I got in my first car accident when I was sixteen.
我人生的第一场车祸发生在我十六岁时。
I had just gotten my license and I was driving home when a car pulled into the intersection and bang! It hit me.
那时，我刚拿到驾照并驾车回家，这时候，一辆车驶入了交叉路口，然后，“嘣” 的一声，这辆车撞上了我的车。
It had happened that quick. Bang!
事情发生得如此之快。只在一声巨响之间！
But when I play that memory back, it doesn't take two seconds.
但是，当我回忆这起事故时，它并非只是两秒钟内发生的事。
I see the tires of the car rolling through the stop sign, I have time to think,
我看到那辆车的轮胎滚动着驶过停车标志，我还在思考着：
"You know, I think that car is going to hit me."
“我想这辆车就快撞上我了”。
I see the right-hand corner of the hood crumple up like tin foil,
我看到发动机罩的右角像锡箔纸一样地皱了起来，
I see the red paint flake off and drift off into the air,
我看到车上的红色涂料剥落着并漂散到空气中，
I can see all of that, like it's happening in slow motion.
我能看到所有的这些，就像慢镜头回放一样。
In my memory, that experience takes ten seconds. But why?
在我的记忆中，那次事故只发生在十秒之中。但是，为什么呢？
Why did that memory play back longer than the actual time it took?
为什么记忆回放的时间被拉长到比实际发生的时间要长得多？
This is an interesting phenomenon and it's not just for car accidents, a roller coaster, or a first kiss.
这是个非常有趣的现象，而且不仅限于交通事故，过山车、初吻等等。
These events seem to take longer than they actually take. But why?
这些事件在回忆时，都好像比真实发生的时间要长。究竟是为什么？
And when it comes to writing about that experience, how do I get that peculiar feeling across?
当我开始把这种经历付诸笔头的时候，我是怎样理解这种奇妙的感受的？
How do I slow down time as a writer?
我要怎样像一个作家一样，把时间拉长？
To get the answer, we have to visit Hollywood.
为了寻求答案，我们需要去拜访一下好莱坞。
You see, the way filmmakers create slow motion will tell us a lot about how writers can create slow motion.
你们看，电影摄制者制作慢镜头的方式，可以让我们明白作家是怎样创作慢动作场景的。
First, let's remember how film works.
首先，让我们想想电影是怎样运作的。
When the camera turns on, it's not recording motion, it's taking lots and lots of individual pictures.
当摄影机工作时，它并非在记录动作，而是在记录若干独立的画面。
Then when those pictures are played back in the projector,
当这些画面在投影机上被回放时，
they blend together and create the appearance of motion, like a flip book.
它们就混合在一起，形成了动作的表象，就像手翻动画书一样。
So, let's imagine that a camera man needs to film his actress skipping through a field of daisies in regular motion.
那么，让我们试想一下，一个摄像师需要拍摄女演员在一片雏菊地里跳跃的画面，并用正常的速度呈现出来。
Ready, action. She skips across the field, he records it, and...cut.
预备，开拍！她在野地里跳跃，他在拍摄，然后，停。
Let's say for the sake of easy math that our camera man took 50 pictures, 50 little frames on that length of film.
为了简便运算，让我们假设摄像师拍下了50个画面，也就是胶片上的50帧。
Now, let's take that film and play it back at the rate of 50 frames per 5 seconds.
现在，让我们拿出这段影片来回放，用每5秒50帧的速度。
This rate is constant, the projector will always go at the same speed.
这个速率是不变的，投影机会一直按照相同的速度播放。
It's easy, we got 50 frames, so our film takes 5 seconds.
非常简单，我们有50帧画面，所以我们的影片播放需要5秒钟。
She skips across the field...and cut!
她在田野中跳跃...然后，停。
So, then, how do we slow down time in film?
所以，接下来，我们要怎样让影片中的时间慢下来呢？
How do we create slow motion?
我们要怎样制作慢镜头呢？
Maybe this is a surprise, but we don't take less pictures, we take more pictures. Ready, action!
这可能会让你吃惊，不过我们并非是通过拍摄更少的画面，而是拍摄更多的画面。预备，开拍！
She skips across the field, he records it, and cut.
她在田野中跳跃，他拍摄下来，然后，停。
Now we have a lot of film, a long length, let's say 100 frames long.
现在，我们有了一长段拍摄完的胶片，假设是100帧那么长吧。

Now, when we play it back, it takes a longer time to get through, and there's the actress in slow motion.
现在，如果我们将胶片回放，会需要更长的时间来完成播放，演员的动作会呈现出慢镜头的效果。
Skipping through the field of daisies! Which brings us now to writing.
在雏菊地里跳跃着！这把我们带回到了写作上。
When you're writing a narrative, you may want to use slow motion in one of your scenes.
当你要写一篇记叙文的时候，你可能会在你描写的一个场景中用到慢镜头。
It's a cool effect, just like it is in Hollywood, and it draws the reader's attention to important moments.
这是种很酷的效果，就像好莱坞电影里的一样，它能够在重要的时刻抓住读者的注意力。
Well, here's how you do it. You see, when we read,
你可以试着这么做。你们看，当我们阅读的时候，
our brain makes the words into pictures and the pictures blend into action.
我们的大脑会将读到的词语形成画面，然后把画面组合形成动作。
So what we read is what we see in the time it takes us to read it.
所以，我们所读到的也就是当我们在阅读的当下在头脑中所形成的画面。
For example, imagine you're writing a narrative about your game-winning free throw in the championship game.
比如说，试想你正在描写一场冠军赛中致胜的一个罚球场景。
Here's a moment as a writer that you might want to slow down time
在这个时刻，作为一个作者，你可能需要使时间慢下来，
to really capture the second-by-second tension produced by the scene.
以真正把握住这个场景中秒与秒之间的张力。
You concentrate, you put the pencil to paper, you really want to slow down time, you write,
你集中精力，你握笔展纸，你想要使得时间慢下来，你写道：
"I shot the ball in the hoop. Time slowed down. Then we won."
“我将球投入篮中。时间慢了下来。然后我们赢了。”
To read that, takes two seconds; therefore, your reader imagines a scene that takes two seconds.
读完这句话只需要两秒；所以，你的读者会想象出一个只有两秒的场景。
Ball goes up, comes down, done.
球被抛出，落下。这样而已。
See, even though you wrote, "time slowed down," you didn't achieve that effect for your reader.
你会看到，即便你写下了：“时间慢了下来”，你并没有达到读者预期的效果。
Just saying it doesn't make it happen.
只是说出来并不代表它会发生。
Now, let's take what we make about film, time slows down with more pictures, and try again.
现在，让我们采用电影制作的原理，用更多的画面让时间慢下来，然后再试试看。
This time write A LOT more. "I bent my knees and held the ball loosely.
这一次，写出更多的内容。“我弯下膝盖，轻松地握着球。
Letting the ball bounce on the floor once more, I gathered my thoughts. This was the moment.
让球在地板上又弹了一次，我整理着思绪。就是这一时刻。
My right arm extended as I released the ball with a gentle flick,
我张开右臂，将球轻轻地投了出去，
it rotated slightly as it arched toward the rim. I held my breath.
它轻巧地划出弧线，到达了篮筐的边缘。我屏住呼吸。
The ball nudged the back rim, falling through the net with a gentle, satisfying swish.
球在篮框边缘后部轻轻回旋，柔和地掉入篮中，漂亮的入筐。
And the crowd exploded from their seats."
全场观众掌声雷动。”
See, we just slowed down time through our writing.
看到了吧，我们刚才做到了通过写作让时间慢下来。
The bottom line is this: there are moments in life that take longer than they actually take.
要领是这样的：生命中的一些时刻，会比它们实际发生的时间要长。
When you're planning out your narrative, think about those moments, those snippets of life that took longer than the watch:
当你在为你的叙述打草稿时，认真想想这些时刻，这些在感受上会比实际时间长的零星片段：
the moment of hearing bad news, the moment of hearing good news,
听到坏消息时，听到好消息时，
the moment of exhilaration when you realize you hit the jump, or the moment when you realize you aren't going to land it.
当你起跳投篮成功的喜悦时刻，或者当你意识到你无法投进球时...
Once you identify these moments in your narrative, you can use this effect of slow motion when you write.
当你抓住叙述中的这些时刻时，你可以在写作中运用慢镜头效果。
Just remember, it's not enough to say, "time slowed down"
记住，仅仅只说“时间慢了下来”是不够的，
and it's not enough to throw a couple adjectives in a sentence and call it done either.
而且，在一个句子中抛出若干形容词也是远远不够的。
Descriptive writing is good writing, that's true.
描述性的写作是好的写作，没错。
But if you want to express the feeling of slow motion in life,
不过，如果你想表达出生活中发生的慢镜头场景的感受，
you have to actually take up more physical space on the page, use more film so to speak.
你不得不将更多的物理空间占据在页面上，用更多的画面来说话。
In doing so, you will create tension and keep your reader interested.
这样做的话，你可以制造张力，引读者入胜。
And that way, the next time you write, you'll control the camera of your own writing.
通过这种方式，在你下次写作的时候，你就可以掌控你笔下的镜头了。