小说与文学2016themillions.com编辑精选
如何写一部小说
How to Write a Novel
导读
这篇来自 The Millions 的文章讨论写小说的两种路径——“计划派”（planners）与“即兴派”（pantsers，即“跟着感觉走、边写边编”）。文章的核心价值在于：作者不必先给自己贴标签，而是先写起来，再判断自己适合哪种方式。对写作者来说，这四条高赞评论给出了互补的实践建议：先用大量写作找出自己的类型，用分析工具理解故事结构，允许计划被推翻但坚持迭代，以及把基本功放在方法之前。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
先大量地写，把字写出来，再回头判断自己属于计划型还是即兴型、强项和弱项在哪里；写出来的文本本身就是最好的学习材料。
- 02
给自己设一个“只管数量、不管质量”的硬性目标（比如一个月写五万字），用截止日期和同伴压力逼自己完成，好句子往往在大量产出中自然出现。
- 03
可以先做计划，但写作过程中允许自己大部分忽略它；关键是代入人物的感受，并敢于推翻重写不满意的部分。
- 04
结构方法（大纲、雪花法、即兴）远不如基本写作能力重要：先解决语法、时态、视角、对话、“展示而非讲述”这些基本功，再谈结构。
HN 评论精选
先大量地写，再认识自己；用 Nanowrimo 这类硬性产量目标逼自己完成第一部作品。
第一件要做的事就是先写下大量文字，看看会发生什么。然后你才会知道自己是什么样的作者、哪里需要计划、哪里可以边写边编、你喜欢写什么题材、你的强项和弱项在哪里，同时也得到一批可以回看和学习的文本。（写作的第一条规则是：手指放在键盘上方，动起来。除非字从你手里流出来，否则你就不算在写作。）我强烈推荐参加 Nanowrimo（国家小说写作月）：用十一月一个月写一部五万字的小说，不必写得好，只要写到五万字（多写也可以）。它给你一个写作框架、有推动力的截止日期、一个支持小组，最重要的是一个明确的胜利条件——月底就可以停。目标是数量而非质量，但只要你有一点天赋，结束时总会有些段落让你日后回看时惊叹：这写得真好。
david-given查看英文原文
The absolute first thing to do is to get lots of words down and see what happens. Then you'll know what kind of author you are, and where you need to plan and where you can make it up as you go along, what sort of things you like writing about, where your strengths and weaknesses lie, etc. It'll also give you a corpus to look at and learn from. (The first rule of writing is: hold your fingers slightly above the keyboard and wiggle your fingers. Everything else is secondary. Unless words are coming out of your hands, you're not writing.) I can strongly recommend signing up for Nanowrimo: http://nanowrimo.org/ Spend the month of November writing a 50,000 word novel. It doesn't need to be good, it just needs to be 50,000 words (more is acceptable). It gives you a structure to write within, with motivating deadlines and a support group (I usually end up in a coffee shop with other Nanowrimoers from my area), and most of all, a defined win condition: once the month is over you get to stop. The goal is quantity over quality, but if you have any talent whatsoever, you'll end up at the end of it with at least some prose you'll look at later and think, wow. This is good. (And yes, you are allowed to write 'I am a fish' 12,500 times and call yourself a winner. But that's really boring. Wouldn't it be easier just to write prose at random and see what happens?) I've done it several times; I started my first one with a vague idea and an image of a few set pieces and ended up with something semi-coherent at about 55,000 words with some nice characters and, well, it was good enough to put on my website. Subsequent attempts have been lots better. Some authors end up with saleable novels...
推荐用分析式的方法理解故事结构，而不是只靠直觉和“一直写”。
如果你写小说或做任何讲故事的事，《故事策略》（The Story Grid，作者 Shawn Coyne）是必读。它的播客是我第一个觉得值得从第一期听起的播客，极大打开了我的眼界，让我理解故事结构的基本原理，以及好小说是如何“运转”的。我读过斯蒂芬·金的《写作这回事》和其他几本写小说的书，作为程序员，我最喜欢《故事策略》的地方是它对讲故事采取分析式的方法，而不是那种更情绪化、更直觉、“一直写下去好东西自然会出现”的方法。
raamdev查看英文原文
If you're writing fiction (or doing any sort of storytelling for that matter), The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne is an absolute must-read. The podcast is amazing—it's the first podcast I've found worth listening to from the very beginning—and it has opened my eyes so much, helping me understand the fundamentals of story structure and how great novels "work". I've read Stephen King's On Writing and several other books on novel writing and as a programmer what I really liked about The Story Grid was its analytical approach to storytelling, as opposed to a more emotional, intuitive, "just keep writing and eventually the good stuff will come" approach.
计划可以有，但要敢于抛弃；靠感受人物和读者，并 fearless 地迭代重写。
对我有效的做法：1. 做个计划。2. 大体上无视这个计划。3. 去感受——感受你的人物在感受什么，感受你想让读者感受到什么。4. 即使没有感觉也照写。5. 迭代。对于不起作用的东西要敢于扔掉，必要时整篇重写。有些“大师”表现得好像完全靠临场发挥。比如斯蒂芬·金写得确实很好，他是个非常贴近自己情感的人，能通过文字让那些情绪在你心里共振；但在我看来，他缺乏计划导致结局偏弱，情感上不令人满足，有时甚至说不通。（所谓“对我有效”，是指我最好的小说是这样写出来的，而不是说它有多好或已出版。）
cgriswald查看英文原文
What works for me* : 1. Make a plan. 2. Mostly ignore the plan. 3. Feel. Feel what your characters are feeling. Feel what you want the reader to feel. 4. Write, even if you aren't feeling. 5. Iterate. Be fearless in throwing things out that don't work. Rewrite an entire work if you have to. Some of these "greats" act like they completely wing it. Stephen King, for instance, has some really great writing. He's a man really in touch with his emotions and can, through his writing, cause those feelings to resonate in you. But, his lack of planning leads, in my opinion, to weak endings that are emotionally unsatisfying and sometimes nonsensical. *By works for me, I mean my best fiction writing comes out of this, not that it's any good or published. Edit: Formatting
结构方法不如基本功重要；先练好语言和叙事基础，再借助写作小组的严厉批评。
我研究过各种方法（即兴写作、雪花法、大纲法等），对我来说，大纲和即兴结合最适合我组织长篇小说。但话说回来，我觉得组织小说的方式远没有“你怎么写”重要。我在大学学过写作，总让我惊讶的是：那么多人写被动句，不掌握时态、拼写、标点、语法，不懂情节甚至三幕结构，视角混乱，写不好对话，违反“展示而非讲述”，从不做题材调研等等。如果你本身就不会写，再多的结构也救不了一部小说，所以先解决这个问题。我推荐 David Farland 的《百万美元大纲》《写那部小说》和斯蒂芬·金的《写作这回事》作为起点，也建议加入写作小组，鼓励同伴把你的作品批得体无完肤。
innocentoldguy查看英文原文
I've studied various methods (e.g. "pants-ing," Snowflake, outlining, etc.) and for me, a combination of outlining and pants-ing works best for structuring my novels. Having said that, I don't think the method you use for structuring your novel is nearly as important as how you write. I studied writing in college, and it always amazed me how many people would use passive sentences; had no grasp of tenses, spelling, punctuation, or grammar; didn't understand plotting, or even the three-act structure; mixed up their points of view; couldn't write dialogue; broke the "show don't tell" mantra; never bothered researching their topics; etc. If you cannot write to begin with, no amount of structure is going to make your novel worth reading, so solve that problem first. I would recommend Million Dollar Outlines, by David Farland, Write That Novel, by David Farland, and On Writing, by Stephen King, as good places to start. I would also recommend joining a writing group, and encouraging your peers to critique the hell out of your work.
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