Lone Sea by Bao Wenzheng Photo: Courtesy of Sanjin Publishing House

Bao Wenzheng, a sophomore at the High School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University, recently published her second novel. She published her first novel Love of Loch Ness at the age of 14. 

Her new work, Lone Sea, deals with friendship, kinship and love. It tells the story of a Norwegian teenager named Lons (which means "lonely sea" in English) who endures a range of difficulties and hardships. The teenager gives up his love for certain reasons in the beginning of the story, but is unable to let go of his feelings. He then crosses a literal sea to find his lover no matter the cost. Ultimately what he overcomes is the seemingly insurmountable sea in his heart. The vast space in his heart may have appeared too great to traverse, but loneliness gives him a jolt of energy. 

Like love, loneliness is another enduring theme in the new work. The former theme was the subject of Bao's first novel, Love of Loch Ness, which mainly depicts the pure love shared between teenagers. In contrast, Lone Sea features a more complex plot, richer characters, and greater readability. 

Bao said in an interview that it took less than two months for her to write Lone Sea, which is nearly 200,000 Chinese characters long. It was written over the author's summer holiday. 

"I sometimes wrote about 5,000 characters a day when my thoughts flowed easily. But other times, I could only write about 1,000 characters. There were times I couldn't write anything at all when I found myself at a bottleneck. But it was not that bad. Everything fell into place eventually after taking time for reflection. Inspiration often came to me at night. I usually wrote in the afternoon and evening after listening to a slow song or reading a chapter but wanted more. So, I sometimes had to stay up late writing. I know it was bad for my health, but I enjoyed it," said the author.

Lone Sea, reasonably arranged and sophisticated yet economically worded, shows a narrative level that is well beyond the author's peers. Bao showed an early talent for writing in primary school. Her works won 1st prize in the 12th Wen Xin Diao Long Cup National Campus Literature Competition and were shortlisted for the Beijing News · 2nd New-Generation Creative Writing Camp for Middle School Students.