The Hidden River of Your Writing

Chapter One of "Writing at the Wellspring"

Dear Living Dark reader,

“Creativity is a hidden river running through your life. It created you, the dream character living out this narrative of a self in a world. It also uniquely gifted you for creating things within the dream.”

Those are lines from Chapter One of my next book. Two weeks ago I shared the book’s introduction with you. Today I present the first chapter. As with the introduction, and as with most (but not all) of the other chapters that I’ll be publishing here for paid subscribers, much of the chapter’s content previously appeared in this newsletter. But for Writing at the Wellspring, I have significantly reworked it and combined it with other material to produce something new.

Chapter One is located within Section One of the book, titled “Writing with the Daemon Muse.” You can see the complete table of contents and read detailed summaries of each chapter here.

I can also report that I have finished writing the book proposal and have begun querying literary agents. I’ll publish another update on that process soon, along with another section of the proposal (a description of the target audience for this book, among whom I know you number).

Warm regards,

The Hidden River of Your Writing

Introduction to Writing at the Wellspring: Creativity, Life Purpose, Nonduality, and the Daemon Muse

by Matt Cardin

We begin with a chapter of multiple metaphors and perspectives. I present several different ways of framing, picturing, and understanding creativity, like a series of shifting lenses, each one tinted a different shade and therefore highlighting, revealing, and calling out a different aspect of the subject. This is to give us a running start.

It also establishes an approach that I will return to throughout the book.

Navigating the Dreamscape

This is the ultimate secret of creativity: Your whole life is a story that you are telling. This thing you call “my life” is a dream narrative. You are both its author and its main character. As Nietzsche noted, “We are all greater artists than we realize.” Your challenge and calling, as both a writer and a person, is to wake up and own this.