Writer 1979: Writing for the People

When Zhang Dening delivered Xu Lu's manuscript to the editor-in-chief Li Qingquan's desk, he gleaned three words from her words.

Xu Lu's new work is exceptionally outstanding!

Hmm... this scene seems somewhat familiar!

It seems like the same scene unfolded when the last piece, "Life is Like a String," was sent over.

Zhang Dening went on to explain further.

"Comrade Xu Lu has written local literature this time, using the landscape of Hunan Province as the story's backdrop to depict the daily life of local rural postmen..."

"I remember Comrade Xu Lu lived and worked in Shaanxi Province, right?"

Li Qingquan quickly grasped the key point, and Zhang Dening nodded.

"That's right, so he must have spent a lot of time and effort learning about and collecting local information..."

However, judging from the final quality of this article, all his efforts were worthwhile.

I feel it's comparable to "The Harvester".

Although she doesn't know the inside story yet, Zhang Dening has already imagined how much effort and sweat Xu Lu put in to write this article.

If he hadn't done thorough background research and gathering materials, how could he have written about the local customs and traditions so meticulously and realistically?

People have always only noticed his talent and genius, but have never noticed his extremely serious and rigorous attitude towards writing.

That's the key factor that enabled his success!

In other words, Xu Lu wasn't there and didn't know what she was thinking, otherwise she would definitely have felt that she had met a kindred spirit.

That's right, I was extremely serious, hardworking, and exhausted!

Li Qingquan nodded in agreement, and then eagerly began reading the main text.

He wanted to see just how well this article was written, that it was even comparable to "Wheat Harvester".

In his opinion, the article "Wheat Harvester" has a very good chance of winning this year's National Excellent Short Story Award.

……

After reading the first two or three thousand words, Li Qingquan understood why Zhang Dening had reacted that way...

This article's fresh and elegant writing style alone makes it surpass countless other works.

He can capture the profound and rugged feel of the Loess Plateau, and the poetic beauty of the mountains in eastern Hunan...

This Comrade Xu Lu is truly remarkable!

Moreover, the plot of this story is quite original, as it focuses on the profession of postman and features a father and son as the main characters. It's unclear what kind of story it will connect to...

With many questions in his mind, Li Qingquan continued reading.

As the full story gradually unfolded before him, Li Qingquan realized that the article's excellence lay not only in its unique writing style, but also in its structure and character development, which were equally remarkable.

Structurally, it uses the mountain postal route as a thread to connect all four core themes: professional succession, father-son reconciliation, local life, and spiritual inheritance. The structure is compact and coherent, and the narrative efficiency is extremely high.

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In terms of character development, both the father and son are very well-rounded, so there's no need to elaborate further here.

You only need to look at the supporting characters, such as Granny Wu, Sister A, the old Party Secretary, and the children in the mountains, and you will find that not only are they all vivid and lifelike, but none of them are superfluous; they all fulfill the theme's function.

The fifth grandmother corresponds to the core idea that "a letter is a thought," making her son understand that the weight of a parcel is more than just the letter itself.

A-mei's connection to the hopes of those inside and outside the mountains hints at the two-way journey of the younger generation;

The mother is the gentle support behind the postal route, making up for the other half of the contributions of the rural postman's family.

All the supporting characters, imbued with the simple and warm-hearted spirit of mountain people, together uphold the worldview of "postal routes connecting people's feelings".

"De Ning, you're right, this is indeed an article that can rival 'Mai Ke' (a Chinese magazine)."

After reading it, Li Qingquan couldn't help but sigh, and then added.

"We haven't decided on the headline for the next issue yet, so let's put this article, 'The Mountain, the Man, and the Dog,' on it!"

With the quality of this article, it's more than qualified to appear on the front page.

"it is good."

After Zhang Dening left the office, Li Qingquan couldn't help but start fantasizing again. With the literary and art congress about to be held, how wonderful it would be if Comrade Xu Lu were also on the list of participants from Shaanxi Province.

That way, we can meet in person.

There is a severe shortage of excellent authors these days, and even among excellent authors, there are two types. One type has very high literary merit, but is too dry and boring. If it is published in a magazine, very few ordinary readers will like to read it.

Therefore, it is difficult to help with the issuance volume.

Another type is like Xu Lu, whose works are both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.

His name is now a label; as long as people see that it's his work, regardless of the specific genre, they're willing to take a second look...

Therefore, he naturally wanted to seize every opportunity to maintain a good relationship with him.

He even considered meeting him in person to discuss the manuscript of his novella.

It's worth noting that Xu Lu had previously only written short stories in the field of fiction.

If their "Beijing Literature" magazine could acquire his first novella, its circulation would be an astonishing figure.

Unfortunately, Li Qingquan's wishful thinking ultimately failed.

The list of participants from Shaanxi Province was finalized several months ago. Among the literary participants were Hu Cai, Chairman of the Writers Association; Wang Wenshi, Vice Chairman; Fu Gengsheng from Northwest University; and Wang Pixiang, editor-in-chief of *Yanhe* magazine…

And then there's Jia Ping'ao, the winner of the National Excellent Short Story Award mentioned earlier.

There is no Xu Lu.

However, this is actually quite normal. Given Xu Lu's number of works and popularity a few months ago, it was inevitable that she would be rejected.

Even now, it would be difficult for him to be elected.

Although he has published quite a few works in the past two months and has made some achievements in the field of literary research, he has not yet won any national awards and is still relatively inexperienced.

So no matter what, he definitely won't be able to attend this year's literary and art congress.

Xu Lu himself didn't care much. Although he really wanted to take advantage of this "business trip" to visit Beijing, he couldn't go back this time. He could go again next March.

In the original history, the award ceremony for the second National Excellent Short Story Award was scheduled for March of next year.

Given his current situation, winning an award should be a sure thing. The question is, will he only win one award, or more?

We'll have to wait and see what happens, because as far as he can recall, in all the previous National Excellent Short Story Awards, there never seemed to be two works by the same author winning awards in the same competition...

Whether he can become this special case depends on what those judges are thinking.

In short, let nature take its course!