The Heretics by Will Storr made me mad as hell.
I got a handful of pages into it before swearing and banging it down on the bookcase, abandoning it.
The book is about irrational beliefs: flat Earthers, anti-vaxxers, creationists, Holocaust and climate change deniers, and people who think the Moon landings were faked.
My initial reaction was ugh, what is WRONG with these people.
But then I came back to it with curiosity.
I read it.
And I was fascinated. I discovered how belief is tied so closely to identity, it’s almost impossible to separate them. How community shapes our sense of the world, and how terrifying it can be to break apart from that.
I wanted not to be angry, because that’s exhausting; I wanted to understand. Why do people believe the things they believe? What drives that? Can minds change? And how?
THAT is the power of books, of writing.
On social media, we scream at each other. Nobody can hear what the other is saying, and nobody is listening anyway.
Social media is fuelled by outrage, for clicks and revenue, and there’s little space for humanity. There’s definitely no time for humanity.
But a book — longer-form writing — gives us time and space to see the person behind the ideas. It takes our words and shapes them around who we are, so it’s more harder to ignore the human behind the opinion.
Think about it: it’s easy to send an angry email to someone who’s pissed you off… but put yourself in a room with that person, see their face, who they are — it’s much harder to yell and rage.
A book is slow information.
We have time.
We might yell at the pages, or scribble angry notes in the margin, but that doesn’t spark the writer to shout back. We’re having a conversation with ideas that are already out there and nobody is answering. So we keep reading.
And we learn: who is this person? What do they believe, and why? Where do they come from? How has that shaped who they are?
We will never get anywhere except Hell shouting at each other on the internet, but if we can just see each other and understand where we’re coming from, that’s a really good start.
Plus, shouting on the internet is exhausting. We’ll never change someone’s mind that way; if anything, they’ll just dig in further.
Writing a piece of work you can be proud of, though? That could change everything.
But we have to get started.
Come and do my Kickstart Your Book workshop on July 23 at 4pm BST. See if your book idea has legs, and give it the best possible chance of success.
Start your book or your email newsletter or your article and create something you can use to make change.
Maybe that change is social or maybe you want to increase the £££ in your bank account.
The way that happens always starts with words. Always.
Come and learn how to use your words so they work for you.
Plus it’s gonna be a LOT of fun!
P.S. Want 3 ways to get writing right now, check out these awesome freebies: Start Here. You’re welcome!