Recently, 101 has been writing his own book while concentrating on the reader's expectations, because his sense of rhythm is not good, and he is always unable to grasp the reader's sense of expectation. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

I just happened to have just seen two books, and two more representative questions appeared, which led to today's topic as an introduction.

The first book is "Xianka", the author describes a teenager at the beginning, the dantian was damaged, and the dantian was repaired due to an accident, and the next crisis was how to use the broken dantian to cultivate.

Seeing this, 101 became interested, and wanted to see how the protagonist cultivated with a crippled dantian, who knew that the author's pen turned, and then spent 10 chapters to recall who was plotted, how the two sides fought, the protagonist escaped with his life, and then continued to talk about the golden finger.

Here 101 feels that the story is not told according to the reader's expectations, remembering that in a writing book, what has happened is never as engaging to the reader as the story that will happen, unless what has happened is suspenseful or mysterious.

Because the protagonist is not dead, it doesn't matter how he fought before, it can only be used as a sketch to explain the ins and outs, and the reader's strongest expectation at the moment is to see how the crippled dantian is cultivated, and whether the protagonist is still facing other existential crises.

When the reader already has a strong sense of expectation, the follow-up plot cuts off the reader's expectation and instantly gets bored.

(Because I'm in a group with the author, I've suggested that the author move the opening chapter to the back and tell the story in order, which feels a lot better.) ）

The second book is "Twenty-Four Little Corpses", the author describes the first two chapters of a protagonist who was captured by the mysterious magic gate, relying on a good heart to pass the qualification test, and then the reader is looking forward to seeing what the background of this magic gate is, what kind of living environment the protagonist will be in, and whether there is a golden finger to turn over.

Who knows, the author turned his pen and began to write the second part of the qualification test and more importantly, which is a trial link, the protagonist takes the basic supplies, enters the secret realm, fights to the death, and writes 10 chapters.

101 Seeing this, I also feel that the sense of expectation was cut off instantly, I really don't want to watch such a long trial, at most 2 chapters is the maximum tolerance, I just want to see the protagonist quickly settle down, and then rely on his own ingenuity to rise little by little.

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These two examples caused 101 to think deeply, because I write my own books, and I often do stupid things that do not go with expectations, and as an author, it seems that I ignore the reader's heart when writing books.

This...... What's going on?

After much thought, 101 believes that this is caused by information asymmetry and different purposes.

Readers' Concerns:

1. Is the information presented in an orderly manner?

2. Is the plot progression engaging?

3. Are the characters interesting?

4. Do you feel refreshed?

Author's Concern:

1. A lot of my settings should be thrown to the reader early, otherwise my story will not be able to unfold.

2. My plot progression is conceived, and I write what I think is necessary.

3. Characters are my spokespersons and tools, and I let him do whatever he wants.

4. I don't know, but I'm writing the story I want to write.

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Of course, many old authors already have considerable creative experience, and will consciously consider the plot and character settings from the reader's point of view, and generally do not write books on their own.

But this kind of "author's heart" and "reader's heart" seem to be a pair of mortal enemies, always inadvertently killed, interfering with the creation of novels, even the most experienced authors, sometimes fall into confusion.

101 has summarized some ways to see if it can help you effectively capture the reader's expectations when writing a book?

1. Regardless of the overall concept, always take the protagonist's motivation as the driving force for the plot to unfold, that is, what the protagonist wants and what the first goal is, and then develop the action around this.

For example, if you want to survive, you will write that the protagonist will immediately think about how to survive, and if you get a golden finger in the urban class, you will immediately expand YY and write along with what the protagonist wants.

Because if the sense of substitution of the characters is okay, what the characters want to do is exactly what the reader wants the characters to do, and this article meets the expectations of the readers.

If the protagonist is affected by a passive plot, such as the trial plot in "Twenty-Four Little Corpses", it is imposed on the protagonist by others, not what the protagonist wants.

This requires two criteria:

A. Whether there is enough foreshadowing.

That is, the content of the 10 major chapters, whether there is enough foreshadowing in advance, if you write about how the protagonist cultivates hard before, the competitors have also explained, and what benefits will be obtained from the success of the trial, then with enough foreshadowing, the reader will naturally look forward to the content of the trial, not to mention writing 10 chapters, even if it is 20 chapters, 30 chapters, it is no problem!

B. Whether to truncate the reader's expectations.

The reader's expectation is based on foreshadowing, because the beginning is written about the mysterious magic gate, catching the protagonist to cultivate, the reader's sense of expectation is to see if the protagonist can settle down, and how to rise after settling down, rather than watching a lengthy trial, because the opening trial represents that the protagonist's fate is not under his control, and he passively accepts the arrangement of others for his fate.

The longer the passive plot, the more it seems that the protagonist has no goal, which causes the reader to be bored and lack a sense of substitution.

Therefore, this criterion is also very important, the setting of the new plot must be in line with the sense of expectation that has been created for the reader before, otherwise it will need to be paved again, and such a new plot can only be arranged after the reader's expectation is transferred to this matter.

2. The protagonist has the motivation and actively acts for it, and it is necessary to closely set up the crisis (obstacles).

Because there is no obstacle to the implementation of the motive, the reader also has no sense of expectation, the thing that is achieved overnight is not attractive, only the twists and turns, the desire that is hindered, is worth to realize, just like the divorce of the fight, if there is no waste wood and insults in advance, there is a three-year contract, if the protagonist directly withdraws from the marriage, the reader will not have strong expectations.

3. The motive of the protagonist is the plot pull, and the crisis is the thrust, as long as it conforms to the plot setting of the rally line and the thrust line, it is a good plot that can enhance the reader's sense of expectation.

For example, constantly strengthening the protagonist's wishes, such as the protagonist's steps to quietly prepare for the realization of his wishes, such as setting up some people and things to prevent the protagonist from realizing his wishes, these plots will not deviate, and they are all looking forward to the line.

4. The protagonist needs to constantly overcome one crisis after another, and the refreshing feeling of harvest is a magic weapon to stimulate the reader's excitement and maintain a greater sense of expectation.

Just like working hard and not getting paid, it is like only going to work and not getting paid, and there are also a number of harvest points that need to be set on the pressure line and the rally line.

5. The sense of rhythm also needs to be taken into account, the big foreshadowing should have a big plot explosion to meet the reader's expectations, and the small foreshadowing is not suitable for writing too long plots, and the general transition plot is the appearance of a chapter and a half, and writing too much and writing a long time will also cause the reader to get bored.

6. Suspense and digging holes are another plot pull that also needs to be mastered.

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The following examples explain the above six articles, taking the legend of mortal cultivation of immortals as an example-

Readers look forward to 1 at the beginning: The second stunned man (Han Li) yearns for the outside world, his second uncle has no children and nephews, and he comes to him to go to the Seven Xuanmen as a registered disciple, can his wish be fulfilled?

Here is a chapter of plot to pave Han Li's grassroots background, his strong desire to see the world, his grassroots parents and siblings, and the second uncle's well-informed...... All of these made the reader deeply interested, and they wanted to see Han Li's fate next.

Just imagine, if it is written here that the bandits raided and killed his parents, and little Han Li intends to take revenge, it will cut off the sense of expectation, which is not a good plot.

Or maybe Han Li was taken in by a certain beautiful woman, and then took him to a big family, and the two of them had an ambiguous relationship, and it was not a plot that followed the sense of expectation.

Reader's expectation 2: Han Li went to the city with his second uncle, was made fun of, and was despised by the big-name sects, as well as the second uncle's gifts, plus a group of children from the city, who seemed more awesome than Han Li, Han Li carefully shrank in the corner of the carriage......

The expectation here is that because Han Li is in a weak position, readers begin to expect him to rise and become stronger.

The first expectation is that the protagonist wants to "see the world", and the second expectation is that the protagonist is weak and treated lightly, and the reader expects him to rise.

These two expectations are in the same vein, "seeing the world" lies in the poor background and the unique personality of the protagonist; "rising" lies in the fact that the protagonist suffers from the hot and cold state of the world in order to achieve the desire to see the world, which is in line with the pressure line mentioned above in 101, the former is the desire and the pull, and here is the pressure resistance, which accompanies the appearance.

Reader's Expectation 3: Han Li's first assessment is to climb a mountain, and readers expect him to succeed.

Why is this expectation generated?

Because of the desire and pressure, the reader will hope that the protagonist will break through the resistance and achieve the wish, because he is poor, so he hopes that he will rise, because his family is poor, so he hopes that he will become a registered disciple and send money to his family every month.

These factors, which the author repeatedly emphasized from multiple angles in the foreshadowing, created the impression that a mortal is grassroots and single-minded. So readers will expect him to pass the test.

In addition, the next mountain climbing assessment was not written for long, just 2 chapters, and compared Han Li with the high-quality rich disciples, implying that he was just out of the middle of the stream, and he fell downstream if he was careless, and he worked hard to finally win, generating the joy of his wish fulfillment.

Seeing this, the reader will think: This kid is quite tough and smart! Yes, yes, look down, after seeing the Seven Xuanmen, what will happen to the story?

Therefore, it gives the reader a sweet stimulus, and the reader becomes interested.

Reader's Expectation 4: Han Li was selected by the Mysterious Ink Doctor to practice the Mysterious Exercises, and the Reader's Expectation: Find out what's going on?

This is a powerful twist, setting up a huge suspense, making the starting point for the climax of the 100,000-word killing of Mo Lao, and it is also the starting point for the whole book, Han Li to embark on the path of cultivating immortals.

Then, this belongs to a huge conspiracy, so the author continues to deepen Mo Lao's conspiracy oppression in the later text, and then cleverly writes that the protagonist gradually realizes that something is wrong, and gets a small bottle and begins to study how to fight back and get out.

This conveys a huge sense of anticipation to the reader:

1. What is the whole conspiracy?

2. Want to see how the protagonist uses the small bottle to fight back and get out?

1 and 2 rise alternately, forming more and more tense and strong plot tension, until 100,000 words burst open, forming a big climax with twists and turns, and readers naturally feel hearty.

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Well, that's probably the analysis here, mortals basically follow this principle in the back, set a big climax in advance, and then push it back to the front, alternately write the protagonist's motivation, the protagonist's execution, crisis pressure, etc., until the contradiction is almost bursting, and then detonate instantly.

Throughout, the writing and pacing did not deviate from the reader's expectations, and there were few things that made the reader feel impatient, which led to the success of the book.

Speaking of this, do you see that it seems that writing a book is such a cycle - laying down the reader's expectations, and then satisfying the reader's expectations.

In other words, it is the relationship between foreshadowing and climax, and foreshadowing and climax are both worn on the main line, as for the characters and background, it is just the relationship between the actor and the stage.

Therefore, the author plays the role of the creator, and needs to understand the reader's reading mentality in advance, and then design his own story accordingly, so that the reader will obediently take the bait and be led by the nose.

Well, Lala has talked so much about it, because 101 is trying to find an effective way for us to grasp a faint "reader's expectation" when writing a book, and learn to develop the plot along with the expectation.