Nightwatcher

After reading this chapter yesterday, some readers said that the protagonist has no goals and lacks internal drive. Let me explain this. In fact, there are two ways of writing in terms of promoting the main line: one is the explicit main line. The so-called explicit main line is what the author clearly tells the readers from the beginning.

Let's take the most popular Lord of Mysteries as an example. The main line of the first volume is the notebook, which was clearly written from the beginning. The protagonist has been working hard to find the missing notebook. In the second volume, divination after the protagonist's resurrection, hope for upgrades and vengeance is in Backlund. In the third volume, in order to upgrade to the sea adventure until the end, the main author of each volume writes it straightforwardly at the beginning to tell the readers, and then unfolds the plot.

Think about it, isn't it so?

Another way of writing is the hidden main line, which will not tell the readers bluntly, but all the conflict points, all the contradictory points, are foreshadowed in advance. When the plot slowly unfolds, readers will find that all of this is natural, not abrupt, and even feels that it should be so.

May wish to recall, the first volume of Jingcha Fengyun, is there a lot of foreshadowing?

Of course, some books do not have a main line, so write whatever you think of. But I am not.

The advantage of the hidden main line is that you never know what the follow-up plot will be. It may be a comedy or a knife. The downside is that sometimes the reader feels aimless because the plot hasn't arrived yet.

Take the content of the second volume of the watchman as an example. You don't know what its main line is, so you can't guess its ending and process.

Another advantage is that, from the perspective of reading experience, it is the world that pushes the protagonist, and the torrent of history is advancing.

As for the writing of the dominant main line, you already know his ending in advance, what you don't know is the process.

I came up with this set of theories blindly, but the way of writing has existed for a long time. Taking the four famous novels as examples, the main lines are obvious: Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Invisible main line: Outlaws of the Marsh, Dream of Red Mansions.

In Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, we all know his main line and his ending. What is not known is the process.

Outlaws of the Marsh and Dream of Red Mansions are hidden. The ending of Liangshan Heroes and Jia's Mansion is something I never thought of.

Most of today's web articles are explicit main lines.

Before opening the book, I had clearly thought about this issue. After choosing to use the implicit main line of writing, I wrote from the perspective of the entire world view and downplayed the protagonist's goal.

Let the situation drive the plot.