世界著名作家的十大写作小贴士.doc

10 Writing Tips from the Worlds Greatest Authors世界著名作家的十大写作小贴士If you ask the average author why they chose to pursue writing as a career, theyll probably look at you as if you were mad. Those who dedicate their lives to wordcraft tend to do so because theyre passionate about storytelling, about the written word in every form it chooses to take; they didnt choose to write any more than you may have chosen to breathe.倘若你问作家拿写作当成事业的原因，他们可能会认为你是个疯子。他们热衷于讲故事，把毕生精力都贡献在写作上，不拘泥于写作形式，正如你离不开空气。That said, honing ones craft is a daunting-yet-rewarding lifelong endeavor in which there is constant evolution, but never perfection. I believe it was Ernest Hemingway who said that when it comes to writing, we are “all apprentices in a craft that has no master,” and hes right: writers will always doubt their abilities, adjust their prose style, think of giving up, have a love/hate relationship with their editors, and keep plowing forward because we have to.也就是说，语言功底是一件令人生畏却又毕生努力的循序渐进的过程，没有最好，只有更好。海明威说过，在写作这件事上，我们都是学徒，没有师傅。他还指出：作家们总是怀疑他们的能力，调整散文风格，想过要放弃，对编辑爱恨交加，不得不努力把自己推向前进。For everyone whose soul is brimming with tales demanding to be told, here are a few writing tips from some of the worlds greatest authors. Maybe theyll inspire you, or perhaps youll disagree with them entirely, but theyre all worth contemplating.每个人的灵魂都充满了故事。下面是几个世界著名作家的小贴士。也许他们可以激励你，你可能不全认同他们的观点，但是可以借鉴。Be Disciplined自律“All through my career Ive written 1,000 words a dayeven if Ive got a hangover. Youve got to discipline yourself if youre professional. Theres no other way.”不管你决定一个星期写两页还是一天2000字，都要保证完成任务，并持之以恒。我的一生中一天会写1000字，即使在宿醉的情况下。如果你够专业就能做到自律。别无他法。杰拉尔德Keep a Notebook Handy随身带笔记本Inspiration can strike at any time, and its not uncommon for writers to scrawl ideas on receipts, napkins, bits of toilet paper, or anything within reach that can be written upon. If you have a good notebook with you at all times, you dont have to risk losing some scrap or another upon which youve written the epiphany of a lifetime.灵感随时都会光顾，作家可能会把想法写在收据、餐巾纸、厕纸或者任何可以记东西的地方，这是不足为奇的。如果你时刻备着笔记本，就不用冒着会丢失的危险。“Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.”时刻备本笔记本。短时记忆只能保持三分钟，不记下来的话会忘掉一个好的想法。威尔.塞尔夫Write What Youd Like to Read把你想看的东西记下来Dont write what you think other people want to read: create something that you would fall in love with if you read it. Chances are that if you enjoy something that you write, others will too.不要写那些你认为别人想读的，而要写一些你自己读完会爱上的文章。你喜欢的文章别人可能也会喜欢。“If theres a book that you want to read, but it hasnt been written yet, then you must write it.”“如果有这么一本书，你非常想看，却还没人写，那你得马上把它写出来。”托妮莫里森You Have to Read So You Can Write写作前必须多读Imagine going to a restaurant where youll be served food thats prepared by someone who isnt fond of eating, or having a personal fitness session with a trainer who doesnt like to exercise. Both scenarios are rather absurd to think about, arent they?试想一下，你来到一个餐馆，上来的食物都是由不爱美食的厨师准备的，或者你的私人健身教练不爱运动。两种情况都很荒诞，不是吗？The best writers tend to be avid readers, as they have extensive vocabularies, awareness of what makes a story interesting, and a solid grasp of cadence and flow. Id be afraid to read anything by someone whos written more than theyve read. Read all that you can, and not merely the subject matter that you know you enjoy: read outside your comfort level, in subjects youre unfamiliar with.最好的作家往往都是孜孜不倦的读者，因为他们词汇量大，懂得什么故事能吸引眼球，掌握了抑扬顿挫的手法，将文章衔接自如。对于那些多写少读的作家作品，我总是敬而远之。尽可能地多读，不要仅仅局限于你感兴趣的方面：涉猎你舒适度以外的、你不熟悉的内容。“Read, read, read. Read everything: trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! Youll absorb it. Then write. If its good, youll find out. If its not, throw it out of the window.”“读,读,读。阅读一切垃圾的、经典、好的和坏的，看看他们是如何做到这一点的。就像木匠学徒，研究手艺一样。多读！读了你就能吸收它，然后再去写。好的东西你必能领会，不好的大可扔出窗外。”威廉福克纳Allow Ideas to Flow, Even When You Feel You Have Nothing to Give让想法飞一会Scrawl nonsense. Make up little poems about toast or squirrels. Write out a rough draft by hand on construction paper, drawing little icons alongside written streams of profanity, if necessary. Know that most other writers before you have experienced the exact same doubts, frustrations, helplessness, and bouts of writers block as you have.记下不成熟的想法。你可以作关于祝酒或松鼠的诗。你可以在纸上写下大致的草稿，必要时也可以记下所需图标。要知道，很多其他作家都和你一样，也经历过同样的自我怀疑，沮丧挫折，困顿无助，以及一次又一次的阻碍。Go full stream-of-consciousness writing with the full knowledge that 3/4 of what youre creating is absolute crap, as there will undoubtedly be some flecks of absolute gold within the dross that you can pick out later and polish til they shine.完成终稿时，要清楚地认识到，你所写的3/4都一无用处，当然，其中肯定也有不少有价值的内容，因此，你要把那些有用的部分挑出来加以润色修饰，让它们大放异彩。“When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.”“我写作时，总觉得像是个缺胳膊少腿的人，只能用嘴衔着笔写作。”库尔特冯内古特Write Hot, Edit Cold趁热打铁When you have an idea, write it down. If you wake in the middle of the night with a paragraph fully formed in your head, write it down before you pass out again: you will have forgotten it by morning. Spew forth all you can in the moment, and then go back over it all with fresh eyes later on. This first draft is just the brain-spew that you have to get out, and if you know whats good for you, youll spend far more time editing than you did writing.有了想法就立即写下来。如果你半夜醒来，脑中有了完整的段落，那就趁再次睡着前记下来，因为到了第二天你可能会忘光。趁热写下所有内容，过后再用全新的视角浏览。初稿是你急于拿出的脑中之物，而倘若你知道如何做对你有益，那你必定会在修改稿件上花费更多时间。“The first draft of everything is shit.”“我为了杰作的每一页，写了99页的废话。”欧内斯特海明威On a similar note:类似的一点是：Write, and Write, and Write. Then Write Some More.写，再写，继续写。The only way youll get anything done is by writing. You may churn out a two-hundred-thousand-word behemoth and then cut it down to a quarter of that length, but you wont be able to cut and refine anything if all you do is sit on your ass, staring numbly at your screen, not writing anything at all.完成一件事情的唯一方法就是写。你或许写出二十万字的长篇文章，然后把它缩短四分之三，但是你只是坐着，呆呆地注视屏幕，什么都不写的话，就没有任何删减和修饰可言了。Dont say that youre writing a novel: write it. Dont spend all your time researching things and wasting time on Pinterest for inspiration: write. Then write some more.别说你要写一部小说：先写了再说。不要把所有时间花在搜索资料上，不要把时间浪费在图片应用上找寻灵感：去写。越多越好。“Planning to write is not writing. Outlining researching talking to people about what youre doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.”“打算写并不是是真的写。大纲、搜索、告诉别人你在做什么，这些都不是在写作。写作就是去写。”多克托罗Allow Yourself to Make Mistakes不惧犯错Youre going to do some great work, but youre also going to craft some absolute dreck that youll look back upon and cringe. Thats absolutely okay: learn from it. Children dont learn to walk without falling all over the place, right? By recognizing what doesnt work, we can sort out what does, and move forward from there.你将要做伟大的事情，但你首先也要造出一些废物，过后你会重新回顾，发现它们的不足。这是理所应当的事情：你所要做的就是从中学习。小孩如果不摔跤就学不会走路，不是吗？看清我们不好的作品，我们就能找出好的部分，然后继续向前。“We learn from failure, not from success!”“我们是从失败而不是成功中吸取教训！”布莱姆斯托克Show, Dont Tell展现自我，切忌枯燥乏味Many novice writers make the mistake of over-describing items, situations, people, etc. Its far better to imply descriptions and let the reader form an image in their minds than to spoon-feed every detail.很多新锐作家都犯了过度描述的错误，他们过度描述场景、人物等等。更好的方法是运用描述的手法，让读者在头脑中形成图像，而不是把每一个细节都硬塞给他们。“Dont tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”“别告诉我说月亮很亮，拿一片碎玻璃让我看看它折射出的光。”安东契诃夫（Anton Chekhov）Last, but certainly not least, one of the best tips than any author could take to heart:最后一点同样重要，这也是每个作家都要放在心上的一点：Write What You Know About写你所知Truth is stranger than fiction, and its more than likely that youve had some incredible experiences that you and you alone are qualified to write about. Youve had amazing adventures, and you have a special and unique voice with which to share them, so do so.事实比科幻更新颖，很