WhatIs Creative Writing? 什么是创意写作?

提起写作，可能很多人会感到头疼。其实，写作没有大多数人想象得那么困难和神秘莫测。写作，最需要的是一颗真诚面对自己敞开而自由的心。本刊专栏作者李华老师和大家一起写作，让每个人的心安静下来，让大家体会自由写作的快乐。你会发现，从每一个平凡的生命故事中，都能挖掘出震撼和惊奇。

Write Freely from Your Heart

发自内心地自由写作

Now I feel as if I saw you， my dear friend. Maybe you are young， you are the hope and pride of your family， you have a tender and sensitive heart， and you also have your worries and confusion， Maybe you are not young any more in the world's eyes， but you have a youthful heart and have always been seeking the truth of your life. Age does not matter； all that matters is your heart. I hope I can be of some help to you on yourjoumey， as we leam to write from our hearts.

So， what is creative wnting？ By the way， the stress is on "creative"， not on "writing". Read it right and feel the creative spirit. Read it aloud three times. Creative writing. Creative writing. Creative writing. Feel it？ Now， we are ready to go.

Take a piece of paper， and a pen. Let us try a free wnting beginning with two words "Love is...”， and we will continue to write whatever our hearts desire. We will write freely for five minutes.

Please don't worry about your grammar and spelling. Please don't stop and think. Please don't go back， cross out or change. Just write freely， and as fast as you can. Time yourself. When time is up， stop immediately.

Now， read it silently to yourself. Honestly， how do you feel about it？ Yes， it is messy （creative writing usually starts out as4messy”），and there may be a number of grammar and spelling mistakes， bu卜-are you also moved by yourself？. Do you feel that you have heard your own voice in English， maybe for the first time in your life？ Treasure-t- Keep it. At this stage， you don't have to share it with anyone. lt's your pre-cious baby.

If your five-minute free writing does not come out smoothly， please don't worry. Be patient with yourself. Be kind to yourself. It will come to you.1n the next issue， we will talk more about free writing.I have full confidence that you will become an expert in the near future.

Tip：无论你是什么年龄，什么背景，对写作有什么样的想法，只要愿意更加深刻地认识你自己，都可以开启学习创意写作之旅。那么什么是创意写作呢？创意写作的重点在“创”字上。大家可以准备一张白纸和一支笔，尝试做一个自由写作的练习，就从这两个字开始：“爱是……”，想写什么就写什么，自由自在地写上五分钟。不必担心语法和拼写错误，也不要停下来思考，回去划掉或改写。只要自由自在地写，而且要写得快，五分钟一到，马上停止。如果这次的自由写作写得不顺畅，也不要担心。要耐心地对待你自己。

Listen to Your Own Voice

聆听自己的心声

l'd like to share with you the five-minute free writing I did beginning with “Love iS…”，together with a dozen graduate students at Nanjing Normal University， in September 2005， when I was invited to give a lecture there.

Love ls a game. Love is a beautiful game. People enjoy playing it all the time. Why am l here？ Because l try to be a teacher？. Because/ want to see whether it is possible/feasible to return to China to teach. It's a dream. Its something so un-realistic.And yet，l always want to try something very impossi： ble. To embrace the impossible. To challenge myself with the impossible task ts my favorite game.

And why love？ If it had not been for the sake of love， 1 wouldn't have the guts to come back.I am willing to take this risk. It's easy to go to America， because everyone went there， but a lot more difficult to come back because that was not popular at all. Yeah， some people started to retum to China， they said， "more opportunities for development”， maybe for making more money. Well，l could have been prejudiced.

As for me，f come back because of love， the love that my teacher gave me，a long time， the love I finally realize after this long..”

Did you hear my voice？I was trying my best to find a way to retum to China to teach creative writing at that time， and I was not sure what would happen. It was something I felt very strongly about at that time. As I read this free wriOng years later， I was still moved by it，and I was truly glad that I took the risk coming back to China. Love never fails.

If we want to use free writing in a formal wnting piece， usually some revision is necessary. For example， in this free wnting， maybe l should not say "Love iS a game"， because“game' is too light-hearted and even frivolous， while I was so serious about my choice of retuming to China for the sake of love. And also， "something very impossible" sounds awk- ward；I will probably change "very"to "extremely". But those mistakes are not that difficult to fix. At this stage， we just write freely. We will talk about revision later.

Tip：接下来我想和你一起分享我的五分钟自由写作，以“爱是……”开头。2005年，我在南京师范大学和十几位研究生座谈时曾写下上面引述的短文。读完之后，你听到我的心声了吗？当我在若干年之后再读这份自由写作的作品时，我依然被其中的内容感动。如果我们想让自由写作成为正式的作品，通常需要做一些修改。比如，在这篇自由写作里，也许我不应该说“爱是一场游戏”，因为游戏这个词显得有点轻率，而我对自己的选择是非常严肃的。但是这样的修改不会很难，后面我们会再谈，现在这个阶段只是自由写作。

Write Truthfully to Express Your Uniqueness

真实写作，展现你的独特

So， what is creative writing？ What did you get from doing the free writing exercise？ What is different from your otherwriting classes？

To me， creative writing is， first of all， writing from myheart， without fears， and just letting the strong message comeout. Free writing is a great exercise in creative writing class.The first rule we need to leam is "no rules"， just write， but wehave to make sure we are writing， not thinking too much orworrying， and we have to write reasonably fast. This is exact-ly the opposite of the traditional writing class， which usuallygives us many rules to follow and as a result， we write slowly，calculating the words to meet the requirement， and we rarelyexperience the freedom and joy of wnting.

In this book， you will learn to write creative nonfiction，which means that you will be telling the stories that only youcan tell-Shakespeare cannot take your place； he is deadand you are alive and you are Iiving a unique life， differentfrom all the past westem writers， different from Lin Yutang andHushi-all of them were great， but none of them could dimin-ish your importance as a creative nonfiction writer. You are apromising writer living in China today， and the stories in yourlife are unique. English is a foreign language to you， but thelanguage of truth is universal. When you write nonfiction， youdon't have to make up anything； all you need is a heart that iswilling to tell the truth.

Tip：你从刚才的自由写作练习中体会到了什么？这和你上过的其他课有什么不同？对我来说，创意写作首先是从心出发的，勇敢地写，让心底强烈的信息充分地表达出来。你会学习创作非虚构作品，也就是说，你会写只有你才能创作出来的故事！你是一位独特的、非虚构作品的创作者，谁也无法剥夺你的重要性。只要你有一颗愿意表达真理的心，就能写出你生命中的独特故事。