David Mitchell talks to Xu Zechen

David Mitchell's first encounter with a Chinese writer during his visit to China in August was with Xu Zechen, the author of Running through Zhongguancun, in a café crowded with fans and readers in Beijing. Mitchell and Xu have read each other's works.

Xu said he prepared lots of questions to "bombard" the writer of Cloud Atlas. Xu sees in Mitchell a change of literary trends in the West and thick cross-cultural traces.

Xu is curious whether the rise of Mitchell's novels signals a new feature of contemporary novel-writing, one in which the structure of novels does not focus on a main storyline, but can be a collection of parallel stories that seemingly have no connections to each other, "like a collection of novellas or short stories," as Xu said.

Mitchell said he starts with short stories, and then adds on "like kids playing with Legos".

"As the novel evolves, the notion of novels evolves," Mitchell said.

He also shares the views that it's hard to bring anything new in four of the five elements of novels — plot, character, theme and style.

"Some say basically there're two kinds of plot," he said. "A hero starts a journey, and a stranger comes to town."

But on the fifth element, the structure, the trials are worthy, he said.

He tries to combine detective stories with sci-fiction, or sci-fiction with romance.

Xu pursued further Mitchell's thoughts on writers' ideas on winning literary prizes, satisfying the readers, and more.

Mitchell replied that he doesn't think much when writing.

"When I work in my garden, I only think about what can I do to make this bloody book work," he said, arousing laughter in the audience.

Mitchell told the audience not to hate their picky bosses, because his own boss — "writing" — is always worse.

"It's too late for me to change my profession and choose my boss, otherwise my children and wife will starve," he said, showing his devotion to his career.

When Xu brought up the concern of many other Chinese writers about writing popular books versus serious books, Mitchell said he cares nothing about the distinction between books for mass public, or for a select few.

"If it sounds good, it is good," he said.

Mitchell also shared his secret for researching highly informative stories like his. He divides research into phases, which delve deep into details like that in his time-traveling stories that a middle-class clerk used shaving foam a century ago.

"But the point is, you must know when to stop. Otherwise, you'll be academic instead of a writer," he said.

And another secret, he said, is that when you have writer's block, just drink green tea and go for a walk.

"When your legs move, your mind moves too," he said.