Frankly speaking, we have a snooping desire to spy on other people's private lives. Writing enthusiasts want to know the stories behind the great writers, so that they can get a steady stream of inspiration from where they can keep writing.
The masterpieces of the world are not easy to come by, and writers have made many strange moves in order to inspire or retain those fleeting sparks. Today, Yiwenjun deciphers the quirks of writers' writing for everyone, and helps you get some strange writing postures.
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01 Hemingway: I'm going to stand and make money
Hemingway wrote standing, as evidenced by the picture - The translator Did not mention this matter when he was a child, thanking Hemingway for providing universal material for the writing of primary and secondary school students in China.
The reason for the formation of this habit has yet to be examined, but there is a saying that this posture can help him concentrate his thinking and improve the efficiency of writing; many journalists and scholars believe that this is the excuse of the tough guys in the literary world. Hemingway's spine was injured several times, and his sedentary discomfort was uncomfortable, and the writing style of standing on one foot may have been largely due to forced writing.
Of course, for a literary hero who believes that "defrosting the refrigerator" is a necessary condition for becoming a writer, standing up and writing may be just a very personal habit. Hemingway pointed out a clear path for my generation of incompetents who scratched their ears and scratched their cheeks and fidgeted when writing--if they couldn't write, it was better to stand up first. Standing, you can earn money (referring fees).
Hemingway series of works
The Hemingway Anthology
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The Sun Also Rises (Translation)
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A Feast of Flow (Translated Classic)
The Snow of Kilimanjaro (Translation Classic)
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02 Truman Capotti: I'm lying down
Fidgeting when the manuscript can't be written – wait, isn't there a third option besides "sitting" and "standing"? Truman Capoti opened up a "third path" for writers: lying flat and laughing
Capoti's lax working state is noticeably more to the appetite of modern young people. In an interview with the Paris Review, he claimed that "I cannot think unless I lie down"; not only to lie down, but also to have coffee and smoke at hand: cigarettes must be smoked in one gulp, coffee is to be sipped little by little, and works are written little by little.
Capotti didn't mind the inconvenience of reclining to write, and it was better to sit up and write than to sit up and write at the expense of inspiration. It is said that Capoti is also quite comfortable with the typewriter. He rested the typewriter on his knees, and though unstable, the staunch layman could maintain a typing speed of about a hundred words a minute after hard work. The so-called aspirants can succeed, and the friends who love to write, "Capoti Paralysis" can be arranged immediately.
Capoti series
The Feast Is Easy to Disperse: The Capotti Epistles
The Complete Capoti Short Stories
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The Promised Prayer
Portraits and Observations
Grass Harp
"Capoti Works" series of e-book sets
03 Nabokov: I love bathing and having good skin
However, "Capoti Paralysis" is not friendly to friends with cervical spondylosis, is there a more universal writing scene? Nabokov recommends to you the "Whims in the Bath" style.
Old Na has been soaking in the bathtub for decades writing. According to his own recollection, it was a helpless move to combine writing with bathing in the beginning: as a novice dad, he only had time to create while his children were napping. But he soon fell in love with the feeling of creating in the water. He admitted in an interview, "I can't properly express myself in any language unless I'm in the bathtub." ”
Coincidentally, the French playwright Edmund Rothstein was also a member of the Bath Party. In a sense, he relies more on the bathtub than Bonakov – he even takes a full-day shower at some of the time when creativity is intense!
Whether the famous "Big Nose Love Saint" is his work in the bathroom is unknown, but it is certain that his play "The Young Eagle" was written entirely in water. He himself was quite proud of this, "'The Young Eagle' was written after I dived into the water, and I think my idea is quite unique! ”
Fortunately, there was no WeChat or qq at that time, otherwise when their editors went to urge the manuscript, they always received "I went to the shower!" Such a reply, I am afraid that there will be a silent adult collapse.
Nabokov's Selected Works (Series 1)
Puning
Lolita
"Dark Fire"
"Say, Memory"
Laughter in the Dark
Nabokov's Selected Works (Part II)
👉 Coming soon, stay tuned
04 d.h. Lawrence: Follow nature's teachings
Hemingway stood writing, Capotti liked to lie down, Nabokov soaked in the bathtub, and they all had bright futures.
As for D.H. Lawrence, he didn't like the table, bed or bathtub, which were the fruits of human civilization, or nature inspired him more. In one letter he said, "What could be more pleasant than walking quietly into the pine forest and sitting there doing a little of the work I do?" ”。
Dorothy Brett recalled that Lawrence always wore plainclothes, leaned against the trunk of a tree, and had a notepad on his knee. Throughout his life, Lawrence used the woods as a study and created a wonderful work in it: in the Black Forest near Ebersteinberg, Germany, he was accompanied by fir to complete the novel "Aaron's Staff"; under a five-needle pine plant in Toscara, Italy, he began to write "Madame Chatterley's Lover"; also in Italy, in Gargano, the lemon grove gave him countless inspirations, allowing him to write some poetry and prose while reviewing the proofs of "Sons and Lovers".
Are trees the muse that inspires writing? Got it, so I'll go and plant an orange tree in the yard now (no
This forest-like reading notebook is recommended and you can write as well as Lawrence
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05 Gertrude Stein: The Self-Cultivation of Old Drivers
There are also writers who do not have mandatory requirements for the writing environment. Instead, they went to the other extreme— it didn't matter where they wrote, it just flowed.
Gertrude Stein was one of the "itinerant authors". Ever since she got her first car in 1917— a Ford Model T from the United States — she's somehow fallen in love with the feeling of writing in it.
In this small world of cars, she always has inspiration, hurriedly writing three or five lines between marching and stillness. For her, the severe traffic jam in Paris may not be a matter of chagrin. The large amount of time between departure and arrival is full of possibilities, and wouldn't it be a shame not to take advantage of it?
If you say you feel a unique sense of rhythm when reading her poems and essays, it may be because it was born in the bustling streets of Paris. Unfortunately, Stein did not live in Beijing, otherwise she would have been able to write a huge work that shook the world.
Stein wasn't alone in finding inspiration on his travels. In this regard, the number of people who reached the pinnacle was the American writer Yudora Welty. According to reliable sources, Eudora is generally inspired when driving alone. In order not to let these brilliant ideas slip away, she managed to write them down on the way. In other words, she always writes half-heartedly with the steering wheel in her hand.
Fortunately, in the last century, the camera has not been applied to monitor traffic violations, otherwise 12 points is not enough to deduct. Then we won't be able to read her light comedy Pound's Heart, because she will always be busy buying driver's license points and will not have time to write.
The Third Transportation Committee of the Translation Agency reminds you:
There are thousands of roads, and safety is the first.
Driving is not standardized, and relatives have two lines of tears.
There are many, many unfinished stories: Agatha, queen of reason, conceives murder plots while sitting in her bathtub nibbling on apples; Joyce loves to write with crayons on cardboard; Andran Poe writes with a cat on her shoulder to keep her balance (cat: Woohoo I'm just a poor tool cat strikes).
Writers are a bunch of eccentric and brave people who do everything they can to grasp fleeting inspiration. It is precisely because of their hard work and persistence that we have been able to read so many wonderful works. The so-called "quirks" and "strange postures" are actually the embodiment of their dedication to writing to the extreme.
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