writing, he asked Chen Jiangong, "Can you write?"

"Can, can, can!"

It is great that Lin Chaoyang is willing to help review the manuscript.

After the previous manuscript revision incident, Chen Jiangong now has full trust in Lin Chaoyang.

He looked down at Lin Chaoyang, who was writing non-stop, constantly marking and annotating the manuscript that was already filled with words. In a few minutes, a page of manuscript paper was already filled with densely packed revision requirements. After repeating this several times, all the problems in the manuscript were clearly marked.

He handed the manuscript back to Chen Jiangong and said, "Let him make some revisions based on it."

Chen Jiangong exclaimed: "Chaoyang, if you were an editor, you would definitely be a famous editor."

"My level is not good enough!"

The two chatted for a few words, and Lin Chaoyang returned to the library. Chen Jiangong looked at the densely written words on the manuscript again.

I can only sigh in my heart that some people are really born with a sensitivity to words.

Room 32, Building 334, Yanda University, is not only the activity venue of the May Fourth Literary Society, but also the editorial office of Weiming Lake magazine.

The May Fourth Literary Society has been established for more than a month. It has four groups: criticism, fiction and prose, drama and opera, and poetry. The first batch of members has more than 90 members, including the vast majority of students majoring in Chinese in the Chinese Department of the grades of 77 and 78, as well as some young literary people from other departments.

As the vice president of the Literature Society, Chen Jiangong is in charge of the novel and prose group and is also the editor of Weiming Lake. In addition to him, Zha Jianying and Wang Xiaoping from the 77 class are also editors of Weiming Lake, and Zou Shifang, who is also the vice president, is the editor-in-chief.

When Chen Jiangong came back, the two were talking about Lin Chaoyang. In the morning, Zhang Dening came to the class to find Chen Jiangong. They thought that Chen Jiangong had published new works again. Everyone surrounded Chen Jiangong and asked him, but he refused to say anything.

After everyone had left, Chen Jiangong told the classmates who knew that Lin Chaoyang was writing a novel that this time Zhang Dening was delivering the manuscript fee invoice to Lin Chaoyang.

"I never realized before that Lin Chaoyang is quite talented. He can even publish a novel in Yanjing Literature and Art," said Cha Jianying.

She and Wang Xiaoping were both from Yenching University and had distinguished family backgrounds. In addition, she was admitted to the Chinese Department of Yenching University and was an active member of the department. Therefore, her usual conversations would subtly carry a sense of superiority, but this involuntary sense of superiority could not be described as mean.

Wang Xiaoping said: "Don't you think he is arrogant?"

"Arrogant? I didn't realize that. He's actually quite easygoing."

"I think he's quite proud. Do you remember the first time we met at the bell pavilion?"

“Remember, Yaozhong introduced it!”

Wang Xiaoping recalled: "According to my observation, he should have read all the poems we recited. But when I asked him if he liked poetry, he told me that he liked our poetry recitation. Think about that!"

Cha Jianying frowned and thought, "Now that you put it that way, it seems to be true."

At this time, Chen Jiangong laughed and said, "You female comrades are really attentive. You even remember such details."

Cha Jianying teased, "You observed so carefully! From what I saw, she was in love. No wonder she took the initiative to talk to Lin Chaoyang the day she first met him."

Wang Xiaoping stood up anxiously and covered her mouth, "I told you not to talk nonsense!"

Chen Jiangong quickly stopped the two from fooling around and put the manuscript in his hand on the table, "Stop fooling around, let's get down to business first."

He pointed at the manuscript and said, "You two both said that Liu Zhenyun's "One Night in the Melon Field" could not be saved. When I sent the manuscript fee invoice, I mentioned it to Chaoyang and he reviewed it."

Cha Jianying picked up the manuscript and was shocked by the dense handwriting on it. "The comments are almost more than the main text!"

Wang Xiaoping also came over and said, "He approved all of this? He's really patient!"

Cha Jianying glanced at her, suppressed the urge to tease her, and asked Chen Jiangong: "It's almost time to ask Liu Zhenyun to rewrite it. Is it necessary?"

"Yes, why not?"

Chen Jiangong has been writing novels for several years and knows the ins and outs of this very well. "If you don't point out the problems, he may never know where his problems are. It's better to revise once than to write ten times. How many people can write naturally? Good writers are all revised!"

This time, Wang Xiaoping spoke before Cha Jianying could speak. While the two were talking, she kept staring at the annotations on the manuscript.

"Brother Lin is very good at reviewing manuscripts!"

"You've figured out all this?" Cha Jianying couldn't help but tease.

"Look at this paragraph..." Wang Xiaoping pointed at the manuscript very seriously.

In fact, any professional editor could give the same review comments on Liu Zhenyun's manuscript as Lin Chaoyang did, and many senior editors might be able to point out more problems than he did.

But in the eyes of two greenhorns, Cha Jianying and Wang Xiaoping, this was already very impressive.

After the two of them had finished pointing and reviewing the manuscript, Chen Jiangong took the manuscript and was about to give it to Liu Zhenyun.

Just as I was about to go out, I ran into my classmates.

"Liang Zuo!"

"Jian Gong, are you going out?"

"Well, I'm going to deliver the manuscript. You come..."

Liang Zuo, who was wearing glasses and had a slightly chubby face, smiled and said, "I'm sending in the manuscript too."

"Okay, I have to take a good look at your work. Wait for me." Chen Jiangong turned to Wang Xiaoping and shouted, "Xiaoping, take a look at Liang Zuo's manuscript first. I'll be back later."

"it is good."

Chen Jiangong returned to the dormitory building, found Liu Zhenyun, and returned the manuscript to him.

Looking at the densely packed comments on the manuscript, Liu Zhenyun felt numb.

Is writing a novel so difficult?
(End of this chapter)