Why should you write?

You’re busy!

Does it really matter?

Yes.

As Zenen said last week while his power was out — during the pandemic, all organizing is digital organizing.

And like I’ve written before, the more you can create compelling asynchronous communication (writing, this is writing) designed for the people you want to reach, the more people you can organize before you even meet them.

Rather than doing a ton of random one on ones, imagine doing one on ones with people who already know a lot about your campaign, have a great grasp of your strategy, and maybe have already taken action by calling a target or signing a petition.

Or meeting with people who have already thought deeply about how they get in their own way, and trust you enough to work on it. 

This is what good writing can do — because writing is all about relationships.

When people talk about digital organizing, they often get hung up on whether it’s a tactic or a type of strategy, or what the “messaging” is, or whether or not your base is accessing the Internet regularly.

(This is a whole different email, but I promise you, they are. No matter who they are, more of your base is online than you think.

Some of them might even be WhatsApp or Snapchat famous).

All of these questions come after you figure out the first thing, the thing very few people put energy into figuring out.

What are *you* talking about and why do *you* care?

I put those little stars around you because that’s the part that gets skipped.

You.

Answering this question is what distinguishes meaningful organizing from putting your entire message in a hashtag and wondering why it won’t go viral.

Answering this question is hard. That’s why we skip it.

It’s way harder than it looks, and it takes time, energy, and emotional space to actually answer it.

And taking that space is key — not just to writing well, but building a meaningful strategy.

But that’s not even the real reason I think more organizers should write.

The real reason I think organizers should invest in their writing?

Most of the organizers I know, secretly, desperately, WANT to invest in their writing.

They spend all day talking to people, helping others identify their hangups, overcoming their personal roadblocks in order to build power.

But they spend very little time doing that emotional work for themselves.

The reason why is usually very personal.Maybe someone told you, in school, at work, at home, that you suck at writing, that you had nothing useful or meaningful to say.

Maybe you feel guilty doing anything for yourself, let alone reflecting.

Maybe, there’s something even scarier there, in terms of how you feel about yourself or the world, and taking even a second to think about what that might be, is paralyzing.

So, consider this new series, out on Mondays, a mini-agitation. A way to figure out whatever it is that keeps you from writing more and better.

Because I’m telling you: we need more organizers who can write in order to win.

By the way: though I know I’ve used the word organizer a lot, I know plenty of people who don’t identify as organizers who I believe would make the world better by writing more. So if you have any interest in this at all, I hope you sign up for these emails, regardless of whether or not you see yourself as an organizer.

Not everyone who gets these emails is into this, so I’m not going to send them to the full list.

And, since you all know how much I love to overdisclose about money, I want to say — though I’m not ever going to charge anyone on this list for these emails, I’m hoping this series on writing for organizers will help me refine and share ideas, exercises, trainings, and other tools I’ve had for many years so I can eventually share them in a way that I feel comfortable charging money for.

You can sign up for these emails here.

(Or hit reply and let me know).

I’m also going to ask you some questions/share some exercises to help you make more time, energy, space for practice.

Here’s the first question.

You can respond to this email with your answer, message it to me on Twitter or Instagram, or write it down in your journal and share it with no one ever (not optimal for writing as organizing, but: baby steps).

Whether it is a movement, or a cause, or a specific campaign, why do *you* care about it?

Not here’s something bad that happened to someone else.

Not here’s how this thing impacts people who are not me, historically marginalized and oppressed, statistic statistic.

Not even, here’s how it impacts me, a member of a group that is historically marginalized or oppressed, statistic statistic.

Just tell me why you care.

I won’t share this answer with anyone else, so it can be as unfiltered as you want.

If you’re not currently working on a campaign, or you’re not an organizer, but there is a movement or cause you really care about, don’t skip this!

Tell me why you care.

It’s a lot harder that sounds.

It’s also an answer that changes a lot, takes a lot of writing, reflection, and sometimes developing very strange new habits to answer.

But the first step is trying to answer it at all.

So let me know:

Why do you care?