About Elan Morgan

(in which I write about my public life in the 3rd person and my personal life in the 1st person unapologetically)

Their Online Arc, Historically

Elan's writing life began early on — they wrote their first poetry at 8 years old — fuelled by an insatiable curiosity and a passion for storytelling. They became known for their distinctive voice and insightful perspective on their personal blog. That online platform became a space for self-expression and a powerful catalyst for personal growth. Through their compelling writing, Elan tackled topics such as mental health, relationships, and social justice, fostering a loyal and engaged readership and gaining recognition as a versatile writer across multiple genres, from poetry and essays to journalism. Over the 2000s and 2010s, blogging remained a large and dynamic force online, which inspired Elan to found the Canadian Weblog Awards. From 2010 to 2014, they brought these annual awards not only to many 100s of bloggers across Canada but also to the world, attracting 100s of volunteer jurors from Canada, the United States, India, England, Malaysia, Ireland, and more. This dedication to blogging and online creativity lead them to become a public speaker who spoke at conferences across North America, including a TEDx Talk, about creativity, self-doubt, and the crafts of writing, blogging, and social media.

It was blogging that inspired Elan’s interest in web design. Early blogging platforms created new spaces for writing, but their default website templates left a lot to be desired, so Elan learned HTML, CSS, and a bit of JavaScript to create spaces that could elevate not only a blog’s content but also its personality, usability, and interestingness. Eventually this lead to more and more paid work as word of their skills spread, and after several years with an enjoyable side gig they were able to leave their employment at a university to commit to website and content design full time. They established what would become Elan.Works in 2010 to help individuals, businesses, and other organizations harness their voice and create meaningful connections through website and content development and, for a short time, digital marketing.

There were also a few years straddling 2010 when they wrote a regular column for the pop culture and entertainment site, MamaPop, which has since been wiped clean off the internet. Even the Wayback Machine has excluded the url, so you’ll just have to take Elan’s word for it.

Elan welcomed the rise of social media platforms as another important medium of expression (before it all went to hell in a handbasket, that is). As an early adopter of Facebook, Twitter, and later other platforms such as Mastodon and Bluesky, they have carved out a unique space for themselves, steadily growing their online presence and audience and sharing their thoughts on creativity, entrepreneurship, and the human experience. In 2008, inspired by a brief bout with cancer that upended much of their life, they also created their own grassroots social platform, Grace In Small Things (GiST), which welcomed approximately 2000 people who wanted to make a practice of gratitude. Elan eventually migrated GiST to a Facebook group where they passed on the leadership role to community members in 2016, and it is still running all these years later.

Personally

I am most often known as Elan Morgan these days, but I still go by the name Schmutzie (shmuht'sē) when it suits, a pseudonym that carries over from my first years of blogging anonymously, beginning in August 2003. My blogging career is basically paleolithic by internet standards.

I live in Regina, Saskatchewan with my partner, Aidan, and our two cats. I spend my time designing websites, writing poetry, curating music playlists, and figuring out how to bake the perfect bread in my toaster oven.