(4)
——Story Rhythm——
As the story got longer and longer, I vaguely felt that the rhythm of the story was not quite right and seemed to be a bit delayed. Especially after Xifer's debut as a mysterious angel, the two explosive points of "Xifer discovered that the Blue Star will be destroyed in three years" and "Xifer's first contact with players" have been written for a while, and there is no short-term news. New hot spots.
However, I don't know what specific areas should be improved.
However, I am still confused about the overall story rhythm.
I think the pace seems a bit slow.
But what is considered fast and what is considered slow?
Each story contains quite a lot of information and twists and turns. Why do you feel this way?
Does anyone stipulate a specific amount of space that is reasonable on the way to a fictional abstract goal?
The story of Zhu Yuanzhang's rise from beggar to emperor can be told in detail in millions of words. But if you give a brief summary, it can be described in a few hundred words in many historical science books. It seems that there is no fixed standard!
Wouldn't it be possible to keep writing longer as long as there are events happening, or if each event is described in detail?
I'm quite confused about this.
A word that is used over and over again in the field of online writing is "rhythm." When describing an article as attractive, it is said that the article has "good rhythm." But I still can’t fully explain what rhythm is and how to write with good rhythm. This thing seems to be a very consequentialist idealistic thing. As long as the beginning, transition, foreshadowing, climax, and ending are comfortable and smooth for people to watch, and appear regularly, the rhythm is considered good. But isn’t this the stupidest ultimate invincible circular argument in the universe? Regarding what rhythm is, I have seen a relatively academic explanation on Zhihu, which also used Maslow's hierarchy of needs. However, after comparing it, I found that few books can match the rhythm.
If I were asked to revise it now, I would not hesitate to cut the length, shorten the length of each part of the plot, and speed up the pace. (This is actually not easy for me, because I have never been able to control the length of the story)
Of course, these are only superficial changes and do not really answer my doubts - [How much space is reasonable for the characters to achieve their goals].
Looking back now, I think the existing plot and tension were not enough to support a story of this length. As a result, there is a certain degree of similarity between events, and there is a lack of a sense of the story gradually developing and advancing.
At that time, when I felt that the rhythm was a little abnormal during the writing process, I did not consider cutting the length at the first time, but I still thought of many remedies.
My first approach is to give some "milestones" to make readers feel that the story is "progressing in stages." The specific method is to "let the protagonist kill each mini-boss" - including General Poison Fang, General Blazing, and the cadres of the Plundering Army. This approach seems to be less successful now.
Just killing a few small bosses repeatedly does not really make the plot feel developed. It is just superficial and has no real impact on the development of the story and subsequent plots.
It might be better if we speed up the pace, cut off some meaningless twists and turns, increase the sense of interaction in each plot, and use puzzle-solving techniques to gradually reveal part of the truth about the "Destruction of Blue Star". Or you can add some explosive points that completely change the situation. (End of chapter)