Chapter 1-9 | Day 6&7 #WeeklyNote@OnWritingWell

Part 1

1. ardift
ardift

2. arduous
arduous

3. clutter
clutter

4. cultivate
cultivate

5. fabric
fabric

6. fury
fury

7. hack
hack

8. induce
induce

9. paradox
paradox

10. pat
pat

11. pompous
pompous

12. quote
quote

Part 2

Summary

The author is talking about two diferent issues. One is craft, the other is attitude. The first is a question of mastering a precise skill. The second is a question of how you use that skill to express your personality.

①attitude

关于写作,作者以the transaction为首章,强调了写作的基本原则和态度。关于personal transaction,群里的朋友有理解成自我的“兑现”,强调实现,有理解成真实的有个性的经历和事件,强调个体;有理解成写作全程的前后梳理,强调过程;有理解成读者和作者的相互作用的情感共鸣,强调交流;有理解成把思想用文字清楚地交代,强调交换;有理解成作者的责任感和使命感,强调信誉。无论如何,引出了下文中作者本书求索的重要特质,人性与温情。这是作者想要强调的写作的基本姿态,亦是终极追求。

There are 7 principles in PART I of the book. PART I tells us how to apply those principles to the various forms that nonfiction writing and journalism can take. Personal transaction is at the heart of good nonfiction writing. There are much intangibles that produce good writing—confidence, enjoyment, intention, integrity. The most important qualities is humanity and warmth. As it is such personal work, style is organic to the person doing the writing. No rule is harder to follow. It requires writers to do two things: be relax, and have confidence. Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. think “I” while you write, or write the first draft in the first person and then take the “I”s out. It will warm up your impersonal style.

You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for. There is no such audience—every reader is a diferent person. Don’t try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read. Editors and readers don’t know what they want to read until they read it. Just Relax and say what you want to say.

②craft

在字词的选用与推敲上,作者在英语语言不断更新的大背景下,考量了语言色彩和词语力度,强调正确严谨的语法使用,提出大量模仿和修改的练习方法,以塑造更简洁有力的语体风格。

The new age, for all its electronic wizardry, is still writing- based. That will still require plain old hard thinking and the plain old tools of the English language. It’s a question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest clarity and strength. If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If yourverbs are weakand your syntax isrickety, your sentenceswill fall apart.

The English language is rich in strong and supple words. Take the time to root around and find the ones you want. Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters. Writing is learned by imitation. I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it. But cultivate the best models. Notice the decisions that other writers make in their choice of words and be finicky about the ones you select from the vast supply. The race in writing is not to the swift but to the original.

Why is one word good and anotherword cheap? I can’t give you an answer, because usage has no fixed boundaries. Language is a fabricthat changes from one week to another, adding new strands and dropping old ones. But guardians of usage are doing only half their job if they merely keep the language from becoming sloppy. The other half of the job is to help the language grow by welcoming any immigrant that will bring strength or color. Here we were motivated by our love of the language’s beautiful precision. Incorrect usage will lose you the readers you would most like to win. Don’t assume that because an article is in a newspaper or a magazine it must be good.

The essence of writing is rewriting. wWork hard to master the tools. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.

③unity

总结了写作的基本态度,写作语言的切磋琢磨,就好像讲书法,从文化的源远流长讲到了笔画的横竖撇捺,下面要进入整字的间架结构和成文的布白章法了。结合通常读者的阅读习惯,结合文章写作的基本技巧,从细节出发分析删删减减如何重要,从句子入手分析段落之间怎么联系,从全文着眼分析章节又是如何架构。

The reader is someone with an attention span of about 30 seconds. the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.Thinking clearly is a conscious act that writers must force on themselves. Be grateful for everything you can throw away. Reexamine each sentence you put on paper. Examine every word you put on paper. You’ll find a surprising number that don’t serve any purpose. Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it that shouldn’t be there.

Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next. Every article poses a diferent problem, and the only valid test is: does it work? Your lead must capture the reader immediately and force him to keep reading. It must cajole him with freshness, or novelty, or paradox, or humor, or surprise, or with an unusual idea, or an interesting fact, or a question. Anything will do, as long as it nudges his curiosity and tugs at his sleeve. Next the lead must do some real work. It must provide hard details that tell the reader why the piece was written and why he ought to read it. Every paragraph should amplify the one that preceded it. Give more thought to adding solid detail and less to entertaining the reader. Make the reader smile and you've got him for at least one more paragraph.

Knowing when to end an article is far more important than most writers realize. You should give as much thought to choosing your last sentence as you did to your first. An article that doesn’t stop where it should stop becomes a drag and therefore a failure. The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis. Just remember that all the unities must be fitted into the edifice you finally put together, however backwardly they may be assembled, or it will soon come tumbling down.

Part 3

周五突然的没网了,星期五的好多idea来不及加到里面。

看到单词adrift的第一眼,就喜欢上它了。adrift,漂浮,引申为茫然,不知所措那样的一种状态。字典里例句,也写的是城市年轻的漂泊者:

young people adrift in the big city

想到逆光专辑里这首飘着。短发的孙燕姿。

当黑夜 清晰过白昼 / 当快乐 赔上了所有 / 当理智 熬不过放纵
虾米的热评说,三重副歌层层递进,不知是感情的渐渐深入,还是理智的节节败退。很入味的文字和歌,想象漂浮冰激凌的雪顶咖啡。

[02:31.06] 错在明知是错 快乐该怎么选择
[02:37.93] 我爱错 我只能选择沉默 不该嘶吼
[02:44.32] 当盲目的黑夜 清晰过白昼
[02:51.07] 当奢侈的快乐 赔上了所有
[02:57.97] 当假装的理智 熬不过放纵
[03:04.90] 每个路口 怎么转都错
[03:08.80] 我进退不得 谁救我
[03:12.05] 飞不进你梦中 偷一点感受
[03:18.83] 飞不回原来我 冰冷的躯壳
[03:25.93] 就这样漂浮着 悲伤地穿梭
[03:32.78] 感觉掏空 灵魂不在了
[03:36.90] 爱情突然失重 在飘着

似乎就在这两天她最近又出新歌了呢。回顾一下自己已经第二次在简书里提到孙燕姿的歌。流行亦能穿越时间。

  • I then said that writing wasn’t easy and wasn’t fun.
  • It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom just flowed.

On Writing Well第三章的最后,作者要我们不断反复确认:

  • Is every word doing new work?
  • Can any thought be expressed with more economy?
  • Is anything pompous or pretentious or faddish?
  • Are you hanging on to something useless just because you think it’s beautiful?

真的很难。不是辛苦工作本身,而是这样一种持续不懈的努力的姿态,苛求完美的细致,真的很不容易。但是什么事情,包括写作,如果同时是源自内心的渴求和动力,那就还是蛮开心的。在这样长的时光,歌声能坚持,我能坚持,我的作品也能坚持。投注的爱和汗水,不问值不值。

  • Perhaps the style won’t solidify for years as your style, your voice. Just as it takes time to find yourselfas a person,it takes time to find yourself as a stylist, and even then yourstyle will change as you grow older.
  • But whatever your age, be yourself when you write.

周五晚上煮了年糕。粘稠的不知是糯米还是糖浆,“像汤圆,没有馅”。可以说是一份非常玲珑非常少女的甜食了。然后得知周六有一天假——可以说是非常甜了。

不管是我这样闲散自由的念书上学、还是你这样没日没夜的工作挣钱,都很久没有真正体会到周末的可贵和可爱了。次日温柔的小姐姐请回来了网,看到了朋友圈的快乐。斜倚日光听着歌的我突然想明白,小屋子外这个大大的世界,其实也是每个人各自小小的雀跃点点叠加起来。

不是太阳温暖了你,是你的生活把远方太阳也照亮。

  • You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for.

或许周末就应该,一起出门,找到人不多不少的角落。坐下来,拿出电脑噼里啪啦敲敲字。喝咖啡,在烤面包膨胀出的黄油香里,从早到晚。嘻嘻哈哈最后还是浅浅睡着在午后。

正午十二点,我爱你。

抱了一天的咖啡 和 抱了一天的你

以上。

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