寡居的一年

在这里John Irvings通过作家Ted的口道出了写作的一些技巧。I read your, um... your story.Oh. I thought you forgot.No. I just didn't have a chanceto get to it before.It's not very good, is it?Oh, it's, uh... it's very heartfelt,very... very personal.It's, um...Well, it's just a collectionof personal anecdotesthat don't really add up to much.It's, uh...I was just tryin' to see if I couldwrite something that seemed true.Oh, it seems true. It, uh,just isn't very interesting.Sort of a...an emotional outburst, but, uh,it isn't really a story.And that, uh... the guy, Hank...you know, the one who dies at the end?Yeah.You need to prepare a readerfor something like that. Uh...It just... It didn't seem likethe way things happened.Well,you need to let your audienceguess what's gonna happen...you know, anticipatewhat's gonna happen...and then you surprise them.But, um, you have to guide them through it.You know what I mean?Yeah.There's a part of writing that, uh,involves a certain manipulation.That may seem cold to you,but it is, you know, sort of cold.l-I guess.Everything in fiction is a tool:pain, betrayal,even death.These are, you know...These are like, uh, different colorson a painter's palette.You need to use them.Also, the details...they could be more specific, you know?Specific details, they...they create whole scenes in a reader's mind.Not being specific, that's just sloppy.It's sloppy thinking.S-Specific details?Yeah...smells, taste... details.But I'll tell ya, for a, uh...for a first effort, it's not that bad.