From the third grade of primary school, students began to practice writing narratives. For middle school students, narrative is a more skilled and easy-to-master style. However, I often see narratives with a weak sense of style in marking papers. For example, the college entrance examination composition of 1994 requires a narrative with the topic of "trying" and no less than 700 words. But there are also many articles or discussions that are equally important and equally divided; Or talk too much, usurp the host's role; Talk less and talk more, and put the cart before the horse. According to the rough statistics of Chinese marking points in the college entrance examination in Jiangsu Province, 3% of the 200,000 candidates in the province do not meet the stylistic requirements. Some candidates' choice of materials determines that it is impossible for them to write a decent narrative. For example, a candidate wrote that his classmates came to my house to play, and since his parents were not at home, we "tried" to package jiaozi ourselves. An article of more than 700 words uses 23 words: first get some flour, then add water, then knead it, then roll it into dumpling skin ... first chop up the vegetables, then roll it into jiaozi. At that time, many compositions about "trying" to do a physical experiment, a chemical experiment and dissecting a frog and a crucian carp were not strictly narrative, but expository or practical.

Narrative takes narration and description as the main ways of expression, and uses the means of image thinking to reflect colorful real life through narration, remembering people, writing scenery and writing things.

Second, the characteristics of narrative

1. Creativity

This can be understood from three aspects: first, although narrative does not concentrate on summarizing life phenomena like literary works, it reflects life through typical images; Instead, I often choose what I have seen, experienced and experienced with my own eyes in my daily life as my writing material. However, this does not mean that the author can copy the ready-made life materials into the article, nor does it mean that the author does not need to process, transform and refine the life materials; On the contrary, it is an essential "process" to turn life materials into articles. This process of processing, transformation, refining and germination involves a lot of creative work by the author. The narrative of finished writing form cannot be a copy of objective life, nor is it just an image of the author's mind. It is a spiritual product saturated with the author's painstaking efforts, and a creation conceived by the combination of the author's mind and objective things. Secondly, narrative is conveyed through words. Narration is essentially a statement of some kind of experience (people and things in the external world, thoughts and feelings in the internal world, etc.). ). Narrating in words is a kind of creation in itself. Language cannot replace real existence, and the linguistic world is no longer the real world itself. The work of translating real existence into language is a creative work. Thirdly, there are thousands of ways to transform real existence into language, and the choice of which way, that is, what the final article looks like, must include the operation of the author's personal mind. Therefore, any narrative always inevitably has the color of the author's personal heart, as the Soviet writer Chutchev said: "I am in everything, I am in everything." Therefore, I think that although narrative is a reflection of the objective world, this reflection is always combined with the author's personal creation and is reflected through the author's personal creation.

Language transforms life material into narrative itself, which contains creative factors. If the transformation method can be unique and different, the higher the degree of creation. Therefore, the key to writing a good narrative is to choose novel materials and adopt novel writing methods.

Step 2 visualize

Argumentative essays reveal the essence of things and express the understanding of life with abstract concepts, judgments and reasoning. It generalizes and extracts the characteristics of * * * from many specific individual things, leaving the specific individual representations on which these understandings depend outside the works. Narrative tends to make a fuss about specific and individual things. Therefore, it takes narration and description as its main expression, and even if it is discussed occasionally, its purpose is to "make the finishing point", and it is often only after drawing a complete dragon that it is gently "clicked". Here, the "dragon body" is the main body and the foundation. Narration infects readers with concrete images. Narrator, be sure to explain the ins and outs, causes and effects and the specific development process; Description must make readers see people, smell sounds, touch things, and feel it vividly, just like now. In narrative writing, creating scenes is the most basic means. Because in the final analysis, narrative always organizes its structure from two aspects: vertical is the continuation of time, horizontal is the expansion of space, and the scene is the description of the existence or activities of people or things in a specific time and space. Only by organizing a series of scenes can narrative gain a vivid and concrete sense of image.

Therefore, the coherent, complete and dynamic material is the most needed material for narrative. This is especially true for short narratives. That kind of material with a history of thousands of miles and a hundred years of disputes is not a good material for narrative. What narrative needs is short and pithy material, which shrinks time in an instant and integrates space in a corner.

interesting

Stylistically speaking, narrative is not as solemn as argumentative, nor as calm and objective as expository. It pursues moving people with emotion and teasing people with fun. From the perspective of material selection, narrative does not require a big theme, and often selects interesting trivia from daily life. The author often expresses his feelings through the description of trivial things, so as to show a colorful aspect of real life. From the form of expression, narrative pursuit of fascinating performance results requires tortuous, vivid and interesting writing content. Sometimes, narrative also conveys the author's understanding of something. But generally, it is not discussed directly, but this understanding is hidden in the concrete picture of life. Through the description of specific images, it exerts a subtle influence on readers, dazzles them from the aspects of emotion and interest, and makes them understand the meaning of the works with aesthetic eyes.

When writing a narrative, it is best to choose those characters with rich and complicated inner feelings as the description objects; When writing, we should pay attention to the context of the event itself, but pay more attention to the emotional clues wandering in the event, especially to choose the details with emotional connotation to enrich and enrich the flesh and blood of the event; When writing scenery and objects, we should pay attention to accurately describing the external state of the scenery, but it is more important to write the "combination" of objective scenery and subjective feelings.

Third, the key to writing a good narrative: material selection

The key to writing a good narrative is the selection of materials. Choose the right material, and the article will be half successful. So, what kind of material does narrative need most?

1. Choose materials with strong emotional connotations.

Mr. Lao She said: "Novel is a record of feelings, not a restatement of facts." The same is true of narrative. Events, clues, etc. are only the surface structure of narrative, and its deep structure is full of emotional connotation. Events, clues, etc. It's just a picture frame with emotional connotation. What really touches people is the emotion contained in the picture frame. Why do some articles seem clear and complete, but they are insipid, not vivid and touching? The key is the lack of deep feelings. In the "narrative experience" article, it is best to choose the experience with rich emotional connotation. Those "experiences" without emotional connotation are not good materials for narrative. A cleaning process, an experimental class process and an outing experience cannot be vividly described without sincere feelings. Because "touching people don't worry about feelings first" (Bai Juyi).

1988 the topic of the college entrance examination composition is "habit", and the style is not limited. This is similar to the topic composition in the past two years. At that time, many candidates who wrote narratives chose to write teachers. It should be said that this is a smart choice. Because it is the teacher who marks the papers, it is easy to win the favor of writing the teacher. However, what should I write about the teacher? Many candidates wrote: In the evening, a teacher habitually sat at the desk in front of the window and began to prepare lessons and correct homework as usual. In fact, there is nothing to write about this kind of material, because it is only praising the teacher's professionalism, and there is nothing particularly touching emotionally. Imagine a teacher going to dance and play mahjong instead of preparing lessons and correcting homework at night. Will he be a good teacher? However, a candidate's choice of materials is unusual. He wrote: The new semester started, and Mr. Wang came to school as usual. As he approached the door of the classroom, it suddenly occurred to him that he had retired. So, I had to go home angrily. The next morning, he was ready to go to school again, but this time he remembered that he had retired from the army and should "carry a basket, make a stove and have a grandson" at home. However, he is like a thorn at home, fidgeting and unable to do anything. He is always thinking of his students. So he came to the classroom where he taught. He wants to see his students. However, he is afraid of affecting the students who are listening to the class. So, he crept to the window of the classroom and hid there to listen to the students ... this kind of material selection is much smarter. Because this material is full of Mr. Wang's deep affection for students' dreams, this is an old educator's lingering and lingering true feelings about education. This kind of material selection is different from preparing lessons and changing homework at night. It can be seen that only those materials full of emotional connotation are the materials really needed in the narrative.

So, what emotions can you write when you "narrate your experience"?

To some extent, you can write warmth, enthusiasm, passion, etc. In terms of genre, you can write about affection, friendship, love and so on. To make the article exciting and have a strong emotional impact, we should also pay attention to the following points when selecting materials:

(1) Write about human nature that everyone can perceive and experience. Although emotion is an internal feeling that is unclear and unclear, "people's hearts are connected, and feelings are connected", which is the physiological and psychological basis for emotional experience. People have a lot of emotional content to communicate with * * *. Conveying such emotions will arouse the voices of others and make people move. For example, 1999 Jiangsu college entrance examination excellent composition "Sad Children" wrote three unfilial children. When their mother died, they didn't leave the last bit of comfort for her, but searched for her legacy by transplanting her memory. But in their mother's memory, they saw their mother's hardships, the greatness of maternal love, their humiliation and their ugliness. The memory of the mother cleanses the dirt from the depths of the souls of unfilial children, so their souls have also been sublimated. Filial piety is the deepest feeling buried in the heart of the Chinese nation, and writing such content can best arouse people's voices. This composition moved many marking teachers to tears at the marking site. After it was published in the media, it was widely read and was considered as the best composition in the national college entrance examination that year. Most importantly, the emotions it conveys have touched the hearts of thousands of people in Qian Qian.

(2) Write the strong abnormal emotions beyond the normal state. Sometimes, the actions of characters are different from ordinary people and seem abnormal, but this abnormal behavior often contains strong emotions. This kind of emotion has a strong impact and often leaves an unforgettable impression. For example, the retired Mr. Wang mentioned above is a bit abnormal for ordinary people. At such a big age, he crept under the window to listen to the class. But it is from this abnormal behavior that we can see his persistent love for students and his obsession with education, and we have high respect for him. On the contrary, the kind of teachers who sit at the window at night preparing lessons and correcting homework can't arouse our emotional ripples just because they are normal, ordinary and normal. When reason conflicts, it is necessary to give up reason and bring feelings; When the struggle between rights is bound to abandon one side, it will form a tragic conflict; When the characters are obsessed with something, they are so persistent that they are different from the conventional practice; Emotions began to move. The "flower infatuation" in "The Fairy in the Garden" and the book infatuation, stone infatuation, bird infatuation and love infatuation in "Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio" are all examples in this respect, from which we should be inspired.

(3) Emotions should be able to oscillate and differentiate. The article looks like a mountain, not like peace. It is difficult for people to have emotional agitation, because the emotions are smooth and straight, lacking the aesthetic feeling in the cycle. Therefore, when describing emotions, we should try our best to show the twists and turns of emotions and guide readers to enter the whirlpool of emotions step by step.

2. Choose the material with deep theme potential.

The so-called theme refers to the basic meaning of the materials used in the article and the basic thoughts and comments conveyed by the author through his thinking and experience of the materials. The former is the objectivity of the theme, that is to say, this basic meaning is inherent in the material itself; The latter is the subjectivity of the theme, which refers to the author's insight into the connotation of the material. Theme is the combination of objectivity and subjectivity. Therefore, Mr. Lu Xun demanded "YEATION materials, dig deep". Material selection and conception are two important links in narrative writing, and they are in a state of mutual influence. Good selection of materials provides the greatest possibility for mining themes; The excavation and deepening of the theme in turn restricts and promotes the selection and processing of materials. As far as material selection is concerned, it is the same as the principle of ore dressing point. Before drilling, it is necessary to seriously consider the depth, quality and mining value of mineral deposits. Some candidates often only consider whether they are relevant or not, but seldom consider the theme potential of the materials. As Mr. Lu Xun criticized, "Fill some trivial and boring accidents into an article." Of course, such an article can't get high marks. Sometimes, the same material, in the hands of different authors, can write works with different themes. However, there are also many materials that have no connotation. No matter how clever you are, it is difficult to dig out how profound the theme is. This reminds us that when selecting materials, we must estimate the theme potential of the materials in advance to see if they are exploitable.

For example. 1994 college entrance examination composition "Try", many candidates wrote about trying to ride a bike, learning to swim, learning to cook, learning to do farm work and so on. This kind of material is also related, but there is no theme potential that can be developed in depth. At best, it tells people that "as long as you work hard, you can succeed." And this truth is well-known common sense, which is quite superficial. It has not provided people with new knowledge and new enlightenment. This is the limitation of the material itself.

So, how can we choose the material with rich theme potential?

(1) It is necessary to abandon the old concept of material selection and broaden the horizons of material selection. For example, writing under the lamp, don't just think of yourself or others studying hard under the lamp; When writing If Memory Can Be Transplanted, don't just think about transplanting celebrity memories for nothing. This old-fashioned material itself has a small theme capacity, let alone novelty. In fact, there are a lot of materials to write on every topic and topic. Take Under the Lamp as an example; Lamps and lanterns, including electric lamps, oil lamps, street lamps, searchlights and spotlights; People can also do all kinds of things under the lamp. "If memory can be transplanted" is an extremely open topic, and there are too many things to write. Why do you have to transplant other people's memories in a hurry? Can you transplant your memory to others? Why should we transplant the memories of celebrities and great men? Can we transplant ordinary people's memories? Transplanting other people's memories, what will happen on both sides of the character? ..... Once you open your mind, the world of material selection is very broad. At that time, some candidates wanted to transplant their beautiful memories of traveling to the famous mountains and rivers of the motherland to their grandmother who had never left home, so that she could also appreciate the beautiful scenery of the great rivers and mountains of the motherland; Some candidates should transplant their memories of colorful world to their "little brother" who has been blind since childhood; Some candidates should transplant their memories of listening to wonderful music to their "little sister" who was deaf since childhood. When the angle changes, the realm comes out.

(2) Be good at finding rich material from trivial matters in daily life. Of course, middle school students can't have too much life experience, but "for us, life is not a lack of beauty, but a lack of discovery" (Rodin). In fact, rich writing materials abound, and the key is that the author should have a pair of eyes that are good at discovering. It is precisely because the life experience of middle school students is not rich enough that they need to find meaningful materials from the little things in daily life. In a sense, the more profound connotation can be found in the small life phenomenon, the higher the quality of his works. "See the world in a grain of sand and talk about human feelings in a half-petal flower" is the lofty goal of art. A dime and honesty, an excellent composition of 200 1 Jiangsu college entrance examination, saw the preciousness of honesty and the great power of morality from a negligible dime. This choice is unique and innovative.

(3) Deal with the relationship between the virtual and the real. Middle school students write narratives, the materials are mostly solid, and they are all true narratives and descriptions. In fact, the most potential materials are often those with symbolic significance. For example, Praise of Poplar and Litchi Honey all use the symbolic meaning of things to expand the theme of their works. Therefore, when selecting materials, we should not only pay attention to those realistic materials, but also pay attention to those symbolic materials. Symbolic things can often make the theme of the work ambiguous, multi-level and multi-directional, thus making readers have rich associations and making the work have unique artistic charm. Themes such as doors, slopes and wind can be realistic, symbolic or a combination of the two. Sometimes, in the case of overall realism, choosing some symbolic things to insert into it can also make the work ethereal and receive endless artistic effects.

3. Choose a material with a preliminary shape.

When considering the choice of narrative materials, many candidates often only pay attention to some internal factors of the materials, emphasizing that the choice of materials should be positive, healthy, typical and vivid. This is certainly good. However, if we ignore the special requirements of narrative form norms for material selection, it will lead to a weak sense of style, and the stylistic characteristics of narrative will not be displayed because of improper material selection. In a sense, the characteristics that distinguish narrative from other styles are mainly manifested in the selection of materials.

Then, due to the unique formal norms of narrative itself, what are the requirements for material selection? To sum up, there are three points: coherence, unity and dynamics.

(1) one. The whole one is that narrative materials must be relatively concentrated. This kind of concentration does not require the author to choose materials around the center (theme) like writing an argumentative essay, but around the internal elements of the narrative itself, or around people, events, or the environment, which is why narrative can be divided into three types: writing people, narrative, and painting scenery. Argumentative writing is an indirect speech, which uses scattered and fragmented materials to prove the central argument. It concentrates matter through rational radiation under the principle of unity of sight and matter. Narration relies on its own space-time relationship to condense material. In writing training, we can often see compositions like "Remember xxx". However, such compositions are often more like argumentative than narrative. The reason is that the author uses the material selection method of argumentative essay. In order to prove that XXX has a certain ideological quality, he chose "two or three things" related to this ideological quality from XXX's life experience. In fact, this is the example method in the argument. Using this method to select materials, describe experiences and portray characters, events are often chaotic, characters' thoughts and personalities are often superficial and themes are often straightforward. From 65438 to 0999, a series of parallel paragraphs "if memory can be transplanted" were used to describe the article, which is the reason why the sense of style is not strong and it appears loose and scattered.

(2) consistency. Coherence is the material that needs narration, and it is best to intercept the continuous fragments in real life. Of course, in the specific description, there can be details, density and so on. What needs special attention here is an important factor of narrative: time. In narrative, there is always an undercurrent of time, which is why people call narrative works the art of time. Narrative is often needed in argumentative writing, but what it tells is often an abstract explanation of people or topics who have no time. Whether it is the whole argumentative paper or the narrative fragment, time is often dissolved in the logical development of discussion, and the materials used have no specific requirements for time series.

After fully realizing the important role of time in narrative, it will inevitably lead to two other elements of narrative: cause and result. We emphasize the important role of time series in material selection, which does not mean that all "running accounts" with time series can be used as narrative materials. On the contrary, only materials with "value" in time series are the materials needed for narrative. The so-called "value" here is the causal fission produced with the evolution of time. Foster once made an interesting metaphor: the king died and the queen died, which is called "time life" and has no writing value; The king died and the queen died of grief. This is called "life-saving" and can be included in the text. Visible, only with the evolution of time to produce a series of causal fission material, is really suitable for writing narrative. At this point, we can say that the so-called coherence includes both the continuity of time and the causal series.

(3) Dynamic. Dynamic, that is, in the development process of things, express a theme in the dynamic process. Therefore, only those materials with a sense of movement and process are the materials really needed in the narrative. Narration is essentially a memory of things that have passed. However, this narrative has different ways in different styles, and in explanatory texts, "simple present tense" is often used; In argumentative writing, "simple past tense" is often used; In narrative, it is often converted into "present continuous tense".

We say that the real center of narrative is people, but we can never write people vividly with two or three examples. Only by putting people in a dynamic life and in the process of historical development can we show people's rich and vivid personality. Even the travel notes that describe mountains and rivers and mainly express spatial relations can only bring artistic beauty by writing dynamic landscapes such as winding paths, changing scenery and being suddenly enlightened, and writing the communication, exchange and integration between people and natural scenery. This is also the difference between a static guide map and an introduction to scenery, prose and travel notes. Narrative fragments, as examples in argumentative writing, only need to explain what the characters have done and what they have done; In narrative, it is not only necessary to write what the characters do, but more importantly, to show how the characters do it (dynamically). In the explanation of the guide, it is mainly to explain what is static; In the narrative, I mainly describe what I saw there (dynamic), what reaction I caused in my mind (dynamic), and what reaction my behavior caused others (dynamic).

When choosing dynamic materials, we should also pay attention to the fact that the process of dynamic development is preferably wave-like, not linear, because linear events and emotions lack the aesthetic feeling of cycling. In those excellent works, we always feel that the characters' personalities, inner feelings and the development process of events are always the triple plots in China's ancient novels, such as "Three Beats to Home, Three Visits to the Cottage Monkey King Thrice Defeats the Skeleton Demon", which provide us with a successful example and we should be inspired from it.

[Wonderful demonstration]

What a strange heart

Jiangsu examinee in 2008

At that unusual noon, when she took every step firmly, the sun broke.

I like the saying that every girl is an angel. But when I first met her, I didn't think she was.

She is the girl sitting in the corner of the classroom. She is not beautiful, and she has only one leg. Perhaps because of this, my curiosity will grow like grass after rain.

The sunshine that day seemed particularly dazzling. I left a little late after school at noon, just in time to see her walking slowly towards the stairs on crutches. At this time, my curiosity told me: Why not go with her and see how she got down the stairs? So, I quietly followed.

I saw her struggling downstairs on crutches. The stairs are not high. But every step is a challenge for her! She leaned her crutch against the next step, then put it under her arm and forcibly moved her one-legged leg to the next step. I saw her hands clutching crutches, and her veins stood out obviously.

At this time, my curiosity not only did not decrease, but became more intense. I don't know who threw the leftover banana peel on the stairs, probably trying to play a prank! I don't know if she will notice, but I held my breath and watched her walk with difficulty step by step. Close, close ...

What is she going to do? I saw her holding the railing in one hand and putting down her cane in the other. Then, she squatted down ... she really picked up the banana peel. My curiosity seems to be shattered at once. I feel like a demon, standing in this corner, watching such an angel unconsciously walk into danger.

The sun shone through the window, and I seemed to be suddenly illuminated. I stopped wondering how she would walk down the stairs and quickly thought about how to make up for my curiosity.

So I walked quickly to her. She tried to stand up. Maybe it's because she's so tired that it's no use trying. At this moment, I reached out and tried to pull her up. She looked up at me with puzzled eyes. I smiled gently at her and she smiled and handed me her hand. So I helped her downstairs. Although we didn't say a word, I felt her heartfelt warmth from the temperature of her palm. This warmth slowly melted me and my curiosity into a heart full of love and warmth.

Walking out of the teaching building, she smiled and said to me, "Thank you. Goodbye. " Then she went to the trash can by the roadside. She carefully threw the banana peel into the trash can and walked out of the school with firm steps. The dazzling sunshine shone on her thin body, and I seemed to see her become an angel. It's just that she is a one-winged angel. The invisible halo on her head warmed my heart.

I stood under the golden rain flower tree, carefully put that curiosity into the corner of my heart, and warmed myself with the love she gave me.

Comment and analysis

I haven't seen such a wonderful narrative for a long time! After reading too many rough descriptions and stereotyped descriptions, read the beginning: "At that unusual noon, when she took every step firmly, the sun broke." I can't help being surprised. I have a hunch that a good article is coming!

Sure enough, every description is so delicate and true, every psychological change is so natural and moving, and every sentence is so chewy and tasteful. Please pay special attention to the description of "sunshine" in the article. Against the background of sunshine, many descriptions in the text have become the spirits of poetry, painting and beauty!

To write about people, we must write about what people have done, but the moving part is often how to do it.

Please carefully understand the following details:

I saw her holding the railing in one hand and putting down her cane in the other. Then, she squatted down ... she really picked up the banana peel. My curiosity seems to be shattered at once. I feel like a demon, standing in this corner, watching such an angel unconsciously walk into danger.

Why do you think the author should focus on this detail? "She squatted down ... she actually picked up a banana peel. What kind of psychological process is "…" and "I" is hidden in this sentence?