Alison Aldridge is a blogger and writer of fiction novels. Her short romance story was published in the Scribblers Anthology to raise money for the Children’s Hospice. She maintains a personal blog on writing and organic beauty. She has contributed articles to third parties on gaming, fashion industry and writing. She was one of the first featured writers on Opuss for her poetry.

Alison has delivered courses to develop the English skills of her students. As well as education, Alison has experience as a model. She is a member of Scribblers, a local writers group and enjoys attending the annual Felixstowe Book Festival. Alison is an active member of many online writing communities.

Alison is currently reworking Drift, a coming of age Young Adult novel about a mermaid and first love as well as other YA fiction projects.

Why I took the challenge:

This was my first year attempting the NaPoWriMo challenge to write 30 poems in 30 days. I hadn’t even heard of the challenge before I started. Posting one poem a day sounded easy enough but I actually found it very difficult with my schedule.

I gave it a go because although poetry isn’t my forte, I do believe it is a great way to think about how you are using the English language in your writing. It is a great developmental tool.

What was my favourite poem:

Out of the 30 poems I created for this challenge, my favourite is: Day 8 – Magic.

This poem is based on the YA Fantasy novel I wrote in a few weeks and then spent years editing! I really enjoyed creating some of the scenes in the novel and based this poem on the chapters where Murray gets marked by a mermaid which grants him storm summoning poems. I wrote it from his perspective although the novel is never told from his view.

Do I recommend NaPoWriMo?

Yes, it will encourage you to try new things, think about your writing and so much more than you could imagine. It is healthy to push yourself out of your comfort zone and I tried to do the prompt each day but you don’t have to.

Even if you don’t manage to write 30 poems in 30 days, even if you only write one poem, you will still have more poems than you started with.

Others doing the challenge have been very supportive and I’ve discovered new writers to follow. I hadn’t anticipated the social impact of doing the challenge. My blog has attracted more attention than ever before.

All round it has been a very positive experience.