When you send your work off to an agent, the agent’s first look will be fast, smart and brutal.
They’ll ask, “Do I even like the concept for this book?” And they’ll ask, “Can this person write? Does this feel like the prose style of a serious, professional author?”
If the answer to either of those questions is in the negative, you’re on the path to rejection, no matter how hard you’ve worked on all the rest of your manuscript.
Well, we’re not going to address the issue of ideas in this post (though you could check out our comments on elevator pitch, if you’re worried, or see what we have to say about checking and developing your ideas.)
We’re going to deal with the second of the things that an agent (or their assistant) has uppermost in their mind when they consider the first page or two of your submission.
Quite simply, they’re thinking:Can this person write?
Agents see hundreds of manuscripts and you’ll need yours to say, from that very first page and paragraph, “Yes. You are in the hands of a confident, capable writer. You will not be wasting your time in getting to grips with what follows.”
当你把作品交给出版人时，出版人的第一个表情会是快速、明智而且残忍的。
他们会问，“我会喜欢这本书所呈现的观念吗？“他们也会问，“这个人会写作吗 ？””这作品所呈现的像一个严肃、专业的作家的散文风格吗？“
如果这两个问题的答案都是否定的，那么不管你对剩下的手稿费多大的劲，你的作品都会被拒绝。
好吧，我们不打算在这篇文章中讨论创意的问题（如果你还焦虑的话，你可以看看我们在电梯广告上的广告词，或者看看我们对审核和提升你的创意有什么看法）。
我们将了解出版人（或他们的助理）在考虑您投稿的作品第一页或第二页内容时他们所思所想，这将是你关注的第二件事情。
很简单，他们在想：这个人会写作吗？
出版商们看到数以百计的手稿，你需要做的是，你的作品从第一页和第一段就应该告诉出版商，“是的。你所阅读的作品来自一个自信、有能力的作家。你不会浪费时间去阅读作品余下的部分。”
What are you aiming for? You are aiming for prose that is:
If you can check those three boxes, you’re doing fine. John Grisham isn’t some kind of prose writing superstar. Nor is Suzanne Collins. Nor is JK Rowling. Nor is Stephen King. Their genius all lies elsewhere. So if you can writeclear, economical and preciseprose – and it isn’t hard to do – you’re basically forcing the agent to read on. To judge your novel on its merits. To give your story a chance.
Here’s what you need to do.
Not sure what prose writing is? It’s basically the opposite of poetry. Any novel is written in prose. So is the text in any newspaper. So is the letter you write to your bank or your doctor or your secret lover. When novelists talk about prose style, they really just mean the way you write. Does your writing sound good or bad? Does it do the job you want it to do? Or does the way you express things always let you down? Wikipedia has more on what prose is, if you want to know that.
你的作品目标是什么？你写作散文目标应该是 ：
如果你能对照这三个标准，你会做得很好。约翰·格里沙姆不是那种散文创作巨星。苏珊娜·柯林斯也不是。J·K·罗琳也不是。斯蒂芬·金也不是。他们的天才全在别处。因此，如果你能写出条理清晰、惜字如金和用词精准的散文——而且这并不难做到——你基本上就能强迫出版商继续阅读你的作品。根据你的小说的优点来评判你小说的档次。给你的故事一个让别人赏识机会。
这就是你需要做的。
不知道什么是散文创作？这基本上与诗歌相反。任何小说都是用散文写的。报纸上的所有文字也是如此。你写给银行、医生或秘密情人的信也是如此。当小说家谈论散文风格时，他们实际上是指你的写作方式。你的作品是好是坏？它是否为你表情达意？抑或你的表达方式总是让你失望？如果你想知道更多，维基百科有许多关于散文定义的内容。
Cliché is the enemy of every author.And you recognise it when you see it, right? We’re talking about things like this:
· His eyes were blue enough to swim in.
· She felt a sharp pain, as though cut by a knife.
· The breeze whispered softly through gently waving trees.
It’s like watching a movie we’ve all seen before. It’s language that’s stale, old, past its sell-by date.
But cliche creeps in all over the place. “The flame-haired passionate redhead? She’s an old, overused stereotype.
The midnight hostage exchange in a deserted warehouse? Seen it, read it.
The rose-covered cottage with a smiling old lady and lots of home-made cakes. Yep, nothing new there.”
The simple fact is that wherever you grab for pre-made stereotypes – scenes, people and settings that we’ve seen a million times before – you bore your reader that tiny bit. You distance them from the text, when what you want is to hug them close.
So, look for cliches everywhere.
Then kill them.
一、.扔掉陈词滥调
陈词滥调是作家的敌人。当你看到它，一眼就可以识别，不是吗？我们一起看看如下的例子:
这些句子就像是回看我们以前看过的电影。这是一种陈腐、老套、过时的语言。
但陈词滥调到处蔓延。“那个火红头发的充满激情的女人？这是一个老掉牙的，重复使用的老套形象。
午夜在一个废弃的仓库里交换人质？看到这儿，不妨一读。
玫瑰覆盖的小屋里有一位微笑的老太太和许多自制的蛋糕。是的，没有出人意料的描述。”
一个简单的事实是，无论你在哪里捕捉到预先形成的老套描述——场景、人物和背景，我们已经见过无数次了——这些描述会让你的读者感到厌烦。当你想亲近读者时，他们却对你的文字敬而远之。
所以，提防着无处不在陈词滥调。
抛弃这些陈词滥调吧。
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