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Writing Life After Novels: What do you do next?
I’ve recently finished (for now anyway!) my novel about an usual exhibit in a 1980s town The Exhibit of Held Breaths and while I’ve got an extremely rough draft of another novel waiting not-so-patiently in the wings and a flash fiction novella that thinks I’m never coming back, I’m unsure what to get cracking on…
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Help for anxious and challenged teenagers and their parents in new Nicola Morgan book
This blog is mindful of the challenges that writing parents face in their ‘normal’ lives outside of their creative pursuits and one of the fantastic resources I have come across in recent times is acclaimed YA author’s Nicola Morgan’s latest publication The Teenage Guide to Stress. This is a book written for the teenager but…
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#fridayflash CODES
#fridayflash is a community on Twitter, Facebook and here. The idea is that you post a short fiction up to 1000 words each or any week on your blog and you link to it using the #fridayflash hashtag on Twitter as well as adding the link to the collector. Everyone who posts tries to read…
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When you’re not writing, keep the faith & Head above Water class preview
If you’re a writing parent like me, the summer holidays can make writing progression at best interesting and at worst a write-off literally. Preparations for back to school for (in my case) four children at three different schools is mind boggling, expensive and a complete time suck. I’ve also decided to use the holiday time…
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Head above Water holidays
Head above Water has had it’s head literally above water on holidays near Venice, a beautiful, surreal, inspiring centre of wonderful renaissance architecture and art. The holiday spirit still lingers, particularly with the school holidays still in full flow, it’s difficult to eek out extended periods of writing or creative time so I look forward…
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Better Writing: Fuel your fascinations & inspiring authors
In my Creative Practice course, one of the exercises I give to writers is to write down their fascinations, what they are absolutely interested in, the things they love and the things they despise. Many of these powerful obsessions, interests, pursuits can become the basis of energetic writing. By starting with the times, places, artefacts…
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Spontanaity.org: poetry, prose, music & visual art creative chain reactions
Head above Water has a fascination with the conditions of creativity and an enthusiasm for the idea that you can make creative sparks by combining ideas from a variety of sources. When I discovered the online magazine Spontaneity.org it encapsulated perfectly that cross pollination – an artwork in one creative sphere literally leads to another…
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Creative Practice & Short Story Essentials Writing Workshop
As a psychology and communications graduate and over the course of several years writing this blog I’ve developed a great interest in the techniques and psychology of motivation and creativity. As a mother of four I have personal experience of juggling a busy life with creative endeavour. I’ve had many stories published in literary journals…
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Make them feel it – let the body talk in your writing
A quick one today as I’m trying to train myself into sticking (roughly) to a schedule in order to progress work on a couple of projects at a time (more on motivation soon!) On one of my projects I’m trying to inject life and tension into a novel that’s already in pretty good shape but…
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Public Battles, Private Wars – Writing, Motherhood & Laura Wilkinson’s new novel
Following on from yesterday’s consideration of the challenges of a parent-writer, today we have a guest post from Laura Wilkinson who’s new novel Public Battles, Private Wars about a family, and particularly the women involved at the time of the 1980s miners strike in Britain is just out. With great depth of character and dealing…
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Alison Wells Author 