HN 写作课

工程师们二十年里聊过的写作。

工程师、作家、编辑和创业者在 Hacker News 上聊了二十年“怎么写”:怎么写得清楚、怎么讲好一个故事、技术文档怎么写、小说和出版是怎么回事。这里把其中关于写作与讲故事的帖子挑出来,配上中文导读、可以直接用的写作要点和评论翻译。

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    1. 01

      从全量里捞

      读取 Hacker News 自 2006 年以来的全部帖子,用关键词先捞出 40 分以上、可能和写作有关的约 1.1 万篇。

    2. 02

      只留真正讲写作的

      由 AI 逐条判断是否和写作、讲故事、文风、出版有实质关系,剔除“写代码”“编辑器”这类字面撞车,并分进十个类别。

    3. 03

      提炼可用的要点

      为值得读的帖子写中文导读,提炼 2-4 条可以直接用到自己写作里的要点,并精选翻译 HN 高赞评论。内容由 AI 生成,可能有误。

    出版与作家生涯2016npr.org

    被误标为回忆录作者,这位作家追问:什么样的作品才算新闻?

    Mislabeled as a Memoirist, Author Asks: Whose Work Gets to Be Journalism?

    阅读原文 HN 讨论
    77HN 得分
    24条评论
    4条写作要点

    导读

    韩裔作者 Suki Kim 在平壤教书后写成一本书,出版社为销路把它包装成"回忆录",她却坚持那是调查报道,由此追问:谁的作品才有资格被称作新闻?这篇值得写作者读,因为它把"体裁标签"这件看似营销的事,还原成写作伦理、可信度与身份偏见的问题。

    关键词 体裁标签回忆录与新闻作者与出版社第一人称写作

    可以直接用的写作要点

    1. 01

      体裁标签决定读者如何评估你的可信度:同一份文本被叫作回忆录还是调查报道,读者的信任起点完全不同。

    2. 02

      第一人称的亲历不等于回忆录;想让作品被当作报道读,就必须在文本内部提供可核查的事实框架(人数、流程、机制、时间)。

    3. 03

      开篇大段自传式抒情会稀释报道感——评论者指出该书前三成过于自传化、语言过度华丽,后半才回到正轨。

    4. 04

      作者与出版社的定位冲突是创作行业的常态,动笔前就应在合同与沟通中明确体裁,而不是等包装完成后再抗议。

    HN 评论精选

    体裁错位是出版业的结构性常态,不宜简单归因于身份政治,也不该反向刻板化白人男性作者。

    如果我没理解错,这本书是出版社坚持要按回忆录来营销的……然后就归因于性别歧视和种族歧视?作者和出版社之间的紧张关系跟书本身一样古老:出版社想多卖,作者想实现自己的构想,有时一致,有时不一致,这在每个创意行业都很常见。我不想轻描淡写她的经历,但她同样毫不犹豫地把同行(白人男性)作者简化成"轻而易举就获得公信力、靠手艺谋生"的人。

    macspoofing查看英文原文

    If I understand correctly, the book was marketed as a memoir at the insistence of the publisher ... because sexism and racism? The tense relationship between authors and publishers is as old as books. Publishers want to move lots of units. Authors want to realize their vision. Sometimes the two go hand in hand, and sometimes not. Pretty common in every creative industry. I don't want to trivialize and dismiss the author's experience but she has no qualms doing the same to her fellow (white, male) authors, who apparently have it so easy attaining credibility and earning a living practicing their craft.

    用"产品被错误包装"的类比说明体裁错标对作者的伤害,并举实例论证其中的身份偏见。

    想象你做一个产品做了十年,最后一刻被告知它会被以完全不是你预期的方式营销:你以为自己在做一款面向成年玩家的智力解谜游戏,结果他们给它套上卡通包装,取名《沃利的奇妙解谜世界》!我很高兴她站出来谈这件事,也完全同意:白人男性作者遭遇同样待遇的概率接近于零。认为这类种族思想实验站不住脚的人可以看看事实:奥斯卡得主 Forest Whitaker 曾在一家高档熟食店被店员当成小偷拍身搜查——再想想同样资历的白人演员会不会遇到这种事,然后来论证种族因素没起作用。

    jasonshen查看英文原文

    Imagine spending 10 years working on a product and then being told at the last minute that it was going to be marketed in a completely different way than you expected. Like you think you're making an intelligent puzzler for adult gamers, and then they wrap it in a cartoonish package and call it "Wally's Wicked World of Puzzles!" I'm glad she's decided to speak up about this issue and I absolutely agree that the chances a white man would get similar treatment is close to nill. And for those who think these kinds of racial thought experiments don't hold water, they can and do. Consider the fact that Academy Award winning actor Forest Whitaker was once patted down in the middle of an upscale deli because an employee thought he might be shoplifting. Now consider whether that would ever happen to a white actor of a similar pedigree and try to argue that racism was not at work. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/19/forest-whitaker-falsely-accused-shoplifting-frisked-new-york-deli_n_2719712.html

    文本自身的写法——开篇自传化、辞藻浮华、缺少具体信息与流程——已经决定了它更像回忆录,标签未必是强加的。

    这是 2014 年风波之前亚马逊上的一条高赞书评。若其所言属实,她写的东西本来就更像回忆录而非调查报道,并不算被错标:"首先是 Kim 本人。全书前三成高度自传化,且看不出必要;不到两周她就'爱上'学生,这反而贬低了那个她反复提及却相当无谓的纽约'恋人'。她有些段落辞藻过度华丽,像是取自一本没写成的小说,奇怪但庆幸的是,到后半本这些段落消失了。那些篇幅本可以更好地用来告诉我们:这所学校有多少学生、多少教师,它是替代还是补充正规大学教育。她屡屡提到事情'被禁止',却从不说明这信息如何传达给教师;各种事情'被批准',同样没有描述流程:是书面申请?教师当面问陪同人员?那位外国校长在决策中有任何角色吗?"

    golemotron查看英文原文

    One of the top reviewer comments on Amazon from 2014 before the kertuffle. If this is the case, she's written something which is more like a memoir than investigative journalism and her work was not mislabeled: "The first is Kim herself. The first 30% of the book is heavily autobiographical, for no apparent reason. She "loves" her students before even two weeks have passed, which devalues the unnamed "lover" in New York she refers to consistently but rather pointlessly. She has passages of overly flowery language that seem to have been taken from a novel not written; strangely, but thankfully, they disappear by the 2nd half of the book. Those sections would have been better served by giving us information on things like how many students were at the school, and how many teachers there were, and whether this was meant to replace a normal college education or merely supplement it. She frequently mentions that things are "forbidden", but never conveys how this information is conveyed to the teachers. Various things are "approved", but again there is no description of how this happens. Are written submissions made? Do teachers ask their minders face to face? Does the (foreign) college president play any role in the decisions?" And another: "This book is divided into two parts. In the first part of the book we are taken on a small journey as you learn about the life of the author. I was moved to think what culture shock she must have experienced when she explains having to move to the United States during her early teenage years and having to adapt to a new language and society. I love how Kim uses these experiences in order to relate them to the subject of the book which in turn would be her stay as a teacher at the PUST School in North Korea. The first half of the book speaks concerning her first visit years before to North Korea and the impact it had on her life."

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