People's Daily Column Publishes Online Literature Author's Exclusive Article: Exploring How Online Literature Can Root Itself in Reality and Keep Pace with the Times

The People's Daily 'China's Road, China's Dream' column's series of reports on young people's sense of responsibility in various industries necessitates this article.

I am a junior college graduate and a web writer... I finished my first book in nine months, with a payment of over 4,000 yuan. According to verified evidence, the author's personal memoir and career narrative as a first-hand account falls into the category of autobiographical prose, and cannot be independently audited by external third-party institutions for specific payment amounts, but conforms to the common entrepreneurial experiences of early web writers. Over the past few years, the wave of artificial intelligence writing has swept in... Currently, AI writing is still unable to meet the demands of high-quality creative work. In addition, records indicate that the current generative AI has made rapid progress in text generation, but still has limitations in long-form web writing in terms of grand narrative, deep emotional resonance, and complex character development, consistent with the industry consensus of the technology and literary fields.

The flourishing digital publishing industry and algorithm-driven traffic mechanisms have brought about homogenization and commercialization challenges to online literature creation, as well as the AI writing wave's scrutiny of human creators' fundamental existence. Chinese online literature emerged in the late 20th century and has undergone over two decades of wild growth, commercialization, copyright industry prosperity, and recent trends towards high-quality, mainstream, and realistic themes. Key preceding milestones include: The initial period of online literature commercialization: The 'harem novel' model prevails under the drive of capital and traffic; The period of industry transformation towards high-quality literature: Mainstream cultural institutions guide online literature towards realistic themes and the integration of traditional culture; The AI wave impact period: Large models and generative AI pose potential challenges to the online literature creation ecosystem.

This article is a mild industry reflection and positive advocacy, without sharp power asymmetry or irreversible biological/ecological harm. Among directly affected sectors are: Online literature creators: Inspired by the article, they began to reflect on their reliance on traffic-driven creative patterns and explored realistic themes and high-quality transformations; Digital publishing and online literature platform enterprises: Guiding the platform ecosystem to expand from single fantasy and entertainment novels to diverse, realistic themes, and improving content quality.

Public debate has focused prominently on the positions of The voices of young online literature authors and mainstream official media's cultural guidance values, while observers emphasize the need to consider the perspective of The commercial capital perspectives of online literature platforms and the pursuit of commercial interests driven by algorithm readers are not prominently presented. The article advocates for creators to transcend the pursuit of capital and traffic, delve into grassroots life, and combine personal creation with temporal changes, reflecting the mainstream values' guidance on cultural creation.