The lecture is over.

Frankly speaking, Lu Shi couldn't figure out if this was a lecture or not.

In his opinion, it's more like a salon, or social-

English-language writers from the near London area gathered to brag.

Wardhouse approached,

"Lu, what you said just now is really good."

Lu Shi said: "Actually, it didn't meet your requirements. I just grasped the general direction, and the technical things can only be talked about later. ”

Wardhouse waved his hand,

"It doesn't matter."

He knows very well that writing is not only about skill,

Lu Shi starts from the source, which can make people know what it is and why it is so.

Wardhouse said: "Listen to what you just meant, are you going to compile a textbook?" ”

Lu Shi said "um",

"It's not a textbook, it's barely a reference book. Because what I'm good at is, and the scope of writing is too broad, prose, poetry...... I'm not going to do that. In addition, the writing skills of different languages are very different, so I plan to write them separately in English, French, and Chinese. ”

He thought for a moment and continued, "That's all I can do, the Faculty of Arts needs real professors and teaching materials. ”

Wardhouse complained: "You're not a real professor, who is?" ”

"Well...... this"

Lu Shi was embarrassed.

At this time, the others also gathered around.

George Bernard Shaw stepped forward,

"Lu, you read the notes I put together and see if there's anything missing."

Lu Shi looked helpless and said, "Old Xiao, why are you here to join in the fun?" Let's look up and don't look down, if we have a problem with writing, we can just discuss it on our own. ”

George Bernard Shaw shook his head again and again,

"It's different! Our private communication is imaginative, how can it be as systematic as just now? ”

As he spoke, he forced the note to Lu Shi.

Lu Shi took it and roughly flipped through it.

The records are very detailed and very regulated, and each section is subheaded.

"Talking about the mentality of writing";

"Writing Content";

"Technical Preparation";

……

Lu Shi was surprised when he saw it,

Did you just talk so much?

George Bernard Shaw said: "It feels like the notes are ready for publication once they are in order. ”

The rest of the writers chimed in:

"That's right!"

"I think so too!"

……

Lu Shi couldn't help laughing,

"Now that it's all ready for publication, it's necessary to refine it. The writing mentality here can be happy, excited, all fine, but there are ......"

"Wait!"

George Bernard Shaw snatched the notes back,

"You say, I remember."

Lu Shi explained: "The writing mentality must be serious. Then there is the question of persistence, no matter which industry master, when asked how to stick to the industry for so long, most of the answers are hobbies. People get into the industry because of a hobby, but how long can that hobby last? So try to keep writing every day and keep producing. A lot of people are obsessed with inspiration, which means, 'If inspiration doesn't come, what can I do?' That's a good reason and a good excuse. However, for writers, writing is no different from going to work, and the difficulty of writing is not in the method and skill, but in the heat of the pen. ”

It is very difficult to maintain interest,

This is also the reason why so many online articles are delayed and unfinished.

There is no other reason -

I'm annoyed, I can't write anymore.

Yeats said, "Professor Lu, that's why I admire a writer like you who serializes in newspapers. Quality and quantity must be guaranteed, which even Mr. Dickens cannot do. ”

Dickens receives a fee according to the number of chapters serialized,

So, in order to fill the required length for each serialization, the number of words must be watered.

But because of his high level, the water is not boring.

Lu Shi had a headache when he heard about the serialization,

In less than two weeks, the third Harry Potter book, The Prisoner of Azkaban, will be in the news.

Now there's another job of compiling textbooks.

Such an intensive project arrangement is worse than that of modern workers.

In this case, you must give full play to your status as a professor of politics and economics in London, and let the cattle and horses ...... Get students involved.

Lu Shi said: "Old Xiao, borrow me a pen and paper to use." ”

George Bernard Shaw tore a page from the back of his notebook and handed it over,

"What's the matter?"

Lu Shi said as he wrote: "Let the students help me find these books, I need to find example sentences from them." ”

George Bernard Shaw's bibliography,

"Hmm...... I still need various versions of the dictionary...... Luckily, University College London is known for its collection of historical and cultural rarities, especially manuscripts, rare books and archives, which are genuine and should not be a big problem. ”

Lu Shi nodded,

"Just send these books to my house."

He said goodbye to the crowd, and then went straight out of Wilkins House.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I arrived at the door, I encountered a strange scene.

I saw a bunch of students surrounding the gate, as if they were going to pull banners and march, shouting loudly,

"What are those writers doing? Is it a salon? ”

"Why can't I teach to the public?"

"We're going to participate!"

"Why don't you let your students participate?"

……

In a chaotic manner, there was a lot of noise.

Waldhouse embarrassment,

"I was negligent and didn't do a good job of confidentiality."

Lu Shi couldn't help but complain: "You are all preparing to establish a college of arts with multiple schools, and the students will know sooner or later, and they will keep a hammer secret?" ”

Wardhouse shrugged,

"That's what you're saying. In this case, let's go to the Lu Museum and bring your statue~"

Brother really dares to think.

The statue was made by Monet and given to Lu Shi to express the gratitude of the French Academy of Letters to Lu Shi.

If it is used as a symbol of the establishment of the Faculty of Arts by the University of London Union, it belongs to the forced wearing of hats for the French, and the color is still green.

It's no wonder that the French don't bomb.

Lu Shi said: "The French are romantic and radical, be careful that they send someone to assassinate you~"

Wardhouse spreads his hands,

"When I didn't say it."

The two didn't want to meet the students, so they went back to the main building and left through the side door.

Lu Shi returned to the mansion, and after dinner, he was ready to write.

Soon after, his protégés Nigati Nikolić and Tiri Solomon arrived with a few classmates and carrying boxes of materials.

Margarita followed,

She brought with her the original official documents of the royal family over the years.

Lu Shi let them into the study, and then arranged the work of sorting out the literature.

All the students were a little dizzy,

collating literature,

That's a lot of work.

Solomon asked, "Professor Lu, can you give us an example?" ”

Lu Shi picked up the first part of the 1884 Oxford Dictionary, rummaged through it for a moment, and pointed out one place: "As for the use of juxtaposition words and 'and', you see. ”

Look at his fingers,

The entry reads:

Red，white，and blue.

Solomon was puzzled,

"Any questions?"

Lu Shi said: "Think about it, what is the more common and trouble-saving practice at present? ”

Solomon's face was confused.

Nikolić has a more solid foundation in English writing, saying: "The second comma will be omitted. ”

Lu Shi nodded,

"That's right."

Write a line on the paper:

Red，white and blue.

"There's definitely a usage in the Oxford Dictionary," he says. However, in the case of the juxtaposition of some words, the second comma must be added, otherwise it will cause misunderstanding among the reader. ”

The students understood,

Adding a second comma is the safest;

And without it, most of the time it is right.

Margarita was curious,

"Teacher, I heard that you went to University College London to talk about writing skills. Isn't that grammar? ”

"It's not just words, it's punctuation, and it's the most basic part of writing," Lu said. Can you say that grammar is not a skill? ”

He put a list on the table,

"In this order, find example sentences, example texts."

The list reads:

Avoid clichés, focus on rhythm, concise sentences, and consistency......

It's all about the point of writing.

The students sprang into action.

Seeing them busy, Lu Shi gradually realized the happiness of those modern graduate students and doctoral supervisors.

It's really nice to let the cows and horses work!

It's a pity that Lu Shi also has a job himself, so he can't be happy for long.

He sat down at his desk and began to think about which book to base his textbook on.

The first thing that comes to mind is Stephen King's "Writing This Thing".

Kim has many excellent works,

"The Shining", "The Shawshank Redemption" ......

It's all familiar.

The fact that such a good writer wants to talk about "writing" is out of sincerity and out of respect for the work.

However, this book is not entirely suitable,

Although Kim neither advertises himself nor makes a fuss, half of the memories and half of the suggestions in the book cannot be copied.

Lu Shi thought of "Harvard Non-Fiction Writing Class - How to Tell a Good Story",

The book is also excellent,

But the problem is that he thinks more from the perspective of the media,

The so-called "non-fiction writing" can be simply understood as a story written based on real life events.

And a lot of it is fictional writing.

After thinking about it, Lu Shi realized one thing,

If you want to write about writing skills thoroughly, you must consider multiple books.

It's like writing "The Nature of Japanese Civilization",

He borrowed from "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", "Bushido", "History of Japan", "Japan and the Japanese", ......

Remove the dross, take the essence, and finally unify it together.

Lu Shi wrote the title,

The Skill of Writing – Starting from Scratch.

He finally felt that he should start with "Writing",

——

Whether it is a short story or a long story, it is composed of three parts:

Narrative, pushing the story from point A to point B, and finally to point Z, and the story ends;

describe, bringing the reader into the scene;

Dialogue, which gives life to the characters through concrete words.

——

This is the "three-board axe" summarized by Jin, which is very eye-catching and is most suitable for the beginning.

He continued to write the subheadings,

"Use Passive Sentences with Caution",

"Improve",

Adverbs of Principle,

……

These kinds of questions are important not only in English writing, but also in writing in other languages.

Lu Shi spread a piece of paper on the left and right sides, and wrote the French and Chinese versions respectively.

Of course, the content is different.

Lu Shi wrote wildly.

Time in the study seems to be slow and long,

Before you know it, an afternoon passes, the sun sets, and the world outside the window is gradually shrouded in night.

Margarita got up from the pile of manuscripts and came to Lu Shi's side,

I saw the afterglow of the setting sun shining on Lu Shi's face, reflecting his focused and calm expression.

Her Royal Highness the princess is mischievous,

She poked her fingers at Lu Shi's cheek, watching as the muscles there caved into a small socket.

Lu Shi didn't look up,

"Questions? Hold on. ”

That's twenty minutes.

I saw that Lu Shi first raised his pen, moved it to the paper on his right, and wrote down more than a dozen lines of Chinese characters at a very fast speed.

Then I switched to the manuscript on the left-hand side, writing in French.

Margarita chuckled,

Thought

Teachers always like to do things that translate while writing.

Curious, she leaned over and carefully read the English version, and then the French version.

After a moment, she was shocked,

"Teacher, what are you doing?! Why is the content different in the French version and the English version!? ”

Lu Shi still didn't look up,

"Wait until I'm done."

It took another five minutes like this before he slowly exhaled,

"That's it."

Then he turned to Margarita and said: "Different languages naturally lead to different writing techniques, and the preparation of teaching materials should also be 'adapted to local conditions'. Isn't that a matter of course? ”

Because Lu Shi's tone of voice was too flat, Margarita almost believed it,

"And rightfully so...... That's weird! Although I can't read Chinese, I still know a little bit of French. Your French version, English version, except for the subheading, the content is not the same at all! ”

Lu Shi spreads his hands,

"The subtitle is the same, and the structure is the same~"

Margarita is full of black lines,

￣□￣｜｜

I knew that Lu Shi was perverted, but who would have thought that he would be perverted.

Lu Shi smiled,

In fact, the Chinese version is the world's most upside down. For example, in the chapter "Be Careful with Passive Sentences", because the Chinese language is very weak in modern literature, and few people even write in the vernacular, so I can only talk about translation here. ”

Margarita was puzzled: "Translation? ”

Lu Shi said "um" and said, "Translation is also writing~"

Margarita knows,

"I understand."

She now also deals with publishing companies.

Before Gauguin's works were published, she had heard the editors complain about the current translators.

When faced with the translation of French to English, the editors have to change the translation for the translator, which is actually changing the "composition".

For example,

"My hands have lost their dexterity."

Changed to,

"My hands are gone."

This kind of problem has nothing to do with translation.

On the one hand, Gauguin's original text is obscure;

On the one hand, there is the problem of the translator himself, who writes and even expresses.

Margarita was curious,

"Chinese too?"

Lu Shi nodded,

"That's too much. If you look at the chapter "Use Passive Sentences with Caution", how many examples I give. Whether in English or French, there are far more passive sentences than Chinese, and if the Chinese translation and writing are not up to par, there will definitely be problems. ”

In his article, he gives examples,

"The dish is finished."

In general, this is a fallacy,

Because the dynamics of the Chinese language do not need to be pointed out, it can be written as "the dishes are eaten", and anyone can understand it.

Margarita can't read Chinese,

However, she knew that Lu Shi was indeed working on three books at the same time.

Although these three books have the same name, they are all called "The Skill of Writing – Starting from Scratch",

But they're really different.

Margarita couldn't help but mutter, "Teacher, you can really do it!" ”

Lu Shi is ignorant,

"What won't work? Men can't do it. ”

"(ˉ▽ ̄~)cut~~"

Margarita glanced at Lu Shi and said, "I'm talking about your way of writing in three languages, it's really good!" ”

Lu Shi asked, "Is there one?" ”

"Didn't you?"

The corners of Her Royal Highness Princess's mouth hooked an arc,

"Why don't you share this three-line writing technique in "The Skill of Writing – Starting from Scratch?"

Lu Shi shook his head again and again,

"That's not going to work. Ordinary people can't learn it. ”

Margarita "Poof! A burst of laughter erupted, and he complained: "Teacher, do you know that ordinary people can't learn?" ”

She added another sentence in her heart,

So, the teacher is really not an ordinary person~

(End of chapter)