1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 6: I have already become an idol just after writing a book

"The station was in the most chaotic state, with tens of thousands of people talking. No one paid attention to the big red cloth banner that had been hung up temporarily. The banner had been hung up many times, and the words on it were folded and damaged. The loudspeakers played one quotation song after another, which made everyone even more nervous."

"I see."

Flipping through the books that come to mind.

At this moment, Jiang Xian felt blessed.

Educated youth and chess.

"The Chess King" tells the story of the "chess nerd" educated youth Wang Yisheng, who searches everywhere for opponents to play chess and play chess.

In another time and space, this novel was published in the early 80s. Once it came out, it made its author Ah Cheng famous in the literary world.

What made Jiang Xian even more excited was
"The Chess King actually has more than 14,000 words? How many dumplings would that take!"

This guy is so happy, it's like fishing without air force! Wild yellow croaker! It weighs five pounds!

Double happiness!
The definitions of long, medium and short novels are rather vague and are usually based on the number of words, but the number of words is not the only factor.

The number of words in a short story is usually between several thousand and twenty thousand, with few characters and a simple plot. A short story like "Scars", which is only 4000 words, is considered the most standard short story.

However, for a medium or short length work like "The Chess King", it is ambiguous. It can be called a short story or a novella.

“We need to plan carefully first.”

That night, the yard was quiet and a black cat tiptoed across the roof.

Jiang Xian lay on the bed like a hot pancake, waving a round palm-leaf fan in his hand, moving his big feet around, and reading the novel "The Chess King" over and over again.

The protagonist Wang Yisheng is a "weird" person.

Wang Yi lived a simple life. In his eyes, there were only two most important things in life: eating and playing chess. So when he went to the countryside to work, others complained that there was too little oil and water, but he thought this kind of life was very good.

Wang Yisheng was a bit twisted. When his friends used their connections to sign him up for a competition, he chose not to participate, saying that participating in the competition like this would only make people poke fun at him.

The climax of the novel is that Wang Yisheng gets what he wanted, and he wins nine games in a row with great confidence. One of them plays blindly against nine other people, and then three are left among the nine, and then one is left among the three.

A chess nerd eventually becomes a chess king.

"The entire novel's timeline is within the Buzz Buzz period. There is no content beyond the current era, so there is no need to delete or modify it."

Jiang Xian wanted to be a cultural person, not a prophet.

"The only problem is: the subject matter is too sensitive and there are too many buzzing things in the manuscript."

What is not well known is that "The Chess King" was rejected by "Beijing Literature", a leading literary journal at the time, because it described the dark side of the lives of educated youth.

"Beijing Literature" is also known as "Beijing Art and Literature". It was founded in the 50s. The first editor-in-chief was Lao She. It was suspended for a period of time during the "buzz buzz buzz" period and resumed publication in 1971. It is the earliest literary magazine to resume publication in the country. Wang Zengqi, Yang Mo, Wang Meng, Li Tuo and Zhao Shuli have successively worked in it.

“What if what I write gets censored?” A familiar shadow loomed over Jiang Xian’s head again.

“I don’t initiate it!”

"Besides, wasn't The Chess King successfully published in the end?"

If all else fails, learn from a certain dentist teacher and be thick-skinned. Submit your work to a large, heavyweight magazine first. If it’s rejected, switch to a slightly worse one and continue.

Got up early in the morning.

Rao Yuemei has to go to work, Jiang Ke wants to go out and have fun, and Jiang Xian is left alone at home as a left-behind youth.

He had completed his three-day short-term labor contract, so he returned to his "unemployed" status.

After emptying the chamber pot, Rao Yuemei was just about to go out. She held the 28-meter-long bicycle and walked towards the doorway, not forgetting to give some instructions.

"Jiang Xian, wash your and your sister's clothes at home."

"Got it."

"Put it in a basin, soak it in cold water, grab a piece of clothes board, rinse it several times, wring it out, and hang it in the yard. It will be dry before the sun sets." Rao Yuemei explained to him how to wash clothes in detail. Jiang Xian is already 25 years old this year, and like every other grown-up boy, in his mother's eyes, he is still a good-for-nothing who can't wash clothes, sweep the floor, wash rice, or wash dishes.

She even checks after she’s done!
Jiang Xian picked up a bag of "Panda" brand laundry detergent and poured it into the washing basin. Rao Yuemei seemed to hear the noise and pushed her trolley back through the door, her eyes full of pain.

"My dear! That laundry detergent is from our own home."

"If you use less, it won't be clean." Jiang Xian said stubbornly, grunting and using the washboard with a bitter look on his face.

It's strange! Why do I get backaches when I work at home?
"It would be nice to have a washing machine." The guy squatted on the ground, legs apart, dreaming.

Only after the clothes were hung up one by one did Jiang Xian have time to write.

After rummaging through the drawers for a long time, I finally found a few sheets of grid paper suitable for writing.

The colors of the plaids are all different, but Jiang Xian is already content.

There is a paper shortage these days.

Have you ever seen the situation where all the paper and pens in the supply and marketing cooperative are sold out?

The country's paper production is not large. In addition, last winter, the first college entrance examination was resumed, and 570 million candidates entered the examination hall they had been looking forward to for many years. This summer, another 590 million candidates took the entrance examination.

In less than a year, two rounds of college entrance examinations were held, with a total of 1160 million candidates. How many papers did they have to print? I heard that in order to print the college entrance examination papers, the paper originally intended for printing the fifth volume of Teachers' Selected Works was transferred to that.

Cicadas were chirping one after another on the willow trees outside the yard, the wind from the locust flowers blew in from time to time outside the window, and in the room, Jiang Xian's pen tip was rustling on the manuscript paper.

After writing a few pages, Jiang Xian put down his pen and stretched his fingers. He could already feel a wave of fatigue in his joints.

In this era without computers and keyboards, he began to understand Wang Xiaobo.

Wang Xiaobo and Ma Huateng were programmers of the same period. In order to facilitate writing, the maverick Wang Xiaobo developed his own input method.

“Handwriting is much slower than typing on a keyboard.”

As a small town test-taker, Jiang Xian knows very well the average speed of writing stroke by stroke.

1000 words/hour.

The best example is that he once wrote an essay of more than 2,000 words intermittently by hand in two and a half hours. By the end, his fingers were almost cramped.

I experienced that feeling many times during my student days. When I copied texts and wrote essays, my writing was always so sloppy that it barely formed any characters.

But you can’t just write like that. The manuscript has to be shown to the editor. If you become famous, this manuscript will have to be dug out for people to see. So not only must you write well, but you also have to have a unique style.

However, this style cannot be too unique. For example, Qian Zhongshu's manuscript is densely packed with black things, Wang Anyi's manuscript is full of writing and scribbling, and Flaubert's manuscript is like fishnet stockings.

These are all negative examples, and he, who has no fame, will not follow them.

Of course, there are also examples worth learning from.

Lao She's manuscripts are famous for their quality. The editor, typesetting and proofreader said frankly: "It is a blessing to be faced with such a manuscript!"

There is also Lu Yao, who, in this era, wrote the million-word novel "Ordinary World" stroke by stroke.

The main text, drafts, chapter outlines... all added up, it's more than a million words.

It's really a painstaking effort.

He devoted his life to his beloved writing.

"Let's continue coding."

"In difficult times, our comrades must see the achievements, see the light, see the hope, and increase our courage."

For the next two days, Jiang Xian stayed at home and wrote quietly. It was not until the third day that ripples were created.

The street labor service station sent someone.

(End of this chapter)