Non fiction
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Bad advice: “You should have” is only good for time travellers
Imagine you’re doing something difficult, perhaps for the first time. Maybe you’ve made a new recipe. Maybe you’ve given a speech, run a training session, had a job interview or even flown a plane. And your family member, mentor, supervisor, manager, teacher, podiatrist or parole officer turns to you and says… Continue reading
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It ain’t what you say…
What is a word you feel that too many people use? Mostly I don’t think words are overused. Of course there’s the odd catchphrase that gets into the woodwork but it was ever thus – I might be sick of “skibidi toilet” and “what the sigma” but my generation had “eat my shorts” so we Continue reading
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Bad Advice: If you’re lonely…
I was walking back from town, alone, to my bedsit flat. It was cold, crisp, and dry, as that city so often was, and my room was probably cold. I heard someone say my name, with that sort of surprised delight when you see someone who you didn’t expect to see, but are pleased to… Continue reading
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Bad advice: Fake it till you make it
I know that some will find fake it till you make it genuinely inspiring. There are positives to the phrase, as a piece of advice… It acknowledges that we don’t always feel confident when we start It assures us that we will grow in confidence the more we try It gives us the hope of… Continue reading
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Thank you and welcome
Hello! Just wanted to thank everyone who’s read, liked, commented and subscribed to my blog. I’m mostly using the blog to post fictional letters I have written based on Sky Latshaw’s The Magical Year of the Teenage Witch. This is a prompt based story telling game. Please do pick up a copy yourself at https://swashtalk.itch.io/the-magical-year-of-a-teenage-witch.… Continue reading
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Bad advice: Ignore them (and they’ll go away) and other crappy advice for victims of bullying
I was thinking this morning how there are so many bits of generic advice we parrot without thought and I could genuinely write a series on these useless platitudes, or to be more brutal, bullshit wisdom. “Bullshit wisdom” is hard to spot because we say it so often and repeat it so much that we Continue reading
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The Little Things
I was waiting for a bus the other day and a small boy, perhaps two or three years old, was excitedly trying to tell me something. His big sister, a few years older than him, explained, “He’s telling you he went on a train today.” Sometimes, when life is heavy, you have to remember that Continue reading
Helen Speaks 