Finally, the fourth principal, humanity. This principal 1)underlies all the others and it's 2)crucial. So please be natural, be yourself. Never say anything in writing that you wouldn't comfortably say in conversation. If you're not the kind of person who says "indeed" or "moreover," please don't say it in writing. Most people trying to write, sit down to commit an act of literature. And the person who 3)emerges on paper is very much different from the person who sat down to write.
It's amazing how often an editor can find the perfect lead in an article by simply throwing away the first two or three paragraphs or the first two or three pages and starting the article where the writer finally stops building this elaborate 4)edifice, the lead, the sacred lead, and begins to relax and sound like himself or herself. What I'm always looking for as an editor is a sentence that says something like, "I'll never forget the day when I..." and I'll think ah ha! There's a person. Up to that point no person has been visible because the writer has been making this self conscious construction, the lead, full of 5)vague generalizations, that has no life of its own.
Most writers are frozen by their vision of the audience. All those people out there who will be reading what you write. But only one person will be reading your article at any one time and the writers we like the most are men and women we can identify with as people. What any writer has to sell, what you have to sell is not what you're writing about, it's who you are. I often find myself reading with interest about some subject I could have sworn didn't interest me, maybe some odd scientific 6)quest. Lewis Thomas, a cell biologist writes 7)eloquently on subjects like, well, ants. Ants are very low on any list of subjects I think I want to read about, but I'll read anything Lewis Thomas writes about ants. It's not the ant that interests me. it's Lewis Thomas's interest in the ant, what got him interested, what keeps him going and you can generate the same kind of interest. Your material is yourself, so trust it and use it.
寫作指導(dǎo)
第四條寫作原則：人道。這是所有東西的基礎(chǔ)，非常重要。所以請一定要自然一點，做你自己。如果有些話你在日常對話中說了也感到不自在的話，就不要把它寫在文字里。如果你通常不會說"更確切地"或者"再者"，那也不把它用在你的文章里。許多想寫些東西的人坐下來，做出要創(chuàng)作文學(xué)作品的樣子。結(jié)果是寫出來的東西與作者根本是兩碼事。
令人吃驚的是編輯通常需要刪去文章頭兩、三個段落，甚至是兩、三頁之后，在作者建造的華而不實的神圣大樓的工作終于停止時，才找到恰當(dāng)?shù)奈恼麻_始。在這可貴的開始之后，文章的語氣才開始自然起來。我在做編輯的時候，我總是在找像"我永遠(yuǎn)也忘不了那一天，當(dāng)我……"這樣的句子。那時我就想，啊哈，人終于出來了。在此之前，我根本就看不到人的存在，因為作者一直忸忸怩怩地說一些既含糊又毫無意義的話而遲遲不肯露面。
許多作者被自己心目中的讀者，那些將要讀你的作品的讀者，嚇壞了。其實，在任何一個時刻，只有一個人在讀你寫的文章，而我們通常喜歡那些我們能夠認(rèn)同的作者。每一個作者都需要推銷。你需要推銷的不是你寫的東西，而是你自己。我自己常常在饒有興趣地讀那些我發(fā)誓我根本不感興趣的東西，有可能是科學(xué)探險之類的。細(xì)胞生物學(xué)家路易斯·湯馬斯在寫……比如說他會把螞蟻寫得很生動。在我想讀的東西里，螞蟻當(dāng)然是排在很后的，但我卻愿意看路易斯·湯馬斯寫的任何有關(guān)螞蟻的東西。讓我感興趣的不是螞蟻，而是讓他對螞蟻感興趣的事，究竟是什么讓他對螞蟻如此著迷。而你作為一個作者也可以讓別人感興趣。你的素材就是你自己，所以你要對你自己有信心，大膽用那些素材。
1) underlie v. 構(gòu)成……的基礎(chǔ) 2) crucial a. 至關(guān)重要的
3) emerge v. 出現(xiàn)，浮現(xiàn)
4) edifice n. (喻)精心建造的東西 5) vague a. 模糊的
6) quest n. 探險 7) eloquently adv. 有說服力地
It's amazing how often an editor can find the perfect lead in an article by simply throwing away the first two or three paragraphs or the first two or three pages and starting the article where the writer finally stops building this elaborate 4)edifice, the lead, the sacred lead, and begins to relax and sound like himself or herself. What I'm always looking for as an editor is a sentence that says something like, "I'll never forget the day when I..." and I'll think ah ha! There's a person. Up to that point no person has been visible because the writer has been making this self conscious construction, the lead, full of 5)vague generalizations, that has no life of its own.
Most writers are frozen by their vision of the audience. All those people out there who will be reading what you write. But only one person will be reading your article at any one time and the writers we like the most are men and women we can identify with as people. What any writer has to sell, what you have to sell is not what you're writing about, it's who you are. I often find myself reading with interest about some subject I could have sworn didn't interest me, maybe some odd scientific 6)quest. Lewis Thomas, a cell biologist writes 7)eloquently on subjects like, well, ants. Ants are very low on any list of subjects I think I want to read about, but I'll read anything Lewis Thomas writes about ants. It's not the ant that interests me. it's Lewis Thomas's interest in the ant, what got him interested, what keeps him going and you can generate the same kind of interest. Your material is yourself, so trust it and use it.
寫作指導(dǎo)
第四條寫作原則：人道。這是所有東西的基礎(chǔ)，非常重要。所以請一定要自然一點，做你自己。如果有些話你在日常對話中說了也感到不自在的話，就不要把它寫在文字里。如果你通常不會說"更確切地"或者"再者"，那也不把它用在你的文章里。許多想寫些東西的人坐下來，做出要創(chuàng)作文學(xué)作品的樣子。結(jié)果是寫出來的東西與作者根本是兩碼事。
令人吃驚的是編輯通常需要刪去文章頭兩、三個段落，甚至是兩、三頁之后，在作者建造的華而不實的神圣大樓的工作終于停止時，才找到恰當(dāng)?shù)奈恼麻_始。在這可貴的開始之后，文章的語氣才開始自然起來。我在做編輯的時候，我總是在找像"我永遠(yuǎn)也忘不了那一天，當(dāng)我……"這樣的句子。那時我就想，啊哈，人終于出來了。在此之前，我根本就看不到人的存在，因為作者一直忸忸怩怩地說一些既含糊又毫無意義的話而遲遲不肯露面。
許多作者被自己心目中的讀者，那些將要讀你的作品的讀者，嚇壞了。其實，在任何一個時刻，只有一個人在讀你寫的文章，而我們通常喜歡那些我們能夠認(rèn)同的作者。每一個作者都需要推銷。你需要推銷的不是你寫的東西，而是你自己。我自己常常在饒有興趣地讀那些我發(fā)誓我根本不感興趣的東西，有可能是科學(xué)探險之類的。細(xì)胞生物學(xué)家路易斯·湯馬斯在寫……比如說他會把螞蟻寫得很生動。在我想讀的東西里，螞蟻當(dāng)然是排在很后的，但我卻愿意看路易斯·湯馬斯寫的任何有關(guān)螞蟻的東西。讓我感興趣的不是螞蟻，而是讓他對螞蟻感興趣的事，究竟是什么讓他對螞蟻如此著迷。而你作為一個作者也可以讓別人感興趣。你的素材就是你自己，所以你要對你自己有信心，大膽用那些素材。
1) underlie v. 構(gòu)成……的基礎(chǔ) 2) crucial a. 至關(guān)重要的
3) emerge v. 出現(xiàn)，浮現(xiàn)
4) edifice n. (喻)精心建造的東西 5) vague a. 模糊的
6) quest n. 探險 7) eloquently adv. 有說服力地