Fine-tuning the Craft and Being Yourself
精打佳作，细磨人生
Fine-tuning the Craft and Being Yourself
时间：11月21日，周三，19:00 – 20:30
Time: November 21, Wednesday, 19:00 – 20:30
地点：方所
Venue: Fangsuo Commune
作家／Writers: Doina Rusti(罗巴尼亚／Romania), Pierre Mejlak (马其他／Malta), 魏微／Wei Wei (中国/ China)，朱文颖/Zhu Wenying（中国 / China）.主持人／Moderator:申霞艳／Shen Xiayan(中国／China)
第三届中欧国际文学节开幕式后的第四场活动于11月21日晚7点在广州方所举行。活动以“精打细磨”为主题，邀请四位来自中国、罗巴尼亚和马其他的作家一一分享自己对于写作中“精打细磨“的看法，与观众共同探讨在如何写出更具逻辑性更令读者信服的作品。
The fourth event of The 3rd EU-China International Literary Festival was held on December 21 in Fangsuo Commune, Guangzhou. In theme of “Fine-tuning the Craft”, four writers from China, Romania and Malta were invited to discuss whether to fine-tune the crafts and how to write the convincing and logical works.
本场活动我们邀请到了罗马尼亚编剧、小说家Doina Rusti, 马其他小说家、短篇小说家及童书作家Pierre Mejlak, 中国小说家、短篇小说家魏微和朱文颖。主持人是作家、学者申霞艳。
We were joined by screenwriter and novelist Doina Rusti (Romania); novelist, short story writer and children’s author Pierre Mejlak (Malta); and novelists and short story writers Wei Wei (China) and Zhu Wenying (China), in conversation with Shen Xia yan, author and scholar.
作家们一一自我介绍后，主持人申霞艳女士邀请四位作家分享自己对于写作中“精打细磨”的看法，谈谈写作过程中一些难忘的经历。
After the self-introduction by four writers, Mr. Huang Jingtao invited them to discuss whether fine-tuning the craft was necessary and to talk about some of their unforgettable moments in writing.
Pierre Mejlak表示在他写作的过程中，写完初稿，他就会精打细磨，直到他写出一个理想的作品为止。他还提到，“精打细磨”就像打磨一件艺术品。作为一个短篇小说作家，他喜欢一气呵成的写作方式。这样可能就不会有太多的精打细磨。在他写作的时候，他首先想的是如何把这个故事讲述出来而不会太多地考虑技巧。他也说道，他会在一些方面“精打细磨”，比方说，他会剔除初稿中不重要的部分，读者不需要知道的部分，冗余的部分。整个过程就像给顾客修剪头发，要不断地修剪，才能找到最适合读者的完美的作品，把这些我们的体验和故事呈现出来。
Pierre Mejlak said that, in the process of writing, when he finished the craft, he would fine-tune it until he thought that it was perfect. He also mentioned that “fine-tuning the craft” was like creating art. As a short story writer, he would like to write from the very beginning to the end smoothly and quickly without fine-tuning the craft. When he was writing, he would first thought about how to deliver the story to the readers instead of the writing techniques. He also added that, he would also take “fine-tuning the craft” into account. He would delete the unnecessary parts of the story. He compared this period to cutting hair for customers. We need to keep cutting to find the most suitable hairstyle for the customers. We need to review and revise our story to deliver the best story to our readers.
Doina Rusti表示她在写短篇小说时，她希望她笔下的人物是丰满的，情节是动人的，尤其是虚构的作品，应该是充满热情的。Doina表示人物是她小说中很重要的一个元素，她会花很多时间查阅大量资料以把小说中的人物描绘得更加丰满。她讲了一个故事：两百多年前，有一个法国的外交官在罗马尼亚的首都布加勒斯特迷路了，她就对这个法国的外交官产生了浓弄的兴趣，他迷路了之后会发生什么事情呢？她看了很多书，其中有一本是魔法书，她就把这个法国人和另一个厨师通过菜谱连系在了一起。因为她本人很喜欢吃糖果，所以她就通过做菜技巧把两者联系到了一起。有时候她会花很多时间创作一部小说，有时她没有灵感，她就会停笔，不写作。于她而言，创作一部作品的时间可长可短。
Doina Rusti expressed that when she was writing, she tent to make the figures in her stories vivid and the plots impressive. And Fictions must be passionate. Doina said that a figure was a key element in her novels. She would spend a lot of time searching a large number of materials to portray the figures in her novels. She also told us a story. About 200 years ago, a Frech diplomat lost his way in Bucharest, Romania. She was interested in the following things happening to him. So she read a lot of books, one of which was a magic one. She connected the French man with a chef by menu. This was because she liked candy. Sometimes she would spend a lot of time writing, but if she had no idea about writing, she would stop writing. So the time Doina Rusti spent on writing could be long or short.
朱文颖女士觉得主办方很有意思，出了这么一个题目，因为这四个字，恰好是她的一个软胁。因为她觉得她自身是一个不太耐得住性子的人，“精打细磨”恰恰是她的一面镱子。她从反面来谈了她对“精打细磨”看法及另一种写作的可能性。她认为并不一定在“精打细磨”的情况下，才能出现好作品。她还表示，今天讨论的“精打细磨”绝不仅限于讨写作的技巧。读者可能更想了解的是一个人是如何成为作家的，个人是如何遵循自身的天性进行写作的。她提到她的一位在大学任教的朋友，他被学生指出声音不好听，他因而试图改变自己的声音，并把录音机放在了讲台旁边。他发现那堂课上他的声音的确改变了，但在听录音的时候，他发现，他发出了的另一种声音非常难听。因而，朱文颖女士认为，如果一个人违背自身的天性，以适应别人的看法，他可能反而走上了歧途。她还提到，每个人的天性有所不同，有些人更专注于如何写故事，有些人更注重写什么。
Zhu Wenying believed that the host was interesting to have such a topic, because this topic was exactly one of her weak points. She considered herself as an impatient person and this topic could be a mirror to her. She would like to talk about “fine-tuning the craft” from another side. She held the belief that we could also write good works without “fine-tuning the craft”. She added that, “fine-tuning the craft” should be not merely about writing techniques but more about how to become a writer and how one could write in line with his or her own personality. She mentioned one thing ever happening to one of her friends. Her friend was a professor in a college. And his voice was not appealing to his students. So he would like to change his voice. One day, he put a recorder in the classroom and tried to change his voice. His voice did change at that time. But when he listened to the sound from the recorder, he found that the voice turned out to be a worse one. Zhu Wenying wanted to use this example to tell us that one should adhere to his or her own nature or personality rather than merely listen to other’s opinions, which would be a wrong choice.
魏微提到了在2天前的晚宴上，中国作家唱歌，外国作家讲笑话，气氛十分融洽。虽然语言不通，但在翻译的协助下，我们还是觉得十分开心。她也提及，这个话题十分适合自己，因为她写小说比较慢。读者花10到20分钟写完的小说，她可能需要花1-2个月才能写完。她认为，我们需要精打细磨，才比较可能写出较好的作品。其实逻辑于小说而言非常重要，无论故事多么稀奇古怪，只要小说的逻辑合理，读者就可以接受。在设置人物或情节的时候，她会通过生活来检验其逻辑性。
Wei Wei also mentioned that at the dinner 2 days before, Chinese writers sang songs and foreign writers told some jokes. The atmosphere was really harmonious. Although our languages were various, with the help of the interpreters, we did feel very cheerful and happy. She added that this topic was very suitable for her, because she wrote novels slowly. It might take readers 10 to 20 minutes to finish reading a novel, while she could spend 1 to 2 months finishing writing the novel. She believed that we need to fine-tune the craft to make it better. She also agreed that logic was the priority to novels. No matter how strange the story was, if it was logical and reasonable, it was acceptable. When designing a figure, she would test it through her experience from daily life.
主持人申霞艳女士总结到虽然几位作家在逻辑方面谈到的内容有所不一，但其实在本质上都是一致性,只是他们不同的文化背景而已。他们追求的都是让文章具有逻辑性，让读者信服。
Hostess Shen Xia Yan concluded that, due to authors’ different cultural backgrounds, they talked about logic variously. The essence of their opinions about logic, however, was the same. Their common goal was to write logical and convincing novels.
最后，四位作家都寄语读者。Meijlak希望每个人都可以把自身独特的故事展现出来，打动读者。Doina希望更多的出版方可以更多地出版中国的虚构类书籍。朱文颖鼓励大家在生活的方方面面做自己。魏微希望两位外国的作家可以享受这次旅程，下次再来广州。
Finally, four writers sent their best wishes to readers. Meijlak hoped that every person dared to write his or her own unique stories to move readers. Doina hoped that more publishers could publish fictions by Chinese writers. Zhu Wenying encouraged people to be themselves. Wei Wei wished that Meijlak and Doina could have a good time in China and come to Guangzhou next time.
（邓斯婷 报道| 邓斯婷 翻译）
(Covered by Deng Siting, translated by Deng Siting)