Short-Story Tips for Business Writers

I mentioned I’d just completed a short-story writing workshop and the more I’ve thought about it, the more I think some of the same tips will work for business writing. It's all about telling a story.

Joe Bunting (thewritepractice.com) breaks the short-story writing process down into steps. First, he suggests you bang out a first draft in one sitting. Yes, it’ll be rough and in need of research – but this isn’t the time to stop and do that research.

Momentum is key, so just leave blanks for whatever facts or figures you’ll need to round up later. This is just the skeleton, the frame on which the rest will be built.

Next, short-story writers have to decide who their protagonist will be. For the business writer, I’d change that to, “Decide what your point is and who your audience is.” Does what you’ve written so far fit your intended reader or listener? Does it clearly say what you want to get across?

A good opening line is a necessity for any type of writing. Here’s one of my stories' opening lines:

The day Jasper and Sarah got married, I guess the only thing out of the ordinary was that both of them were already married to other people at the time.

Now you have to know more, right? “Surprise us,” says Bunting. “Like the opening of a film, invite us into the scene.”

From here, he suggests creating a scene list. Short-story writers plot the action, scene by scene, so they can pinpoint where they’ll need more information. This might be helpful for speeches, or longer documents like annual reports, but isn’t necessary for short, punchy news releases.

Only at this point should you stop to do research, to fill in the blanks and flesh out the details.

And finally, it’s time to edit, fine-tune, revise – remembering to read it aloud, even if that isn’t the way your words will eventually be used. Reading copy out loud is the best way to ensure that it’s conversational and that it flows well from one point to the next.

(Photo credit: Alvimann/morguefile)