The series of "The Hobbit" has reached its sixth chapter,
At the same time, "Roger Mystery" ushered in the second printing of 10,000 copies.
Unexpectedly, along with it, the sales of "Seaside Magazine" actually increased again, and broke the single-week sales record again.
This is unexpected.
Wood from the Royal Publishing House gave Lu Shi an analysis of the reasons:
First, the quality of "Six Busts of Napoleon" is extremely high.
As a mystery, it may be good, but as a detective adventure genre, it is only weaker than Doyle's "The Scarlet Study", "The Sign of Four", and "The Final Case";
Secondly, "Roger Mystery" was a huge hit.
I have to say that "Roger's Mystery" and the Sherlock Holmes series are in a competitive relationship.
But that's the same kind of competition,
In terms of price, the two are not in the same range at all, and there is a clear gradient. Readers who have finished "Roger's Mystery" will tend to look for works of the same type, and the Sherlock Holmes series will inevitably come into view.
vice versa,
Fans of Sherlock Holmes may also become fans of Poirot.
Two works of the same type at different price points are competing fiercely in the market, which in turn makes the cake bigger.
After all, Lu Shi is a modern person. He has eaten and seen it before, so of course he understands.
Competition can indeed expand the market of the same category to achieve cooperation results, which is the so-called "competition and cooperation" relationship.
Lu Shi didn't care about this;
After all, there is no irreconcilable conflict with Doyle, and there is no need to fight to the death.
Besides, Wen Wu is the first,
Who is strong and who is weak all depends on one mouth.
It’s impossible to really run over and compare sales with Dalton, right?
Lu Shi no longer cared about what was available and what was not, but devoted all his time to the creation of book reviews.
The book review is called "A Brief Discussion of Narrative Trickery and Mystery Works".
In a way, this is his first creation, so he must devote all his energy to strive for perfection.
Just like that, time passes.
…
Early February.
Doyle House.
Doyle was sitting at the typewriter writing a manuscript.
The new short story is called "The Lone Cyclist".
He feels pretty good about himself and should be able to achieve good sales.
At this time, the door was pushed open quietly,
His wife Hawkins tiptoed over, put a cup of black tea in her husband's hand, and then turned around to go out.
Unexpectedly, Doyle spoke: "Ruth, has today's newspaper been delivered? I want to read it... By the way, I told you before, subscribe to both the Manchester Guardian and The Scotsman. Have you ordered it?"
The Doyles used to only subscribe to The Times.
Occasionally during major events, such as Christmas and New Year's Day, they will buy various newspapers and magazines, not only for reading but also for collection.
But for some reason recently, Doyle suddenly changed his temper.
In the past, he hated liberal print media the most, but now he accepts them all.
There is another weird thing,
In the past, when Doyle fell into a state of creative inspiration, he would forget to shave, and sometimes he would not even take a shower for two or three days.
But now, he has completely changed. He does as he should, even taking a shower and shaving.
As if writing was just an ordinary job.
Hawkins doesn't know whether his previous husband or his current husband is better.
She said worriedly: "Arthur, do you want to see it now?"
Doyle took a sip of tea.
"Didn't order?"
Of course I ordered it.
But Hawkins decided to test it first to see her husband's reaction.
Don't be irritated by anything!
She said: "Arthur, did you know that "Roger's Mystery" has been reprinted?"
Doyle nodded,
"I know, 10,000 copies, it was news three days ago."
Doyle was already numb to such news.
He no longer thought about competing with Lu Shi, and simply turned into a ruthless coding machine and worked hard to create "Return".
Keeping your own pace is the most important thing.
This was also the reason why he suddenly became calm.
Two words——
Buddhist.
Hawkins looked at her husband. Although he felt a little strange, he couldn't tell what was strange.
She walked towards the door,
"I'm going to bring you the Manchester Guardian right now. There's a book review by Lu, it's called... it's called 'The Trick' or something like that. It's a huge article and it makes me dizzy. .”
A tome refers to a long, large-scale book.
Doyle became interested,
"Tome? Why is it so big in the newspaper?"
However, Hawkins went out without answering.
After waiting for half a minute, she returned to the room with the newspaper in her hand. At the same time, she pointed at the book review page and said, "This is this article, called "A Brief Discussion of Narrative Conspiracy and Mystery Works."
Doyle had never heard of "narrative trick," but he still understood the term "work of mystery."
He was surprised: "Isn't this title too big?"
Could it be that Lu Shipiao was gone?
Hawkins handed the newspaper over and said, "Take a look. The content is too professional and I can't read it."
Doyle nodded and took the newspaper.
The first thing that catches the eye is a concept:
Narrative trickery refers to the author using article structure or writing techniques to deliberately conceal or mislead certain facts from readers, until the truth is revealed at the end, leaving readers with an indescribable sense of shock.
Doyle was even more surprised,
Undoubtedly, this is the writing technique of "Roger's Mystery".
Lu Shizai takes advantage of readers' tacit understanding and inertia when reading to introduce readers or players into a pre-prepared story environment. Finally, by pointing out readers' misunderstandings, the entire story is reversed.
The issue is……
Isn't "Roger Mystery" still on sale?
Just giving out the core plot like this, won't it affect sales due to spoilers?
Doyle was puzzled.
As a result, he tilted his head, saw his wife's confused gaze, and immediately changed his mind.
After all, not everyone can read the tome.
For the author, the concept of narrative subterfuge is very easy to understand, but in the eyes of readers, it is a bit unclear.
"Tsk..."
Doyle was speechless.
From the bottom of his heart, he felt that Lu Shi's attitude of "I review my own books" was quite arrogant.
But he felt that Lu Shi had the qualifications.
A book that cost more than six pounds sold 20,000 copies in less than ten days, and it would be fluttering on anyone's body.
Doyle continued reading,
Unexpectedly, the more he read, the more shocked he became.
Because Lu Shi really didn't hide his secrets, breaking down and breaking down what the narrative trick is, how it should be structured, and how to guide readers, it was like writing an academic paper.
Hawkins looked at his husband and asked in confusion: "Arthur, what's wrong with you?"
Doyle was silent for a while and said: "If you can fully understand this article, you will definitely be able to make a living from writing."
Hawkins was puzzled;
"Huh? Is it really that powerful?"
Doyle nodded,
"Yes, it's really that powerful. Look at the classification of these narrative tricks he wrote, such as gender narrative tricks, age narrative tricks, identity narrative tricks, one person playing two roles or even multiple roles... These things must have been thought of by predecessors , but Lu Shi was the first person to write it out in such a systematic way."
Hawkins didn't understand, but was shocked.
She asked: "You mean, Lu used so many tricks in "Roger Mystery"?"
Doyle smiled
"That's why I was shocked."
Hawkins was stunned;
"Did you really use so much?"
Doyle shook his head violently and replied: "That's not the case. The narrative trick used in "Roger's Mystery" is not that complicated. However, if you think about it, Lu Shi has so many good ideas that he can keep for himself. But now it is announced to the public, this..."
As soon as this was said, Hawkins also fell silent.
If Lu Shi wrote down each trick one by one, he would definitely have no worries about food and clothing in this life.
Of course, money is no longer a thing for a best-selling author of this level. What really matters is the honor of writing a book.
Doyle looked at the book review and said: "Now that I see this article, I can immediately come up with several good ideas, such as...well...there is it! A certain character is color blind, and he sees The color is different from ordinary people's perception, and using him as the first perspective can lead readers to draw wrong conclusions."
This is interesting to hear.
Hawkins nodded,
"It will definitely be a good subject."
Doyle showed a proud expression,
But soon, he stopped smiling,
The feeling of eating the food is quite refreshing, but not particularly refreshing.
It is tasteless to eat and a pity to throw away.
Hawkins said: "What did Lu think when he wrote this book review?"
Doyle read the article,
"I'm not as good as him."
Hawkins was surprised that her husband bowed his head and admitted defeat.
She shouted: "Arthur!"
Doyle waved his hand.
"I didn't admit defeat, nor did I lose my fighting spirit. When I said I wasn't as good as him, I meant my mind. Lu Shi probably wrote this article to teach us how to write good reasoning works..."
As he spoke, his eyes wandered over the book review page,
The article is called "A Brief Discussion of Narrative Conspiracies and Mystery Works." In addition to the description of narrative conspiracies in the first half, there is also a second half that talks about the type of mystery works in Lu Shi's eyes.
There is no bells and whistles in the whole article, and the writing is very sincere.
Doyle only read for a few minutes before he couldn't help but take a deep breath.
"He's teaching us how to write books."
Hawkins was surprised,
"What?"
Doyle pointed to the article and said: "Look, what he wrote here is talking about 'information asymmetry'..."
Hawkins nodded immediately,
"Yes, I saw Lu mentioned this many times in the article, but I don't understand what it means."
Doyle replied: "Simply put, information asymmetry is 'unfair'. Because of the author's deliberate concealment, the detective holds key evidence and information that the readers do not know. You remember me in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" Did you do anything at the beginning?”
Hawkins recalls,
At the beginning of "The Hound of the Baskervilles", my husband wrote that Sherlock Holmes made a mistake;
Holmes speculated that the information about the owner of the cane left at 221B Baker Street was completely inconsistent with the actual situation.
Doyle sighed,
"well……"
Readers may not know it clearly, but he knows it clearly in his mind.
The reasoning in the Sherlock Holmes series is not very rigorous, and readers will believe it to be true, simply because the level of other writers is not high enough.
Doyle looked at the article again and felt emotional again.
"Yes, he is teaching us how to write books."
…
“He’s teaching us how to write books.”
Cambridge,
King's College.
James was in the office, reading today's "Manchester Guardian" with an expression of admiration on his face.
Cavendish said: "Really? But I think this article is slightly offensive."
James looked puzzled;
"where?"
Cavendish took the newspaper and read the original text:
"
'Detectives cannot use supernatural or bizarre detective methods. '
"
This is one of the principles of reasoning given by Lu Shi.
James understands,
"Do you think Mr. Lu is hinting at the monsters I wrote about?"
As he spoke, he shook his head,
"According to what you said, he also wrote 'the detective's idiot friend, who must tell the reader his judgment without reservation, that the person's intelligence must be slightly below the average level of the reader', then the 'detective's idiot friend' is in Hinting at Watson?"
Cavendish thought,
Isn't this just a hint to Watson?
He said: "I don't think Lu Shi himself believed what he wrote. For example, in "Roger's Mystery", doesn't it violate this rule? The 'detective's idiot friend' is actually the murderer."
James chuckled,
"Indeed, Mr. Lu seems a bit dogmatic when he writes like this, and even risks slapping himself in the face. But I think that he is not trying to roughly classify detectives, but... well... instead, he is giving an evaluation method to the detectives who are mixed with good and bad. A piece of writing advice for writers.”
Cavendish was a little confused and asked the other party: "What do you mean, Lu Shi is teaching the real thing?"
James nodded.
He pointed to the summary at the end of the article,
There, Lu Shi made a vivid metaphor,
Lu Shi divided all the information that makes up a story into one hundred cards.
In the initial stage, one hundred cards are all covered on the table, and the development of the story is the process of turning over these cards one by one.
Most of the stories are linear, and the order of turning over the cards is also a straight line. They are all revealed in chronological order starting from basic information, allowing readers to follow the development of the plot according to clear clues.
"The category of reasoning is different," James said.
He spread the newspaper flat and turned it over erratically.
"Inference is originally based on a special 'card-turning method', and this is especially true for works with narrative tricks like "The Roger Mystery"."
Cavendish asked: "Wouldn't it look like acrobatics if written like this?"
James replied: "It's just acrobatics."
He turned a newspaper back over and said, "The cards that were supposed to be opened were deliberately kept in a closed state, and the readers were not aware of it until the end, in an attempt to show the wrong composition in front of the readers."
This kind of writing has very high requirements on writing style.
Cavendish thought of the sold-out "Roger Mystery" and fell into silence.
That's a really great piece of work.
James smiled and asked: "Mr. Superintendent, do you think our family is fooling people?"
Cavendish was stunned.
Then he laughed loudly,
"No, no. I just think the reasoning is confusing, because it's impossible for the reader to guess who the murderer is before seeing the detective decrypt it."
James couldn't help laughing after hearing this,
If the reasoning is to "fool people", then Zhiguai will be unreadable.
He pondered for a moment and said: "Mr. Superintendent, I think we should show the self-consciousness of British gentlemen. What do you think?"
Cavendish's laughter stopped abruptly;
Silence for a long time,
He said: "Okay."
(End of chapter)
