Meet Mill Valley Resident and Award-Winning Author Holly Payne

In 1994, current Mill Valley resident Holly Payne was struck by a drunk driver and left unable to walk for nearly a year. She received a letter from the driver asking for forgiveness, but rather than write him a letter, she wrote him her latest novel, Kingdom of Simplicity. 

Kingdom of Simplicity won the 2010 Benjamin Franklin Award from the Independent Book Publisher’s Association, the 2011 Grand Prize for the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards, and has been nominated for a National Book Award in Belgium.

I met Holly at the 2012 Writer’s Digest Conference in Manhattan and I’m pleased to share with you a glimpse into her life and writing experiences.

Finding her Calling
Growing up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Holly remembers when she first experienced the joy of writing in fifth grade. “I had written a series of fables one night in my bedroom: How the Raccoon Got Rings Around Its Eyes, How the Alligator Got to Be Preppy—I'm dating myself here, clearly…and How the Sunset Turned Red. I remember the flood of those words and how I couldn't keep writing fast enough to keep up with the images I was seeing. I ran downstairs and read the fables to my mom. She just smiled and said, ‘You have a way with words.’ It made me feel so seen! I was so excited. I submitted my fables to a school writing contest and won honorable mention. I had no idea how much that little award would encourage me to keep writing.”

‘Terror and Grace’
Holly was forever changed by the 1994 accident. “It was an experience of terror and grace. Terror for the obvious reasons. I actually thought that the bicyclists who had been on the road that night had also been killed, and then I thought I was dead, too. The grace was that I discovered something about myself, and this life, that has been with me ever since: a deep and profound belief in something bigger than me that's guiding my spirit. 

"I vowed the night of the accident that if I survived, I would dedicate my life to serving others with my writing and teaching. It's why I take it so seriously; I have often felt like I am on borrowed time.”

Holly’s Writing Process
Holly’s inspiration usually comes in the form of images. “A story will come to me, I get a flash and I know instantly it is the seed of a novel. There's a resonance and I almost always get the chills instantaneously.

“Then it all fades and the roadblocks arise (I'm laughing as I answer this because isn't this the case with all creativity?). Nothing like obstacles and tension to bring something into physical form. Once the flash is there, usually a character appears and, when I know their problem, I start to ask a lot of hypothetical questions. Why are you there? Why are you doing what you're doing? What did you do before this moment? Where do you want to go from here? etc.

“That forms a loose basis for the preliminary plot outline which ends up a lovely mess of dialogue, scene snippets that seep through the story development, and character back story, which I learn as I go. At least I'm learning to let go of needing to know everything and really trust my intuition as I write. But even this loose outline eventually gets tighter and more refined as I work my way through the book.”

Motherhood, to Holly’s surprise, hasn’t slowed her down at all. “Not only has motherhood given me the greatest gift of my life in my daughter, but I've found that I'm even more productive and efficient with my time. Actually, I don't have a choice. I have to find windows and if I blow it, I lose that chance to write.

"I ended up writing more in the first year of my daughter's life than I did in all the years on my own, even when I could work 10-12 hour days. Now, I get about 4 hours each day to focus so I try to shut off the internet, my emails and my phone so I can just do the work. There's no magic formula. You have to sit down and write in whatever time you get between all the roles we play as parents.”

Holly has also developed a tried-and-true formula for removing her writing blocks. “Whenever I get stuck, I go hiking and watch a ton of movies. That seems to unblock me. I've come to accept and realize that the block is simply a fear. When I'm afraid to make a choice in the narrative, it usually means I'm not committed in present time to what the story is telling me. Sometimes I just need to take a few days off and let something simmer—let my subconscious work out the kinks. If I think too hard or force myself to write, it's disastrous. Always.  

"It's always best to write without thinking about it too much. Turn the mind off. I'm really beginning to believe that when I'm in the flow, I'm actually in another part of my brain—far away from the bullies of my analytical mind. Those guys are lethal to the muses but nobody ever teaches most writers how to stay in that other part of the brain—and I'm still figuring it out.”

In Part 2 of our interview, we'll discuss the lessons Holly has learned from self-publishing, her favorite books, and her annual Skywriter Ranch Writing Retreat. Stay tuned!

Visit Holly Payne at her website, hollylynnpayne.com.