Self-Publishing Development of spiritual knowledge in modern stories

[DangerSpot]

Is anyone interested in making films like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones but with spiritual content these days? Is the development of spiritual/New Age knowledge the next big interest in the future media?

 

[Still Waters]

Is anyone interested in making films like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones but with spiritual content these days? Is the development of spiritual/New Age knowledge the next big interest in the future media?

Almost everything I write is spiritual in some way or another. However, I don't write fiction. I've had quite enough struggle in my life keeping the horrors in my imagination separate from the horrors of my real life (actually, I think it was vice versa). Anything I write is rooted in real experience (even if I might not have been grounded in "collective reality" at the time), with possible necessary literary license taken in parts. I like to write more from a perspective of imparting spiritual experiences (I've had) and wisdom and how it can be used to stop personal suffering.

 

[AgentPete]

Is anyone interested in making films like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones but with spiritual content these days? Is the development of spiritual/New Age knowledge the next big interest in the future media?

Hi, DS, yes, it could easily be.

I love NF publishing, it’s the area of the industry where the impact on readers is the most immediately visible… you literally can change people’s lives. And they aren’t slow in letting you know!

Having said that, it can be difficult-to-impossible to get a new author in the spiritual / self-help area picked up by a conventional publisher unless there’s already a strong potential reader base out there (e.g. they have a gazillion TikTok followers, etc).

Self-pub can be a better, faster route. However… the ms still has to be irresistible. Self-pub is not an easy way to get a sub-par manuscript into circulation, it simply won’t work.

Books are primarily sold by word-of-mouth, even in these digital days. The medium of recommendation is actually less important; what counts for everything is the personal enthusiasm of the first reader and their ability to ignite interest in your book in subsequent readers. It’s a chain reaction… when it works.

Self-improvement / spirituality is an area that is especially amenable to this samizdat form of book marketing; when a reader loves your book (and especially if it touches their life) then they really do want to tell the world

And my instinct is that spiritual/New Age could well be about to explode onto the screen.

 

[Still Waters]

Hi, DS, yes, it could easily be.

I love NF publishing, it’s the area of the industry where the impact on readers is the most immediately visible… you literally can change people’s lives. And they aren’t slow in letting you know!

Having said that, it can be difficult-to-impossible to get a new author in the spiritual / self-help area picked up by a conventional publisher unless there’s already a strong potential reader base out there (e.g. they have a gazillion TikTok followers, etc).

Self-pub can be a better, faster route. However… the ms still has to be irresistible. Self-pub is not an easy way to get a sub-par manuscript into circulation, it simply won’t work.

Books are primarily sold by word-of-mouth, even in these digital days. The medium of recommendation is actually less important; what counts for everything is the personal enthusiasm of the first reader and their ability to ignite interest in your book in subsequent readers. It’s a chain reaction… when it works.

Self-improvement / spirituality is an area that is especially amenable to this samizdat form of book marketing; when a reader loves your book (and especially if it touches their life) then they really do want to tell the world

And my instinct is that spiritual/New Age could well be about to explode onto the screen.

Self-publish is something I will never do. If people, including publishers, don't want my book, then so be it.

I have an intense dislike for social media. As I wrote in my first thread, I'm a hard-core introvert. I gave social media a try. I'm even worse at social media than I am with in-person social interactions, which is saying a lot. I keep watching people. I get perplexed by the things I see people online write and do and I scratch my head trying to understand them. I observe them and their interactions with one another and the things they post etc. I don't want to be their friends, and I've always taken issue with the practice of collecting people like stamps in the hopes you can sell them something. None of it sits right with me.

We had a superficial society before the internet even existed, but social media has taken it to levels far beyond the boundary of anything I would like to participate in. I cannot compete. If nobody wants to read what I write, fine. But I have to write it.

 

[tyes]

Absolutely, and not only because my current WIP incorporates a spiritual dimension. This is my second story. My first was somewhat hard science fiction, which I am immensly proud of and intend to continue as a series. But in the 6 years it took me to write it, I felt like I developed sufficient skills to attempt a story that somewhat crosses over into a space that at the very least asks questions of a spiritual nature.

Still, I think it can be disingenuous for fictional stories that echo the a system of belief of faith to deliberately attempt to prosteltise. By all means, write and publish your words of wisdom as non fiction / self help. In fiction however, there is defnitely a knife's edge to navigate in terms of a story that is both engaging as well as incorporating some form of a spiritual / faith world view.

In my opinion, Tolkein's work's incorporated spiritual concepts (Tolkein was a Catholic), but the connections are limited at best. CS Lewis's works were possibly a little more overtly Christian, but were still compelling to read from other world views. Lewis insread reserved a large portion of his writing in the the NF space which gave him greater freedom to position his Christian worldview, and to defend that position. I dont have the citations, but I believe both have been quotated saying that they did not consider their fiction stories to be "Christian' but that their own Christian worldviews shaped what they wrote, in particular the underpinning belief that good triumphs over evil.

There is a place for fiction that targets a Christian (or any other system of faith) audience, providing that it is not doing so with some kind of subterfuge or bait and switch. A more modern exampe (not that I've read it) was "The Shack" which was both fictional, but in its marketing, didnt seem to attempt to conceal the fact that it was seeking to ask some questions of a spiritual nature, based around a Christian world-view.. I give the reader credit that any story that is a poorly veiled attempt to argue a particular worldview or to manipulate will be summarily dismissed. Good stories stand on their own right.

One of the reasons I like, read and write Science Fiction / Fantasy is because it allows the current landscape of scientific, political, social and even spiritual experiences to be extrapolated and discussed in different way, with a measure of distance and freedom. The best examples of these stories, don't just challenge you intellectually, but in deeper ways that change your mindset completely.

So my advice, for what it's worth, is that stories that engage the reader through compelling characters, an interesting world and a compelling plot have earned the right to to ask questions of the reader. Concluding a story leaving the reader satisfied, yet asking questions like "what's next," are great. Skillfullying leading them to question the reality of life itself are even greater.

 

[Still Waters]

Still, I think it can be disingenuous for fictional stories that echo the a system of belief of faith to deliberately attempt to prosteltise. By all means, write and publish your words of wisdom as non fiction / self help. In fiction however, there is defnitely a knife's edge to navigate in terms of a story that is both engaging as well as incorporating some form of a spiritual / faith world view.

I don't write to proselytize (one behavior I really disliked in the "spirituality" corners on social media), in fiction or non-fiction. I don't care what people believe. I'm telling my story. I have a lot of compassion for humanity, so I want to do this, but one of an infinite number of things I've learned is that it is sheer folly to try to make others bend to your will and abandon what they believe to align with your beliefs. It's also not nice, so I strive not to do it. Giving someone information, presenting new ideas ought to suffice without the intent to coerce someone to abandon what they currently believe. Others are responsible for themselves and for their own beliefs, and I for mine. I would like it if anything in my stories helped them, but it's not my business if it does or not, or what they do with the information I impart.

I'm not Christian. I don't adhere to any organized religion, and anything that is as dogmatic as an organized religion, and even any spiritualist or New Age dogma, I do not categorize as spiritual. Dogma is the antithesis of spirituality by my definition. Spirituality has to be conceptualized as a free space for the individual to evolve without being pushed, bullied or shoved into someone else's belief system, unless, of course, that happens to be an aspect of their personal spiritual path, and their challenge then becomes the path out of that restrictive system.

My situation is straightforward--I suffered 21 years in suicidal levels of depression, had a monumental breakdown in 2008 and spent the next... to this day forging my own spiritual path (to put it in a tiny nutshell) to reinvent myself and my life and extricate myself from decades of living hell. I have many stories to tell based on my life experiences alone and an ever-expanding repository of insights about society and humanity, but spirituality has been the essential constant and primary facet of me since I was young.

Let's see... 38 more forum posts until I can start a blog...

 

[RK Wallis]

I can feel the spiritual element in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, especially Rhythm of War, so I think it's already happening. He writes brilliant epic fantasy like GRR Martin.

 

[Still Waters]

Skillfullying leading them to question the reality of life itself are even greater.

Upon re-reading your post, I noticed the above, and I was so intrigued and curious, I just had to ask--is that a typographical Freudian slip, or did you really intend to write "skillful lying"?

36 more posts until I can start a blog.

 

[tyes]

Ha! Isn’t all fiction just skilful lying? Definitely a typo on skilfully I can’t even blame autocorrect on that one.

 

[Still Waters]

Ha! Isn’t all fiction just skilful lying? Definitely a typo on skilfully I can’t even blame autocorrect on that one.

Lol. Actually, it seems like lots of things are skillful lying in some form or another--entertainment, politics, business... That has to be the best typo I've ever seen! And I've seen at least thousands--I used to be a proofreader. Add that to all the mistakes in online typing and the number is incalculable!

O,k, 35 posts until I can start a blog...

 

[tyes]

Hi - I'll have to add a tagline to my signature, "Skillful Liar"