Refining Substack
Maybe Some Remodeling Ahead
When I was sick recently I was able to do very little writing. But, I did do a great deal of thinking about both my writing, and my publishing here on Substack.
My primary publication, Emeth was born on February 28, 2021. And for a publication covering an extremely tiny niche, I believe that it has done quite well. I’m really proud of being a Bestseller here on Substack, and I hope that through Emeth I’ve done some small part to improve the Freemasonic experience for Brothers everywhere.
But, Emeth is about Freemasonry, and only Freemasonry. That is a huge topic, but also a limiting topic.
So, I’ve expanded some, with other publications. Primarily The Keystone, where I write about Tarot, and this you are reading now, Cameron M. Bailey, my personal publication. I’ve also got a little publication under a pen name where I post some crazy fiction. These additional publications have allowed me the freedom to write beyond Freemasonry, and I believe that for me, I have to be able to do that, lest I fall into some sort of writer’s block.
Plus my weird fiction is important. Not because anyone actually reads it, they don’t, but because fiction is how I teach myself to write.
All of this is good.
But it is also really complicated.
One funny thing I’ve noticed is that my writing that seems to generate the most love is that writing about Tarot. Alas though, how much can one actually write about Tarot? It is, in my view, something that must ultimately be experienced in order to be understood. Given how seldom I’m able to post, I’m not certain that continuing to write about Tarot is a good use of my time. I’ll be considering that further in the coming weeks.
I’m also not sure that I should continue publishing my fiction. Writing it I will certainly continue to do, as I’ve always done. I know that I can’t do without it because it improves my writing skills and fuels my desire to write about everything. But publishing it, and maintaining a viable pen name for it is a great deal of work. I’ll also have to consider this further in the coming weeks.
Ultimately, Emeth has been extremely rewarding for me to write. And it has received a great deal of support from Freemasons in every U.S. State and according to the stats, 123 countries around the world. The only Masons who don’t seem to like it are some of the elected leaders of my own Grand Lodge when they mistakenly perceive something that I’ve written as some kind of personal criticism of themselves. I don’t worry about that. I have never attacked any individual in my writings on Emeth. If someone sees some personal failing of their own reflected in my writing that’s on them, not me.
I can only control the words I write, not how others perceive those words.
And I truly believe that words mean things. If someone assigns meanings to words that are not reflective of the actual definitions of the words, well there’s nothing at all I can do about that.
I think that my personal publication, Cameron M. Bailey, could be really important and valuable. If I were to do more with it.
But, I have to write it, in my own ‘voice.’ And I don’t feel that I’ve completely done that in the essays I’ve published there. I think I’ve tended to worry more there about making sure that my point lands, than I have in letting the words flow freely.
A writer’s voice is a really interesting thing I think. They try to beat it out of us in K-12 education with all their focus on grammar, syntax, punctuation, and all of the other rules. But for all writers who aren’t writing straight news, voice is much more important than perfection in these areas. And voice is the hardest thing for any writer to develop, probably because it was so strongly suppressed in us at an early age.
See what I did there? I just started the last sentence of the last paragraph with the word ‘and.’ The paragraph before that, I started with the word ‘but.’ I do these things. I do them a lot. They are both considered to be improper. They are both however an aspect of my own unique voice.
Am I right, or am I wrong when I utilize these ands and buts at the beginning of sentences? My eighth grade English teacher would have absolutely deemed it wrong, and dinged me for it. He was never able to publish a damn thing in his life. I’m deemed by the company that owns the servers these words reside upon as a Bestseller. That’s the importance of voice.
When I write my personal stuff here on Cameron M. Bailey, it needs to be more reflective of Cameron M. Bailey the man. I need to ponder less and just set my words free.
I also have to consider the platform features of Substack itself.
Chat is a feature that has been a part of Substack for a really long time. But I’ve never really figured out what on earth to do with it. I’ve tried various things, but it never generates much interest at all. I’m thinking that I might simply use it to post quotes. Quotes from Albert Pike on Emeth’s Chat, and posts from whatever I’m reading at the moment on Cameron M. Bailey’s Chat. I’ll likely abandon the Chat feature over on The Keystone.
Substack Notes is the big thing, and I’ve been using it all wrong for a long time now.
What’s wrong with my use of it?
Emeth is listed first in my profile. So when I post something on Notes that someone finds cool, well if they decide to subscribe, they subscribe to Emeth. Emeth has garnered literally thousands of subscribers in this manner through the years.
And lost those subscribers a few days after they subscribed.
Because they didn’t realize when they subscribed that Emeth is only about Freemasonry. They aren’t Masons, they aren’t interested in Freemasonry, so as soon as they figure it out they are gone. Ultimately it was an unwitting error on their part.
I need to make a change to all of that. I’ve got to move Cameron M. Bailey to my primary profile, dropping Emeth to a lower position so that when someone who is not a Mason and has no interest in Freemasonry reads something I wrote on Notes and wants to sign up for more they are actually subscribing to the publication that will give them what they are seeking.
This has been a fairly significant unforced error. I’ll have to slap myself.
Lastly, Substack offers the ability to include ‘voice overs’ for any posts, or videos of posts. I’ve done some of each with Emeth, but not much. To be honest, I don’t really enjoy doing these things. They don’t take long, but I feel weird reading my writing aloud.
But I think that I’m going to have to start utilizing the video feature regularly.
Artificial Intelligence and its Large Language Models used for writing is crap. It steals the actual work of writers then regurgitates that work back in response to queries received. It can not in any way generate original thought. All it can do is repackage the thoughts of writers.
Unfortunately, lots of people are using it now. Getting AI to spew forth some garbage and claiming it as their own work. Publishing it and claiming to be writers. The whole thing is nothing but a scam.
Ultimately it is a scam that won’t work, because AI doesn’t have, and can’t have a unique voice. But it is a thing right now, and it is a growing thing.
My writing has always been my own personal creation. There are no AI generated words. But how does one show readers that it is genuine? That’s the question impossible to answer, but I think one way might be through use of the video feature. Sure, a fake writer could just as easily post video of himself reading the AI drek he claims to have written, but if he’s so damn lazy to use AI in the first place, he probably wouldn’t bother.
I also have to consider my use of other platforms.
At this point I have abandoned Facebook. I haven’t opened it in quite some time now. There just doesn’t seem to be any point in using it any longer as algorithm changes have resulted in those people who follow me not actually seeing the posts I make.
I’ve also largely abandoned X (Twitter) for a similar reason. The owner of X was displeased when Substack introduced its Notes feature, apparently seeing it as a direct competitor. As a result, all posts there that contain anything from Substack are suppressed. That makes X’s value to me very low.
I have been experimenting with Blue Sky quite a lot, using a throwaway account. Engagement there seems to be excellent, much as it was years ago with Facebook. Depending on how my use of it with the throwaway goes, I might end up embracing it.
I guess that’s it, sort of a five year review of my use of Substack. Things I’ve done right, mistakes I’ve made, and changes that may be on the horizon.
As always, thank you for reading!
You have a great writting style and are naturally good at articulating while being authentic. Since you had people using A.I. to write articles, I've noticed others also mentioned that as well. Ive never used it to write any of my articles, but recently I used Grok (Elons A.I.) and asked it to edit three of my first articles here on Substack. I did add credits to the post. I have to say, I am pleased with how it corrected my Grammer and structure. I think it did a better job than I did. As odd as it may sound, I even have full in conversations with it like you would have with a peer or teacher. It's like speaking to an oracle. Have you tried it?
Thank you for sharing this. I’m in the slow arduous process of tidying up my space, optimizing my real estate, minimizing non-writing tasks, and adding some pmt options. I really appreciate what you’ve shared. I find myself tempted to package my work but I believe strongly that would take the fun out of throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks which is my natural, soul-deep method of creating. My journey might take me elsewhere because algorithms be damned at this point. What I’m doing to ensure thoughtfulness in my evolutionary process is diversifying. I am going to collaborate more to expand community and I’m going to try YouTube under my current Bren’s Buzz umbrella because I have ideas for 2 channels. Im also going to publish my first anthology - of the three part dragon fiction I’ve recently published here (last of three coming this week).