出版与作家生涯2021theatlantic.com编辑精选
我曾为《体育画报》撰稿，如今在亚马逊送快递
I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)
导读
《大西洋月刊》这篇第一人称文章里，一位曾为《体育画报》撰稿的资深写作者讲述自己转行去亚马逊送快递的经历，但他拒绝把这件事写成“文人落魄”的悲情故事：真正垮掉的是养活时代公司几十年的商业模式，而不是他本人。对写作者来说，这是一篇关于职业身份、行业变迁与写作姿态的范本：如何在个人挫折中保持清醒、体面与具体。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把个人的“落魄”与行业的结构性崩塌分开叙述，一句“我没有跌落，跌落的是那个商业模式”就能让全文从自怜变成观察。
- 02
用可触摸的细节承载情绪：雨中开在I-80上的车、滑开侧门时包裹几乎跳进手里、35秒送完一单，比任何形容词都有力。
- 03
找到一个与写作形成对照的日常结构（每天有终点、有明确结果），让它反衬写作的漫长与不确定，文章就有了骨架。
- 04
保持坦率但不诉苦的语调：承认“低落的时刻”，随即自我纠正，读者会因此站到你这边而不是同情你。
HN 评论精选
身处变革中心的人常常看不见取代自己的东西，行业惯性会让人误判职业前景。
我常听复古游戏和复古计算的播客……ANTIC 采访了不少老牌计算机杂志和图书行业的人，Retronauts 的成员多是困顿的游戏记者，在同样的几本杂志之间轮转，或者失业、做自由撰稿；其中资历较老的一些人基本已经认输，转去游戏行业内的其他公司。最耐人寻味的是，这些人离那个最终取代他们的东西（计算机和无处不在的网络）如此之近，却没人预见到。在他们眼里，出版和期刊行业一直存在，也会永远存在，自家公司倒闭更多被归因于本地市场压力或公司合并。顺带说，我自己也没想到：90年代中期，我坐在一家新兴ISP的T-1专线旁，往喜欢的游戏和计算机杂志寄纸质求职信，希望当记者；其中一家回信（还是邮寄的）的杂志六年后自己也倒闭了。
bane查看英文原文
I listen to a lot of retrogaming and retrocomputing podcasts, ANTIC and Retronauts are my favorites. It turns out ANTIC interviews quite a few people from the old computer magazine and book industry, and retronauts is mostly made up of struggling video game journalists who cycle between the same magazines and being jobless or freelance. A few of them, especially the more senior folks basically have thrown in the towel and now work for other companies entirely within the video games industry. What's really interesting about the ANTIC interviews is how close those folks were to the thing that basically displaced them (computers and ubiquitous networking), and yet none of them seems to have predicted it happening. To them the publishing and periodical industries had always been there and always will be. Their own employer going out of business was more due to local market forces affecting them or mergers between companies. For the record, it didn't occur to me either. In the mid 90s I was sitting next to an incoming T-1 line at a startup ISP sending off physical envelopes with job applications to gaming and computer magazines I enjoyed hoping to become a journalist myself. One of the magazines that did reply (by mail btw) went out of business itself about 6 years later.
把职业挫折归因于行业而非个人，是写作者保住尊严的关键；诚实劳动不该被看低。
（引文中“我并没有跌落，跌落的是支撑时代公司几十年的商业模式”一段）他有很好的心态：送包裹是诚实的劳动，亚马逊报酬不错，他做的是现代世界需要的事，没什么可羞耻的。如果我时运不济，做任何工作都没问题——我洗过盘子，而且很喜欢那份工作。很多人觉得某些工作低人一等，但我尊重所有对社会有产出的劳动者；反过来，我鄙视那些说这些工作“太糟糕”、应该被禁止的人。
seibelj查看英文原文
> Lurching west in stop-and-go traffic on I-80 that morning, bound for Berkeley and a day of delivering in the rain, I had a low moment, dwelling on how far I’d come down in the world. Then I snapped out of it. I haven’t come down in the world. What’s come down in the world is the business model that sustained Time Inc. for decades. I’m pretty much the same writer, the same guy. I haven’t gone anywhere. My feet are the same. When I’m in a rhythm, and my system’s working, and I slide open the side door and the parcel I’m looking for practically jumps into my hand, and the delivery takes 35 seconds and I’m on to the next one, I enjoy this gig. I like that it’s challenging, mentally and physically. As with the athletic contests I covered for my old employer, there’s a resolution, every day. I get to the end of my route, or I don’t. I deliver all the packages, or I don’t. Delivering packages is a fine job doing honest labor. Amazon pays well. He has a good attitude. He is doing something the modern world needs. No shame in that. If I was down on my luck I would have no problem doing whatever job exists. I have washed dishes, and I enjoyed that job. I think a lot of people think some types of work are beneath them but I respect all people who are productive members of society - and the flip-side is that I despise people who say these jobs are so “terrible” they need to be outlawed or whatever.
稀缺的是实地采访与核实的一线报道，而非观点输出，写作者应把功夫下在报道上。
这个世界上“记者”（写观点的人）已经太多了，而真正的“报道者”少得可怜。
AcerbicZero查看英文原文
The world has more than enough journalists and exceptionally few reporters.
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