Two Tips from a Novelist Apt for the Workplace Writer

In an April 28 article appearing on the Writer’s Digest website, author Karen Dionne shares what she learned from the work of mega-hit author Michael Crichton (The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery, Jurassic Park, and Disclosure, among many other blockbuster novels). The article, “Michael Crichton’s Top 5 Writing Lessons,” offers three suggestions that work best for the fiction writer: surprise your reader, keep the clock ticking by maintaining tension, and play fast and loose with the facts).

But the two other tips are of immediate use for the business and technical writer: challenge your reader and get your facts straight. We should never assume that our readers are our intellectual inferiors; on the contrary, we should challenge them to consider new ideas based on compelling, accurate evidence. Here’s a link to the brief article: http://writersdigest.com/article/michael-crichton-top-5-writing-lessons