写作方法2019lithub.com编辑精选
“展示，而非讲述”几乎毁掉了我的写作
‘Show, Don’t Tell’ Almost Ruined Me as a Writer
导读
这篇文章讲作者被“Show, Don't Tell”（展示，而非讲述）这条写作金句束缚，反而写不出东西的经历。它值得写作者读，因为这条被奉为圭臬的规则常被误读成“禁止直接说明”，而评论区的讨论恰好把它还原成一个更实用的判断：问题不在“讲”，而在写得无聊、偷懒。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
“展示”不是隐瞒信息，而是把读者该知道的东西写得具体、可感，别用一句“他很紧张”糊弄过去。
- 02
不要用一套套路化的身体反应（搓手、心跳加速、手心出汗）机械替换情绪词，那只是把“讲述”换成了陈词滥调的“展示”。
- 03
当情境需要时，直截了当地讲述完全成立——托尔斯泰也大量“讲述”，判断标准是效果而非教条。
- 04
引用或反驳一条写作规则时，先给出具体例子说明它怎样害了你，否则论证会显得空泛。
HN 评论精选
“展示”是把情绪写成具体动作与细节，而不是对读者隐瞒信息。
我对“展示，而非讲述”的理解是：不要只告诉读者“他很紧张”，而要通过文字呈现出来——他犹豫了一下，双手绞在一起，两脚来回换着重心：“我……我觉得你不对。也许那件事上不对。”你并不是要把没讲的东西藏起来；重点不是不让读者知道，而是别写得太无聊。
ehutch79查看英文原文
My understanding of 'show, don't tell' is that instead of just telling the reader; he was nervous you show it through the prose like this; He hesitated. Wringing his hands together, shifting from foot to foot. "I... I don't think you're right. Maybe not about that." You shouldn't be keeping the stuff you're not telling secret. It's not about not letting the reader know things, it's about not being fucking boring about it.
这条规则本是“避免写得差”的安全教学法，但僵化执行会把“讲述”换成另一种陈词滥调。
很多伟大作家在该讲的时候就讲、并不展示，读几页托尔斯泰就能看出来。这条口诀之所以在创意写作课上根深蒂固，是因为教人写得美几乎不可能，教人写得“过得去”却相对容易——办法就是让他们避开常见坑，比如别在句中切换视角或时间、慎用副词形容词、新手别碰性爱场面。“展示，而非讲述”也属于这类：糟糕的“讲述”确实会让读者无聊到极点，还会纵容偷懒的人物刻画。但问题在于，“展示”同样可以很无聊：有一整套陈词滥调的观察用语被当成“讲述”的现成替代品——艾米不再“紧张”，而是坐立不安、心跳加速、手心冒汗。差作者如此，好作者会刻意避开这类陈词滥调，却仍受制于“不能直接说艾米紧张”这个观念，这就成了问题。
kieckerjan查看英文原文
Many great writers tell and don't show, if that is what the situation calls for. Read a couple of pages of Tolstoy and you will notice. What is the reason this mantra became so engrained, most notably in creative writing courses? I think the reason is that it is very hard if not impossible to teach people how to write beautifully, but it is relatively easy to teach them how to write acceptably. The main trick is to teach them to avoid common pitfalls and mistakes. Among this is the basic stuff like: don't switch perspective or time midsentence, be wary of adverbs and adjectives, etc. It also includes the tricky stuff that can easily go sideways. A fledgling writer had better stay away from sex scenes, to mention an obvious one. "Show, don't tell" fits this category as well. The idea is that "telling" done badly is a sure way to bore the reader out of her skull. And it often is. It invites lazy characterization. "Amy was nervous," does not sound very exciting. The problem however is that "showing" can get quite boring as well. There is, for instance, this whole hackish vocabulary of observations that signal emotional states, which has become a drop-in replacement for telling. Instead of nervous, Amy is now fidgetting, her heart is pounding and her palms are sweating. These are the worst examples of course. Better writers go out of their way to avoid cliches like this, but they are still beholden to the idea that Amy shall not be described as nervous. That can become problematic if working around it ruins the pacing of a text or diverts the attention from what the writer is getting at. Tolstoy often feels so wonderfully to the point because he dispenses with the obvious stuff by just telling it. Showing and telling are tools. Like in many other endeavours, you should use the best tool for the job.
文章缺少具体例证，削弱了它对该写作规则的反驳。
我同意其他评论者的看法：作者对“展示，而非讲述”的理解似乎有偏差，甚至像是硬凑的。也许这篇文章是想玩元叙事，像艾拉妮丝·莫莉塞特的《Ironic》那样——因为作者似乎刻意没有给出任何实际例子，来说明这条规则怎样导致了更差的写作。
danso查看英文原文
I agree with other commenters that the author’s interpretation of “Show, Don’t Tell” seems off, and/or contrived. In any case, maybe the piece is meant to be meta, like Alanis Morrisette’s “Ironic”, because it seems the author went out of their way to not show any actual examples of how “Show, don’t tell” resulted in inferior writing.
批评一条写作建议前，先说明自己的理解、预期与取舍。
我只粗读了文章。但忍不住想到最近看到的另一篇文章《批量化的卓越是个神话》。这类抱怨某个“被压缩成几个词的概念”没帮到自己的博文，如果作者先讲清楚自己是怎么理解这个概念的、期待从中得到什么、又准备牺牲什么，会更有说服力。
yoz-y查看英文原文
I've only skimmed the article. However I can't help myself but thing about the recently posted article: https://barryhawkins.com/blog/posts/the-myth-of-commoditized-excellence/ Blog posts complaining about a "concept reduced to a few words" that did not help them would make more sense if the author first explained how they approached "the thing", what they expected to get out of it and what were they ready to sacrifice.
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