库尔特·冯内古特——小说写作的八个原则

库尔特·冯内古特

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小说写作的八个原则

1.在一个完全陌生的人物身上花费的时间不应该让人觉得花在他身上是浪费的。

2.给每一位读者创造至少一个他们可以为之喝彩的人物。

3.每个人物都有所求，即使它只是一杯水。

4.一句话要起到下面两个作用中的一个——表现人物和推动情节。

5.首尾尽可能呼应。

6.做一个虐待狂。无论你的主人公们是多么可爱和纯洁无瑕，都为他们设计一些痛苦的遭遇——这样读者可以更深入地理解他们。

7.只为取悦一部分人而写作。如果你打开窗户向全世界示爱，这样就好比你的故事得了肺炎。

8.尽可能快地把尽可能更多的信息传达给你的读者。让悬念见鬼去吧！读者应该对接下来要发生什么，在什么地方发生和为什么发生有着完全充分的理解。这样就算蟑螂把最后几页啃掉，他们也自己可以完成这个故事。

——冯内古特，库尔特·冯内古特，《Bagombo鼻烟壶：未收入的短篇小说》（纽约：G.P.普特南氏出版社，1999），9-10

只为取悦一部分人而写作

译者：hasson

英文原文：

Kurt Vonnegut

Eight rules for writing fiction:

1、Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2、Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3、 Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4、Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.

5、Start as close to the end as possible.

6、Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7、Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8、Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

-- Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1999), 9-10.