On Writing Well -Day2 (Ch3&4)

章节：

Part 1 | Principles

1. The Transaction

2. Simplicity

3. Clutter

4.Style

……

Words and Expressions:

1. Is anything pompous or pretentious or faddish?

clutter的三个原因： pompous/pretentious/faddish，前两个词有细微差别。

【释义】

1. If you describe someone as pompous, you mean that they behave or speak in a very serious way because they think they are more important than they really are.

2. If you say that someone or something is pretentious, you mean that they try to seem important or significant, but you do not think that they are.

3. If you describe something as faddish, you mean that it has no real value and that it will not remain popular for very long.

2. if I eliminate everything you think is clutter and if I strip every sentence to its barest bones.

【释义】

Strip :to remove something that is covering the surface of something else

常见用法 strip sth off/from/of sth, 这里的to...表示strip到某种程度。

3. Simplicity carried to an extreme might seem to point to a style little more sophisticated than “Dick likes Jane” and “See Spot run.”

Carry 这里表示 “to have something as a particular quality”, 例如 Degree qualifications carry international recognition

4. It’s hard to know where to begin picking from his trove of equivocal statements

trove通常用做“treasure trove”，本来表示很珍贵，但后面的equivocal，讽刺的意味就表现出来了。

【释义】

If you describe something or someone as a treasure trove of a particular thing, you mean that they are a very good or rich source of that thing.

If something is equivocal, it is difficult to understand,interpret, or explain, often because it has aspects that seem to contradict each other.

5. Americans are unwilling to go out on a limb.

‘go out on a limb", ’美国俚语，To put oneself in a vulnerable position; take a risk.

Thoughts：

个人觉得，去掉clutter的方法只有一种，rewriting。

不断审视自己写的内容，从而删掉不重要和不必要的部分。

但这样也会带来一个问题，如何保留自己的style？

Style is organic to the person doing the writing, Therefore a fundamental rule is: be yourself.

Writing is an intimate transaction between two people, conducted on paper, and it will go well to the extent that it retains its humanity.

使用第一人称是一种方法，但如果没有办法使用第一人称，该怎么办呢

Good writers are visible just behind their words.

If you aren’t allowed to use “I,” at least think “I” while you write, or write the first draft in the first person and then take the “I”s out. It will warm up your impersonal style.

Style 实际上是一种个人特色，而写作作为一种表现自我的手段，是有其心理因素存在的：

Style is tied to the psyche, and writing has deep psychological roots. The reasons why we express ourselves as we do, or fail to express ourselves because of “writer’s block,” are partly buried in the subconscious mind.

所以要有一种信念：

Sell yourself, and your subject will exert its own appeal.

Believe in your own identity and your own opinions.

Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.