On the afternoon of December 17, the closing ceremony of the Tenth National Congress of the Chinese Writers Association was held in Beijing.

At the meeting, the name list of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Presidium Member and Secretariat Secretary of the Tenth National Committee of the Chinese Writers Association was announced.

On the list of vice-chairmen of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese Writers Association, Alai's name is impressively listed.

All kinds of congratulatory WeChat and text messages flew to Ah Lai's mobile phone, making him overwhelmed.

At around 5 pm on the 17th, the cover news reporter called Alai. He just had time to take a break.

During the phone call, Alai shared his work ideas after being elected as the vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, as a contemporary writer’s in-depth understanding of "writing the endless people’s epic", and shared his own ideas for young writers who are interested in serious literary writing. Some writing experience and suggestions.

  Literature is an art, writing is a lonely soul career.

Ah said, I often stay alone in the room, "I mainly do two things in my life, writing and reading." Now elected as the vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, he said that this is not his personal honor, but It is the Chinese Writers Association's full affirmation of Sichuan's literary work and literary workers. From now on, I will do my duty to do some public services in literature.

At the same time, as a writer, "the good literary writing rhythm that has been developed will not change."

  After the conclusion of the Tenth National Congress of the Chinese Writers Association, Alai will temporarily stay in Beijing for a while. "There is a team in Beijing who will adapt "The Climber" into a TV series. It is currently in the script creation stage. I have authorized it to themselves. But they hoped that I could provide some suggestions and guidance on the adaptation, and I agreed. After all, I wrote this work, and the preliminary preparations I made were very sufficient, which can help them in some aspects."

Excellent writing is to organically unify individuality and groupness

Cover News: On November 2 this year, you were elected chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Writers Association, and now you are elected vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association.

Will future work be more national-oriented?

Alai:

  As the chairman of the Sichuan Writers Association, I have been doing public service in the field of literature, and I have also accumulated some experience.

Moreover, many literary activities that he participated in before were also national, and in the future, they will mainly focus on the public service of literature in Sichuan.

Cover news: At the tenth generation meeting of the Chinese Writers Association that just concluded, "Stick to the people's stand and write an everlasting people's epic" has become a high-frequency phrase that everyone pays attention to and is hotly discussed.

How do you understand this?

Alai:

  Literary writing is an individual artistic behavior, but the writer himself is inseparable from his era and group.

Excellent writing must organically unify the individuality and groupness of this art.

In fact, good writing has been this way throughout the ages.

For example, Du Fu's works not only have his own strong artistic personality, but also deeply reflect the lives of the people.

Each of our writers is a member of the group, and is the flesh-and-blood connection of "you in you and you in me".

Writers should stand on the stand of the people and write epics of the people.

Share writing "Secrets" with young people to find their own territory

Cover News: If young people who are now engaged in literary writing ask you for some writing experience or detours that need to be avoided, as a senior writer, what would you say?

Alai:

  I think that if it is the kind of highly commercial literary writer driven by capital, he will not come to me for advice.

For those young writers who are pursuing in the field of serious literature, I am willing to share a few suggestions: read more, strengthen theoretical training; go deep into life, walk more on the ground, and observe the world.

There is also a need to have a heart that is not afraid of difficulties and that can withstand loneliness.

Don't be speculative.

For example, when you see a certain writing hot spot in the society, you can hurry up.

In fact, when you write it out, the hot spot is over.

I suggest that writers must find their own territory in writing and open up a little bit.

Cover News: In a speech you gave in Shifang a few days ago, you said, "With the development of the Internet, high-speed rail and airplanes have made life very fast, and people feel that life is disappearing at a rapid rate." Many young people nowadays They are also interested in literary writing, but many realistic temptations of this era are also disturbing their hearts.

What are your suggestions for this?

Alai:

  In the current era and society that are accelerating in all aspects, various new ideas, concepts, and technologies are emerging in an endless stream.

This brings all kinds of opportunities and conveniences to writers, but also challenges to writers to capture and express reality.

This requires writers to pay many times the energy to deal with.

For young people, there is a big problem now: easy to get distracted.

If you are really interested in serious literary writing, you must fight against "distractions."

Don't look at the high mountain from this mountain.

Don't give up because literary writing can't bring fame and benefits to yourself quickly, but you must really devote yourself wholeheartedly.

Great writers are more than just storytelling

Cover news: Some people think that in the field of serious literature, specializing in writing, it is difficult to have enough financial protection, and it is more difficult to stick to it.

What do you think of these situations?

Alai:

  From ancient times to the present, there are very few professional writers who only rely on writing for their livelihoods.

My personal suggestion is that it is indispensable to do a good job of your own life first and obtain sufficient financial security.

And this kind of life is originally needed for literary writing.

Literary writing and concrete life are inseparable.

Doesn't writing just need life experience?

Your own life experience is a good experience.

Cover news: Many people mention you, they will say that you are an academic writer with a very strong reading ability and book volume.

Please share your feelings and experiences in this regard.

Alai:

  Some knowledge can be learned in school, but many things cannot be learned.

As far as I am concerned, many things are not learned from school, but obtained by reading, walking, and thinking.

The ancients said, "Read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles."

Why is "reading ten thousand books" before "traveling ten thousand miles"?

Because reading is indeed more important.

The knowledge structure, insight, and analytical thinking ability gained from reading can better guide you to "travel thousands of miles."

Otherwise, no matter how many roads you take, you may gain little.

Moreover, in my opinion, an excellent literary writer is definitely not just telling a story, nor is it just showing some life experience and details, but also needs to have a high enough humanistic quality.

This kind of accomplishment mainly includes the insight into human nature and the philosophical thinking ability about the general destiny of people.

Cover news: You have previously adapted your own work and wrote scripts.

"The Climber" is now being adapted into a TV series. As the original author, you are not involved in the ongoing script creation.

why?

Alai:

  To be honest, I think that the ecology of film and television currently does not respect the work of screenwriters.

There will be great changes to the written things when they are presented.

I'm not saying that other people are not allowed to change it. If you change it right and change it well, I will welcome it.

But the other party's changes are often not so good.

In short, the experience is not very good.

Moreover, there is a limit to life, and the time of a person's life is very limited, so I'd better focus my energy on writing novels.

You see, in this world, how many classic movies can be shown for decades?

In most movies, life is very short.

But good literary works can be circulated for a long time.

Cover News: After the publication of "A Story in the Clouds" in 2019, it won many awards.

Now it is going to the world.

The Italian version for 2021 has been released, and the French version is in the process of translation.

The German version of "Zhan Du" was also published.

Do you communicate much with these translators?

Do they often ask you about the problems encountered in the translation process?

Alai:

  The style of each translation is different, some rarely contact me, and some consult me ​​a lot.

There were also seven or eight foreign language translators who visited my hometown.

When they understood the place where I grew up better, they told me that many of the problems encountered in translation were resolved by themselves.

  Cover Journalist Zhang Jie