给公号写文章不容易，刚刚在读书会上分享过《谈写作》的我更是压力山大。左思右想决定分享书中每一章的精彩句子，并毫不保留地剖析下自己。

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

PART I Principles

1 The Transaction

Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.

本文不是在分享《谈写作》，而是我写不出文章偷懒的体现。

2 Simplicity

Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time.

这一句我只写了一遍。

3 Clutter

Be grateful for everything you can throw away.

我把整本书都抛弃了，只留了这25句。感恩吧？！

4 Style

Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it.

好吧，我承认，我写着写着，觉得自己的背影渐渐高大了起来。

5 The Audience

You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for.

你读没读完，爱不爱读，没有关系。我交差了，很开心。

6 Words

I write entirely by ear and read everything aloud before letting it go out into the world.

和我一起唱，预备，齐—— let it go, let it go …

7 Usage

Good usage, to me, consists of using good words if they already exist—as they almost always do—to express myself clearly and simply to someone else.

好的用词，不是喜大普奔，也不是人艰不拆，而是“你懂的”。

PART II Methods

8 Unity

As for what point you want to make, every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn’t have before. Not two thoughts, or five—just one.

本文要留给读者的唯一thought就是本书有25个thoughts.

9 The Lead and the Ending

If something surprises you it will also surprise—and delight—the people you are writing for, especially as you conclude your story and send them on their way.

议论文戛然而止式结尾，是行文到了某一地方，作者的观点已经阐明清楚，无庸赘言，这时采取突然收束的一种结尾方法。

10 Bits & Pieces

Go with your interest: no subject is too specialized or too quirky if you make an honest connection with it when you write about it.

写我所爱，爱我所写。我喜欢这本书的内容和作者的行文风格。

PART III Forms

11 Nonfiction as Literature

Ultimately every writer must follow the path that feels most comfortable. For most people learning to write, that path is nonfiction.

Fiction or nonfiction, 这是一个值得考虑的问题.

12 Writing About People: The Interview

Nothing so animates writing as someone telling what he thinks or what he does—in his own words.

一句“洪荒之力”顶上一百句介绍傅园慧的文章。

13 Writing About Places: The Travel Article

“I don’t think children are too young to appreciate what that ship (battleship Arizona at Pearl Harbor) represents,” Magee told me. “They’ll remember it if they see the leaking oil—if they see that the ship is still bleeding.”

向二战烈士致敬！你们的油没有白漏！

14 Writing About Yourself: The Memoir

Memoir isn’t the summary of a life; it’s a window into a life, very much like a photograph in its selective composition.

日记不是流水账，回忆录也不是。

15 Science and Technology

The principle of sequential writing applies to every field where the reader must be escorted over difficult new terrain.

走近科学，靠的是逻辑和条理。

16 Business Writing: Writing in Your Job

If you work for an institution, whatever your job, whatever your level, be yourself when you write.

请参考新闻联播，以及无处不在的各种八股。不要向他们学！

17 Sports

(The best sportswriters) they avoid the exhausted synonyms and strive for freshness elsewhere in their sentences.

德比，绝杀，恶战，潮水般的攻击，可惜只开花不结果，最终饮恨，拭目以待。欢迎补充。

18 Writing About the Arts: Critics and Columnists

“Well,” the man from Texas would break in, “let’s not go peeing down both legs.” (about expressing your opinion firmly.)

尿裤子最好只选一边。

19 Humor

(Humor) it’s an attempt to say important things in a special way that regular writers aren’t getting said in a regular way—or if they are, it’s so regular that nobody is reading it.

本文就是一篇幽默(a joke)。严肃点，不许笑！

PART IV Attitudes

20 The Sound of Your Voice

A woman with taste in clothes delights us with her ability to turn herself out in a combination that’s not only stylish and surprising, but exactly right. She knows what works and what doesn’t.

读到这里的女士，你们都是有品位的女人。

21 Enjoyment, Fear and Confidence

Writers who write interestingly tend to be men and women who keep themselves interested.

读到这里的朋友，你们都是有趣的人。

22 The Tyranny of the Final Product

Moral: any time you can tell a story in the form of a quest or a pilgrimage you’ll be ahead of the game. Readers bearing their own associations will do some of your work for you.

我的神圣理想就是更多的人读这本书，爱上写作。希望不要起到反作用。

23 A Writer’s Decisions

As a nonfiction writer you must get on the plane. If a subject interests you, go after it, even if it’s in the next county or the next state or the next country. It’s not going to come looking for you.

咱们LAX见~

24 Writing Family History and Memoir

Your biggest stories will often have less to do with their subject than with their significance—not what you did in a certain situation, but how that situation affected you and shaped the person you became.

我是如何爱上写作的呢？那是一个夏天…

25 Write as Well as You Can

A reporter once asked him how he managed to play so well so consistently, and he (Joe DiMaggio) said: “I always thought that there was at least one person in the stands who had never seen me play, and I didn’t want to let him down.”

我总觉得至少有那么一个读者会一直读到这里。如果是你，希望我没有让你失望。

结尾了，surprise~~ ;D

更多关于上期沙龙的分享记录，请参考原文链接（果蝇单倍体沙龙速记）：8-14-16 读书沙龙速记

置顶图片来自Pixabay.com CC0 Public Domain