在美国参加的一次创意写作年会(James River Writers Conference)

2018年10月14日周日,我搭车去了一个小时车程外的Richmond参加了James River Writers Conference。在弗吉尼亚州首府里士满,有一条河横穿这个城市,它就叫James River,而这个写作的名字叫James River Writers(网址:jamesriverwriters.org)。它于2002年创办,举办的活动基本都是围绕写作和阅读来展开。

在国内,现在的创意写作(Creative Writing)论坛或者会议,基本处在学科介绍,写作技巧传授,或是教授们聚在一起讨论如何在高校进行创意写作的课程设置,教育教学或学科建设等方面的阶段。会议讨论人员的主体也是高校教授为主,或者在高校任职的作家教授,单纯作家的人比较少。目前国内还没有一个集聚作家(author)、写作者(writer)、创意写作MFA学生和出版商(publisher)的会议平台。在美国,查看一下创意写作网站Poets & Writes的数据库(网址:www.pw.org/conferences_and_residencies),就会发现每年的各个时间,各个地方,都有面向writers的conference, retreat, workshop之类的活动,写作者们一起交流分享讨论鼓励,既有面向fiction, non-ficition或poetry的主题写作研讨,又有讨论写作技能(craft)的会议。

书展台上摆的玛格丽特·阿特伍德代表作《使女的故事》的文化衫

下面的笔记是我作为听众参加了半天的会议记录,讨论内容比较多,部分内容也懒得翻译成中文,懂英文的可以稍微仔细看看,或者就大概看看中文整体感觉一下吧。

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时间:11:15am-1:00pm

活动:Agent dating game(作者和出版代理商约会游戏)

去晚了,今天早场已经结束,到达的时候是午饭时间,然后是Dating game,是什么呢?

有书稿的作者在大会场的前台盒子里放进自己的名字,盒子按照文体分开,如fiction, non-fiction等,主持人(现场有他的书出售)现场抽作者名字,抽到名字的就上台扮演dating game里单身汉bachelor角色,其实就是等待出版商签约的作者,他们上台后坐到舞台挡板的一侧,另一坐着出版代理商(publishing agent),双方中间隔着挡板,面向观众。

这个主持人非常风趣幽默,这些Agent也各有特色,问一些听起来有趣,但是目的性很强的问题,然后Bachelor No. 1, No. 2, No. 3就这个问题进行回答,语言需要清晰明确,在介绍内容的时候也对自己的书进行了推销。

下面是其中一个dating game中,Young adult book的出版代理商向等待书稿作者提出的问题:

Q1: I am definitely an adventurous person and I love wild fantasy locales, so for all of my lovely bachelors, are you taking me on wild tours of fancy and science fictional fantasy or are we grounded in the current world? Tell me about that world.

这是问书中的场景设置在哪里?

Q2: I can't go anywhere without my cup of coffee, and I'll become a cranky agent when I don't have enough coffee during the day. For each of my bachelors, what is the one thing that your main character is either in search of or cannot do without?

你的主人公在寻求什么?或者有什么东西是他无法离开的?

Q3: Finally, I like someone for partner who is always looking towards future, always after what's next, so for each of my bachelors, what's your next project?

你的下一个写作项目是什么?

在几轮问题和轻松的互动之后,主持人让agent表达意愿其中哪个bachelor进一步发展。在这一轮,agent说虽然难选,但是I want to go with bachelor No. 2。Agent选书需要有对作品的眼光和市场的眼光,不仅看书是不是他喜欢的,也需要看市场需求,出版商意愿等等。

类似这样的dating game进行了四五轮,几个agent也选了他们愿意进一步交谈的作者。

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时间:1:00-2:00pm

话题:Personal Essay Writing Essentials(个人散文的写作要素)

Moderator: Ellen Brown

Speakers: Xhenet Aliu, Melissa Febos, Laurie Gwen Shapiro

个人散文,或者涉及到观点和态度的文章。这个Moderator(主持人)向几个speaker抛出的问题还不错。

Q1: What is a personal essay? Especially how differentiates from other forms.

Q2: Essays always have an "I" in it....Laurie, if you want to talk about that.

Sometimes, the "I" is not appropriate for a reported piece.

Q3: A lot of essays do start with personal curiosity, like, um I am wondering about that. A lot of us probably respond to questions and we just want to write about it. Can you each comment on how do you know something that caught your curiosity is worth an essay or worth writing about?

Q4: Essays have some additional risks that aren't in say nonfiction or fiction writing. I want you to talk about some of the unique travails of Essay Writing, one of which Melissa touched on which is writing about deeply personal experiences. And I'm also interested in you talking about writing about other people's personal experiences, like you write about your alcoholic father. How do you decide how far to go with that? How far is too far?

这里主持人问几个speaker在写personal essay的时候,如果涉及到别人的个人经历和故事,怎么写不算越界?

New Yorker的作者Laurie,她说:“At the end of the day, I feel like I have to get permission from them....You don't want to put yourself at legal risk. 你肯定不想把自己置身于法律危险境地。当你给大的出版社写东西的时候,你会go through lawyers, go through fact checkers。我的一个朋友就因自己写的一篇博客受到了起诉,因为没有征得当事人的同意。”

主持人补充到,因为出版要经过很多legal process,如果因为一点点问题,就要为所有的被起诉的费用买单。所以:Just to be REALLY careful! 所以一定要非常非常小心!

Melissa继续说:I do have a few boundaries based on experience and transparencing them. If I write someone in my personal essay or memoir, I will not write about an event that was a bigger deal to the other person than it was to me, because I think that's their story. 

如果写的回忆录或者个人散文中提到另一个人的经历,但是这个经历对那个人的重要程度比我自己大很多,那么我就不写了,因为我认为这是属于他们的故事。

Laurie补充说到,有的editor为了得到很多点击量,就给你一点点钱,让你发一些关于自己的某些对你来说很特别的经历,你一定要小心,她最后的建议是Really, protect your story, for safe space. 保护好你自己的故事。

Q5: How about fact checking your essays?

Xhenet: Honesty is a position. 诚实是一种态度。

这里他们探讨了一个对我来说很新鲜的事情,就是fact checking。

Laurie: Having gone through a lot of legal departments with non-fiction, I have been told by the lawyer that it is always easier when the people are dead than they are alive. ...If they are alive, they might pop up.

Xhenet说她一个朋友的文章,审查团nit-picking一切细节,但是,Every time after the fact checking, the piece is better. 因为有时候在写作时人都会有意识无意识地避开something that is tricky for her.所以要Embrace facts.

New Yorker有一个出名的拥有14人的“事实审查团”Fact Check Panel。Laurie说纽约客上所有发表的文章,都要经过Fact Checkers的字字审查,她自己的一篇3000字的文章,来来回回对其中涉及到的细节和事件进行了9个小时的修改才通过,every single word都要fact check。Laurie说她有一个朋友经常在Facebook上对她发的帖子挑错,她笑着问听众说,你们可以想想:Who could be your fact checker in your real life? 这场panel结束后,我就跑去问Laurie关于更多fact checking的事,比如哪些文体需要审查,她说任何一篇在New Yorker发表的文章,包括诗歌,动画(cartoons),小说,评论文章,尤其是historical essay, political essay更是严格。我很纳闷,诗歌怎么审查?她回答说:比如诗歌中其中提到了某个花的名字,结果国别搞错了,审查团队有的会改,更多的会给你提问,让你查清楚修改后再提交。Laurie说,她有一次把一个年份写错了一年,审查团队给她改过来了。Everything have to be correct, time, frame, what countries they are in. 如果向New Yorker提交文章,最好自己做好self check,因为他们发现你文章里有几处fact不对的话,就不太愿意继续合作了。

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时间:2:15-3:15pm

主题:Memorable Memoir(难忘的回忆录)

Moderator: Annette Marquis

Speakers: David Coogan, Melissa Febos, Jessica Felleman

Memoir写作的Panel

这个是panel的主持人是个年纪比较大的女性。我不得不说我被折服了。她向speaker提的问题、speaker说完她的follow-up question,以及她对观众提问的转述,实在是太强了。每个问题切中要害,语调平缓,大气稳重,而且她非常清楚有力地将问题抛给具体的一个在场的speaker,根据每个人的特长,问题都有不同,实在是太佩服了!

下面是她对speaker们的几个提问:

Q1: What makes memoir compelling ... to find an audience in this world?

Q2: 这个问题是问代理商Jessica的,I think this is probably something you run into. How do you hone the story so that it is one story, not an autobiography, not a compilation of your life experience? What is the difference between that and memoir?

Q3: One of the things people struggle with memoir is the balance between story telling and reflection. How does reflection play a part in memoir? What part doesn't play and Why is it important?

这个panel让我感兴趣的还有一点是,其中一个speaker教授讲的内容是prison writing,出版的书名是Writing your way out,合著者(co-author)就是狱中的罪犯,书里的内容是监狱里的罪犯们通过教授的课程讲述自己的故事。

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时间:3:30-4:30pm

主题:Mood and Tone in the short story

主讲人:Melanie Bishop,Book doctor(有的人写的书在出版之前需要修改,就可以找她提建议)

现场就Tone(语气)和(情绪)进行了两个写作练习,大家朗读自己写的内容。如果是Tone语气,不管是幽默的,忧伤的,邪恶的,都会在情节、对话、语调等等方面体现出来,但是Character开心或者悲伤的Mood需要通过对物件和环境的具体描述来体现,这就是她提到的:Objective Correlative,通过对客体描述来关联人物内心的情绪变化。很小的两个练习,但是练习后听现场“学生”朗读自己刚从的作品还是很有意思,而且对这两个在写作中容易忽视的方面有了更具体的理解。

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会议书展台上卖的简·奥斯汀的书签

我是出于对美国创意写作好奇的出发点参加的这次会议,有收获。但是听多了就发现,Hearing people talk a lot ABOUT writing does not make you a writer. 只有自己每天不断地写,不断地写,培养持续写作习惯,这些学到的关于写作的知识才能内化,关于写作的技巧也才会真正派上用场。

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