$课文39 作家之所需

720. I have known very few writers,

我的认识的作家寥寥无几，

721. but those I have known, and whom I respect, confess at once that they have little idea where they the are going when they first set pen to paper.

然而凡是我所认识和尊敬的作家，都立即承认在他们动笔时，不清楚要写什么，怎么写。

722. They have a character, perhaps two; they are in that condition of eager discomfort which passes for inspiration;

他们心中只在一个或两个角色。他们处于急切不安的状态，而被当作是灵感。

723. all admit radical changes of destination once the journey has begun;

他们无不承认，一旦“旅程”开始，“目的地”常有急剧的变化。

724. one, to my certain knowledge, spent nine months on a novel about Kashmir, then reset the whole thing in the Scottish Highlands.

据我所知，有位作家花了9个月的时间写了一部关克什米尔的小说，后来却把整个故事背景换成了苏格兰高地。

725. I never heard of anyone making a ’skeleton’, as we were taught at school.

我从未听说过任何一位作家像我们在学校那样，

726. In the breaking and remaking, in the timing, interweaving, beginning afresh, the writer comes to discern things in his material which were not consciously in his mind when he began.

动笔前先列什么提纲。作家在剪裁修改、构思时间、穿插情节、以至从头重写的过程中，会领悟到素材中很多东西是他刚动笔时所未意识到的。