Pumpkin and celeriac curry
Wondering what to do with your leftover pumpkin? Taken possession of an intimidatingly knobbly, dirty celeriac without the first clue what to do with it? Give this dead easy curry ...
What is talent?
I went back to the city of my birth for a school friend’s wedding last weekend (big congrats, Lee and Tina!) and caught up with some old chums I hadn’t ...
North Bristol Foodbank donations
Just a quick picture (email subscribers: click this link to view) and some thanks: Here’s a selection of products from the ‘Urgently Needed‘ list heading to North Bristol Foodbank from ...
JUST ONE CLICK helps me help others
For every comment on or share of this post, I’ll donate an item to my local foodbank. I want everyone to know that I have a new website and I’m ...
New site, new branding, same awesome writer :)
Hello folks! Very excited to start using my brand new logo and website from today. Almost 4.5 years have passed since I first registered the domain www.chrisparsonswrites.com and turned freelance. ...
Roasted beetroot and apple with dressed green lentils
It’s been a long time since I added a recipe, so here’s one for the new autumn season. We get a lot of beetroot in our vegbox. It’s something I’ve ...
Why business writing fails – 5 quick examples
Want your comms to create greater loyalty? Then write for your audience, not for you. Let’s face it, in a business context, most of us write to communicate for our ...
Work stress: we keep failing people. Why?
A teacher friend of mine has been signed off sick with stress. A mix of work and personal circumstances led to a public unravelling at his place of work. He’s ...
Selling your product, or your brand?
Encouraging your audience to connect emotionally with your writing is a great idea. Most corporate marketing these days focuses on the brand rather than the product. Why? One reason may ...
Teenage kicks: “Although you are annoying…”
I was thinking about teenage emotional wellbeing when I came across my old school leaver’s book. You know, the one where all your friends write how distraught they are to ...
Dallaglio RugbyWorks – giving kids the chance they deserve
Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend time at the Dallaglio RugbyWorks national rugby tournament. What a fantastic day. RugbyWorks, the charity of former England rugby captain and World Cup ...
10 keys to happier living on International Day of Happiness
At a time of immense global upheaval, what’s to dislike about the idea of happiness for all? Action for Happiness, the wonderful people behind International Day of Happiness, have some ...
Advice for your younger self – what would you say?
What advice would you give your 14-year-old self? Recent and upcoming events made me consider this question. Here’s some stuff I might say. Advice to my younger self You’ll never ...
Local charity or CIC? I write for FREE
It’s Friday, Superbowl weekend and I’m making pizza for dinner – three excellent reasons to remind Bristol and Bath-based not-for-profits that I offer you my services for FREE. I’ve been ...
Some Christmas wishes
I wrote a wishlist of some of the things I’d like over the festive period. A mixture of the selfish and the altruistic. It was quite a boring list, so ...
6 tips for a great About Us page
(Converse-ion, geddit? Yeah, I know.) Last time, we looked at why a great About Us page is so important. In this blog, we’ll address how to create that outstanding ...
Why a great About Us page is so important
If your analytics are anything like mine, your About Us page is one of the most visited on your site. Which might seem a bit irritating. After all, you’ve spent ...
5 cringe-worthy corporate writing fails
(photo by Jason Eppink) Here’s a short list of corporate writing and marketing fails that makes me squirm. Do you agree? What else would you add? “Solutions” – Drainage ...
Writing real-life birthday stories
My old school friends and I reach a milestone over the next 12 months. I want to create a story of the year so here’s the note they’ll each receive ...
Does emotion affect your writing?
Have you ever returned to an old haunt, decades later, and found yourself bathed by memories you’d forgotten? And as a writer, do these events influence your work? This week, ...
Virtual Reality now just reality
Yesterday, the BBC and Virgin Media both jogged a distant, childhood memory. 25 years ago, this is what passed for state-of-the-art entertainment. As if trips to London weren’t glamorous enough ...
Stop sports doping. Start office doping.
So, Russia, you’re sport’s great big institutional drugs cheat, are you? For shame. And what a waste! We should harness those skills to boost performance for deskjobbing 9-to-5ers instead. It’s ...
Pro cycling’s rough ride is a lesson for us all
This story about cycling isn’t really about cycling. Instead, it’s full of learnings for businesses and societies alike. Which apply to you? I grew up watching the Tour de France ...
Do you pass the ‘So What?’ test?
You don’t need to be a great writer, you just need to give people a reason to care. I have one of my former bosses to thank for one of ...
They call it continuous improvement, apparently
These last couple of weeks I’ve mostly been editing personal development training materials. No, wait, hear me out. It’s turned out to be really interesting – getting to grips with ...
Psst! The secret to a great case study
Lately, I’ve been writing lots of case studies. Which I enjoy. They appeal to my sense of narrative. But I’ve realised how hard they are for clients to write themselves. ...
New Year, new beginnings
There’s something cathartic about leafing through a seed catalogue on January 2nd. Which is a sentence I’ve spent most of my life not expecting to write. But at a time ...
The chickpeas that changed the world
If every day you shut your eyes and walk down the same street with the same giant pothole then every day you’ll fall in. I was reminded of this aphorism ...
Home workers: a meaningful two minute silence?
Today is Armistice Day. So what do I and the other 4.2 million home workers in the UK do at 11 o’clock this morning? According to figures released by the ...
Festive freelancers – time to clock off or crack on?
In a corporate office, it was a no-brainer for me – between Christmas and New Year, you work. Why wouldn’t you? It’s unquestionably the best time of the year to ...
Boost company productivity – get a dog?
I’ve been writing a lot about growing small businesses lately, so I decided to expand my own by taking on an office assistant. Meet Ben, the newest member of the ...
Dismaland – where reality bettered art
Getting into Dismaland, Banksy’s new art installation theme park at Weston-super-Mare, was more depressing than the exhibition itself. As we began to weave our way through the stacked rows of ...
Here it is, ready or not
How do you know when something you’ve written is ready for someone else to read? It’s a decision we make all the time, in different little ways, often without ever ...
Found: house in the garden of Eden
Inspired by Mia Hansen-Løve’s new film, the homage to house music Eden, I’ve been working through a series of French and New Jersey garage classics from the film’s outstanding, 4.5 hour soundtrack. ...
Brief encounters of the football kind
What’s the record for the briefest sporting appearance of all time? I’d like to stake my own claim. After a 28 year pause, two weeks ago I rebooted my football ...
35 trains and 15 buses (but no planes)
Or 35 trains, 15 buses, 4 cars, 2 boats and a tram, to be exact. That was the sum total of engine power for our flight-free return trip from Bristol, ...
If I based my vote purely on the leaflets…
After endless months of talking about it, Polling Day in the UK’s 2015 General Election is finally here. Phew. Even if you avoid the “news”, you can’t escape the election. ...
A recipe: Rhubarb, Puy lentil and Jerusalem artichoke curry
Yes, rhubarb in a curry. I know, go figure. The tartness of the rhubarb works brilliantly though, so give it a crack whilst it’s in season. Trust me. This is ...
Kids, the truth: recycling sucks (but please do it)…
I went to the library and got out a kids’ picture book about recycling. It’s the dullest, worthiest thing I’ve ever read. It’s not true either. On the last page, ...
A recipe: UK-style refried beans and homemade corn tortillas
Sunday night was Mexican night here at Casa Bristolia: refried beans with a British twist of cooked greens and Lancashire cheese, plus corn tortillas. A perfect meal for a lazy ...
International Women’s Day – fair play in sport?
It’s good to see International Women’s Day again making an impact in the UK on March 8th. Many believe the gender issue isn’t a big deal in the western world ...
Radio kills the (1080p HD) video star
Encouraged by a couple of brilliant recent examples, I’m on the lookout for audio documentaries. I thought I’d share a couple of my all-time favourites and ask you to do ...
FREE professional writing for charities – extended indefinitely!
Many of you spotted my New Year offer of free professional writing support for local charities and not-for-profits. Well I had such positive feedback and enjoyed the work so much ...
Notes from a small island
Life, they say, is stranger than art. I carry a little notebook around with me sometimes. The idea is to jot down little snippets of thought based on something seen ...
I wanna tell you a story
But before that, comes the research. One of the motivations for going freelance was the opportunity to try writing a children’s book and, since Christmas, I’ve spent some more time ...
Free professional writing for charities & CICs
A warm welcome to all of you busting a gut to work for the good of others. And no, by others I don’t mean shareholders. Thank you. It’s great to ...
A recipe: Dukkah-topped macaroni cheese
I love macaroni cheese just as it is. Why mess with it? I guess it’s like those “limited edition” crisp flavours. Nobody expects you to keep buying them, but it’s ...
In defence of tea
We’ve been busy greening the house recently. Well, when I see we, I mean “other trained professionals”. After 8 and a bit years in a drafty old Victorian terrace we ...
In search of the perfect homemade veggie burger
It’s the one thing that, guiltily, tastes better from a supermarket freezer. The lovely, meaty firmness of a Linda McCartney peri peri quarter pounder wipes the floor with any vegetable ...