张帆

在网上看到很多的小说爱好者，都有很好的创意，但总是对自己的文学水平和表达能力有过分的担心苛求或缺乏自信，这样，很容易埋没了自己最有价值的那部分：创意与灵感。

现代小说语言的发展：

Verbosity
简洁的语言

William Faulkner once criticized Ernest Hemingway’s writing style, claiming that “[Hemingway] had never been known to use a word that might send the reader to the dictionary”. In 1954, when Hemingway won the Nobel prize for literature, he defended himself, saying: “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.” Shakespeare, in his beloved Hamlet, quoted the following, which has become proverbial over time:
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief.

威廉•福克纳曾批评过欧内斯特•海明威，说他的作品“从未用过任何让读者需要参考词典的词汇。” 在1954年，当海明威获得诺贝尔文学奖时，他说道：“福克纳真的觉得复杂的词汇更易于沟通吗？他批评我的文学水准，觉得我一窍不通，实际我只是喜欢用简单的，易于沟通的词语。” 莎士比亚，在《哈姆雷特》中，也写到：

因简洁是智慧的灵魂，
而花杂是鲁钝的象征，
我选择简洁。

Many people choose to use complex language in academic and fiction writing in order to display a sense of superiority of intellect, when in fact the opposite is true. In 2005, Professor Oppenheimer of Princeton conducted a research which concluded that students find those who use concise and simple language to be more intelligent; Communicative ability is a direct reflection of an individual’s intelligence, and the ability to be brief and concise to express an idea demonstrated higher communicative ability than a frivolous vernacular.

很多人喜欢利用复杂的语言与丰富的词汇来修饰论文和文学作品以显示他们的高深与智商，其实这并不正确。在二零零五年， 普林斯顿大学心理学系的丹尼爾•奥本海默教授曾做过详细考察：考察对象几乎一致认为用简练的语言写出文章的作者更加具备智慧; 一个人的沟通能力与他的智商有直接的关系，而用简练的词汇则比用复杂的修饰来解释概念更加挑战作者的沟通能力。

Works with too much flourish existed once in Western Literature. But they have become increasingly outdated since the Victorian era, some 200 years ago. Most successful literary works now employs concise, simple, but sufficiently mature language for better communication and marketability.

曾几何时，西方文学也流行过十分花杂的文学作品,可早在维多利亚时代，也就是两百年前，开始淘汰。现代的流行作品都用简单，干练，但非俗气的语言与词汇，以便于沟通和广泛的销售。

西方现代文学，已经发展到了，不刻画人物，完全用故事进展和动作去带动人物性格的文学创作新潮。当代风靡美国的克莱顿惊悚小说是最典型的代表。