{"id":8705,"date":"2019-11-23T01:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T08:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=8705"},"modified":"2019-11-22T15:01:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T22:01:30","slug":"hollow-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/hollow-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, you can write that book you’ve been wanting to write!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I read about author Kira Jane Buxton<\/a> in the Breaking In column, Writer\u2019s Digest, October 2019 issue. I especially appreciate what she worked through to realize \u201c. . . letting go of outside expectations while writing Hollow Kingdom<\/em> afforded me the freedom to take great risks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her advice for writers: \u201cJust have fun with it. Write the\nthing that\u2019s burning inside you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enjoyed reading about her writing journey. I hope you\nwill, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kira Jane Buxton<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I had a solid ten years of professional rejection under my\nbelt by the time I realized I wanted to be a writer. Ten years of trying to\nignite an acting career and an art career, seemingly with a broken match and\nwet kindling. A creative writing class at Santa Monica College (a gift from my\nhusband that I deferred for a year because I was petrified) got my blood\npumping and made me realize that all along, what I\u2019d wanted to do was bring\ncharacters to life, and it didn\u2019t have to involve the grueling audition\nprocess. I realized I wanted to write a book, and\u2014since I\u2019ve always believed\nthat a dream should never be burdened with limits or stipulations\u2014I wanted to\npublish that book. To be very brave and share my words with the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote my first novel, painstakingly tapping it out on an\niPad because I\u2019d saved up for one and it made me feel fancy. It was, in line\nwith many a first novel, not spectacular. The plot was exciting, but I hadn\u2019t\nyet found my voice. It was, however, filled with passion and something that can\u2019t\never be phoned in\u2014a writer\u2019s enthusiasm for writing itself. I queried agents\nwith this novel to a response like the chirping of crickets (I should mention\nthat the query itself was absolutely horrendous and started with, \u201cDear Agent, The\nleg is human.\u201d) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No stranger to recovering from a letdown, I picked myself up\nand wrote a memoir about a strange experience I had while living in LA (one of\na great many strange experiences I had in Hollyweird, La La Land). I queried\nagents again, this time with some interest. An agent who reps one of my\nfavorite authors wrote back, saying that while she felt the book didn\u2019t work,\nshe loved my writing and could see this memoir fictionalized as a humorous\nmystery series. Huzzah! I jumped back into the saddle and spent the next year\nrewriting the novel. I sent it back to the agent who felt that it was on its\nway, but still needed work. I hired two great independent editors (working with\nthem separately). I edited this novel for many, many more months. In fact, I\nedited it into the high heavens. I edited it into oblivion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, I opened up my document and couldn\u2019t see a word of\nthis novel I\u2019d worked so very hard on. I took breaks and would come back to it,\nonly to discover I still couldn\u2019t see it. Ever the optimist, I decided that I\nshould write the sequel to this novel I was blind to! I wrote the sequel, came\nback to open up the document, and still couldn\u2019t see it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The words no longer felt like my own. And I had to admit\nthat I\u2019d lost the novel, that it was well and truly dead. Things with the agent\nfizzled out, and years of work suddenly seemed like a phenomenal waste of time.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I fell into despair. All the rejection I\u2019d ever experienced\n(which was, frankly, all I\u2019d ever experienced) came crashing down on me. I\ncried a lot. I figured I\u2019d never achieve anything creatively. I often make\nlight of this time, because that\u2019s how humorists cope with difficult times, we\ntransmogrify them into manageable jokes\u2014but it was incredibly hard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was my husband who told me to \u201cgo and write the thing\nabout the crows.\u201d I love crows. I\u2019m an animal lover and spend time with two\nwild crows daily, they\u2019re family to me. My husband then gave me the best\nwriting advice I\u2019ve ever had. He said, \u201cJust have fun with it. Don\u2019t write it\nwith an expectation of getting an agent or getting published, just write for\nyou.\u201d I took his advice to heart. I wasn\u2019t sure how to write about crows, but\none day, while driving, it hit me. \u201cWhat if a crow is telling the story of our\nspecies? And what if a crow is telling the story of our extinction?\u201d I got\ngoosebumps. I raced home and wrote the first chapter, from the perspective of\nS.T., a domesticated crow who loves humans. His language was fouler than I\u2019d\nanticipated or ever imagined writing (and certainly couldn\u2019t see getting\npublished!), even his name is an expletive. I poured my passion into the book\u2014my\ndeep love of animals and an exploration of how disconnected we\u2019ve become from\nthe natural world (which is frankly, the only world we have). It was an\nenvironmental parable filled with humor, horror, adventure, facts about nature,\nand poop jokes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I braved reading the first chapter to my writing group, who\nencouraged me to query this novel I called Hollow Kingdom<\/em>. And then I\nwas flying out to New York to interview the agents who had offered me\nrepresentation. I signed with Bill Clegg of The Clegg Agency and we sold Hollow\nKingdom<\/em> at auction to Grand Central Publishing. It is being translated into\nmany different languages and AMC have optioned the rights for a TV series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t believe that words are ever wasted. The novels in\nthe drawer are essential to our process and should be cherished, whether they\nget published or not. No one should ever be made to feel ashamed about their\nambitions and dreams\u2014the bigger, the better, I say\u2014but those external goals\nshouldn\u2019t be the only reason you\u2019re writing. They can be motivating and used as\nfuel, but they shouldn\u2019t be the core reason you share your words. Write the\nthing that\u2019s burning inside you. Write your story, no matter how weird or\ndifferent or afraid you are to tell it. There are currently 7.7 billion people\non earth and you\u2019re the only one who can tell us your tale. Enjoy the journey\nas much as you can. Now that I\u2019m on the other side of publishing a book, I can\ntell you that the most magical part of the whole process is still sitting down,\ntuning out the real world, and exploring the creative dance between mind and\npage. Take breaks when it\u2019s hard and be careful of over editing. Know that you\nare always going to be the leading authority on your writing. Build community.\nBe kind to other artists, especially because you know how tough the process can\nbe. Reciprocity is everything, when one writer does well, celebrate, it\u2019s a\nvictory for all of us. Above all, just have fun with it. Every editor who made\nan offer on Hollow Kingdom<\/em> said that they could feel what an incredible\ntime I had writing this novel. I stopped trying to be the writer I thought I\nshould be. I let go. Energy is everything and everything is energy. Take the\npressure off yourself and trust that when you are in the flow, when you let go\nof your chokehold on an outcome, your very best writing will take you places,\nliterary and literally, you could never imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kira Jane Buxton’<\/a>s writing has appeared in The New York Times<\/em>, NewYorker.com, McSweeney\u2019s<\/em>, The Rumpus<\/em>, Huffington Post<\/em>, and more. She calls the tropical utopia of Seattle home and spends her time with three cats, a dog, two crows, a charm of hummingbirds, and a husband.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read about author Kira Jane Buxton in the Breaking In column, Writer\u2019s Digest, October 2019 issue. I especially appreciate what she worked through to realize \u201c. . . letting go of outside expectations while writing Hollow Kingdom afforded me the freedom to take great risks.\u201d Her advice for writers: \u201cJust have fun with it. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[1277,1276],"class_list":["post-8705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-hollow-kingdom","tag-kira-jane-buxton"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2gp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8705"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8717,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8705\/revisions\/8717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}