What I am going to tell you here will be obvious to some readers, but to others, perhaps not. There are two objectives that any piece of writing has, only two, and this is true for either fiction or non-fiction.
All writing exists either to:
1. Educate (self or others); and/or,
2. Entertain (self or others).
That’s it. That is the bottom line. You can think about any piece of writing from the cave paintings in Lascaux France to the operators manual for the Superconducting Supercollider, and they were all written to educate or entertain. My view is that if the writing does both then it is better.
So what has this got to do with keeping the end in mind? What I mean is, have a clear objective when you start writing something, whether that objective is written down or just in your mind. A clear objective, a destination, saves time and makes your writing better. Let me give you an example from my own work. Continue reading Writing 101: Start With the End in Mind (Write to Educate, Entertain, or Preferably Both)
