写作方法2009calnewport.com编辑精选
专业作家如何写作
How Professional Writers Write
导读
这篇 HN 讨论围绕“专业作家如何写作”：评论者强调写作不是等灵感，而是纪律、流程和大量练习，并提醒没有唯一正确的方法。对写作者的价值在于：既能借鉴具体流程，也能破除完美主义和“唯一方法”的迷信。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
先把初稿写烂：接受早期草稿必然不完美，能让你从“一开始就做最终成品”的瘫痪中解脱，先积累素材再修改。
- 02
把写作当纪律性工作：固定时间、持续大量地写，质量来自苦功和练习，而非捷径。
- 03
非虚构写作先想透：深入思考主题、理解读者、积累技术表达，才能给出别人漏掉的洞见。
- 04
用“研究—构思—定论点—睡好—晨写—搁置—复审—请人审读”的流程管理一篇稿子。
HN 评论精选
完美主义是主要障碍，接受初稿会烂才能开始积累素材。
我认为有志创作者最大的障碍不是日程、精力、地点等，而是完美主义心态。我的经验是，人很容易因为想一开始就做出最终成品而瘫痪。这种心态会让人想：要是我在树林里有间小屋，配台好咖啡机，我就能好好写了。我曾为一门随便选的编剧课写完整剧本初稿（160多页）。教授明确说别担心剧本会烂，他100%确定会烂。一旦接受早期草稿/阶段会烂，你就能专注把想法和素材先倒出来再改进。这会变得很容易，你会想随身带笔纸、录音设备、相机等。
jfornear查看英文原文
I think the biggest obstacle for aspiring artists is not scheduling, energy, location, etc., but the perfectionist mindset. In my experience, it's easy to become paralyzed by trying to create the final product from the start. It's this mindset that leads people to start thinking things like: "If only I had a cabin in the woods somewhere with a nice espresso machine, I could really do this right." I once had to write a first draft of a full-length screenplay (160+ pages) for a screenwriting class I took for fun. Our professor made it clear that we shouldn't worry about our scripts sucking because he was 100% sure that they would. Once you accept that your art will suck in its early drafts/stages, you can focus on cooking out ideas/material to start improving upon. This will be so easy that you will want pen and paper, recording equipment, camera, etc. with you all the time.
写作无捷径，靠纪律、思考与大量练习。
好写作来自苦功，没有捷径。成功的专业作家极其自律（即使海明威酗酒，也有严格作息：早起，第一件事写很多小时，日复一日）。对非虚构，好写作与敏锐思考强相关——仔细想透主题，提供别人漏掉的重要洞见，理解语境以合适格式和风格面向读者，并有深厚技术储备来犀利有力地表达。然后写写写。William Zinsser 用过作家和脑外科医生的对话：医生随口说“业余写点东西”，作家反击说那我也“业余做点脑外科手术”。要点：我们都以为自己会写因为都在写，但高质量写作只来自苦功、严格纪律、仔细思考和大量练习——就像脑外科手术。
grellas查看英文原文
Solid writing comes from hard work and there is no shortcut on this. Successful professional writers are amazingly disciplined (even Hemingway, for all his boozing, had a strict regimen of rising early and writing for many hours first thing, day in and day out). For non-fiction, good writing correlates strongly with sharp thinking - meaning, thinking topics through carefully to be able to offer important insights that others have missed, understanding context so as to put things in a format, and in a style, that is strongly aimed at those who will be reading it, and having a deep reservoir of technical proficiency from which to draw so as to phrase things sharply and vigorously. And write, write, write. William Zinser once used an illustration about an exchange between a writer and a brain surgeon where, in response to the surgeon's casual reference to doing "a little writing on the side," the writer gave as a riposte the thought that he would do a "little brain surgery on the side" as well. The point: we all think we can write because we all do it, but quality writing comes only through hard work, severe discipline, careful thought, and lots of practice - just like brain surgery.
不存在唯一正确写作法，警惕宣称唯一方法的人。
提醒：正如 Larry Wall 所说，“方法不止一种”。换句话说：如果有人告诉你只有一种真正正确的写作方法……那他是骗子。（我以专业作家身份说，基于个人经验和认识许多其他专业作家。）
cstross查看英文原文
Cautionary note of warning here: as Larry Wall observed, "there's more than one way to do it." Alternatively: if anyone tells you there is one true way of writing ... then they're a charlatan. (I speak as a professional writer, on the basis of (a) personal experience and (b) knowning a bunch of other professional writers.)
具体流程：研究—构思—定论点—睡好—晨写—冷却—复审—请人审读。
我写文章时一般这样做：大量研究，包括看似无关或边缘的东西；采访、追一手来源，留意惊喜（Paul Graham 意义：扩展、挑战甚至推翻自己信念的新信息）。自由联想，尝试找出信息可以组合的维度。逐渐确定一个有足够证据支持的论点（取决于写作类型）。睡个好觉（关键，别跳过）。早上头脑清醒、支撑论点和信息的系统还在时写初稿；依长度可能花几个早晨。编辑排版、插入引用，然后搁置去做别的。约一天后再改，删肥肉、理顺结构、修拼写语法。若要发表，给朋友审读。最终修改后提交。显然规模取决于主题大小和文章长度。
RyanMcGreal查看英文原文
When I'm writing an essay, I generally do the following: * Research a lot of stuff on it, including things that seem orthogonal or at best tangential. Interview people, chase down primary sources, etc. Keep an eye out for surprises (in the Paul Graham sense [1]): new information that expands, challenges or outright debunks something I believe about the topic. * Free-associate and try to tease out some dimensions along which the information can come together. * Gradually settle on a thesis that's strongly enough supported by the evidence for the type of writing I'm doing. * Get a good night's sleep. (Crucial step - do not skip!) * Write a draft in the morning when my mind is fresh and the system of supporting arguments and information is still present. This may take one or more mornings depending on the length of the paper. * Edit and format the draft, insert references, etc. Then set the paper aside and do something else. * A day later or so, edit the draft again to cut out the fat, streamline the structure, fix spelling and grammatical errors, and so on. * If it's intended for publication somewhere, give it to a friend to review. * Make final edits and then submit. Obviously, the size and complexity of this exercise depends on how big the subject is and how long the essay is going to be. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html
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