Author JM Buckler set to feature in Litteratura Paris Issue
Buckler discovered writing, puts us in the driver's seat of our lives, whether we write fiction or personal narrative, and whether or not we have a talent for writing
"It comes down to a decision, a single moment, when you choose to risk, to jump, to take charge of your destiny and blow open your world to infinite possibilities, to rip up the script life handed you, and to write your own damn story.”
—J.M. Buckler
After years of drifting through life, feeling insecure and lacking a sense of meaning or purpose–always trying to be the image and fill the role that others held out for her–J.M. Buckler took a leap of faith, ripped off the mask of conformity, and dove into the world of her imaginary characters. Through developing their lives, Buckler discovered that she cultivated her own–ultimately finding her calling and passion, transforming her reality, and emerging a grounded and confident young woman.
Buckler’s passion goes deeper than writing a bestselling and award-winning series. Her calling is to show others the value of using writing as a tool for healing. Intent on helping foster those skills among youth, author J.M. Buckler has created a fantasy fiction series that she dubs “secret self-help books,” a GPS of sorts, to help readers navigate through life’s hardships. Amidst gripping, suspense-filled storytelling, Buckler’s central characters face the gamut of real-life turbulence and trauma that pulls no punches, ranging from domestic violence and sexual assault to suicide and war. Through internal struggles that readers witness along the way, the characters cultivate a spiritual strength they did not know they had at the outset. They are flawed and complex, like most people, and they stumble and fall, even unravel in some extreme cases–making them relatable, as they model both the crushing blows that life can deal and the internal process we must go through, to triumph over circumstance.
Through the process of writing these dramas, Buckler underwent deep healing and personal transformation, on the mental, emotional, and even physical levels–leading her to explore the power of writing as a tool for healing pain and trauma, in particular, among “troubled youth.” When Buckler started offering workshops that invited participants to write, and then rewrite, their story, she discovered that even at a juvenile detention center with “dangerous” inmates–she had a marked impact, helping the youth organize their thoughts and reframe their experience of trauma, in turn helping release its grip on them. Writing, she discovered, puts us in the driver’s seat of our lives, whether we write fiction or personal narrative, and whether or not we have a talent for writing.
Most recently, Buckler stumbled upon the work of James Pennebaker PhD, a psychology professor at UT Austin, who pioneered the Expressive Writing method–the act of writing out your feelings, without paying attention to grammar, punctuation, or sentence structure. Three decades of research–published in peer-reviewed medical journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, and uncannily resembling the programs that Buckler intuitively offered youth–revealed that writing is one of the most powerful forms of self-expression, with a healing impact on the mental, emotional, and physical levels. The reason it works, Pennebaker says, is that the act of consolidating thoughts into written language slows down monkey mind and helps us organize, understand, and extract meaning from events that otherwise might leave us feeling powerless and heading into a tailspin. And as an added bonus: Expressive Writing is free, private, and can be done anywhere, anytime.
