Stories engage people. A story of even a few brief sentences is memorable, personal, and vivid, whereas facts are often forgettable, impersonal, and dull. Stories grab attention. Even readers who are bombarded by information become drawn to a tale of imagination.
To add the power of story to your writing, you need not insert a long narrative. You may simply incorporate a metaphor, quotation, analogy, familiar scene, colorful character, bit of dialog, or another story element. Experiment with the ideas below.
1. Use natural language.
Most business writing teems with empty words such as optimization, implementation, integration, synergistic, and customer-centric. But guess what? You will never find those words in a short story or novel.
Write like a human being instead of a social scientist or a software engineer. Rather than “global training initiative,” why not say “Employees from Mumbai to Minneapolis will follow the same steps to sign up for classes.” (This example also uses alliteration in the city names, and rhythm. The two “M” cities are catchier than “from Mumbai to St. Paul,” and “classes” echoes “Minneapolis.”)
2. Use similes and metaphors to invite a fresh look at content.
This simile-metaphor gets the reader’s attention:
Our current system is about as easy to navigate as a muddy mountain trail after a month of spring rain. Our security features are the tree trunks downed across the only open path. Challenging? Yes. But do our customers come to us for a challenge?
3. Use specific details.
Although it may seem paradoxical, your specific details help readers experience your story as universal.
For instance, I wrote recently about the value of telling readers what to do—not what not to do. The blog entry begins this way:
Yesterday, while I was chopping vegetables, my 12-year-old came into the kitchen and asked me about taking medicine for her runny nose. She showed me the box of tablets she had taken from our medicine cabinet, and we looked at the box together.
Because of the details, the reader joins me in the scene with the vegetables, sniffling daughter, and box of tablets. If I had written “One day when I was busy, my daughter came to me with some medicine she wanted to take,” the words would be too vague to thrust the reader into the scene. (Read the entire blog entry, Please Tell Me What to Do.)
4. Present some people.
People interest people. When you have actual customers or clients to describe, do so. But feel free to create characters. Introduce them with a phrase such as “Imagine Claire and Kelly.”
At the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., a walk-through exhibit is called “Remember the Children: Daniel’s Story.” The fact that Daniel is a composite rather than a real child does not make the story less moving.
5. Use dialog to bring readers into the piece.
Here is a scene about telling the truth in resumes:
As we went step by step through Bob’s resume, we finally got to his education. He listed some maintenance training he had had, along with the words “high school graduate.” Bob told me, “I fudged on that. I didn’t actually graduate. I got my GED.”
The dialog helps the reader see the situation from Bob’s point of view, and the words “I fudged” are a launching point for the message. (Read my blog entry The Power of the Truth for the whole story.)
6. Appeal to your readers’ senses.
Help readers feel the sleekness of the new controls in their hands, see the gold filigree against the red marble plaque, or hear and sniff the sizzling steaks. When you use adjectives (full, blue, blaring), ask yourself, “Is that word true? Does it accurately describe?” When the word is not quite right, push yourself to find the right one.
7. Create analogies.
Even if the thought of using dialog, characters, and colorful language intimidates you, analogies are your friend. They are perfect for illustrating abstract and technical concepts. Read my article “Imagine This: Using Analogies,” which covers this topic in detail.
8. Use active, present tense verbs.
Powerful writing communicates with vivid verbs. Avoid dull constructions like “There are two reliable methods that can be used for computing the budget.” Instead write “Use one of two reliable methods to compute the budget” or “Managers choose from two reliable methods to compute their budgets.”
Rather than the future tense “This manual will help you create better customer experiences,” write “This manual helps you create better customer experiences.” Present tense verbs are more immediate.
9. Communicate universal truths.
In fiction, authors must convincingly present universal truths, or readers will reject the writing as dishonest. When you write, make it your business to tell the truth. If employees are being forced to move from huge offices with plentiful free parking, do not try to sugarcoat their new tiny offices and limited, costly parking. Once you try to tell that lie, you cripple your ability to influence.
10. Invite readers to join you—don’t demand compliance.
Learn from storytellers, who expect to create the setting, invent the characters, establish the story line, etc., to win over their readers. As a business writer, do not expect readers to comply “because you say so.” Hope they will comply because you have done the work of telling them the truth in an engaging way.
11. Give a story time to grow.
When you are working on a career-making proposal, recommendation, or other piece, do not expect it to write itself in a day. As the Greek philosopher Epictetus said, “No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you desire a fig, let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.” For business writers, this means letting ideas develop. It also means scanning your life for stories, metaphors, and analogies.
12. Read business stories.
Remember the advice of writing teachers everywhere: If you want to write stories, read stories. I recommend Annette Simmons’s The Story Factor: What Story Can Do That Facts Can’t. It is filled with good examples, explanations, heart, and soul.
If you are not yet comfortable in your role as a business writer, the suggestions above may seem daunting. To familiarize yourself with these approaches, pick just one to try. Then experiment with it in a low-stakes assignment. Once you succeed, future risks and successes will come more easily. |
