我第一個想到的是 This Is Going to Hurt,這部改編自原作者 Adam Kay 在產科工作經歷札記的同名電視劇。裡面有個角色是主角的男友,因為是作者經歷改編,所以現實中的確有這個人存在,但作者坦承本人其實沒有和自己在一起那麼久的時間(所以想當然也沒像劇裡那樣,對主角百般包容的溫柔)。這是否算是一種美化?我覺得是。可是綜觀整部劇,它其實有很多殘忍、尖銳的地方,作者(身兼原作和編劇)並未去修飾,甚至可能更殘酷絕望地將傷口揭在觀眾面前。所以對我,去「美化」這樣一個角色,反而更像是作者在現實殘忍之下對觀眾的一種溫柔。
“When people tell you that when something doesn't work for them, that they're right, it doesn't work for them. And that's an incrediblely important information. You also have to remember, when people tell you when they think it's wrong, and how you should fix it, that they're almost always wrong.”
Understand that you can have in your writing no qualities which you do not honestly entertain in yourself. Understand that you cannot keep out of your writing the indication of the evil or shallowness you entertain in your self[.] If you love to have a servant stand behind your chair at dinner, it will appear in your writing
— or if you possess a vile opinion of women, or if you grudge anything, or doubt immortality — these will appear by what you leave unsaid more than by what you say. There is no trick or cunning, no art or recipe, by which you can have in your writing what you do not possess in yourself.