Sometimes you get a great quote second hand. That’s what happened with this week’s “Advice from the Masters.” I was reading Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call. In that book, Jacqui Banaszynski shared the following quote from her “friend and fellow writer,” Katherine Lanpher. I think it’s great advice for anyone who wants to write a business book.
“Stories are the connective tissue of the human race, whether you are dissecting a school levy or South Korean politics. At the heart of every issue is a human element that leads to the three most beautiful words in the English language: What happened next? If you answer that question, you are a storyteller.”
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If you want even more writing advice from writers, check out Jon Winokur’s blog, “AdvicetoWriters.”
I wish that more people who wrote business books thought like that! Since the beginnings of time, when we sat in our caves, stories have been central to our lives. Our brains are hardwired for narrative, so it makes huge sense to take advantage of that.