Hello from gorgeous cow country in upstate NY...
...where it's actually 71 degrees in November! Everyone is so intent on calling 2020 bad names, that no one seems to have noticed that we've had one of the mildest winters the Northeast has seen in a decade. I, for one, am very grateful.
But back to of the madness of 2020...
This series of emails was initially intended to be an offering of hope to you all, because I have seen how much people have been suffering. And since in our area, COVID hasn't hit very badly, I felt it would be good for me to share some store of my own optimism with others.
But then the election hit. And I had profound doubts about everything that I do. And I got very heartily sick of the sound of my own voice. In other words, turns out I need this series about Resilience and Courage in Story as much as you all do. And putting into words all the swirling thoughts... it's been good for me. Hopefully you've gotten some benefit from it as well.
(To catch up with the previous issues of this series, here is part 1, part 2, and part 3).
As a Russian, sometimes (ok, always) I tend to assume that the worst will always happen. I've tried to temper that tendency with the election, but there is one thing that really worries me. I thought it was just me, but now I've read some pretty compelling stuff that makes it clear I'm not making it up.
Many people have lost the ability to think deeply about important things.
This is something that is being manipulated by the media, and by pundits and influencers on both sides of the political spectrum.
Let me repeat myself. Most of us are being manipulated most of the time. And we don't even realize it. Why? because we have lost the ability to think deeply.
I talk about this and about a possible solution in my latest video:
Resources on Mastering a Craft
1. Other than providing an outlet for idle hands, mastering a craft does a whole bunch of wonderful things for you. It also makes it possible for you to affect the world around you in positive ways. The Accidental Creative provides some more compelling reasons why you shouldn't waste any more time and begin mastering a craft right now.
2. As much as we might like to think about mastering difficult crafts in the abstract, the reality requires something we don't want to think about: deliberate practice. Turns out there are ways to maximize deliberate practice to help you get to a level of mastery more quickly. James Clear gives a beginner's guide to deliberate practice here.
3. Part of mastering a craft is finding that sweet spot between talent and passion. Between natural competence and desire. Here's an interesting example of this, when a fiction writer incorporated his love of travel to create a new kind of genre.
Recommendations
1. I don't think any of us sufficiently understand just how much the internet has affected us physically as well as mentally. I've only started reading The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, but already it's blown my mind. No wonder it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
2. If you need practical help in arranging your day in the best possible way to promote deep work, Cal Newport has a new planner that helps you "time block" effectively. It just became available today. I got my copy, and I'm already thrilled with it.
3. If you want a wonderful guide in how to master the craft of writing, you can't do worse than read Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing. It's just wonderful.
Next week, we'll be finishing this series with some thoughts of how to get out of the solipsism of self-improvement and begin to share stories with others, for their comfort and (hopefully) transformation.
Thanks agains for coming along with me on my writerly adventures!
~Nicky