论小说创作

On the Writing of Novels

如果可能,请别写小说。小说创作是一种非社会行为,一旦动笔,小说家会时刻为小说中的人物所困扰;而且,真正写起来,小说指南一类书籍并不管用。假如非写不可,那么,小说家需考虑是以情节为主还是以人物为主。如果以情节为主,小说家即在虚构的事情中间而非在所谓的真实生活中寻找人物的时候,抓住情节不放;如果以人物为主,那么,小说家则需对适于情节的某些特征加以强调,使人物在新环境中显得真实可信,从而赋予他们生命。小说家无论重情节抑或是重人物,都还要考虑以何种形式、何种风格呈现情节和人物的问题;当然,在优秀的小说家笔下,故事和人物本身会以最适合的形式出现。小说家应对形式、人物和语言保持一种敏锐的感觉。此外,小说家可能会对道德教诲产生迷恋。尽管应当通过作品给读者以教益,但是,真诚的艺术家并不能专注于说教。

If possible, do not write novels, for it is a thoroughly unsocial act. Once a novelist gets started, he will be obsessed and possessed by his characters ; besides, none of the writing manuals will do him any good. When anyone has to start the writing, he will have to consider whether his novel will be plot-obsessed or devoted to characterization. If it is the former, he is to hold to the plot tightly when he hunts about among the figments of his imagination for the people, not in what is called real life; if the latter, he must emphasize certain saliencies which fit his plot, in order to make the characters real and to make them come alive in the new environment he has chosen for them. Meanwhile, it is necessary for both types of novelists to consider the suitable form and style for his plots or characters. Certainly, the best novelists are hardly form-conscious when they start to write, for their stories and characters will come themselves in the form and style most suited to them. The real novelist must have three gifts, namely, a sense of form, a sense of character and a sense of the magic word. Finally, though a novel should be instructive for the readers, a sincere artist can not concern himself with preaching anything.