| View Larger Image | Writing to Change the World | Paperbackby Mary Pipher (Author)
| List Price: | $15.00 | | Price: | $10.20 | | You Save: | $4.80 (32%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Riverhead Trade | | Page Count: | 272 Pages | | Publication Date: | May 01, 2007 | | Sales Rank: | 61,959st |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9781594482533
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Reviving Ophelia and The Shelter of Each Other Words are the most powerful tools at our disposal. With them, writers have saved lives and taken them, brought justice and confounded it, started wars and ended them. Writers can change the way we think and transform our definitions of right and wrong. Writing to Change the World is a beautiful paean to the transformative power of words. Encapsulating Mary Pipher's years as a writer and therapist, it features rousing commentary, personal anecdotes, memorable quotations, and stories of writers who have helped reshape society. It is a book that will shake up readers' beliefs, expand their minds, and possibly even inspire them to make their own mark on the world. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 21 reviews)
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Inspiring by Bertie Fox  5 Stars
August 16, 2009
Very good book. I write a lot anyway, and the author's advice motivated me to write more deep and meaningful pieces. After reading this, I wrote a 30-page story which got great reviews from the people at my local writers group. I recommend this book.
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Pipher's gifts to the ministry of writing  4 Stars
June 18, 2009
Pipher understands the value of knowing and relating to one's specific and often small audience, a reality many ministers know well. We write newsletter columns, prayers, op-ed pieces, Sunday School lessons, sermons, and correspondence. Pipher seeks to maximize those opportunities. Entire chapters are devoted to letters, speeches, and even blogs. Her topic is writing, but her focus is where writing and life intersect. Not just the intersection of passion and regular tasks, but also the intersection of passions. The place where zest for writing and curiosity that spurs exploration meet. Writing and what excites us. Writing and what disturbs us. Writing and what feeds us.
Writing to Change the World offers encouragement to writers and dreamers, to those who have the joint but previously separate interests of writing and serving. Too often we force others and ourselves into a single role. Pipher offers change by suggesting that best approach is to blend passions. Whether poems, laws, songs, or essays, the most influential and lasting change comes from people who found the best mixture of their interests, irritations, and skills. May all ministers find joy and calling in writing, and may God bless the writers as agents of change.
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Helpful by John A. Bird (Texas, USA) 4 Stars
May 01, 2009
Dr. Mary Pipher says that her book, Writing to Change the World, is not a book on how to write, but a book on how to make an impact on the world through writing.
The 226 page book is divided into three sections: "What We Alone Can Say," "The Writing Process," and "Calls to Action."
The first section serves as an extended introduction. People are encouraged to write with the goal of making the world a better, more compassionate place. "Writers can inspire a kinder, fairer, more beautiful world, or incite selfishness, stereotyping, and violence. Writers can unite people or divide them."
For the reader looking for practical advice on writing, the second section is the most helpful. Dr. Pipher shares what she has learned from her years of experience, making the chapters both helpful and entertaining. Much of the advice found in this section is conventional and standard. Still, it is conveyed in a different way and with a different twist. Besides, writers can't be reminded too much to "be precise," or to use "apt metaphors," or to be original, or to revise, revise, revise.
Section three is worth the price of the book. Each chapter deals with a specific form of writing: letters, speeches, personal essays, blogs, and music and poetry. Dr. Pipher writes from experience. In the chapter on letter writing, she gives an example, in full, of a persuasive letter that she wrote to a group of decision makers. She then explains why her letter failed while a letter of her friend's succeeded. But she also did her research. For instance, she interviewed several politicians to find out what letters they consider and what letters they throw away.
The main fault that I find with the book is that it has a strong liberal bias. It contains, perhaps, enough one-sided political ideology to ruin it for some readers.On the other hand, the author shares her views without offence. Her tone suggests that she respects all people, and that she could carry on a friendly and warm conversation with anyone--even a religious conservative like me.
One point that I particularly appreciate: Dr. Pipher uses no harsh language or curse words, which are unfortunately common in many of today's books on writing.
Writing to Change the World is what it claims to be. It will be appreciated by the open-minded reader who wants to learn to use writing to bring about change. Dr. Pipher knows her subject, and she knows and understands people. The reader will find the book full of useful information and motivation.
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Laura Reviews: Writing to Change the World by Laura Cococcia (Chicago, IL USA) 5 Stars
March 27, 2009
Until Mary Pipher's marvelous book recently came into my world. Writing to Change the World inspired me to have a goal for my writing, a purpose to write everyday, a reason to get out of my pajamas before noon.
Instantly, she reminds readers that "Words are the most powerful tools at our disposal." From understanding our voice and goals, to describing the writing process, to giving us ideas for forums in which to write (including blogs), Pipher simplifies the writing world and helps give us individual meaning for our writing desires.
[...]
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Not what I had hoped for by Lupus  3 Stars
March 21, 2009
Mary Pipher is intelligent, and she has good intentions, no doubt about that. But my major gripe about this book is that it should have been entitled "Writing Non-Fiction to Change the World." There are a number of fiction writers who write with the hope of changing the world, knowing full well they won't, but as I read through this book, sometimes passing over material of no interest to me, it became clear to me that the author was addressing people who write, or want to write, non-fiction books about such topics as "The Evils of Factory Farming" or "The Dangers of Global Warming," and so on. Now, each of these subjects deserve serious consideration, but I think a lot of customers who bought this book were hoping she would address the concerns of fiction writers too. While she often quotes famous writers of fiction to make a point, it becomes clear that she is talking about non-fiction only, and she has little to say to a writer of fiction.
I wouldn't have purchased the book if I had known she saw her audience as writers who wanted to warn and preach in essays or essays extended into book form. So I think I will give this book to someone else. I won't trash it, since she may have something to say to others, but since I like to write fiction, her book's not really appropriate for me. Too bad. She could have written to writers of fiction and non-fiction, but I found little that was addressed to story-tellers.
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Story is the heart of language. Story moves us to love and hate and can motivate us to change the whole course of our lives. Story can lift us beyond our individual borders to imagine the realities of other people, times, and places. Storytelling - both oral tradition and written word - is the foundation of being human. In this powerful book, Christina Baldwin, one of the visionaries who started the personal writing movement, explores the vital necessity of re-creating a sacred common ground...
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