British writer

"In a cave underground lived a hobbit..."

Open the supplement of The Scotsman, and you can see the novel that started serialization today——

"Hobbit".

When he saw the first sentence, James felt a sense of crisis,

Hobbits, a race that has never appeared in all previous fantasy works,

After reading it, I found that it was a short race, only about half the height of a normal human being. The soles of their feet were as strong as leather, and there was a thick layer of brown hair on their feet.

Creating a new race means that Lu Shi wants to build a new world.

This has very high requirements for the author, like walking a tightrope on a cliff, one mistake will fall into the abyss.

Cavendish on the other side said: "Brave."

James nodded.

"really."

Unexpectedly, Cavendish added another sentence: "But stupid."

James didn't answer.

Obviously, Cavendish felt that Lu Shi could not create an immersive "real" world,

Even if shaped, it will never succeed.

too difficult!

James wasn't originally a horror story writer,

Because of his in-depth study of the "Bible", he once considered using the "Bible" as a blueprint to create a world where gods and demons confront each other, and write an epic novel,

To this end, he also made a worldview setting, which was done very carefully.

But it turns out...

I don't want to start writing.

Many web writers in later generations have similar experiences.

No matter how complete the settings are, they are only settings.

From the setting to the story, there is still a long way to go.

James asked: "Mr. Chancellor, do you think it is not good to create a new race and set up a new world?"

Cavendish shook his head,

"Of course I don't think so. But you must know that the purpose of setting is to assist writing, and it should not be chasing the end."

That's right,

The set requirements should be concise, logical and self-consistent,

Another very important point -

Easy to remember.

But seeing that Lu Shi came up to create a new race of hobbits, I'm afraid that some omissions will inevitably be missed in the creation in the future, and there is a risk of eating books.

James pondered for a moment, and said, "I hope Mr. Lu used the biographical style instead of the chronicle style when making historical settings. Because novels are not dramas, people are always the core of the story, and using time as a clue will cause big trouble."

He would never have thought that Lu Shi's setting was not made by himself.

It was made for him by the great Mr. Tolkien.

Cavendish on the side was curious,

"I noticed that you used the word 'hope', why? Since there is a bet, you don't want him to lose?"

James was stunned for a moment, then smiled wryly,

"That's right."

Cavendish frowned and reminded: "Don't lose your fighting spirit."

James nodded and changed the topic: "Let's not talk about this first, let's continue to look at it later."

The two continued to read,

"

'The cave has a green-painted door as round as a porthole, with a shiny yellow handle in the center. After the door is opened, there is a living room in the shape of a circular tube like a tunnel. '

'It was a comfortable drawing room without smoke, with carefully decorated walls, a carpeted and tiled floor, and many polished chairs here and there. '

...

"

There are a lot of scene descriptions in the back.

James couldn't help being startled,

"This kind of writing...is this kind of writing really written by a Chinese?"

Cavendish asked puzzled, "What's wrong?"

James explained: "Mr. the school supervisor doesn't know something, because the paper is expensive, the ancient Chinese would use classical Chinese when writing, concise and concise, and try to minimize unnecessary descriptions. This habit has continued until now."

So foreign monks cannot recite the scriptures,

James had only a half-knowledge. If he had read "A Dream of Red Mansions" written in ancient vernacular, he would definitely not have such a wrong understanding.

Moreover,

Is there not much description in "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng"?

Are there not many descriptions in parallel prose with various rhetoric?

Classical Chinese can also describe.

Of course, James is not all wrong,

In China, it is true that the descriptions in novels gradually became richer only after the New Culture Movement, which advocated vernacular Chinese, spread.

Cavendish nodded,

"Indeed, Mr. Lu's previous "Neither Survival" had much less environmental descriptions. Tell me, why did he suddenly change his writing style?"

James replied: "Because it is a fantasy work."

Cavendish thought about it and understood.

Fantasy works are full of fantasies. If the description is not detailed and the picture is constructed in the reader's mind, it is easy for the reader to lose the sense of immersion in reading.

But this description is also a double-edged sword.

If the writing is not good, readers tend to be distracted. When you look back, you will feel that this work is rambling and very rubbish.

It is for this reason that many people cannot read such tomes as "Reminiscence of Things Past" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude"——

Describe too much.

James said: "The thing that surprised me the most is that Mr. Lu's writing style is changeable. In "There Were None", he could write very simply, explaining the situation of the isolated island clearly in a few strokes, and then put the focus on The case progresses; and this "The Hobbit" is quite the opposite."

Just the description of a few natural paragraphs allowed the two of them to discuss so much.

In fact, these contents were indeed written by Lu Shi,

In the original text, because it is a fairy tale style, Tuo Lao’s writing is lively and agile, and he uses simple sentences as much as possible, such as "the sun is warm, and the grass is extremely green\

,"Lu Shi changed these contents.

James couldn't help muttering again: "Is this really written by a Chinese?"

Cavendish shook his head,

"Okay, stop admiring Mr. Lu's writing. Let's continue reading."

James nods,

"Yes, the plot is more important than the writing."

The two continued to read,

Unexpectedly, as the plot unfolded, there were more shocks from the plot than writing.

The protagonist of the novel, Bilbo Baggins, is cowardly, never takes risks, and never does unexpected things.

Until one day, the wizard Gandalf suddenly came to Bilbo and encouraged him to join the expedition as a snitch to recapture the treasure occupied by the dragon.

This is the main content of the first chapter.

The second chapter is the first battle of the adventure story,

Bilbo and his teammates embarked on an adventurous journey together, but they were almost killed by the trolls. Fortunately, Gandalf arrived in time, causing the three trolls to quarrel non-stop, and they escaped.

The third chapter is "Short Rest\

,"So far, the content of the three serial chapters is over.

At the end of James' reading, his whole body froze.

Immediately afterwards, he couldn't help but sighed, and said, "Amazing! Really amazing!"

Cavendish was puzzled,

"What's so great about this? Isn't it a very orthodox story?"

Treasures of dwarves, wizards, dragons...

Orthodox indeed.

But the problem is,

"Mr. Superintendent, just now you read the first three chapters, is there even a second of drama?"

James asked in a low voice.

Cavendish was stunned, and understood what the other party wanted to say,

He bowed his head wordlessly.

James said: "That's why I think Mr. Lu is great. An orthodox fantasy adventure story is not boring at all after reading it, and it is even very interesting. People can't help but look forward to the serialization next week, which is not enough to explain its success. Is it? Moreover, this wizard named Gandalf is too charming..."

As he said that, James couldn't help but look back at the previous highlights.

Cavendish was silent,

After a while, he asked, "Are you sure?"

James looked up,

"Are you talking about a bet?"

Cavendish nodded,

"right."

James said: "Looking at it now, I should still be able to suppress Mr. Lu. However, what Mr. Lu is doing is a long serial. I can almost be sure that "The Hobbit" will gradually improve and become a great work, so ..."

He didn't finish the rest of the sentence.

Cavendish asked, "Aren't you confident?"

Can this answer?

James could only smile wryly.