Chapter six of Mary
Pipher's Writing to Change the World reads like a lesson in
business, career transition, leadership, or anything where the doing,
rather than the trying, is key to success. Pipher considers the
values of persistence and of beginning in the first place, of clarity
and honesty, of fighting pressure and anxiety in ourselves and of
seeking support from the people around us.
"Be Bold. Be
Honest,"(75) writes Pipher, and it applies to the entire
chapter. Writing is active, not passive, and gains more from being
bold and standing out than from passivity, which lets it blend into
the background noise of every other half-uttered opinion. Mary
explains how, “we learned to
write cautiously,”(75) afraid to give our own opinions, our
own words. She tells of how we struggle against apathy, anxiety, and
everything that results when we are not bold. She says we worry about
being wrong, about giving an incorrect point of view, about things
that wouldn't matter so much if we would just be honest with
ourselves and others.
Believing in oneself, in
this chapter, becomes the root of good writing. Without confidence,
how can we share our experiences, our beliefs? When we doubt
ourselves, doesn't that reflect in our writing as well? If we become
stronger, if we let others strengthen us, would more of these beliefs
be shared? Would we become closer and understand more?
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