Director 2008: Starting with the Editing Room

I just finished reading this book from beginning to end, and I have some thoughts to share. This book has both obvious strengths and weaknesses. Its strength lies in its relatively good writing style, which keeps the reader engaged and already surpasses the work of half of the novice authors of entertainment novels.

It seems that rebirth novels invariably feature a "golden finger" (a cheat ability), and this book is no exception. However, unlike typical entertainment novels where the protagonist's golden finger usually comes with a built-in upgrade system, the protagonist's skills before rebirth were already near-top-tier.

It's titled like a light novel, but the editor doesn't talk about film. There's not a single film, nor does it explain the content or editing techniques of a film from the inside out. Instead, it uses various dramatic conflicts to treat "editing" as a means of competition, reminding me of that street dance and fight TV series with the tagline "Stop fighting!"

In rebirth stories set in the Chinese entertainment industry, most characters dream of making a lot of money and building a great career. The male protagonist of this book, however, says from the very beginning that he wants to create his own unique content.

The plot is so cliché! The protagonist is filming a movie! He finds a girl he'd "peeked" at twice before (what a coincidence!). The girl's best friend thinks the director is lying to her, claiming he's using old-fashioned equipment is a lie! Later, they see the protagonist with another girl (the protagonist is editing for money)!

The first three chapters are readable, but the later chapters are just a bunch of pretentious posturing and face-slapping moments. He applies for equipment, then gets his pretentious posturing and face-slapping moments again; he makes a short film, asks for actors, the actors question him, he gets his pretentious posturing and face-slapping moments again; he makes films for others to earn money…

The first three chapters were quite good; the scenes and technology were well-developed, and the characters were also being introduced. Initially, I found the fictional entertainment setting a bit nonsensical—wasn't it completely unrelatable? However, upon reflection, it could be a good introduction to entertainment industry novels.

Personally, I feel that writing good entertainment-related stories is extremely difficult. Too many people have written about this subject, it's been around for a long time, and the formulas are quite fixed. The remaining story structures are largely similar. In terms of details, writing well in entertainment-related stories truly tests an author's writing skills.

Looks like there aren't many comments! I've been working lately, so updates have been a bit slow. But I'll start updating with 4,000 words a day from October 11th. If the data is good, I can keep it up. If not, I'll probably update less often because I work half a month and only have seven days off. Even during my days off, it's like I'm on a business trip.

I've already subscribed to the whole thing, please add more chapters ASAP!