If Michael Crichton's 6-foot-9 frame doesn't draw attention, at least his work seems ever-present on bookshelves, movie screens and televisions.
But Crichton is obsessively private. The Hollywood press has ranked him among the 10 toughest celebrities to interview. He works in virtual isolation, almost every project a secret.That's why a civil trial in St. Louis, in which Crichton defended himself against charges that he stole a screenplay to make the hit film "Twister," was a rare glimpse into how he works. (A jury ruled Jan. 28 that Crichton did not copy a story called "Catch the Wind" to write his screenplay.)
As Crichton testified about how he developed the film's story, he provided evidence for reasons readers love his work - and reasons many critics pan it for being shallow and too eager to please.
One thing was clear: Crichton's mind works as fast as a runaway 'raptor.
Since Crichton started writing under pseudonyms while at Harvard Medical School in the 1960s, his output has been steady: He wrote books (that later became films) such as "The Andromeda Strain," "Rising Sun," "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World." He directed films and came up with the concept for "ER."
Crichton's work on "Twister" showed how fast he seizes an idea.
For years Crichton and his wife, Anne-Marie Martin, discussed a movie about tornado chasers, scientists who follow the storms to learn about them. Crichton had been fascinated by a "NOVA" documentary on the subject.
But there was no story.
Martin suggested a "zany screwball comedy" hearkening back to the 1940s - like the Cary Grant-Rosalind Russell hit "His Girl Friday," a love triangle taking place amid great stress.
"As soon as I heard the idea, I saw the whole picture," Crichton said.
In the courtroom Crichton sketched out his vision of the plot of "Twister": a series of tornadoes intermingled with three characters whose lives intersect.
Although he quickly envisioned the plot, Crichton said his style is to retreat from a story for a few weeks. He gets so many ideas that it's not always easy to distinguish the good ones from the bad.
An idea is like a love affair, said the man who has been married four times. If it is good, it will last.
Crichton usually works alone but said he enjoyed collaborating with Martin on "Twister." While writing, they acted out the roles to improve.
Crichton sat at their Macintosh, Martin peering over his shoulder. They saved every day's work in a different file. If changes were made - and later reconsidered - it was easy to go back and find the original.
The writing logistics reflected Crichton's celebrity.
At Harvard, Crichton squeezed in writing among his studies. While writing "Twister" in early 1994, Crichton had to help find a director for the film version of "Disclosure"; do publicity tours for his sequel to "Jurassic Park," "The Lost World"; and help rewrite the pilot for "ER."
Crichton went weeks without working on "Twister." When he finally started in earnest, it took about seven months to finish. Crichton said he likes to write the story, then complete his research to ensure that the work is scientifically accurate.
While writing "Twister," Crichton watched more documentaries on tornadoes and read reference books to come up with "technical-sounding dialogue."
In the St. Louis courtroom, Crichton suggested that writing wasn't hard if one followed certain "rules." For example, the storms - or killer viruses, whatever the threat - should get more dangerous throughout the story.
Often it seemed he was more excited about the personalities of the tornadoes than of the leads, played by Helen Hunt and Bill Pax-ton.
That would be no surprise to critics of Crichton's works, who say he is unable - or unwilling - to thoroughly develop characters.
In The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani once sarcastically spelled out the five-step formula to writing a Crichton best seller.
Among the secrets: "End each chapter on a cliff-hanging note to make sure that readers will keep reading, regardless of the characters' vapidity."
Even Crichton's attorney, trying to distance his script from that of plaintiff Steven Kessler, said "Twister" is "not a lot of heavy stuff."
A test screening revealed that audiences didn't understand that the same little girl who watches a tornado destroy her home in the opening scene grows up to be the character played by Hunt. A and new dialogue helped clarify the point, Crichton said.
"We were later criticized for this as pounding the audience over the head," he said. "The fact is, the audience needed all of this."
And if the ending sequence seems a little implausible, the author who values scientific accuracy essentially said, "So what?"
"This is the place where the audience expects us to give them all the `movie magic,' " he said.