On Writing Well, Chap5&6, Day3

Words & Phrases

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• dates from 1907 & goes back to 1907
  date:
  (originate)追溯
  to date from or back to; 追溯到 ‹point in time, event›
  go back:
  (have history tracing back to) 追溯
  the family goes back to the Norman Conquest
  这个家族可追溯到诺曼征服时期

1. My own attachment to the hen dates from 1907, and I have been faithful to her in good times and bad.
2. But mainly what I like is that this is a man telling me unabashedly about a love affair with poultry that goes back to 1907.

• cliché
  ①Countable(over-used phrase)陈词滥调
  a cliché-ridden style
  充满陈词滥调的风格
  ②Countable(over-used idea)陈腐的想法 (over-used technique)陈旧方法
  the car chase is a cinema cliché
  追车戏是电影中的老一套
  ③Uncountable(use of clichés)使用陈词滥调

1. It’s the common currency of newspapers and of magazines like People—a mixture of cheap words, made-up words and clichés that have become so pervasive that a writer can hardly help using them.
2. Sloppy editing is common in newspapers, often for lack of time, and writers who use clichés often work for editors who have seen so many clichés that they no longer even recognize them.

• finicky
  ①(fussy)过分讲究的 ‹person, eater›
  to be finicky about [something];
  对某事过分讲究
  ②(fiddly)烦琐的‹job›

Notice the decisions that other writers make in their choice of words and be finicky about the ones you select from the vast supply.

• scorn
  A.noun Uncountable轻蔑
  to treat [somebody] with scorn 轻蔑地对待某人
  to be the scorn of [somebody]; 受某人的奚落
  to be held up to scorn by [somebody] 受到某人的鄙视
  B.transitive verb
  ①(deride)鄙视
  ②(reject)不屑接受‹offer, advice›
  C.intransitive verb
  to scorn to do [something];

1. Their scorn only increased my devotion to the hen.
2. And don’t scorn that bulging grab bag Roget’s Thesaurus .

• bear in mind
  bear (someone or something) in mind = keep sth. or sb. in mind
  bear in mind (that) = remember that

Also bear in mind, when you’re choosing words and stringing them together, how they sound.

• relish
  A.transitive verb
  ①(enjoy)享受 ‹food, joke›
  ②(look forward to)盼望 ‹fight, prospect, idea›
  she didn't relish going home alone on the underground
  她可不想独自一人乘地铁回家
  B.noun
  ①Uncountable(enjoyment)享受
  ②Uncountable(pleasurable anticipation)兴趣
  ③Uncountable(pleasing taste)美味
  ④Uncountable and countableCulinary (condiment)佐料

I relish (in my ear) the pattern his words make as they fall into a sentence.

Thoughts

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Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters. Writing is learned by imitation.

模仿是写作中很重要的一环，没有人生来就是会写作的。我们要从阅读中学习他人的遣词造句以及表达技巧。就跟韩寒最开始是模仿钱钟书的文风一样，我们要大量阅读并尝试去模仿，在模仿之中逐渐找到自己的风格。闭门造车是行不通的。

An occasional short sentence can carry a tremendous punch.

在写作中要注意语句间的节奏，长短句结合会让文章读起来朗朗上口。

The only way to avoid it is to care deeply about words. If you find yourself writing that someone recently enjoyed a spell of illness, or that a business has been enjoying a slump, ask yourself how much they enjoyed it. Notice the decisions that other writers make in their choice of words and be finicky about the ones you select from the vast supply. The race in writing is not to the swift but to the original.

写作中要注意用词的准确性，学会查字典。