有一位小友曾问我:“什么是‘专业作家’?”我笑道:“‘作文专业户,呗!”确实,我如今天天都要写“作文”。这篇文章,就是《中文自修》杂志要我写的“命题作文”。可是,我小时候却怕写作文呢!那时候,我觉得写作文是一桩难事。为什么呢?做算术题,只要你懂了原理,就能做出来。可是,写作文就不一样,即使把语文课本背得滚瓜烂熟,写起作文来未必顺手。特别是作文题目千变万化,老师今天出这个题目,明天出那个题目,没有什么现成的“作文公式”可以套用,光靠死记硬背也对付不了。我记得,那时候我出过不少“洋相”:有一次。老师出了《我的志愿》这样 A small friend once asked me: “What is a ’professional writer’?” I laughed and said: “The professional essayist, eh!” Indeed, I must write “composition” today. This article is the “propositional composition” that I wrote in the “Chinese Self-Study” magazine. However, I was afraid of writing when I was a child! At that time, I thought writing was a difficult task. Why? When you do arithmetic, as long as you understand the principle, you can do it. However, the writing is not the same. Even if the language textbooks are thoroughly familiar, writing an essay may not be easy. In particular, the subject of the composition is ever-changing. The teacher has this topic today. Tomorrow the topic, there is no ready-made “formal formula” that can be applied. It is also impossible to cope with rote learning alone. I remember that at that time I had a lot of “foreigners”: once. The teacher made the “My Volunteer” like this