William Faulkner on Writing From the Heart

William Faulkner was one of the greatest writers of all time.

Read what the geni­us nov­el writer William Faulkner said in his 1950 accept­ance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature:

“[…] the young man or woman writ­ing today has for­got­ten the prob­lems of the human heart in con­flict with itself which alone can make good writ­ing because only that is worth writ­ing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach him­self that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teach­ing him­self that, for­get it forever, leav­ing no room in his work­shop for any­thing but the old ver­it­ies and truths of the heart, the uni­ver­sal truths lack­ing which any story is eph­em­er­al and doomed – love and hon­or and pity and pride and com­pas­sion and sac­ri­fice.

Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses any­thing of value, and vic­tor­ies without hope and worst of all, without pity or com­pas­sion. His griefs grieve on no uni­ver­sal bones, leav­ing no scars.

He writes not of the heart but of the glands.”

All stra­tegic PR mes­saging should begin with this simple yet power­ful ques­tion; is this a mat­ter of the heart? Is this a real story about love, hon­our, pity, pride, com­pas­sion, or sacrifice? 

Read also: How Nick Cave Turned Down MTV With Some Classy Writing

Communication is not primar­ily about speak­ing your mind but find­ing the right words in your heart. How do you make people care about your PR message?

We care about con­flicts.
We care about stakes.

Sometimes, I find inspir­a­tion just from look­ing at the illus­tra­tion below as a remind­er to high­light the emo­tion­al aspect of being alive:

PR Resource: Checklist for Leadership Clarity