We may think hard before setting anything down, we keep an eye on spelling, we may go back and correct words that feel not entirely right, all in the hope of eventually reaching a point where what we have articulated seems accurately to reflect what we truly think.

在下筆之前，我們可能會認真思考，我們可能會注意拼寫，我們可能會回頭修改感覺不完全正確的詞句，所有這些都是為了最終達到這樣一種境界：我們所表達的內容似乎準確地反映了我們的真實想法。

But there is another philosophy of writing at large, this one with a very different thesis as to what good writing might be like.

但是，還有另一種寫作哲學，這種哲學對於好的寫作可能是什麼樣的，有著截然不同的論述。

While also believing that the ultimate ambition of writing should be the expression of our genuine thoughts, this technique proposes that our best chances of reaching such thoughts lies in making every effort not to think too much, instead, just to write down everything that comes into our minds the very moment it does so, without any interest in seeming logical, elegant, clever or even very sane.

這種寫作技巧還認為，寫作的終極目標應該是表達我們的真實想法，是以它建議，我們達到這種想法的最佳機會在於盡一切努力不去想太多，而只是在腦海中浮現出一切的那一刻將其寫下來，不刻意追求顯得合乎邏輯、優雅、聰明，甚至非常理智。

This approach, known as automatic writing, asks us to begin by picking an important emotional topic, for example, my mother or my father, my partner or what I really want, and then writing as fast as we possibly can for two minutes straight without a single pause, which can feel like a very exhausting and peculiar requirement indeed.

這種方法被稱為 "自動寫作"，它要求我們首先選擇一個重要的情感話題，例如，我的母親或父親、我的伴侶或我真正想要的東西，然後儘可能快地連續寫兩分鐘，不能有絲毫停頓。

When we stand back and read what has tumbled out of us, our feelings about our parents, partners or desires may emerge as really very different from what we had presumed.

當我們回過頭來讀一讀自己的內心世界時，我們對父母、伴侶或慾望的感受可能會與我們的推測大相徑庭。

We might find that we hate where we had expected love or love where we had imagined disdain.

我們可能會發現，在我們期待愛的地方，我們會恨；在我們想象不屑的地方，我們會愛。

We might discover layers of longing, envy, rage or sadness that we had kept at bay day to day in the name of appearing that most stultifying and dangerous of things, normal.

我們可能會發現自己內心深處的渴望、嫉妒、憤怒或悲傷，這些都是我們日復一日以 "正常 "這一最令人窒息、最危險的事物為名而壓抑在心底的。

The value of the exercise lies precisely in the extent to which our automatic writing introduces us to feelings that are at odds with those we ordinarily dare to entertain.

這種練習的價值恰恰在於，我們的自動寫作在多大程度上將我們引入了與我們通常敢於接受的情感相悖的情感之中。

Much of what we are is damned up inside us by scruples, by a fear of hurting others, by an embarrassment as to what we want when it departs from the expected path.

我們的內心深處有許多顧忌，害怕傷害他人，當我們的想法偏離預期軌道時會感到尷尬。

Yet this neglect of our true selves is also what powers our anxiety, irritability, insomnia and depression, all of these species of revenge for the real thoughts we have been so careful not to allow into our conscious minds.

然而，這種對真實自我的忽視也正是我們焦慮、煩躁、失眠和抑鬱的根源，所有這些都是對我們一直小心翼翼不讓自己意識中的真實想法的報復。

Automatic writing will not make us into great writers, but it will do something far more useful still.

自動寫作不會讓我們成為偉大的作家，但它能做更有用的事情。

It will liberate us from some of the insincerities that are making us more troubled and restless than we should be.

它將使我們從一些不真誠的行為中解脫出來，這些不真誠的行為使我們更加煩惱和不安。

Our chaotic, intense two-minute essays will help us to meet the person we have been but were too scared to get to know all along.

我們雜亂無章、緊張激烈的兩分鐘作文將幫助我們遇見那個一直以來我們都不敢去了解的自己。