By: Isabella Zorich 

As PR professionals working in the nonprofit and advocacy space, we ask a lot of our audiences. We want them to care about people they may never meet, in communities they may never visit, facing crises they may never personally experience. That can be an enormous empathy leap.  

Fiction reading is repetition training for that leap. When we read novels, we find ourselves inside a character’s mind, separate from our own. We feel their fear on the witness stand, their shame after a grave mistake and their stubborn hope in the face of incomprehensible adversity. This practice mirrors the same cognitive move we ask of readers, journalists, donors and decision-makers every day. Psychologists call this “theory of mind”: the ability to infer the beliefs, intentions and emotions of another person, even when they’re very different from you.  

Studies show that when readers are emotionally transported into a fictional story, their empathy scores can measurably increase over time. Other research finds that people who often read fiction tend to do better on tests of social perception and perspective-taking than those who primarily read nonfiction. In other words, reading about imaginary people seems to sharpen our ability to read real ones. While this is a desirable quality in daily life, in advocacy, it is the work itself. 

How this manifests in practice 

Fiction reading enables us to identify characters, not just content. In other words, deciphering the who, not just the what. A great novel or story creates a world around a specific human being with a name, a backstory and conflicting motivations. The more we live with this kind of specificity on the page, the harder it becomes to reduce real people to their circumstances in our writing.  

Fiction also helps us identify and follow shifting perspectives. Literary fiction in particular often moves in and out of different points of view in the same scene. This is an idea called “polyphony” in literary theory, but in PR, this can map directly onto being able to hold a client’s anxiety, a reporter’s skepticism and a community member’s lived reality all at the same time. This awareness enables us to craft language that helps us anticipate questions and reactions instead of being blindsided by them.  

Fiction and the Importance of Narrative Framing 

In mission-driven advocacy and communications, narrative framing is essential to deciding which truths to foreground, which questions to pose and what emotional arc will help people see an issue clearly without oversimplifying it. Fiction is a training ground for this kind of intentional storytelling. Most great novels open with a moment. A slap in the face, a phone that won’t stop ringing, a character running late to an important meeting. Advocacy stories, too, work better when they start from a concrete scene, instead of beginning with abstract claims.  

Good fiction also sits with tension. It lets conflicting truths exist in the same space. For advocates working on complicated issues, tolerance for tension matters. The easiest frame is often “good versus bad,” but the framing that lasts typically includes greater honesty and nuance. 

Fiction as a Counterbalance to Speed 

PR and communications culture are inherently fast paced. We are tasked with rapidly responding to a twenty-four-hour news cycle. This reflex is valuable, but if everything in our professional and informational diets is fast and fragmented, it is easy to lose a feel for longer arcs that actually shift public conversations.  

Fiction pushes us in the opposite direction. In following a fictional narrative, we have to remember early details, keep track of threads and wait for slow payoffs. This is very close to what advocacy campaigns require. More than just trying to capture attention on a given day, we are trying to challenge what people think is normal, fair and possible. Reading longer, demanding stories can help us develop this ability in the midst of an environment that constantly pushes us toward quick wins. 

Final Thoughts

PR teams need not organize formal book clubs, but it is worth considering fiction reading as an important part of professional development. It is a valuable, quiet way that people in the field can sharpen their skills and set themselves apart.  

At our best, those of us who work in PR for advocacy do not exist solely to manufacture attention. We exist to help people see and feel what is already true. Fiction can be one of the most reliable ways to prepare for that responsibility.