40 You Have a Book in You 吀栀e secret was to always go from a speci昀椀c incident to a general principle—the inductive method. Crichton started putting this approach to work in one of his 昀椀rst books, entitled Five Patients. Instead of making grand pronouncements about health and healing, he told the stories of 昀椀ve 昀氀esh- and- blood human beings. 吀栀e princi- ples emerged from the stories, rather than the other way around. (Deductive writing and thinking can also work. My great and inspiring teacher, Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller, wrote forty books, starting deductively from the universe to speci昀椀cs. Each form can be e昀昀ectively utilized.) Readers don’t like to be preached at. Even in a non昀椀c- tion book, they want to read stories. So one of your most important tasks is 昀椀nding the story that most e昀昀ectively communicates your concept. 吀栀e way to do this isn’t always obvious, and it isn’t always easy. But no matter what your topic is, the human story is always there. 吀栀e phenomenon of climate change expresses itself in one person’s air conditioning bill. Fluctuations in gas prices mean rescheduled family vacations. Start small, and then widen the focus. 吀栀at’s the rule. A Writing Secret from Mario Puzo If you don’t want your book to sleep with the 昀椀shes, the author of 吀栀e Godfather had some good advice. Mario