There are two general principles that you hear in the world of writing that are supposed to help you improve in the craft.
First, and likely the more obvious, write more. Just like any other skill, the more you use it, the better you get at it. The important thing to remember here is that any writing is helpful. The ability to put words on a page to convey meaning is a skill that is difficult to master when we’ve been conditioned to write our entire thoughts in less than 300 characters. Yes, writing is an art that can be difficult to master, so you have to put the work in.
Second, to be a good writer, you need to read – and read widely. I mentioned this back in Musing #36 – Reading beyond the Craft. It’s critical, as reading beyond just your focus areas can help you see things from different perspectives and viewpoints as you look at the world we live in. Unfortunately, this is an area we are also being conditioned, to consume information in bite sized chunks instead of full meals. I know I’ve fallen victim to this myself, as I often find my attention span challenged with the longer pieces I read.
It’s something that I’ve noticed that is happening more and more, a lack of reading in books. Sure, we read all the time – online. There are stacks of social media posts out there to read and blogs that you can visit and read, but that’s not the same. The tendency is shifting further with the push for more video, things you can watch but not necessarily gather value from (and the push for ‘shorts’ is further impacting our ability to handle anything requiring long attention spans).
I won’t dig too far into the topic of the effects of our online lives, but I would recommend the book Deep Work by Cal Newport, where he delves into the topic.
So why, “back to the books?” It speaks to what my emphasis is on these days, attempting to get back to the books. I have a decent collection of Masonic and non-Masonic books, many I started at one point but never finished, some that I read once and should return to, but more importantly, I need to put the effort back in.
It’s not just reading and writing, it’s also the studying. To attempt to understand what I read and how I can apply it to both my writing and my life. The lessons that can be learned from so many great authors is incalculable. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of the books to also spend time in, if your Grand Lodge has one, is your ritual or monitor. There are a host of things to pull from in our ritual, many life lessons, in fact I had a mentor once say, while holding his ritual, “all the answers are in here.”
At the end of the day, all the above speaks to one lesson, the need to do the work.
So many people have come to assume that you can watch a few videos, read a few blog posts, scan (not read) a book or two, and be experts in a field. It’s a lifetime of work to truly understand a topic, and for some topics just a subset can take years. We need to get back to doing the work. We need to get back to spending the time to dig into longer forms of material and stop relying on sound bites.
It’s time for all of us to “get back to the books” dig a bit deeper into understanding the things that are of interest to us. It doesn’t matter if it’s Freemasonry, philosophy, economics, or even dreaded politics – taking the time to become a better informed individual will only help you see the bigger picture and make better decisions.
So, what book is on your nightstand these days? I’m returning to The Way of the Craftsman by MacNully, why not share what you’re reading in the comments.
A final shameless plug, tonight is the monthly episode of The Granite Cornerstone Podcast where we’re going to be discussing the Masonic term “Going Dark.” You can catch it in a number of places, links below.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NewHampshireFreemasons
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/granitecornerstonenh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nhfreemasons
At the moment I am reading a wonderful book with a crazy title:
The Tarot, Magic, Alchemy, Hermeticism, and Neoplatonism
by
Robert M. Place
https://tarotarts.com/collections/books/products/the-tarot-magic-alchemy-hermeticism-and-neoplatonism
Tarot is a specialized interest of mine that I know is not shared by most Freemasons, but despite the title of the book, there is a great deal to be learned from it by Masons who hold no interest in Tarot. I'm about half way through it and in all of those pages (it is very long, but an easy read) Tarot has not been discussed.
It begins with the earliest societies we can know about (ancient cave paintings) and moves forward from that point touching upon all of the philosophical and spiritual movements that have impacted our Western World in significant ways. At about half way through the book, I am now to early Christianity.
As our Craft was impacted by all of these philosophical and spiritual movements that came before it, I find it to be quite fascinating.
Sage advice! Ed King, GLME (and Meridian #60, Franklin)