Headed to Yosemite Writers Conference to talk writing for social change - By N.L. Belardes

Panel - Ginny Rorby, Brenda Knight, and N.L. Belardes

I’m about to hit the road to Yosemite and hang out with a lot of writers at the Tenaya Lodge. Actually tonight I will be in Oakhurst. Last year Matildakay and I ran into publisher Malcolm Margolin of Heyday Books at an Italian restaurant there that has lots of paintings of roses on its walls. He sat like a painting himself, contemplating who knows what.

One year ago the conference was a raucous time of blogging and pirating. Malcolm even joined us. He was amazed regarding the nature of blogs, that mixed with a few passionate minds, could instantly capture the spirit of a few renegades sitting at a table in Yosemite.

(Read interview and find links to old Yosemite posts)

The blog series I wrote about my time there now seems nostalgic, since this year I’ve been asked to take on a different role as one of the presenters.

One of the panels I will be a part of is “Writing For Social Change.”

Writing For Social Change is one of those topics that should help a writer be aware that depending on the content of his/her work and agenda, such books can impact a surrounding community. How much a writer can impact social thought I think depends on several factors: relevance and importance of work, marketing of work to community, success of said work, and the passion committed to relating the work itself to society as it’s present on radio, TV and in articles.

I suppose I could list many authors and movements in the American literary scene over the past hundred years that purposely or inadvertently helped spark social change. Often their words added to a society changing right before their own eyes.

Betty Friedan, was she really trying to change society with the Feminine Mystique, or was she just capturing social thought as it was already changing in society? Were beat generation writers trying to change society or simply capture a changing landscape where mainstream and status quo meant little to a growing segment of Americans. The pop cultural reflection of their collective work sparked movements that some say grew into punk music and poetry movements that still exist today.

Is someone like James Frey a tool for social change within a microcosm of literary thinkers who might argue, and even accept the idea that memoirs can be and often are tools of fiction? Maybe not.

Surely the current Brutalists and Offbeat Generation out of the London area attempt to spark and capture social change through writing graphically about uncomfortable dark realities in urban strife.

We all know Upton Sinclair had an agenda with his social works. And really, you could list books upon books dating back far into the 1800s that have at their core, social change.

Socialit.org provides a great list that can start any writer out on an adventure of learning how other writers have tackled social change in a wide variety of topics.

Yet if someone has a passion for social writing how does one go about doing it?

First off, think about whether fiction or creative non-fiction is the best method. Think about whether you’re a journalist or a storyteller, or maybe a bit of both.

Now think deeply about how you want to affect the consciousness of your readers, even if they might strongly disagree with you.

Consider whether you’re part of a social movement happening right now. Do you have the ability to expose something new that not many people are tackling in their writing?

How can you convey such thoughts without sounding preachy? How can you discuss social change through strong characters in deep conflict with themselves and society around them?

In my book, Lords, the characters are immersed in a society that the reader must connect with and be repulsed by. The reader must take the next step and consider whether they would want to be a part of such a society of wrongdoers. The reader must want the main characters to change what they cannot escape from.

It’s a form of helplessness. It’s pity. It’s brutality in writing that revolves around media, nature, society and especially a sphere of childhood corruption.

I spun a web of social decay that makes for difficult writing but in the end reflects decisions within readers that forces them to think about their own social consciousness.

What you write about is ultimately what you should believe in. Whether you’re writing for social change or not shouldn’t lesson a strong belief and commitment to your thoughts and how they’re conveyed.

You want to tell a good story. Or if non-fiction, you want to do your homework. Find the evidence that backs up your ideas. Be organized, be an examiner of whatever your topic is. Expose it from the inside out. Dissect, build arguments. Or if fiction, find the stories within yourself, or within your community that best convey the social change you think people should be buzzing about.

Maybe there was a series of murders in your community that were never connected before. Maybe you found a new cancer cluster. Trust me, they’re out there. Maybe you discovered a social reason why the mortgage system has gone belly up.

Maybe you live where the air is the worst in the nation, where pesticides are dumped over your metropolitan area and where huge fires blot out the sun and ash rains down laced with chemical retardants.

Do you see society around you accepting such madness blindly?

Maybe it’s time for you to be the one to write a story about it.

You have the ability to make people think.

More on the 2007 Yosemite Writers Conference:

Is Book Publishing Dead? Yosemite Writers Conference Provides Food For Hungry Writers
Yosemite Writers Conference: A Conversation about Blogging
Rambo Creator Reinvents Captain America
Yosemite Writers Conference: Demystifying Chick lit and Women’s fiction
Yosemite Writers Conference: Poetry talk
Mystery talk after David Morrell's big speech
2007 Yosemite Writers Conference: Brenda Knight Sidesteps the TVA man
Yosemite Writers and the Chukchansi bathroom break
Headed to Yosemite Writers Conference to talk writing for social change

*****************
Read Noveltown’s experiences at last year’s Yosemite Writer’s Conference:

By N.L. Belardes
A Writer in Yosemite: Part One
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Two
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Three
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Four
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Five
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Six
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Seven
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Eight

By Matildakay
A great literary weekend
What's your type?
How to Approach a Literary Agent...
The Mary Wong Lee Memorial Scholarship
Malcolm Margolin is Posh
Hanging out with the Pirates of Yosemite and setting the record straight
Kill Your Darlings

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Thursday, August 23, 2007. You can leave your response.