On Writing Well by William Zinsser

PART 1 Gist

Chapter 24 Writing Family History and Memoir

Writing family history and memoir is a mechanism to come to terms with your life narrative and to find understanding and solace. Zinsser exhorted those who write memoirs to be themselves rather than "writers". Furthermore, they should wipe out old grievances and anger. They could only bring off their memoirs when they write with love and forgiveness. With regard to the organization of a memoir, Zinsser suggested that they should make a series of reducing decisions and only dredge up the people and stories they need. Also, they need to think small and look for small self-contained incidents that are still vivid in their memory.

Chapter 25 Write as Well as You Can

Writers should write as well as possible and as entertainingly as they can. Writers should have the cupidity to write better than anyone else.. They must take an obsessive pride in the smallest details of their crafts. More importantly, they must believe themselves, go out on a limb and defend what they've written against various middlemen.

PART 2 Expressions

1. Only when they have children of their own -- and feel the first twinges of their own advancing age -- do they suddenly want to know more about their family heritage and all its accretions of anecdote and lore.

twinge: 1. a sudden feeling of slight pain

I felt a twinge of pain in my back.

2. a twinge of guilt/ envy/ sadness/ jealousy etc : a sudden slight feeling of guilt etc

He felt a sharp twinge of guilt for not taking the trouble to visit her.

2. Another is to work through some of life's hardest knocks -- loss, grief, illness, addiction, disappointment, failure -- and to find understating and solace.

solace:  [ˈsɒləs] emotional confort at a time of great sadness or disappointment 安慰

Mary was a great solace to me after Arthur died.

After the death of her son, Val found solace in the church.

3. How bitterly his lassitude must have dawned on the young Frida Zinsser.

lassitude: weariness 无精打采；懈怠

Shareholders are blaming the company's problems on the lassitude of the managing director.

dawn on sb : if a fact dawns on you, you realize it for the first time

The ghastly truth dawned on me.

It dawned on me that Jo had been right all along.

4. Her drive to fulfill the broken dreams of her marriage never faltered.

falter: (vi.) 蹒跚；(声音、意志等)减弱

The economy is showing signs of faltering.

We must not falter in our resolve. 

5. Don't look over your shoulder to see what relatives are perched there.

perch: （n.）本意是鸟的栖枝，引申为高处

She watched the parade from her perch on her father's shoulders.

(v.) be perched on/ above sth: to be in a position on top of sth or on the edge of sth 位于高处

a housed perched on a cliff above

perch oneself on sth: 坐在高处

Bobby had perched himself on a tall wooden stool.

6. We come from a tribe of fallible people and we have survived without resentment to get on with our lives.

a tribe of : 1. a group of people with the same interests, used especially to show disapproval

tribes of journalists

2. used humorously, a large family

We were only expecting Jack and his wife, but the whole tribe turned up.

fallible: able to make mistakes or be wrong

Humans are fallible.

There surveys are often a rather fallible guide to public opinion.

(o.) infallible  eg. No  expert is infallible.

7. Don't rummage around in your past -- or your family's past -- to find episodes that you think are "important" enough to be worthy of including in your memoir.

rummage around/ about：[ˈrʌmɪdʒ] 翻箱倒柜  (v. )search for sth by moving things around in a careless or hurried way

Looks like someone's been rummaging around in my desk.

rummage: (n.)

Have a rummage in my jewelry  box and see if you can find something you like.

rummage sale/ jumble sale: an event at which old clothes, toys etc are sold as way of getting money, for example to help a school or church

8. No such blinding flash occurred.

blinding flash/ realization/ clarity/ revelation etc: a sudden realization, clear understanding, or new idea about sth

Suddenly, I had a blinding flash of inspiration.

It was then that she realized, with blinding clarity, that she loved him.

9. A bad editor has a compulsion to tinker, providing with busywork that he hasn't forgotten the minutiae of grammar and usage.

busywork: work that usually appears productive or of intrinsic value but actually only keeps one occupied

Students were given busywork for the last few minutes of class.

minutiae: [maɪˈnju:ʃii:]/ [mɪˈnu:ʃii:] 微小的细节

I'm not interested in the minutiae of the research, just its conclusions.

10. "It got put in the wrong pile," "the editor's on vacation" -- these dreary phrases cloak a multitude of inefficiencies and sins.

cloak: [kləʊk] (n.) 斗篷, 披风； （v.）to deliberately hide facts, feelings etc so that people do not see or understand them, used especially in news reports 

be cloaked in secrecy/ mystery

The talks have been cloaked in secrecy.

PART 3 Writings

My final reducing advice can be summed up in two words: Think small. Don't rummage around in your past -- or your family's past -- to find episodes that you think are "important" enough to be worthy of including in your memoir. Look for small self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you still remember them it's because they contain a universal truth that your readers will recognize from their own life.

记忆里小时候有一种叫“小咪咪”的零食，橘黄色的小包装，里面一小粒一小粒的，酸酸甜甜的，每次我都放在嘴里等味道没有了才咽下去再拿出另外一粒来。很小的一包我也能吃一整个下午。那时候我被寄养在乡下的太奶奶家，由古稀之年的太奶奶一个人照顾我，每次上午陪她上街买东西然后回来的路上她就在街角的铺子里买一包“小咪咪”给我，算是我一上午跑腿的报酬。估计“小咪咪”并不是那种零食本来的名字，太奶奶并不识字，“咪咪”在方言里有一小口的意思，大概是因为零食太小所以太奶奶这么叫吧。每次我摔伤了或者被鸡追得吓哭了，太奶奶就说，我去买包小咪咪给你，我就立刻不哭了。那时候的我以为这个世界上只有这一种零食，一天醒来最大的快乐就是中午可以去买一包“小咪咪”。太奶奶不上街的日子我就会变得闷闷不乐，看到院子里的鸡在吃东西，我会趁太奶奶不注意悄悄过去把碗拿走，哼，我的零食都没了，你竟然还吃得那么欢。我甚至常常梦里还在吃，睡觉的时候嘴里吧唧吧唧的，太奶奶对这件事一直记忆犹新，每次见到我都会提起。后来我妈把我接回城市里，我那时候才知道原来零食有那么多种，巧克力，棉花糖，花生糖，妙脆角什么的，超市里玲琅满目，但唯独没有“小咪咪”。很长时间里我一直在怀念我的“小咪咪”，偶尔看到相似的包装都缠着家里的大人买下来，过了很久才戒掉这个习惯。

我其实已经有些记不清它的包装和味道了，只知道它既有酸也有甜，搭配在一起很有滋味，如今回想起来，我怀疑是一种番茄味的零食。说不定我在市面上曾经看到过但没有认出它来，又或者它已经不存在了。现在我很少有爱不释手的零食了，偶尔想起小时候对“小咪咪”的痴迷自己都觉得很好笑，但也觉得很美好。那时一种简单的快乐，简单的爱好，那份美味和那个慈爱的老人永远存留在那段回不去的时光里，散发着温暖的光芒。