Christine Poole

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

creativity

  • 🧹 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

  • 📚🐾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

  • 🧵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

  • 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

  • 🌫 The Finishing Fog

    There is a particular kind of fog that arrives at the end of creative work. I have started to call it the finishing fog. It is not the fog of not knowing what to do. It is not writer’s block. In fact, quite often, I know exactly what needs to happen. I just don’t want… Read more

  • 🦋  The Courage to Finish

    For a long time, I thought my challenge was starting. I had ideas. Lots of them. Projects, notes, drafts, possibilities. My mind was constantly connecting things, noticing patterns, imagining what something could become. But recently I discovered something more uncomfortable. My challenge was not starting – my challenge was finishing. Because there is a strange… Read more

  • 🌙 The Work That Happens After the Work

    After writing about my Creative Operating System (COS) on Monday, I found myself thinking about something I had overlooked. We often focus on the work of creating — but what happens after the work is finished? I used to think finishing a project meant asking one question: What’s next? As soon as something was complete,… Read more

  • 🧩 From Post-it Board to Creative Operating System (COS)

    For years I’ve been trying to find a planning system that actually works for the way my brain creates. I’ve tried notebooks, digital apps, and endless to-do lists. They all helped for a while, but eventually they became places where tasks accumulated rather than places that inspired action. A few weeks ago I pinned a… Read more

  • 🌳 Everything is practice

    I’ve been thinking about my writing practice recently. Every Monday evening, I meet with my writing buddy. We set goals, encourage each other and, most importantly, keep writing. Recently, one of my writing goals came to a natural end. As I thought about what might come next, I found myself asking a different question. What… Read more