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About Me — Kelly Eden
Hi, I’m Kelly. Nice to meet you! I love getting to know you all and hearing your stories. If we met in real life, these are the things I might share with you…
Saying hello,
1. I love people’s stories
What do you do when you meet new people? I try and find out as much about them as I can. If we met in real life, I’d happily sit and listen to as many stories as you wanted to tell me.
One of my favorite things about being a writer is hearing people’s stories. Actually, that’s one of my favorite things about life in general. People interest me. I know some people say they love animals or the environment more than humans, and I love those too (I live in a gorgeous country!) …
2 minute tip
No quitting, no questioning
Do you dream of a gorgeous page of text with beautifully crafted sentences full of smart, insightful ideas? Is exceptional writing the hot date you can’t seem to find?
Sure, you flirt with a random bit of prose occasionally and have a good time. Not enough to take writing any further, but you had fun.
Other days, the blank stare from the white page on your screen doesn’t seem worth your time. You swipe left on writing. No date today.
I always liked writing but, for many years, I’d only commit to it in bursts. I flirted with it. Life is busy. I’m a stay-at-home mom and there always seemed to be little people underfoot. There was housework to do and dinners to cook. …
Optimism with agency is the key to making great things happen
You’re probably sick of hearing, “Be positive and it will be okay!” I am too. It’s a huge lie that positivity is a fix-it-all for every situation. So why do the self-help gurus keep pushing the Power of Positivity?
There’s certainly a lot of evidence that points to the benefits of positivity on our health and well-being. I’m sure, like me, you’ve read several articles about it. So should we fake positive emotions for the good of our health?
Should we be “Pollyanna-ish” and point out the silver lining in every situation?
My kids and I actually love the well-known character of Pollyanna and her “Glad game”. Finding the bright-side of any situation has it’s place. But there are times when fake “Pollyanna” positivity is unhelpful. …
Happy New Year to our IW family!
I’m starting 2021 with some rare time to myself this week. My kids are away on vacation so I have the unusual luxury of focusing on my writing. I’m also focused on ways I can help you with your writing, particularly your creative nonfiction.
I’ve had some writing courses on my to-do list for months. Like the picture above says, I need to stop waiting and start doing!
Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll have a brand new personal essay course for you — the first (beta) personal essay course sold out and my plan is for this one to be even more in-depth and useful. …
January ’21 Inspired Writer Newsletter
Happy New Year to our IW family!
I’m starting 2021 with some rare time to myself this week. My kids are away on vacation so I have the unusual luxury of focusing on my writing. I’m also focused on ways I can help you with your writing, particularly your creative nonfiction.
I’ve had some writing courses on my to-do list for months. Like the picture above says, I need to stop waiting and start doing!
Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll have a brand new personal essay course for you — the first (beta) personal essay course sold out and my plan is for this one to be even more in-depth and useful. …
I hope to take some of the lessons with me into 2021
Every second email in my inbox starts the same way: 2020 has been a challenging year for all of us.”
Or some variation of that: tough year, terrible year, worst year... Fair enough. A global pandemic, racial and political tension, and lockdown (which caused it’s own mental health, domestic violence, and alcoholism impacts) are not events we want to experience on repeat in our lives.
But challenges are never ALL bad. Challenges bring out some of humanities best characteristics.
I experienced this a few years ago after the tragic Christchurch earthquakes here in New Zealand. In many ways, 2020 has been similar. I have that same feeling of gratitude, awe, and surprise I felt after the earthquakes settled. There’s the same hopeful expectation for change. The same kindness, passion, and community resilience. …
Some behavior is always out of fashion
When we mention tackiness we’re often talking about loud Hawaiian shirts, cheap-looking bling, or some other gaudy fashion no-no. But most fashion choices are not a mark of your character. If you want to wear a flowered pink shirt and eight chains around your neck, go for it. Why not add a glittered collar while you’re at it? Tacky clothes might make us cringe, but tacky behavior is a far bigger turn off.
Growing up I became very aware of tackiness because of how my mother presented herself. My mother is a very classy woman. When I was growing up, she put a lot of emphasis on holding yourself well, behaving a certain way, and dressing beautifully. One of the phrases I most remember her saying to my sisters and I was: “If you behave like that I won’t be able to take you anywhere.” …
How to move from a human-doing to a human-being
I was a human-doing in my twenties. I wanted to do something big with my life. Something worthy. Something with purpose. Every moment was filled-up with work, volunteer tasks, or sports. I lived for the gold stars! A winner’s trophy in ice-skating, an ‘A’ on a college essay, a recommendation letter from a boss or lecturer, another certificate in something-or-other — as a high-achiever, each accomplishment made me feel validated; valuable.
I equated hard-work with having value as a person. …
Creative Nonfiction
Because sometimes, they just do
I. The smart guy
I can’t remember who chose the skating rink. Perhaps I’d mentioned I was a figure skater and he wanted to watch me wiggle my hips across the ice. Perhaps he planned to use his unsteady inexperience as an excuse to hold my hand, touch me. He’d attracted me at senior school science-fair with his brains, not his sporting prowess, so I didn’t mind. I’d never been touched by a boy. My body secretly craved it.
We took a break and sat in a group, skates still attached to our feet, his angled awkwardly. Even sitting he struggled to balance his long legs on the wafer-thin blades. He was all angles and limbs and hands everywhere. He pulled me into his lap. I felt like a reluctant child forced to sit on Santa’s knee. It was our first date, less than an hour into our first date. I was more prepared for gently interlaced gloves than forced lap sitting. The quiet fantasies in my bedroom, listening to Radiohead and dreaming of my first kiss, hadn’t been like this. I felt the bones of his thighs under me, his long desperate fingers pressing into my stomach. …
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