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NaNoWriMo Celebration Blog Tea Party
I can’t believe it’s over! The challenge to challenge all writing challenges. This year almost 170,000 writers undertook the NaNoWriMo challenge to write a novel of 50,000 words in just one month. This entailed churning out a minimum of 1667 words every single day with no exceptions. But why? What communal madness infected all those…
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10 Recession Beating Personal Grooming Tips for Writers(!)
1: Save on manicures and nail trimming by typing extremely fast for long periods. If you participate in the yearly NaNoWriMo challenge you will automatically lose all your fingernails. 2: Dispense with face creams, anti-wrinkle products and Botox. This will automatically give your face a deeply etched, lived in look that will suggest wisdom and…
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Running for my writing life
I did it. I jumped in. Which is why I haven’t been posting for a while. I mean NaNoWriMo, which is the National Novel Writing Month for which many thousands if not hundreds of thousands of crazed people with Obsessive Writing Disorder pledge to themselves to write 50,000 words on a new project in just…
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The Evangelical Writer: Why you need to believe in yourself
Evangelism. It can be scary. It can put you off a nice walk in the park. It can make you squirm uncomfortably at the front door. Or it can be fascinating and illuminating to see how the power of belief can make someone turn their life around, dedicate themselves absolutely to what they believe in.…
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Who’s Cool
My next post is going to be an indepth psychological analysis of evangelicism and how it relates to writing. (Betcha can’t wait!) But in the meantime here’s this nugget of wisdom from the Four young ones. Er (4yo girl): ‘Boys think they’re cool but they aren’t cool’ R (7yo boy): ‘Boys think they’re cool and…
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5 ways to be a writer when you’re not writing.
You may burn to be a writer, you may understand that it is your true calling and be prepared to put in the hours tapping away on the keyboard or scribbling with your pen but depending on your work situation and personal/family circumstances, there may be stretches of time when you are not able to…
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What I want to say to you – a Novel-in-Waiting
Theme I want to say that we choose a path and that maybe it’s the right one and maybe it’s the rightest one and maybe we’ll never know. I want to say that sometimes you feel that you are living the wrong life, that this isn’t who you are, that you could have been more,…
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Back-Pats and Explosive Stats
Just back from a mother and baby conference weekend where the baby speakers had us enthralled and the mummies went ga ga over the plush surroundings. It was a meeting of the hardworking volunteers of the fabulous Cuidiu (caring support) organisation for parents, particularly of babies and small children. If anyone deserves an award it…
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Five ways to procrastinate procrastination
I’m going to write a post on procrastination but first I need to make a cup of tea, check on a few emails, update my twitter feed, clean the bathroom and take my pet giraffe out for a walk. Oh and the keyboard could do with a bit of a polish. Right. Sorted. So here…
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Five fives for inspiring the mind
The overarching theme of this blog, as you know, is head space. In the context of my endeavours as a writer this in particular means the kind of head space that will engender creativity, that feeling of flow that connects you with the wellspring that is your subconscious and your memory, allowing you to draw…
Welcome to my Head above Water blog! I’m Alison, writer, mother and public librarian with a background in Communication Studies and Psychology. I have a particular interest in creative resilience, motivation and how nature and wonder can restore us. In my day job I run book clubs and creative events for children and adults.
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Alison Wells Author 