J.K.罗琳 | 谈写作

Where do your ideas come from?你的想法来自哪里？
I don't know. I don't know where ideas come from. I think the more interesting question might be why do some people have, you know, why do some people want to live in a a fictional world so much and why do some of us voluntarily spend hours and hours alone in a fictional world.我不知道，我也不知道我的想法从何而来。我觉得更有趣的问题可能是，为什么有些人会有......为什么有些人那么想生活在一个虚构的世界里，为什么我们中的一些人会自愿花上几个小时，一个人呆在一个虚构的世界里。
But the trouble is I can't answer that question either. But that's maybe the more pertinent question some of us just are happy living that way, happiest living that way.问题是，我也无法回答这个问题。但这也许是更贴切的问题，我们中的一些人只是乐于以这种方式生活，以这种方式生活最快乐。
Ideas come in different ways and different kinds of book, form differently that's been my experience. So with Harry, the idea really did come... it was the idea for the story, the premise of the story came first which was literally a child doesn't realize he's a wizard and until he gets the letter. With other books, with the Ickabog the word came, the word Ickabog came.这些想法会以不同的方式出现，在不同的书里会有不同的形式。这就是我的经验。因此，对于《哈利·波特》，这个故事的想法确实来自......故事的前提是一个孩子没有意识到他是一个巫师，直到他收到一些书信。对于其他书，对于《伊卡狛格》，是先有了这个词，然后才有了这本书。
I thought what is that, what is an Ickabog and that's how the story started with me, trying to find an entity to attach that word to and with the Strike Books, the character came first, he came first.那是什么呢，什么是“伊卡狛格”，故事就是这样开始的，我试图找到一个实体，将这个词与《神探科莫兰》联系在一起，这个角色是第一位的，他是第一位的。
I did want to write what I saw as quite a golden age who done it, but in a modern setting and it was interesting to think well how would that work, how do you in this age of DNA analysis and  high-tech detective techniques and CCTV cameras, how do you have a real old school detective in modern London.我确实想写一个在我看来是黄金时代的人物，但却是在现代背景下完成的，这很有趣，因为我想在这个DNA分析、高科技侦探技术和闭路电视摄像机的时代，如何才能在现代伦敦塑造出一个真正的老派侦探呢？
And yeah, so he was really the starting point there, but Robin came very quickly afterwards. And then, I became very interested in Robin in the planning of the book, and I realized that this will be a two-hander, she's not going to be Watson forever. We'll have two Holmeses.是的，他确实是起点，但罗宾很快就出现了。然后，在构思这本书的过程中，我对罗宾产生了浓厚的兴趣。我意识到这将是一部双人戏，她不可能永远是华生，但我们会有两个福尔摩斯。
When do ideas come to you?这些想法都是什么时候进入你脑海里的？
What would normally happen is I'm working on a novel and I'm immersed in that novel completely, but I might...it will normally happen at a completely random moment when you're making gravy or something and you'll have an idea for a different thing, so run and find a notebook and then you lose the notebook. And if it was a good idea, it'll hang around; and if it wasn't a good idea, you'll find it in 5 years time.通常的情况是，我正在写一本小说，我完全沉浸其中，但我可能......通常会在某个完全偶然的时刻，比如在做肉汁或其他东西时，会突然冒出一个不同的想法，我就会跑去找一个笔记本写下来，然后你把笔记本弄丢了。如果那是个好想法，它会一直存在；如果不是，你会在5年后找到这个笔记本。
And sometimes I look through these notebooks and think what on Earth was that, what did you think you were going to do with that. And then other times, you have the idea and it sticks, and then it grows like something in a Petri dish and they're the ones that are worth something, the ones that really hang around.有时我翻看这些笔记本，会想这到底是什么？你想用它来做什么？你有了这个想法，记录的习惯就会坚持下来，然后它们会像培养皿里的东西一样生长，就是那些真正有价值的东西会被留下来。
You almost didn't need to write them down. They're the ones that live in here, so that's kind of a good rule of thumb actually. If it's meant to be, it will it'll lodge up here.你不需要把它们都记下来，它们就住在你的脑海里。所以这其实是个很好的经验法则，如果有些东西是命中注定，就会被留下来。
How important is it to be organized when writing?写作时条理清晰有多重要？
I learned a huge amount writing Potter, so even though this is a different kind of world building, I took all of the lessons. I learned from Potter and applied them to the Galbraith books.我在写《哈利·波特》时学到了很多东西，尽管这是一种不同的世界构建方式，我还是吸取了所有的经验教训。我从《哈利·波特》中学到了很多，并将它们运用到我以加尔布雷思为笔名写的书中。
I have a master files on all these different characters. I have huge amounts of background just to keep myself orientated. I know where’s Strike lived. I know a huge amount about his mother's history that I will never never need to use, but sometimes you do need to use it, sometimes you realize hang on, hang on, hang on, this would thematically work really well here.我熟知所有这些不同角色的，我掌握了大量的背景资料以便确定方向。我知道斯特莱克住在哪里，我对他母亲的过往了如指掌。虽然我可能永远也用不上这些背景资料，但有时你确实需要它们，有时你会意识到它们在主题上非常合适。
So yeah, I... it sounds prosaic, it sounds like being a sort of filing clerk or something for your own work. But in a sense that's what you do, you organize it all, and you've got it there to refer to.这听起来很平淡，就像是给自己的作品做归档分类。但从某种意义上说，这就是你要做的，你把所有的东西都整理好，然后你就可以随时参考了。