Nothing good rhymes with Charlotte

  • ON RELATIONSHIPS
  • ON PARENTING
  • ON CONFIDENCE
  • ABOUT
  • HIRE ME

london

Life lesson: It’s cool to be kind

04/06/2017 by Charlotte Leave a Comment

Life lesson: It's cool to be kindExisting on this planet feels particularly tough at the moment. In the UK the past few weeks have seen attacks on innocent people, and more horror and sadness that any of us wanted to imagine. It’s impossible to comprehend let alone accept what’s been happening, or the pain and suffering that those affected, their families and friends are going through.

And if any comfort at all can be taken at such an awful time, I am trying to take some from the very fact that we find it so hard to get our heads around such cruelty. Because finding it difficult shows that most of us are good people who would never hurt anyone intentionally. We’re here to love and look after one another, to use our days to experience laughter and joy, and to demonstrate kindness whenever we can.

Most of us do this on a small-scale, day-to-day basis – perhaps to a friend or a colleague, or maybe even to a stranger should the opportunity arise. And others take it to the next level – signing up to be nothing short of heroic as and when the moment requires. And for those people there can never be a sufficient level of gratitude.

Living in London means it’s the norm to joke about the level to which we Londoners ignore/sigh at/silently despise one another whilst commuting or attempting to make progress down Oxford Street. It’s a busy city and I’m as guilty as anyone of getting annoyed about the pettiest of things, and of putting my head down and just trying to get around without yelling at anybody.

But there’s a big difference between cynicism about the pain-in-the-arse daily grind, and actually not giving a damn about other people. Because we do care really, and never is that more apparent than when it really matters.

And it’s this knowledge – that the vast majority of people are good and kind and, normally, just trying to get from A to B – that I’m trying to hold onto today. Feelings of despair and confusion are an inevitable part of dealing with reports of such cruelty – and it’s important to make time for them – but then hope comes from focusing on the positive side of humanity. The sweet joy of having the freedom to live the life you want to live, the love and loyalty we can show our friends, and the bottomless pot of kindness forever at our disposal.

All being well, we’re going to be having a baby in November. (A less serious post will inevitably follow about the endless joy of the first trimester, I’m sure). We’ve a long way to go but, as you do, we’ve found ourselves wandering around shops and spotting things we’d like to put in the baby’s room. And one such item is a picture that reads: It’s cool to be kind.

After this weekend, I’m surer than ever that I’m going to buy it, because there’s no better lesson we can teach our child. And it won’t do us any harm to be reminded of that fact everyday, too.

Posted in: LIFE LESSONS Tagged: having a baby, it's cool to be kind, kindness, life lessons, london, Londoners, love

20 extremely useful writing tips from great writers

26/08/2016 by Charlotte 1 Comment

NotebooksLast night I went to an event run by Grazia called ‘Overcome your creative barriers’ – because don’t we all need help with that. A group of wonderful writers – Jessie Burton, Bryony Gordon, Bridget Minamore, Laura Jane Williams and Elizabeth Day – offered their advice on how to get around the many challenges we all face when just trying to get words on the page.

It was great and, as ever, I wanted to pass on some of the tips and very reassuring words of wisdom I brought home. Hope you find them useful!

1. Just write one true sentence. And then write another. And another.

2. Women are often afraid to take up space – be it in real life or online. Don’t be.

3. You need to find the right balance between self-criticism and self-awareness. You need to be honest about your work, but don’t hold yourself back.

4. Exam-style success does not transfer to creativity – it’s not possible to write something perfect. It doesn’t work like that.

5. If you give yourself to your work it doesn’t matter what anyone else says because you’ve done what you can do.

6. Remember: It took Beyoncé 15 years and six albums to produce the practically flawless Lemonade. It’s a process for everyone, so don’t feel bad about what you’re doing now, feel proud of it.

7. There is not always a direct correlation between social media, readers and success.

8. … but the online community can be an amazing source of work, ideas, audiences, pals…. etc. Some people wouldn’t have their careers without it.

9. Writing is a great way to resolve the unresolved – you often don’t know how you really feel about something until you write it down.

10. “I don’t really do it for pleasure, I do it because I have to” – I related to this so much.

11. “I’m happiest when I’m in the writing – it’s getting myself to the act of writing [which is the hard part]” – YEP.

12. You have to be very, very, very determined to do it. You have to find the time otherwise you will never do it. The secret to writing is writing.

13. If you have a day when you can’t write, at least read.

14. (When writing about yourself) Be fearlessly unapologetically you.

15. Give yourself your own deadlines.

16. Learn all the words to Don’t rain on my parade by Barbara Streisand – it’s not your mistake to make, it’s mine, and I’m going to have a great time trying.

17. The words are not going to come out like you think they’re going to come out. But that’s OK. That’s what editing is for. Give yourself permission for it to be rubbish. A first draft is supposed to suck.

18. (On finding writing difficult) If you were driving into a wall, you wouldn’t keep just driving at the wall, you’d back up. So back up, and see why it’s not working.

19. Play classical music to help you focus. Or listen to something EPIC like a film soundtrack to make you feel that what you’re doing is really important.

20. If you’re struggling to write, find something in the process that brings you joy – be it sentence structure or language or dialogue –  find something that makes you feel happy.

Posted in: ON WRITING Tagged: grazia, grazia collective, inspiration, london, writing, writing tips

HELLO, I’M CHARLOTTE

About me

Welcome to Nothing good rhymes with Charlotte. This blog is full of honest words about parenting, relationships, confidence and friendship. I'm here to help us all feel less alone and to make you laugh when I can, too. Want to hire me to write for you or just fancy a chat? Get in touch: nothinggoodrhymeswithcharlotte@gmail.com

Follow me on Instagram

I just took my child to Clarks to buy her first pa I just took my child to Clarks to buy her first pair of school shoes. I am officially a grown up.
It's happened. We've reached the stage where I can It's happened. We've reached the stage where I can take Isla to a café and she'll do some drawing while I do some writing. Only a little bit of course and with plenty of breaks for me to attempt to sketch unicorns (which to be clear I very much enjoyed) but it's a start. How nice to suddenly find ourselves here. ❤️
All of a sudden our Joe-Joe is 1 🎂💖🎂💖 All of a sudden our Joe-Joe is 1 🎂💖🎂💖
I took this picture to remind me of what's been on I took this picture to remind me of what's been one of my absolute favourite parts of maternity leave, with both babies - killing time in the late afternoon watching episodes of Friends I've seen 4 billion times. ❤️

I'm experiencing all of the feelings at the moment because maternity leave is coming to an end for me very soon and Joseph is about to turn 1. I've attempted to process all this by writing what is essentially a diary entry about it. You can read it at nothinggoodrhymeswithcharlotte.com

Any tips/(kind) views/words of wisdom/large tubs of biscuits very welcome. 

Much love 💛
First holiday joy 💙☀️💙☀️ First holiday joy 💙☀️💙☀️
❤️ ❤️
Back together for the first time in forever ❤️ Back together for the first time in forever ❤️
Thank you Margate 💙💛💖 Thank you Margate 💙💛💖
I had an idea a few months ago to write something I had an idea a few months ago to write something about all the thoughts and feelings I have about having two children. Like a diary entry I can look back on and even show Isla and Joseph in years to come. Of course the main thing to say is: You don't get a lot of free time when you have two small people to look after. So it's taken me a while to get this done. But now that I have my sense of achievement is HIGH  so I'm here to share it. You can read it if you wish at nothinggoodrhymeswithcharlotte.com
Much love x

#parenting #motheroftwo #sundayblog #maternityleave #amwriting
Greenwich girls, guys, good times 💙 Greenwich girls, guys, good times 💙
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Follow me on Twitter

Tweets by @CharlotteBuxto

Subscribe by email

Loading

Search this blog

Copyright © 2022 Nothing good rhymes with Charlotte.

Omega WordPress Theme by ThemeHall.