Image: Jan Landers

If you think your writing can save the world, please think again. I really don't believe any one person is up to that job, not even a Write 'em Cowgirl. I think it would take a massive change of heart and outlook on the parts of billions of people to do that. If you set your heart on saving the world by means of your own writing, you are likely to get it smashed to bits (or get yourself martyred for little gain).

Image © Sharon Cousins 2009

Every act, every word, sends ripples into a larger world.

Changing the world, on the other hand, is something we all achieve every day. People, animals… even butterflies change the world, whether in small ways or ways that become greater than they can know. Some of you may have a goal of trying to change the world for the better with your writing while others may just want to write great stories or articles because you enjoy it or want to sell your writing and share your creativity through writing. There's nothing wrong with any of those goals, but I think it's good to recognize that whatever the purpose of your writing, it will change the world, so even if that's not on your goal list it's good to think about the effects of what you put out.

If your goal is to write successfully for positive social or political or environmental (or whatever) change, then you need to be smart and really take a look at what actually works for reaching people. FEW PEOPLE ENJOY GETTING BEATEN ABOUT THE HEAD AND SHOULDERS WITH SOMEONE ELSE'S IDEALISM!!! Maybe you do know more about your subject than your readers, but if you don't connect what you know with what they do know and credit them with some intelligence, you will come across as a smarty-pants know-it-all, which is likely to be counter-productive.

At least some of you have probably read the novel Dune, by Frank Herbert. In Dune, there is quite a bit of one-on-one close-up fighting. The fighters use a device that provides an invisible shield that stops anything moving quickly from penetrating. They fight hard and fast, but the coup de grace has to slip in slowly and gracefully. It is easier to slip new ideas to people gently than to bully or badger or rant them into looking at your ideas.

Image: Gnibouwa Diassana

Mr. Diassana, in addition to being an artist, is busy with his project, Sun for All, which works to design, build, and distribute solar cookers adapted for Mali and made from locally available materials. Micro-loan programs help make cookers accesible to those who most need them. This man works every day to avert the grim future shown in his painting. Mr. Diassana is the recipient of the 2006 Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy.

You may be angry with some (or a lot) of what is happening in the world. I wouldn't blame you if you were, but if you put out anger, the most likely result is resistance. Try to funnel that anger into something that will make things better, not something that may let you blow off a little steam while actually setting up so much resistance it makes things worse. If you need to do an anger dump, use your journal (or possibly a rants forum where everyone knows you're mostly letting off excess steam). Then get back to looking at what actually works for reaching people in a way that encourages them to listen.

In June of 2008, I had the great good fortune to attend the first part of Anya Achtenberg's "Writing for Social Change" workshop series, "Re-dream a Just World", at the annual IWWG Conference. As Anya said one day in class, "Language is the most collective thing that we have."

In a sense, every story or article or poem creates a community, because that piece enters the collective consciousness of everyone who reads it, linking them whether they know it or not. You may be writing for a particular community (aka "market" in some contexts), but you are also creating community as you go. What kind of community of collective consciousness will your writing create?

Two good questions from Anya's workshop were:

"What is at stake when you write?"

"What do you hold on to when you write?"

Whether you are attempting to write directly for change or trying to write because you hope to write great fiction or non-fiction and support yourself writing or points beyond and between, questions such as these three are worthy of consideration for every writer from time to time. Honest answers can deepen your craft, your commitment to your writing, and your connection to your muse. Try a freewrite on each of these questions.

There are many ways to use writing as a tool of change. You do not have to write a treatise or manifesto to change the world in a positive way. Let's take an imaginary Write 'em Cowgirl, Kate. Kate is in high school and writes for her school paper. Kate works hard to write a short, punchy article presenting some good reasons not to drink and drive (or a funny short story about a date gone sour because of ending up in a muddy ditch that has the same effect). Another student thinks of the article the following Saturday night and decides to call for a ride instead of driving after a couple of beers. Now, what if a man who would have discovered a cure for some dread disease or some useful new invention if he had lived is driving the car that student would otherwise have hit? Well, you get my drift. Small seeds can bear big fruit.

Image © Sharon Cousins 2009

Don't be constrained by presumptions or assumptions of convention—burst free and rise beyond the mold!

Don't feel that you can "only" effect change through, say, op-ed pieces and letters to officials. If what you are really drawn to is travel essays, find a way to do it there. Write pieces that make other places and people more real and more understandable to the people who read them to help wear away the us/them mindset that plagues this world. Write pieces that can show (without preaching—paint a word-picture that helps people draw their own conclusions) the difference between an area that is eroding due to deforestation or otherwise being damaged by humans and one that is not. Take people to the beautiful places we still have left and make them so real that people can see for themselves why we should save what few we still have. When you visit a new place to collect material for articles, explore (with attention to safety and sensibility) some places that are off the beaten track of tourist attractions and shopping districts, places where the everyday people live.

Informational articles, personal essays, travel essays (especially those that really help people get inside part of another culture or place), short stories or novels (but not by making them preachy or pontifical!) op-ed pieces, some kinds of memoir, how-to articles, letters, speeches… the list of kinds of writing that can and do change the world in positive ways is almost endless. Even diaries. Consider the impact of Anne Frank's on the hearts of the millions of people who have read it. One little girl takes the trouble to put pen to paper and over half a century later, millions of people are inspired by her thoughts. I know I'm a better person because of reading Anne Frank, and I am far from alone.

A simple, well written article or story that takes into account how to attract and hold the interest of its target audience can often do a great deal more good than reams of rants or pontifications or sermons or catalogues of screaming horrors or (perhaps the worst, if your goal is to be effective), long and poorly organized rambles that never quite get to a point. Getting someone to ask one good question or question one assumption accomplishes more than getting dozens to mindlessly chant or display slogans (though good slogans do have their place). Present your facts or your story in a way that encourages people to think, to make the connections themselves and draw their own conclusions. If you treat your readers like intelligent people, at least some will respond accordingly, and a conclusion one has drawn for oneself goes much deeper than hearing someone else's conclusion.

Some of us like writing in a variety of styles or genres while some of us have a strong pull to one or two. If you are one of the latter, you do not have to force yourself into a style or genre that doesn't fit to effect positive change in your community or the world.

Image from "Hunted Like Animals", used by permission of award-winning filmmaker Rebecca Sommer, who tells the following story:

This image shows a Hmong Lao refugee girl, who was held in a crowded detention cell without daylight for over two years. When she and her parents fled from Laos to Thailand, Thai authorities arrested them. Other countries offered to resettle them, but Thailand announced that they would be forced to return to Laos, the place from which they had fled to escape persecution.

View clips from this award winning documentary in Quicktime or see them at You Tube. There are clips from some of her other films, too. She does beautiful work.

Terrible things happen on this planet each day. If you are one of those writers drawn to take on these things, you are tackling a tough job. You may be asking people to confront the unspeakable, the unimaginable, the unthinkable. If people turn away from your words in rage or nauseated disgust or dismay, they will not have the opportunity to take in your ideas or the story you are trying to tell them. How do we write the unspeakable so that people can listen? In a maelstrom of cruelty and injustice, can we become the eye of the hurricane or the calm before the storm? We don't want to sugar-coat the cruelty and injustice, but a calm and reasoning tone is more likely to be listened to than a rant.

If change writing is important to you, you will do yourself a huge favor if you can manage to take Anya Achtenberg's "Writing for Social Change", a three-part workshop that explores many issues of effective change writing. I've been through the first part, "Re-dream a Just World," and I'm hoping to make the big International Women's Writing Guild conference in June to start the second part, "Place and Exile; Borders and Crossings." Anya teaches this workshop (and others that sound interesting … Anya is a fantastic teacher) in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. She travels to teach in other places where there is a demand for her workshops. If you have a large enough pool of interest in your writing community, contact Anya about the possibility of bringing her to your community or conference for a workshop. In addition to a offering number of group workshops, Anya's services for individual writers include manuscript consultations, coaching sessions, and one-on-one instruction, which can be done over the Internet when needed. I hold this incredible writer, woman, and teacher in very high regard. If you really want to write for change in a powerful way and feel your writing needs a boost, you could not to better than to study with or get some coaching from this powerful woman and fine teacher.

Mary Reynolds Thompson, CPCC, CAPF, is a change writer and writing coach (among other things.. I wouldn't dream of limiting Mary!). She is a fabulous blend of grounded and high-powered and leads a heck of a workshop—a real write 'em cowgirl. I have attended two of Mary's workshops, "Writing From the Root Voice" (2007) and "Dangerous Voices," at the spring VoicesConference of the IWWG, held each March in the redwoods near Santa Cruz, Ca. Mary is an inspiring and energizing teacher—even a few hours of work-shopping with her helped my writing in a way I still feel. Her change writing currently centers around the website for her upcoming book, Awakening the Eco-Soul. It is lovely site with much inspiration as well as food for thought and concern, and I highly recommend Mary's short, free monthly e-newsletter—there's a sign-up box on every page of her Eco-Soul site. It's like a breath of fresh air in my email box.

In her role as writing coach and teacher, Mary Reynolds Thompson is the founder of Write the Damned Book, offering everything from workshops to coaching sessions to help writers get the job done and done well. I highly recommend Mary as a teacher and coach, as well as a source of environmental inspiration.

I am finishing my first read-through of Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher, PhD. Dr. Pipher holds a BA in cultural anthropology and a PhD in clinical psychology and puts both areas of expertise to good use in writing this book. She draws some interesting parallels between the role of a change writer and the role of a psychologist, and I think she has some good insights on writing so people can listen. I also liked that she was willing to use examples of her own work in at least one or two places to illustrate how not to do it. She learned from her mistakes and generously offers us the opportunity to do likewise. There is some good advice on writing and writing processes (including revision) and the psychology of change and of writing for change. There are also short specific chapters for some categories that are typically thought of as change writing: Letters, Speeches, Personal Essays, Blogs, and Music and Poetry. I think this book would be useful to a lot of writers who want to make a point of writing for change.

For change writing, as for any type of creative prose, Susan M. Tiberghien's book, One Year to a Writing Life — Twelve Lessons to Deepen Every Writer's Craft has my vote for best broad-spectrum writing book you could own. If you want your prose to be deeper and richer and clearer, Susan's book may well help you get there (especially if you take it seriously and do the exercises). The chapters on Opinion and Travel Essays, Personal Essays, and Poetic Prose and the Prose Poem might be of particular interest to change writers, but the whole book is very worthwhile. If you ever have an opportunity to attend one of Susan's workshops, jump at the chance. She is a first-rate teacher up close and personal, whichever of her workshops she is teaching, but if you can't have that, be grateful the book exists (especially if you do the exercises!).

If you are going to get either book, please order it from an independent bookseller if you possibly can, so more stores will get a chance for a look at it. Remember, we vote with every dollar we spend, especially now when times are tough and likely to get tougher. My indie, Bookpeople of Moscow, carries Susan's book sometimes, partly because of me ordering and recommending it, and I know others have bought copies there. This one needs to get out where more people will see it, so let's do what we can to get it into bookstores where folks can find it. The more money we spend locally, the better off our own communities will be in these hard times, and in my experience, indies do more to support, encourage, and promote writers than any other type of book marketer.

If you know of other resources—books, forums, websites, teachers, or whatever—that you think are especially useful for change-focused writing, please drop me a line and tell me enough about the resource to convince me that you believe it (don't just tell me it's great, give me some of the why) and I'll see about including it on this site or in the Write 'em Cowgirls Express.