Social action can be created through creating things. Getting out there to raise your voice can be massive, but so too can typing words, sketching your thoughts, clicking a camera button. Volunteering can be difficult to navigate, where to begin, how to find an area to focus on or a group of people as passionate as you are. A community can be awesome, but sometimes, you only need an inkling to make the world a better place.
If you are able to, you can join social action movements. Yet for those of us with fear rumbling in our bellies, for those that can’t seem to choke up a word of protest, our fight can be handled on a page. A canvas. A stage. Many people fear public speaking, which may prevent them from becoming an activist in the traditional sense of protests, speeches and beyond. Regardless, everyone can be a changemaker.
Before starting social action campaigns, I couldn’t speak openly about what mattered to me. A mixture of anxiety and fear of the unknown haunted me, pushing the possibility further from my reach. Yet, I was always a creative writer. This unlocked a unique chance, an opportunity to share my voice silently. To write out my bravest thoughts and my boldest opinions, like countless authors before me. Why can’t you?
Stories stick with people, fictional or not. Many morals have been taught through fairy tales, childhood books, and famous poetry. Writers describe the huge injustices of the world through the tiniest details. If that’s where you shine, that can be your voice. Use your handling of a pen to handle the future. Poems on climate change, scripts on global issues. Rhyme words off, scribe your determination. Make a change on a page.
Creative writing allows the reader to connect with your characters, forming an attachment to these fictional beings dancing around their brain. If you demonstrate injustice through your words, surely this will evoke a deep reaction within your reader. Their own veins will boil at the unfair treatment, prompting them to consider social action of their own making. To pick up a placard, to let their voice echo through the nearest microphone. As the writer, you can truly create change through a swirl of ink. You are an activist once you write it into existence.
What about artwork? Pieces of art can depict emotions that words cannot at times. Through vibrant blues and specks of green, you can help someone else to see the world in a new shade. Be the yellow light splitting through the dark. Make your difference. Do you see a problem? Fix that like you fixed the out-of-place blob of paint.
Drama is a third. You can reinforce existing accounts by spreading the word through a script. Through channelling the experiences of others, feeling the emotion and the burn on your heart, knowing how wrong the injustice they faced was. If you wish to act, push others to take a stand by narrating the stories untold. Embody the unfairness and let that spread your message. Lights. Camera. Social action.
Many would argue that silent change can’t exist that taking to the streets is the only way. While that can be effective, so too can the words unspoken. The sentences carved onto a page, the paragraphs scribbled onto a line. Even writing about your own mental health can assist someone else in feeling less alone or sharing your experiences to teach others a valuable lesson. Little sparks of defiance can lead to an eventual explosion — a wordless one.
Creativity can be your change. If you want to create a change, create. Prose. Pictures. Mini movies. Wherever you wish. Seize the chance to make a brighter world, one where your words could enhance the lives of others. One where you can be the revolution. Social action can happen. You can be the start.
Just pick up a pencil.
