繪畫出身的The Sunday Times（編按：《星期日泰晤士報》）food writer A A Gill，有次這樣形容一份份量過大的risotto：「My starter portion was so mountainous that it could have pebble-dashed a lighthouse.」

不是繪畫出身的我們，如何寫出如此形像的文字？我的經驗是，下筆前，盡量讓腦海呈現一張圖又一張的圖，然後「依樣畫葫蘆」，就能把事寫得更生動，來看下面的rewrite案例吧：

報道無罪　知情有價　請即訂閱《追新聞》：
https://www.patreon.com/thechasernews

Student

You wouldn’t have wanted to be a child in the 18th century. You had to do chores like emptying the chamberpot. Each morning, you had to take the pots outside your house and empty them in your garden. It was dirty and unpleasant.

My Rewrite

If you were a child in 18th century, among the chores you would have to do is this: at night, everyone in your house “went” in a pot; in the morning, you had to haul the pots outside to dump the contents. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to start your day knowing last night, your dad pushed out a banana-shaped poop, your mum released some dry “pebbles”, and your brother plopped out a blob of diarrhoea!

Michelle Ng

英國牛津大學畢業，前《蘋果日報》和《眾新聞》專欄作家，現在身在楓葉國，心繫中國大陸和香港。
聯絡方式： michelleng.coach@proton.me
個人網站： https://michellengwritings.com
逢周日英國時間晚上8時 / 周一香港時間凌晨3時刊出