Featured book:

Pipher, Mary, Writing to Change the World, New York, Riverhead Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2006.

What this book meant to me as a new writer:

Writing to Change the World is a guide for writers who want to connect with readers on cultural and political issues. Mary Pipher’s intended audience is nonfiction writers, but I read with interest because her suggestions work well for fiction.

I was touched by the way she opens her chapter on the writer’s voice, using a quote from Alex Haley. “Every death is like the burning of a library.” His words stay close as I let them sink in. He describes the place I go when I miss my mother and everyone I have lost, each one a beautiful library of experience and yearning and essence. The burning of a library.

The chapter on voice, titled “What You Alone Can Say,” is convincing. I admit, I get agitated the moment I hear someone talk about the voice of the writer. It sounds mystical. And yet, I see examples in writing I admire, like Pipher’s description. “This offering of the library of self can be called voice. Voice is everything we are, all that we have observed, the emotional chords that are uniquely ours – all our flaws and all of our strengths, expressed in the words that best reflect us.”

The agitation I feel at the word ‘voice’ is anxiety. I have a speaker’s voice, a daydreamer’s, a mother’s, and a friend’s voice. Why do I need one for fiction? If you feel this way too, her book is worth the read. She gives us new ways to think of voice, to stop elevating it in our minds like a hurdle we must clear to become a ‘real’ writer.

I read Writing to Change the World because I turn to prose when something in real life eats at me. I draw comparisons by letting my fictional characters get tangled in the messy real world. It gives me a chance to explore consequences and work off some steam.

Pipher talks about understanding ourselves and our readers. “For me,” she says, “this attempt at understanding is the most profound connection between therapy and writing.” An author and clinical psychologist, she shows us how to tie together compassion, empathy, and point of view, the core of understanding our characters and our stories.

In writing a convincing essay, she says, “…we can assume that people have experienced their lives in ways that have led them to conclusions quite different from our own.” This is a challenge in writing fictitious characters. It is easy to force characters to do what we need for the sake of our story, instead of realizing the multitude of life experiences our characters deserve. The reward for listening to them is a better plot.

On letter writing, Pipher says, “I wanted to write something that could help passionate advocates become convincing spokespeople for their beloved causes. Being right is not enough. Facts and evidence are not enough. Eloquence is not enough. Building a relationship to the people we wish to persuade is what often does the trick.”

This is a perfect summary of what we do in fiction and nonfiction. We build relationships with the readers, who we want to persuade of the authenticity of our story.

A closer look at the book:

Mary Pipher was born in the Ozarks and grew up in rural Nebraska. She is a clinical psychologist, author, teacher, and cultural anthropologist. With this powerful combination, she has written books including Reviving Ophelia, Another Country, and recently, Women Rowing North. I found her book Writing to Change the World in Yellow Dog Book Shop, a local favorite for browsing new and used books.

In this time of COVID, her words are perfect for those of us staying at home. “It seems ironic that often those who are most curious and engaged with the world have the least time to think about it and share their thoughts. Wise activists know that part of changing the world involves periodically cloistering oneself from it.”

On diving in and getting started, she advises, “I discovered that one path into original thinking was to ask myself, Okay, that is your first idea. What are your second and third ideas? At the end of the day, I would reexamine my work, and think, Can I honestly argue something even more daring and unique?”

In her chapter, “Cooling Down and Revising,” she cautions, “…when we write in the heat of the moment, we can feel an adrenaline rush that gives us false confidence.” Time to pause and rest.

And lastly, “Great endings strike us as slightly surprising yet inevitable. Perfect endings strike us as just what we wanted, but we didn’t know it.”