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Writing is About Story Telling
March 17, 2006

In a blog post this week, Paul Holmes makes an interesting case about the state of writing in public relations today. While Paul’s comments revolved around writing for award submissions, his points should really be expanded to include the state of public relations writing in general…and frankly, today’s writing as a whole. As Paul correctly states, people have forgotten (or never learned…which is really the bigger problem) the art of story telling. Too often I see people put down words without even considering the story they are trying to tell…without even considering the emotion, action or reaction they are trying to evoke from the reader.

All writing must have a purpose…yes, all writing. All writing must consider the reaction the author is trying to elicit from the reader and all writing must tell a story that challenges the reader to think about, act on or consider what the author is attempting to express. However, if the author does not have a firm idea of what he or she is trying to accomplish before the first word is even written, than the document, memo, email, letter, article or poem cannot have its desired effect.

So first think… what story do I want to tell? What do I want the reader to do? What do I want the reader to think? How do I want the reader to act? How do I want the reader to feel?

Paul Holmes’ comments are worth reading for all public relations professionals…and for anyone else who cares to learn about how to express themselves in a more compelling and impactful way.

P.S. I hope my kids are reading this….

Posted by Michael Kempner at March 17, 2006 02:32 PM