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30k November

30/30: crossing the finish line!
How I’m feeling after completing my self-imposed challenge to write 30,000 words in November
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Ellen Chapman
1
29/30: writing in and about the dark
Inspired by Layla O’Mara’s early morning sitting in the dark live session, some thoughts on different kinds of darkness: Christmas dark, fear of the…
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Ellen Chapman
11
28/30: sibling relationships and rivalries, age gaps and identities
Wondering why my sons are finding it so hard to get along with each other at the moment and thinking about my relationship with my brother.
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Ellen Chapman
27/30: So what’s next? A reduced word count, research plans, mapping out a structure and where I might take this Substack
Some brief thoughts about what I might do after this month-long writing challenge is over
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Ellen Chapman
26/30: learning to live in uncertainty
Remembering Mum’s first brain surgery in 2003 and a moment in a flooded slate quarry that brought some comfort. Also, some initial thoughts on scarcity…
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Ellen Chapman
25/30: taking on the role of family memory keeper and searching for research breadcrumb trails
On excavating hidden family stories, examining what we choose to remember and forget, and finding ways to fill in the gaps
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Ellen Chapman
23/30 and 24/30: bearing witness: on death and end of life care
Remembering my mum’s final weeks and some tentative thoughts on the Assisted Dying Bill
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Ellen Chapman
1
22/30: on houses and homes, and how to preserve your memories of a place when you can no longer return there
Further adventures in time travel via Google street view and trying to prepare myself for losing my childhood home
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Ellen Chapman
21/30: home as a body, as a building, as a city
Shared experiences of mothering after the death of a parent, and time travel via Google street view
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Ellen Chapman
20/30: grief, yoga and the first law of thermodynamics: on letting things take the time they need to take
Funeral rites, the possibility of life after death, seven year cycles and welcoming grief in
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Ellen Chapman
2
19/30: resources and support - women’s work both paid and unpaid (part 2)
Mum and me, caring and creation, and choosing yourself in midlife
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Ellen Chapman
18/30: resources and support - women’s work both paid and unpaid (part 1)
Another deep dive into my maternal family history, this time looking at how social attitudes to women in work changed through the twentieth century
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Ellen Chapman
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