We were lucky to catch up with Kelly Green recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kelly , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

It’s likely that I knew forever, as I was deeply in tune to the fact that writing was the way I made sense of being alive in the world. From early on, I was able to spin the difficulty and the beauty of living into something tangible – like a sculpted object – that I could stand back and observe. In that process, I found an ability to both accept and celebrate the complexity of the human condition.

However – I did not feel brave enough, or compelled enough – to make any solid steps towards becoming an active, paid, or ‘google-able’ writer until I was 34. At that point, my soul simply would not take no for an answer anymore. I realized that writing, every night, after coming home from my 9-5, was the only way I was able to get through the weight of the life I had created for myself. It was then that I knew I had to uproot my life in order to find a way to replant myself – this time as someone who made the proper space for writing in her life.

Kelly , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The first thing I did to ‘make myself a writer’ was begin writing blog posts with regularity – almost every day, or every couple of days. Not only did this act teach my brain and body how to honor the space and rhythm I needed to allow for writing, but it also – in many ways – taught me how to write. Through a practice I was commandeered to produce by no one else, I was able to play with my pace and style until it truly felt like me. I wrote and wrote, until my writing voice emerged. I believe we all have a natural writing voice, but until you experiment, it may struggle to come to the forefront. Once I found my voice, writing anything became such joy. A few months after working intensely on my blog, I started researching how to contact online publications in order to write for them. I googled every single word I didn’t know; I read for hours on the subject. I ate information like it was my job. When I felt ignorant in an arena, I used it as an opportunity to become knowledgeable. I knew that, at that point in my writing [non]-carrer, I was, in a sense, my own gatekeeper. I had to be hungry enough to be willing to ask a thousand questions in order to find a way to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish.

I use writing as a place where I can bare myself in an attempt to connect with others. I am obsessed with honesty – of what it can do when we stand in its light. I use writing as a way to speak to deep truths that I feel are either not being said or not being said loudly enough.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I believe that writing is the voice I was given to use here on earth to connect with other human beings. I truly believe that writing is a more honest representation of my spirit than even my own mouth. Writing is the impulse I have had since I was a young child, and I believe our impulses are built-in and here to guide us to our truth.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I don’t have a giant presence on social media, but I recognize the strength in being present online as the artist that we are. I encourage having a website in which you showcase the artist in you – a space where you refuse to be defined by anything else, and simply allow your inner artist to become ‘outer.’ On social media, you can then link your website so that there is a constant referral to this part of you.

I use my social media to showcase more of who I truly am. Whereas writing is an impulse that I honor by sitting down each day to feed it – I do NOT honor my impulses in the same way when it comes to social media. On social media, I am careful to share images and words that I feel always tie into the core of who I am and what I am trying to say to my writing. Simply put, I don’t show all the random pictures of dogs I take in a given day (you have no idea how many that is) – but I will share a picture of my own dog and say some words about how she has changed me. I don’t share every cute photo of my son; instead, I share a strong picture with some deep truth about how insanely hard and yet breathtaking parenting is. I utilize my social media as another way to connect honestly with others.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thekellygreen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellygreen_likethecolor/

Image Credits
all images are my own