Anna老師寫給孩子的一封信：優(yōu)秀的寫作是在平淡無奇的人生中發(fā)掘意義

前不久跟大家分享了劍橋?qū)W霸Anna老師給孩子們推薦的經(jīng)濟學書單，很多讀者給我留言說很喜歡這位老師。Anna老師不但有經(jīng)濟學學科背景，寫作教學經(jīng)驗也很豐富。前段時間她給幾個中國孩子補習英文寫作，有個孩子說自己每天只是上學放學，生活全部被學習充斥，除此之前沒有什么有意義的事可寫。

聽到這樣的回答，Anna老師給這位同學寫了一封信。她說，寫作并不特別需要“戲劇性”的事件。一位好作家即便寫洗碗這件小事，也能深深吸引讀者；而一名糟糕的作家即使講述了最驚人的事件，依然讓人覺得索然無味。

最好的寫作揭示人生的意義，我們可以在任何日常瑣事中與自己展開內(nèi)心深處的對話，而這些所思所想就是我們探尋人生意義的重要證據(jù)。

把這封信分享給大家，希望這封信能夠?qū)懽鳠o話可說的孩子們有所啟發(fā)。

Hello XXX, I hope you are feeling well and not too stressed or overworked!

你好，X同學，希望你最近一切安好，生活和學業(yè)壓力沒那么大了。

Speaking of work, I heard that you had felt a bit inhibited from writing your essay because you felt that you didn't have anything sufficiently amazing to write about. I just wanted to say, please don't worry about that!

我聽說了你在寫作的時候感到無話可說，因為覺得沒有什么了不起的事情可以寫。不過，我想要告訴你，不用擔心這些。先把你的疑惑和憂慮拋之腦后吧。

The truth is that there is a huge difference between the glamour attached to an event and whether it is actually interesting to hear about. In all honesty, whenever I want students to write about their lives, and they talk about having climbed some enormous mountain, or gone on a round-the-world trip, or thrown themselves out of a plane, my heart always sinks a little bit.  I know that they will almost certainly put relatively little effort into producing good writing because they will expect their audience to be automatically interested in their 'incredible' story. Thus there is often an inverse relationship between the perceived drama of the event and the quality of the writing.

其實，一件事是否具有自身的魅力與它是否聽上去有趣是不能劃等號的。很多時候，當我讓學生們?nèi)ッ枥L他們的生活時，他們會嘗試去寫翻越高山、環(huán)游世界，或者去跳傘......每次看到這些內(nèi)容，我的心里便會一沉。我知道他們很可能并沒有花費多少精力去寫一篇好文章，因為他們預(yù)設(shè)讀者們會被這些“不可思議”的故事自然而然吸引。因此，寫作的質(zhì)量與事件的戲劇性往往存在著一種反向關(guān)系。追求戲劇性的故事情節(jié)往往不可取。

In reality, nobody really cares that anyone has done any of these things. For one thing, it is no longer so unusual that we are THAT surprised. At one time, people would have queued up to hear someone talking about walking up Mount Everest - now thousands of people every year do it as a way to distract themselves from their boring office job. Mount Everest is covered with the litter they leave behind. Secondly, the events themselves reveal very little about us as people. There are only really two ways to jump out of a plane - successfully, or unsuccessfully. No-one who jumps out unsuccessfully will ever write anything again, and anyone who could write in an interesting manner about jumping out of a plane could make anything sound interesting.

在現(xiàn)實世界，大家步履匆匆，沒有人真正關(guān)心誰做過什么事情。一方面是因為時代的發(fā)展讓很多事情變得不再非比尋常。曾經(jīng)，人們會排著隊聽別人談?wù)撚碌侵榉宓氖论E；而現(xiàn)在，每年都有成千上萬的人為了逃離朝九晚五的生活去體驗攀登。相信你也看到過類似的新聞報道，現(xiàn)在珠峰的生態(tài)大不如前，由于觀光客數(shù)量的增加，珠峰上到處是人們留下的垃圾。再者，事件本身并沒有揭示人類的本質(zhì)。從飛機上縱身一躍只有兩種結(jié)果：成功或者失敗。失敗的人永遠沒有機會再去寫自己的任何心得，因為他們永遠地失去了生命。而能夠以一種有趣的記錄方式去描寫跳傘故事的人，他們同樣有能力把其他生動的故事也寫得打動人心。

This brings me to the most important point. When we think about events, we usually think about the image attached to them at first - whether it is perceived to be glamorous and exciting, or not. But in reality, most events are made up of lots of fairly ordinary mini-events. Let's think about winning a major prize as an example. There might be a few pure moments of triumph, but only as a temporary relief from quiet monotony and frustration. Our only hope is to learn to love the latter, which is of course possible. A good writer might express the glory of those moments of success, but unless they are placed in the context of describing the pain of the daily slog, they won't be very meaningful to anyone.

說到這，就引出了我想表達的最重要的一點了。當我們談?wù)撌录臅r候，我們通常會聯(lián)想到與之相關(guān)的情景——迷人的，令人興奮的，或者平淡無奇的。而實際上，大多數(shù)事件都是由許多普通的小事組成的。讓我們以贏得大獎這件事為例，也許在獲得大獎時有一些純粹的喜悅之情溢于言表，但那些瞬間驚喜只是單調(diào)甚至沮喪生活中的短暫抽離，而我們的唯一希望就在于去擁抱平凡，這也是我們可以實現(xiàn)的目標。一個成功的作家也許會寫那些生命中的高光時刻，但如果不是用作艱難人生征程的升華，榮耀時刻并無意義。因為平凡正是生命的主旋律。

Good writing is about touching the imagination and heart of another person so that they share your experience. For this reason, it is absolutely nothing to do with what you are actually writing about. A good writer could write about doing the washing-up, and make it interesting. A bad writer could have the most amazing event to retell, and still manage to make it seem dull.

出色的寫作是會觸動另一個人的想象力和心靈深處的，讓讀者產(chǎn)生共鳴，共同分享你的人生體驗。因此，這與你實際寫作的內(nèi)容并無太大聯(lián)系。一位好作家即便寫洗碗這件小事，也能深深吸引讀者；而一名糟糕的作家即使講述了最驚人的事件，依然讓人覺得索然無味。

I want to tell you a secret - I actually thought that your ideas were easily the best and most interesting of all the group's. This was because they were not generated by externally-driven events, but internally-focused - concerning your emotional reactions to more every-day concerns. As subjects, they immediately suggested a far greater degree of inner reflection, and this is what good writing is all about.  The most famous example I can think of is the beginning of 'Remembrance of Things Past' by the French modernist writer Marcel Proust. At the beginning of the book, Proust spends pages and pages discussing the memories he has when he dips a little cake into a cup of tea. The book is all about his inner world and his memories - and many believe it to be the most important fiction book of the twentieth century! You may not want to go to those lengths, but nonetheless, I was particularly looking forward to hearing what you had to say about your own internal dialogue. So, if you do find some time to write something, please do choose one of those original ideas!

我想告訴你一個秘密：在我看來，你的構(gòu)思和想法無疑是團隊最佳，因為你的想法不是由外部驅(qū)動事件產(chǎn)生的，而是內(nèi)在的——你對日常事務(wù)的情緒反應(yīng)，這些都是非常真實的。作為主題，這些想法更大程度上像內(nèi)心的反思，而這正是優(yōu)秀的寫作需要的素材。我能想到的最好的例子就是法國現(xiàn)代主義作家馬塞爾.普魯斯特的著名作品《追憶似水年華》。在書的開頭，作者花了大量的篇幅去談?wù)撟约旱挠洃洠ㄗ约河靡恍K蛋糕去蘸了蘸沏好的一杯茶。這本書全是關(guān)于他的內(nèi)心世界和自己的記憶，很多人卻認為這是二十世紀最重要的小說呢！也許你并不想費那么大的勁，但我還是非常期望傾聽你內(nèi)心深處與自己的對話。當你想要花一些時間去寫作的時候，一定要堅持選擇自己原創(chuàng)的想法哦。

Anyway, I very much hope that we will meet again at another point, and of course, I would be delighted if you wanted to submit anything in the next month or so.

嗯，不管怎樣，我都非常期待下一次的會面。當然，下個月的任何時間如果你想要提交作文我也十分歡迎。

Take care!

祝安好

Anna