Change The World With Words

Usually this is a blog about writing and publishing, but it’s also about changing the world with your writing. I reserve the right to go off topic (occasionally) in order to practice what I preach and use my writing to help bring about some much needed change.

Today is It’s Time To Talk Day - a day devoted to raising awareness about domestic violence and relationship abuse – and bloggers who care are making a commitment to write about domestic violence, even if it’s not the type of topic their blog usually covers. If you’d like to help raise awareness join the conversation.

Three Stupid Things People Say About Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is easily misunderstood. I could list a hundred things that people say about it that just don’t make sense, but I’ve narrowed it down to just three. Don’t feel bad if you’ve said them yourself. I know I have – which is why I now feel the need to highlight just how stupid they are.

#1 Why Doesn’t She Just Leave?

Here’s why this is such a stupid question.

-         It won’t stop the violence.

 In fact there’s substantial evidence that domestic violence tends to escalate when a woman leaves the relationship. The majority of women admitted to hospital with injuries as a result of domestic violence report that they’re no longer living with their abuser. Domestic violence is about control. When a woman leaves, a man feels control slipping away. The result is often increased violence to try and re-assert that control.

-         It could get her killed.

Sadly, in the most extreme cases, domestic violence can lead to homicide, and it’s surprisingly common for this to happen when a woman leaves or threatens to leave. It all comes down to the same issue. When a desperate man feels his control weakening he is sometimes, tragically, driven to desperate measures. The Domestic Violence Death Review Committee has identified “actual or pending separation” as a significant risk factor in domestic violence related deaths.

-         She shouldn’t have to.

Even in our victim blaming society, it’s hard to imagine another crime where the victim is expected to take quite so much responsibility for a crime committed against her. Imagine reading in your local newspaper:

“Mrs X was violently attacked in her own home on Saturday night. As a result of this attack she has been ordered to leave her home, neighbourhood, and community, taking her two children with her, which will result in considerable disruption, expense and trauma to her and her children. In a bizarre twist, Mrs X’s attacker has been awarded sole occupancy of her home for as long as he’s willing and able to pay the rent.”

This is what actually happens in some domestic violence cases.

#2  Maybe she provoked him.

Maybe she did. Maybe she annoyed him, ‘got in his face’, or demanded something he wasn’t prepared to give. Maybe she was verbally abusive to him. Maybe she slept with his best friend. But, in the USA, and all other civilized countries, the accepted punishment for these things is NOT a violent physical beating. Even many (though not all) of the countries that the US considers ‘barbaric’ no longer condone physical violence as a routine punishment for women who disobey their husbands or commit adultery. Anyone living in a country that considers itself to have a system built on human rights and egalitarian values should be ashamed that the thought even crossed their mind.

 #3  I guess he just lost control.

Let’s get this straight. As mentioned above, domestic violence is about exerting control, not losing it. Men who beat women do so in order to hurt and scare them so they’ll do what they want them to. Abusive men rarely have ‘control’ problems in any other context. A man who ‘loses control’ with his wife or girlfriend will often show remarkable control when provoked by another man looking for a fight, especially if that man is bigger and stronger than he is.  Unsurprisingly, most men who beat women are not known for their courage.

If you’re affected by domestic violence, or know someone who is, the first step towards help, support, recovery and healing might be found at the following resources (and every journey starts with the first step):

Violence Unsilenced

Love Is Not Abuse

Domestic Violence Hotline

Futures Without Violence

If you’re a survivor of domestic violence, there are many local advocacy groups and non-profits offering programs aimed at helping you recover and thrive. Consider contacting your local child and family services agency (anonymously, if you want to) to find out more about them.

Thanks to the wonderful team at Blogher.com who are encouraging bloggers everywhere to use their blogs for good today and get people talking about domestic violence. Find out more here.

And just to bring us back to the subject of writing…

For an example of an amazing project that combines writing and creativity with helping survivors of domestic violence move forward and thrive, see the work of The Purple Song Project.

Stuck on finding a topic to focus on in your efforts to change the world with words? Here are just a few suggestions to get you thinking – and hopefully writing.

An Issue.

It could be an issue that affects you or one that affects people you’ve never met. A lack of safe play spaces for children in your neighbourhood, or clean water for African nations.

An Injustice.

The world is full of them, From dangerous criminals being released early, to a lack of financial aid for poor students. Reading almost any newspaper will throw up a few more.

An ‘Ism’.

Sexism. Racism. Ageism. Prejudice and discrimination always give you something to write about.

Something that makes you mad.

Drunk drivers. High insurance premiums. Illogical government policies or legislation. (But don’t just rant. Look beyond the obvious to find the real, and often controversial, issues behind your daily irritants.)

Something that makes you sad.

A parent’s Alzheimer’s disease. Your infertility.

Something that is misunderstood.

Single parenthood. Autism. Non-conformity.

A cause.

Any cause – if it matters to you, it matters to some of your potential readers. Whether it’s rights for refugee children, natural food or the environment.

A non-profit.

Each one was set up by an individual or group who are passionate about their goals. Consider profiling or interviewing one of the founders

A different culture.

There are few things so certain to change someone’s view of the world as spending time in a completely different culture. Write about how things are done differently elsewhere in the world, to encourage people to open their minds and maybe challenge the status quo.

Any of the above can give you a starting point for your next piece of writing whether it’s an article, a short story, or even a book.

What do you write about when you want to change the world? Where do you start? What topics inspire you?  Feel free to share in the comments.

Changing the world with words usually involves focussing in on what’s important to us. For me one of my ongoing rants concerns is the destruction of our environment, so I write about easy ways to be greener and the evils of consumerism.

If you want to make your blog greener in one ridiculously easy step (OK two, but SO easy) click on the “My Blog Fights Climate Change” badge over in my sidebar to access Brighter Planet’s 350 challenge. Simply sign up and display the badge on your blog. As a reward for raising awareness, Brighter Planet will offset 350 pounds of carbon in your name.

Brighter Planet’s 350 Challenge is inspired by Bill McKibben’s awareness campaign about the importance of the number 350 (the parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere that we must aim for if we want to keep the planet relatively safe).

Questions? Find answers here.

If you stop by here often you’ll know that I sometimes take up the weekly challenge posed by Christina Katz via her Prosperous Writer Ezine. Christina, author of such writing essentials as Get Known Before the Book Deal, writes about one of the 52 qualities of prosperous writers each week, and invites other bloggers to join the conversation. She provides links to the posts of participating bloggers in her ezine, and shares the posts on Twitter. If you want to participate you have to subscribe to The Prosperous Writer (the ezine posts aren’t duplicated on her blog), but it is completely free and would be cheap at twice the price

This week Christina is writing about empowerment, which happens to be one of the major themes here at Change The World With Words. You may have noticed my tag line: Make art. Make money. Make a difference. Let’s take a closer look at that.

Make art.

Creativity is empowering. Producing something from nothing, or something beautiful/useful from basic raw materials, brings with it an empowering sense of achievement. A powerful antidote to depression, despondency and powerlessness is to go and create something, but modern day consumerism and ‘affluenza’ has turned most of us into consumers rather than producers. 

There’s nothing wrong with buying expensive restaurant meals with flowers and candlelight, but you won’t get the same feeling that you get from growing your own flowers and food and making your own candles. Reading a book is wonderful, but writing a book will give you a completely different feeling. Making jewellery, gifts or cards is different from buying them.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to start insisting that we should all be fashioning home-made underwear out of dryer lint, but you get the picture. We can create stuff, or we can buy stuff, and one is more satisfying and empowering than the other.  Creating great writing (or even just a rough first draft of something that will maybe become great writing) is empowering.

Make money.

Financial freedom is empowering. Most of us will have at least a passing familiarity with the feeling of powerlessness associated with having to go to work (often for someone we don’t like, doing something we don’t agree with) just to pay the bills. For some people this feeling permeates their entire working lives. Others break free and set up their own businesses or freelance careers. Some go back and forth between the two. The most fortunate (and empowered) people, from what I’ve observed, manage to make money doing something they love.

Some people have expressed doubts that a site called Change The World With Words focuses (partially) on making money from writing. The way I look at it, you can spend 40 hours a week at a job that pays the bills and try to change the world with what little time and energy you have left, or you can use the time and energy you put into your work to produce writing, make a living, and have a positive impact at the same time. It’s a three-for-one deal. Am I the only one who finds that empowering?

Make a difference.

Changing the world is empowering. There are few things that contribute to a sense of powerlessness as much as a feeling of not being able to control your life, your surroundings, or the world you live in. None of us can really have control over these things, but we can have influence.

Writing about environmental issues doesn’t give you the power to control climate change. Writing about domestic abuse doesn’t give you the ability to control whether it happens or not. Writing about causes close to your heart doesn’t enable you to control how much money is donated to those causes. But you can have an influence. If even one person reads your piece and acts on it, you’ve changed the world. Now that’s empowering.

I often review books about writing, but today I’m encouraging you to take a break from changing the world with your writing. Instead, get some fresh world-changing ideas from this list of books aimed at helping you get inspired, take action and make a difference.

Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher – My personal favorite book about writing, and one every writer who wants to change the world should read.

Stirring up Justice: Writing and Reading to Change the World by Jessica Singer – Fascinating for writers, readers and world changers. Useful for teachers, parents, mentors, and anyone who wants to engage young people in the world around them and create a desire to change it for the better.

The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them by the Freedom Writers – Studying Anne Frank and others who spoke out against injustice and racism inspired these at-risk high school students (from a range of unbelievably challenging backgrounds and situations) to write their own diaries and become best selling authors. The authors’ proceeds from this book are donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, an organization set up to pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuition.

Change the World: How Ordinary People Can Achieve Extraordinary Things by Robert E Quinn – Discusses eight “seed thoughts” that can change the world, drawing on philosophies from a range of world changers as diverse as Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr., and  Gandhi.

365 Ways To Change the World: How to Make a Difference – One Day at a Time by Michael Norton – an information-crammed, idea-a-day practical guide to keep you world-changing all year round, from the founder of the UK-based Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action.

Change the World for Ten Bucks: small actions x lots of people = big change by We Are What We Do – A collaborative effort by We Are What We Do: “a global social change movement that aims to inspire people to use simple everyday actions to make a difference to problems which affect us all – for example: climate change, poverty, social exclusion, crime, and inequality.”

Ten Ways to Change The World in Your Twenties by Libuse Binder – If you’re no longer in your twenties, or haven’t even got there yet, don’t let the title put you off. Most of these simple, innovative ‘greening the world’  ideas will work for any age group. If you are in your twenties, there will never be a better time to read it.

How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein – If you are, or ever intend to be, an entrepreneur and philantropist, read this book now and harness the power of your ideas. Read about the ”four practices of innovative organizations” and “six qualities of successful social entrepreneurs.” Learn, enjoy, and put into practice.

Teaching To Change The World by Jeannie Oakes & Martin Lipton - Essential reading for teachers and teachers-to-be, highly recommended for anyone who works with, mentors and otherwise influences the next generation.

31 Ways to Change the World by We Are What We Do – by children, for children, this book is full of suggestions from world-changing  kids, and is aimed at the 8-12 age group, (but has been enjoyed by the odd 40 year old freelance writer/blogger – allegedly). Give the gift of change to the next child in your life you have to buy for.

Spread the word. Share this post. And if you have more recommendations, feel free to mention them in the comments section.

“Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life… Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.” – Viktor Frankl

Today’s post is inspired by Christina Katz (author of Writer Mama and Get Known Before The Book Deal) and her Prosperous Writer ezine (highly recommended: if you don’t already subscribe to it you can check out her blog and sign up here). Recently she wrote about vision, and how important it is for writers to have a clear vision of what they want to achieve, what they are offering their readers, and why it’s valuable to them.

It’s vitally important to have a strong vision regarding your writing goals, your business and your life, but it’s also important to have a strong vision of exactly what it is you want to communicate and how. If you want to produce writing that changes people’s lives, you need to have a clear vision of how you will do this.

It’s easy to copy other people, and with the amount of information out there in cyberspace right now, it’s safe to say there is very little that you can write about that has never been covered before, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be original, and visionary, in the way you present your ideas.

Visionaries may or may not have a unique view of the world, but what they do have (and what they strive to find) is a unique and powerful way of communicating their ideas, a visionary way of calling people to action, a way of not only grabbing attention, and putting their message across, but also empowering people to act on it.

In one of my favourite books about writing, Writing to Change the World, author Mary Pipher writes about ‘what you alone can say’. It may seem arrogant, or even ridiculous to claim that your writing can be completely original and unique, and maybe it can’t, but you are the only person who has lived your life, had your exact experiences, dealt with your exact problems and found your exact solutions. As Mary puts it:

“You have something to say that no one else can say. Your history, your unique sensibilities, your sense of place and your language bestow upon you a singular authority.”

Writers with vision use their experiences to frame an old issue in a new way, or to present well-known facts in a context that gives them meaning, or impact. They use a conversation they had, or an event they witnessed, to demonstrate what it is they want to communicate.

I recently picked up the book, What’s Age Got to Do with It?: Living Your Healthiest and Happiest Life by Robin McGraw, wife of the ubiquitous Dr Phil. Now, as a hard-working, dedicated, non-celebrity writer, there’s only one aspect of the publishing industry that riles me more than celebrities who get a book published purely because of who they are, and that’s people who get a book published because of who they are married to. I might have put the book down straight away but in the opening chapter this sentence caught my attention:

“… thanks to my husband’s world wide television show… I have the privilege of being able to talk to women all over the world about the issues I feel passionate about.”

There’s your vision. There’s your unique perception of the world and the issues you’re writing about. No one else has talked to the exact same set of women as this author has. No one else has had the same conversations, feedback and experiences. This one sentence encouraged me to continue reading, and, unlike many books by celebrity ‘authors’, this offering was not one hugely disappointing, ghost written mess (OK, there are some wonderful celebrity authors – they are invariably the ones who have used their talents and opportunities to create an amazing life and embrace a huge range of experiences, and then brought this to their writing).

Before you start your next piece of writing, think about what you alone can say, just because of who you are, how you think and what you’ve done. You may still end up writing on a topic that many others write about every day, but somehow, somewhere within that piece, will be your own unique take on the issue. Your own vision. Maybe you don’t even want to be a visionary, but I would argue you don’t really have a choice. Whether you choose to actively pursue it or not, you already are.

I recently read a post by the fascinating (I think) Chris Guillbeau. If you’ve never heard of him, he runs the excellent (again, just my opinion) site The Art of Non-Conformity and is ‘that guy who’s trying to visit every country in the world’, (all 192 of them) sometimes talked about around the blogosphere.

The reason I liked this particular post was he is suggesting that some of us, when starting a new venture, get too hung up on the “65-page target market analysis” when in fact the phrase “get excited and change things” is an equally valid business plan. Of course your bank manager may not agree with this, but if you need to go grovelling to him, or her, to get finance for your business, I would suggest you’re starting too big.

CG would agree with me on the above point as well. He also started the $100 Business Forum, an online group (I believe he takes on a new group each month) of 150 potential entrepreneurs who are ready and willing to invest $100 maximum (and no doubt a lot of time, energy and creativity) into getting their (very) small business up and running. I haven’t participated in the forum, so can’t comment on it, but I have got my freelance writing business up and running, and making money, with an investment of less than $100 (Is it cheating that the laptop I’m using was a gift – maybe!).

Richard Branson would also agree. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s a big advocate of growing a business organically. Which generally involves starting with very little money, but a lot of enthusiasm, carefully channelled energy and great ideas.

So today, think hard about what gets you excited, whether it’s travel, a sport or hobby, environmental issues, being a parent, or anything else. If it gets you excited, it probably gets other people excited too, but they may not always know how to get involved, progress with it or do it to the best of their abilities. Could you help them, and change things for the better, by writing about it? Blogging about it? Speaking about it? Creating an ebook, or e-course, about it? Is there any way you could monetize that writing, blogging,  speaking or teaching?  There’s your business plan. Go with it!

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