Find the Right Mentoring to Develop Your Writing

Support makes all the difference (Updated August, 2022)

Published in

Inspired Writer

5 min readNov 21, 2019

You can go a long way learning on your own now. We’re so lucky. There’s free info throwing itself at us in every direction from Youtube, Tiktok, online universities…

But that’s part of the problem. There’s so much! It’s overwhelming.

There comes a point where you’re left asking, “Where do I go next? What direction do I take?”

That’s where mentoring comes in.

Mentoring made a huge difference at the start of both

Kelly Eden

and

Ash Jurberg

’s writing careers. As the co-editors of Inspired Writer, we just had to weave it into the fabric of how we help new writers. Our big warm blanket of writing support.

For us, mentoring is like adding GPS to your phone, or hiring a sailor to help you navigate the ocean on your yacht (okay, I have no idea what you do with yachts. Moving on).

It’s having someone cheering you on, telling you “yes, you can do this!” and that’s incredibly valuable — especially when you’re starting out.

We’re constantly brainstorming new ways to support writers. If you have suggestions, let us know!

Our mentoring offerings

Writing Club (on hold for 2023)
Personal Essay Courses
One-on-one Mentoring

Current Feedback and Mentoring Options

If you want in depth individual feedback and prefer to learn at your own pace, there are three other options available:

Personal Essay Writing

Kelly has two Personal Essay Courses.

The Introductory Personal Essay Course:

Is a self-paced with videos, a workbook, and readings.
Unlike other courses, you also get individual feedback on your writing.

If you’re new to personal essays or want to improve your skills, check out the information page.

You get access to:

Kelly’s 15+ years of experience writing and selling personal essays to online and print magazines.
A workbook with memory mining exercises to help stimulate ideas.
A detailed structure to use for your essays.
One-on-one written feedback on your own essay.

There is also an Advanced 6 week Personal Essay Course. For more information about the next intake, contact Kelly at inspiredwriter.kelly@gmail.com

Fiction or Nonfiction Mentoring

Sometimes you need individual guidance on your writing:

You have specific questions, or a piece you want to work on developing?
You want to start pitching editors and don’t know how?
You want an hour Zoom call to talk about the direction of your writing career?

Email me at inspiredwriter.kelly@gmail.com for a quote.

“I loved working alongside Kelly Eden. I hired Kelly for a month in order to improve my writing ability. She has, without a doubt, been worth every penny. She has helped me focus on the weaker aspects of my writing improving my storytelling and personal essays. I would highly recommend Eden for any future work. Her amicable style and insight are worth their weight in gold.”

— Reuben Salsa, satire and history writer.

What to expect from one-on-one mentoring:

Mentoring goes beyond the basics of checking grammar and spelling.

This is what you can’t get online for free — personalized help. Because you’re not like every other writer out there. You’ll have your own strengths and weaknesses. Your own voice.

My main priority is to listen to where you’re at, encourage your own voice, and offer targeted help, rather than generic advice.

I’m not into the cookie-cutter approach. I want to see handcrafted pistachio cookies. Peppermint and coffee cookies. Fruit punch cookies. Actually, no. That last one sounds gross.

My job is to help you become the best you-flavored writer.

Writers who are most open to suggestions improve their work the fastest. If you are the type of writer who doesn’t like to take on feedback, you probably won’t enjoy mentoring.

A bit about me

I’ve been a professional fiction and non-fiction writer for 15+ years and have been published in many magazines, websites, and blogs including: Insider, Scary Mommy, Thought Catalog, Mamamia, Zoosk, Family Times Magazine, Highly Sensitive Refuge, and have been featured multiple times in Apple News Spotlight and Yahoo!Life with viral articles.

In 2011, I won a national award for fiction in New Zealand. I have won several awards for my short fiction and personal essays, including the being selected as a Medium Writers’ Challenge Honorable Mention (top 100).

Before becoming a writer, I trained and worked as a teacher and understand different learning styles. Not all writers can coach others!

I’ve worked as a developmental editor and coach for many fiction and non-fiction writers. I personally had some wonderful mentors in my early writing days and want to pass that on by supporting other new writers.

What Other Writers Say

This is what other new writers have said about working with me in a mentoring process:

“Absolutely delighted to work with her. She went above and beyond and gave invaluable suggestions. Highly recommended.” — Rajesh, Children’s book author.
“Absolutely wonderful to work with! We were very much on the same page and worked well together. She not only helped me write the rest of my story but helped me fix the structure/organization. I never could have finished this without her. Very knowledgeable and contributed great content, much of which came from sources I never would have known about. Thank you!” — Molly, non-fiction education writer