Silence=Death, photo: Malik Williams

On one side of the country, earth-conscious activists in suburban Silicon Valley are pushing themselves to write letters to the news media. The terrifying reality of global warming is not getting honest attention; the US government and many citizens seem to be ignoring the crisis. Rather than sit back isolated and helpless, this group wants to mobilize public attention with letters and articles. To get themselves moving, they have organized a writing workshop.

Three thousand miles away, inner-city tenants are also organizing a writing workshop. Many are about to lose their homes as government money for affordable housing pours into a murderous war that makes terrorism a greater threat than ever. They have marched in Washington and demonstrated at landlords' homes, but now one organizer believes they need to make their case in writing. These tenants face an official silence. They hardly ever see their story in the media.

Invisibility and their vulnerability to eviction force the public silence inward. Few are confident with the written word. But like environmental activists, their truth is deeply felt, prophetic, and urgent. Putting voices in print, sharing these visions, can help change a disastrous course of events.

I travel from coast to coast to work with both tenants and environmentalists. I'm not surprised to learn that both groups are already very vocal. But their spoken words haven't made enough difference -- both groups feel their most vital insights remain unheard. Both want their stories in the news. But even outspoken people can feel a lack of confidence and know-how when they try to put their passions into the written word.

Everywhere I have found that speaking out vocally and taking action with the written word are closely related. A tenant named Mark confirmed this for me four years after a workshop where he had written (and published) his first letter to the editor. "That's where it all started," he said in a group evaluation meeting. "Before I wrote that letter, I had no confidence in myself.... After that I just learned how to do things: I went onto the steering committee, I started speaking at City Council, and now I'm on the Board where I live. I feel like a leader because I know I can say what I mean."

Tools to Undo Silencing

My early teaching strategies grew into six simple tools. Used over time, the tools help shift self-judgment, release fear, and tap our innate power as communicators.

The Freewriting Tool is a way of writing quickly and freely without judging yourself. It expands your comfort zone, helping you connect with the depth of what you have to say and your own natural way with words.

The Process Tool helps you time the various activities that go into a writing project, so you can be free of destructive self-judgment at the beginning and save your ability to evaluate until after you've written a draft.

The Thinking Tool offers a wide range of options for thinking ideas through and presenting them more effectively. Some, like hierarchies and grids, come from people in positions of authority. Others, like stories and diagrams, come from artists and indigenous people all over the world.

The Audience Tool helps us look accurately at the people we're writing for, figure out what they think and believe, and shape a message that can change their attitudes.

The Feedback Tool takes us even more deeply into readers' minds to learn how our words affect them and how to improve our work. With this tool, a small group of ordinary writers respond to each other.

The Word-Power Tool, used at the end of your writing process, helps make your language accurate and convincing. It's important to know how structuring sentences, choosing words, and cutting out what isn't essential can make ideas more powerful and more accessible to readers.

The book Undoing the Silence: Six Tools for Social Change Writing first takes a look at why the silence happens, and then offers a separate chapter on each of the tools, including guidelines, examples, stories of people using the tools, and exercises to help you learn by doing. I hope you'll use the book with a few people from your work, school, neighborhood, or activist community -- sharing ideas and writing as you go.