Writing at the Wellspring: Progress Report #1

A description/overview of my next book, plus a crash course in writing a book proposal

Dear Living Dark readers,

Back in April, I announced that I was developing my next book from posts that I have been publishing here since launching TLD in 2022. I shared that I had been brainstorming ideas for a title, and I asked for your advice and input. You provided loads of helpful thoughts and reactions, for which I’m still grateful. Now I return to share this, the first of what will be an ongoing series of progress reports on the book’s creation journey. Some of these posts will be free to all subscribers. Others will be for paid subscribers. Over time, I’ll share with you much of the book proposal that I’m presently developing. That means you’ll see a description/overview of the book, its table of contents, a description of its unique selling points, a list of other comparable titles on the market along with notes on what differentiates this one from them, and excerpts from the chapters. I’ll also explain what a book proposal is, and what it’s for, in case you’re not familiar with this kind of document. In fact, I do that below.

Title: “Writing at the Wellspring”

The first item to mention—which I actually previewed in my last post—is that I have definitely settled on a working title. I mulled over all of the advice from April’s conversation, both what you left in the comments here and what some of you sent me by email (to matt@livingdark.net). And what I did was to end up selecting a working title that drew on that discussion, while integrating some of the other ideas into the book’s contents in the form of section and chapter titles.

The working title that I have chosen is Writing at the Wellspring: A Writer’s Guide to Creativity and Life Purpose through Nonduality and the Daemon Muse. That will doubtless be reworked over time, especially since an agent or publisher will surely have their own ideas about what this thing should be called. But for now, I find this title to be satisfying. And it’s certainly accurate to the project’s theme and content.

Book Proposals: A Crash Course

In the publishing world, it’s standard for writers to market their books to agents and publishers using a book proposal. This is a document that has a fairly standardized format, though there are variations, and there is a difference between the general format used for novels and the one used for nonfiction books. All three of the encyclopedias that I have edited—on mummies, the paranormal, and the history of horror literature—involved creating a book proposal for approval by the publisher.

Some of the parts of any such proposal, whether for a fiction or a nonfiction book, include the following:

• a general overview of the work, describing its content, approach, plot, themes, and overall storyline or argument

• a bio of the author that indicates why he or she is the right person to write this book

• a list of competing titles on the market and an explanation of what will set this book apart

• a detailed table of contents and/or a description of the chapters or sections

• one to three sample chapters

• an explanation of what you, the author, will do to help market and promote the thing

The last bullet is key, and it wraps around to encompass the entire proposal. Basically, a book proposal is a marketing document. A writer uses it to convince an agent and/or publisher to invest in a book. For a novel, the writer usually writes the book before writing and shopping around the proposal. For a nonfiction book, by contrast, the writer usually writes and markets the proposal first, and then writes the book itself later, after securing an agent or publisher. In either case, creating such a proposal is a significant project in itself, because it involves a lot of work to research the market for your book, research likely venues (magazines, websites, podcasts) for promoting it, write a bunch of words about it, come up with a convincing and accurate autobiographical statement, write some or all of the book itself, and determine and articulate how far you’re willing to go with such things as hiring your own publicist and financing your own speaking tour. If it’s a nonfiction book and you’re writing the proposal first, then this whole process also requires you to clarify your ideas and vision and articulate a coherent statement of the book’s structure and content, which is a massive cognitive and creative undertaking.

If this is all news to you, and if you’re a certain type of writer who is possessed of what might be called a literary purist/idealist mindset, one of your natural thoughts upon hearing all this may be, “Wait, can’t I just write the damned book and let the publisher do the rest?” To which the answer is that reality eventually makes realists of us all.

I presently have the proposal for Writing at the Wellspring well underway. For this book, I will be seeking an agent, which is something I haven’t done before. Throughout my more than twenty years as a published author, I have worked without a mediator, collaborating directly with publishers. That said, in the beginning I was fortunate enough to have John Pelan, the late horror author and editor (he was the man behind, for example, the popular Darkside series of horror anthologies in the 1990s and early 2000s), act informally but quite actively as my agent when, at the 2001 World Horror Convention, he deliberately facilitated the publication of my first book by marching me through the convention hotel and introducing me to the proprietors of the publishing company that ended up issuing it. These many years later, for Writing at the Wellspring I’m hoping to secure an agent of the formal variety so that I can gain access to publishing houses that are not available without such representation. For such a purpose, a well-crafted proposal is a requirement.

Writing at the Wellspring: The Overview

As stated, a major part of a book proposal is the overview, which gives a broad description of the book’s content. In tone it’s very much like a book’s back-cover copy, since it not only describes the book’s contents but does so in a way that tries to make it enticing to the reader—which, in the case of a proposal, is ultimately an agent or editor. It’s sometimes standard to write this text in the third person, which means that if you refer to yourself as the writer, you don’t say “I” but he or she. You may even have to call yourself by name. Yes, this feels strange, which is why I have opted to forgo that convention—which isn’t universally observed anyway—in the writing of this book’s overview, and speak freely as myself. I do, however, go full-bore promotional hype in the style and tone.

For those of you who have been reading my essays here at The Living Dark for the past two years, I think the themes and topics contained in these paragraphs will sound very familiar, though here you’re seeing them fused together into an organized and connected presentation instead of spread out piecemeal over weeks and months:

In Writing at the Wellspring, I draw on my extensive experience as an established author and scholar to invite writers, artists, and spiritual seekers on a transformative journey into the heart of creativity. This book is not simply a guide to honing your craft, but a fresh and profound exploration of the creative process that reveals how writing can become a pathway to self-discovery, spiritual awakening, and a life filled with purpose.

Drawing from ancient wisdom, contemporary psychology, and my own hard-won insights, I delve into the hidden river of creativity that runs through all of us, revealing how collaborating with the daemon muse—our inner creative force—can unlock unique voices, overcome blocks, and align our work with the deeper currents of life. By integrating the philosophy of nonduality, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things in the singular Self that lies behind the world’s appearance of multiplicity, we can transcend the limitations of the ego and tap into an unlimited source of inspiration, discovering a sense of alignment with the creative flow of the cosmos itself.

Whether you’re an experienced writer seeking renewed inspiration, an aspiring artist yearning to understand your craft, or anyone seeking a more meaningful and purposeful life, Writing at the Wellspring offers a unique and inspiring roadmap for navigating the often-turbulent waters of the creative journey. It’s a timely and essential resource for anyone who longs to awaken to their full potential and find a focused purpose and vision in a world that often feels fragmented and chaotic.

So that, as they say, is that. If you’re inclined, let me know what you think.

In my next update, I’ll share the book’s table of contents.

Warm regards,