Christine Poole

Scientist. Writer. Facilitator. Artist. Curious about what helps us grow.

  • 🧹 The Art of Admin

    I started meeting my writing buddy weekly on Monday 22nd June and made a commitment to myself to do something uncomfortable: write and release a post every week. Well, I did it! Seven weeks later, 16 posts. I’ve even impressed myself. 😜 But next week (and maybe the following), I’m not posting! I’ve been watching… Read more

  • Dublin, my Dublin

    This evening…Dublin, my Dublin. Even now you still surprise me ♥️ Read more

  • 📚🐾The First Draft Beast

    I was chatting to my writing friend Anne about first drafts. We both agreed: they are hard. Not just a bit tiring hard. They are a beast of a thing. It feels a little like giving birth to some strange creature that you don’t entirely recognise. You have spent all this time creating it, feeding… Read more

  • 🚲 Creative Growth Spurt

    I’ve been thinking about what happens when we grow. Not the slow, steady kind of growth that is almost invisible while it’s happening. I mean the sudden kind. The kind where, almost without noticing, you find yourself finishing things you would once have abandoned. Writing more. Creating more. Sharing more. Becoming more visible. A Creative… Read more

  • 🧵Becoming the Person Who Could Write My Memoir

    Last week I took down my box of journals and put them on an empty shelf beside me. It might seem like a small thing, but it felt significant. My long-term project, my dream project, has been with me for years. The first time I wrote creatively was in a creative writing class, and on… Read more

  • The Practice of Staying ♥️

    21 years together.14 years married.Still here. This is one of my favourite photos of me and Eddie. It’s not the most glamorous or flattering, but it’s the story behind it that I love. The photo was taken in Kuching, Malaysia, on what was supposed to be a romantic evening boat cruise. Except there was a… Read more

  • A Small Experiment in Finishing

    Second post of the day, to satisfy the scientist-researcher part of me. Yesterday, I thought finishing would feel like sunshine. Today, I finished. And drew a turd. 💩  I couldn’t help becoming curious about what had actually happened. Why did reaching the end of something I’d worked so hard on not feel like the moment… Read more

  • The Practice of Stepping Away

    Yesterday, I was hopeful. The end was in sight. I had spent weeks writing, thinking, rewriting, questioning, changing things, finding new ideas and occasionally wondering why I had ever decided that writing a research paper was a good idea. But yesterday, I could almost see the finish line. There was a little bit of excitement.… Read more

  • 🧭 Following the Breadcrumbs

    Every now and then I go back and read something I wrote a few years ago. Recently, I went back through a series of blogs about writing my memoir and realised something I couldn’t see at the time. I had been leaving myself breadcrumbs. The first was on 25 October 2019: “I’ve decided I’m going… Read more

  • 🌀The Work Moves Beneath You

    Through these recent posts I’ve been trying to capture my creative journey, but the metaphor I found to describe this part of the process surprised even me. Sometimes writing feels a bit like dancing on a bouncy castle. You start with an idea. You think you know where you’re going. You put one foot down… Read more