Final Words: The Person I Was Yesterday Is No Longer Me

Yesterday, from waking up to going to bed, I wrote a crazy burst of 25,000 words for 16 hours, which made Mao so exhausted that he immediately fell asleep and just woke up at noon... I hope my schedule is okay.jpg

In fact, the update is not to participate in the 515 update event, but mainly because this volume is a mainline volume and has a lot of chapters.

If we follow the previous normal update rhythm, it will already be the 20th when I finish writing this volume. If I take another day off, it will fall to the 21st, which is the second half of the year. When the next volume is finished, it may be moved to the end of the month accidentally... This is also due to the obsessive-compulsive disorder of "I want to finish each volume in the middle of the month."

Because the unit drama model has its convenience, I plan to experiment with a writing method that combines the main plot volume and the branch plot volume for this book.

Counting the prologue "Caged Bird", this book has a total of seven main volumes, which connect a complete story related to the truth of the world. The second volume of "Purple Ink" is a typical branch volume, not directly related to the truth - and I only wrote the outline of the main volume, while ensuring the integrity of the story structure, leaving more flexibility for Temporary idea.

The branch volume can be filled at any time depending on inspiration... In this case, the book will be quite flexible. The longest it may take to write more than 20 volumes is two years, and the shortest it only takes seven months to complete, which is very flexible. Using this structure, you can follow the main line of a given outline if you have no inspiration, and you can keep writing the script if you are inspired and in the mood.

Of course, if your grades are good, you can write more.

Why don't you help cats promote it (the words are sincere)

This can also be regarded as drawing on the experience of the book "Expert of Conquering Demons" written by my friend "Expert Who Wants to Touch" Cha Ye, to prevent being stuck and unable to write when there is no inspiration.

The structure of this volume is also related to the volume "The Faceless Man" by the Demon Conquering Expert. The original inspiration for this volume was first generated when I was discussing narrative contrivances with the authors Chaye and Tingri.

A fairly classic narrative trick in Internet literature is the Lord of Mystery’s Return Home-Blood Moon mode. Because at first Xiaoke’s wish was to go home, and when he looked up and saw the blood moon, it would give people the feeling of “having traveled to a different world.” It wasn't until later that I discovered that it was really the moon on the earth, but it was just soaked in blood - and then the lament of "I can't go home" will become even more touching.

There is no lie-like content in this, but the spliced ​​disclosure of part of the information creates a montage-style misleading.

This volume is a typical narrative trick, and it is a flashback narrative trick.

At the beginning, the scene of Morgan being seriously injured in the alley was used as the first beat, and the sudden appearance of a bad day would give people a misleading sense of crisis.

Although the time and content of the letter sent by Morgan and the letter Russell received did not match the length or the content expressed in it, and it was stated that "the rain will not fall on that man", the two plots are connected at the same time. One chapter will give people a misleading impression——

When readers read this, they may feel that it is a bit strange at most, but logic can realize the composition in another direction. Because the atmosphere has arrived, and the atmosphere drives readers to engage in intense reading.

Judging from the feedback from Chapter 69, this experiment was a success. After some more research, the cat mastered a new technique.

Another inspiration for this volume, just like the title of the volume, comes from Liu Wenyang's short science fiction novel "One Day in Prison". I mentioned in my introduction that Liu Gongzi is one of my favorite Chinese science fiction writers. Although the concept of "Prisoner for a Day" is not a novel thing nowadays, when I read this novel when I was a child, Simply astonishing!

Another inspiration for the third volume is Ayatsuji Yukito's work "The Clock Museum Incident".

When people are locked up in the museum, all they have to do is change the time on all the clocks in the museum, and people's sense of time will be confused. I think this technique is second to none among Ayatsuji Yukito's neo-honkaku-pa works. of. And I soon realized that the empty island was a huge secret room:

Different from the Internet era on earth, the connections between different sky islands in this world are completely severed.

There is no common currency, no banking industry, and no GPS. All means of real-time communication based on technology are cut off on each island. The only way to achieve synchronous dialogue across geographical boundaries is to enter the dream world; in addition, even the elves can only Meetings are held by physically traveling to other islands; people's understanding of other islands is basically limited to electronic newspapers and periodicals brought by "tourists" and "personal words from friends on other islands", and even "newspapers" do not exist - —There are very few paper books and newspapers in this world, and most of them are leftovers from the earthly era.

Because of this, the sky island itself constitutes a huge enclosed space. Almost any puzzle that can be used in the Chamber of Secrets and Blizzard Mansion modes can be used with slight modifications, as can time.

"The Clock Museum" is my favorite work in the "Clock Museum" series. The "Demon Conqueror", "One Day Prisoner" and "The Clock Museum Incident" that I recommended above are all very good works. You can go and watch them if you have time.

Then it’s time for the cat’s self-criticism:

One mistake I made in this volume was to explain Kamalthe's abilities unnecessarily.

Generally speaking, the story structure of this volume is Puella Magi Madoka Magica - it comes from the last cycle of a time cycle. The core contrast of the story lies in the gap between the people in the "first cycle" and the "last cycle" . In other words, this is actually a story about "growth" and "change".

He actually has nothing to do with Kamaltha's abilities at all, I just needed him to create a tense atmosphere and invincible enemies. But the overly complex capabilities distract the reader's attention. Part of the readers' expectations are focused on "how to defeat such a powerful enemy." But in fact, the audience doesn't care what the specific ability of Witch Night is, and it doesn't need explanation. Because what the magical girl fights is her own destiny and despair itself - this wrong misdirection of attention originally came from the refinement of Kamalse's ability.

According to Robert McKee's theory, the relative complexity of the characters must be appropriate to the type. The reader's attention should be focused on one point, which can reduce the reader's understanding pressure and allow the reader to understand more clearly the turning points of every detail and the changes in the core of the character.

But overall, something has been gained. In the three volumes so far, I have deliberately used three different architectural methods, and did not use the fantasy creation mode that I am familiar with. Just to absorb the nutrients of new themes...and gain a lot.

The mistake I made in the first volume was to "create a science fiction atmosphere" and deliberately distinguish my fantasy creation mode. But overly stacked settings and atmosphere are unnecessary. When I focused on describing the atmosphere, I actually ignored the tension of the plot itself. This resulted in the plot advancement being too slow in the part that created the atmosphere and world view in the first volume.

In the second volume, I tried to improve this mistake and added a part of the plot. But a new problem arises - that is, the plot is redundant.

The real plot in the first half of "Purple Ink" is to go to see Hibernation with the bad guy, learn about the bad guy's life experience, come back to see the bird of paradise, date the delphinium, and enter the dream world, which is the core plot of the second volume. The pre-plot took a full seventeen chapters. If you work harder, this number can actually be reduced by half. Another problem is unnecessary combat: too much ink is used to show off the new abilities of the Birds of Paradise. This leads to a weakening of the emotional tension in the climax.

For the third volume, I absorbed the problems from the first two volumes and made corrections. The daily plot of the third volume has been obviously specialized, because my initial idea was to use daily life to interweave the growth and changes of "Xia", "Russell" and "Morgan". This idea was no problem at the beginning. .

However, there were some problems with the connection of the mercenary line plot led by the two mercenaries, which caused the transition from Russell to the Godfather to become unfamiliar, and the plot about Kamalse was unnecessarily complicated. . But when I try to describe Kamaltha's ability in detail, the reader's attention is inevitably directed to "discussing the ability itself", which actually deviates from the theme of this volume, and this attention The offset is exactly the problem with my own writing method.

However, just like Xia Xia, Russell and Morgan... If there is anything I want to express in each volume, then the content of this volume is "Don't be afraid of failure."

How many times can a person fail before he is knocked down?

Maybe once. Or maybe many times.

But every failure is by no means meaningless, because people can draw strength from failure. There is a completely different intensity between someone who is knocked down by one failure and someone who is knocked down by the tenth failure.

I also learned new nutrients from my failures.

Later, Mao will also share with you my sources of inspiration, creative ideas, and lessons learned at the end of each volume.

Hope it's useful to everyone.

I have a day off today, although I feel like I may not be able to come back from this day off...

Brother Meng, remember to read more and don’t raise the cat to death. You can also promote cat books.

If the grades are good, the cat can also write more. Although this is an experimental work in itself, it is always full of challenges precisely because it is an experimental work.

So here is the preview of the title of Volume 4:

【Silence】