The thing is, when it goes well it feels like ‘cheating’.

It feels like it’s coming through you, instead of from you. Your hand creates the letters but the words are from somewhere else, each other’s rather than yours; you’re discovering the road ahead rather than paving it yourself.

Or that’s what we tell ourselves.

Because hard work should feel like hard work, right?

Or, if not, shouldn’t we be able to feel like this all the time?

I wrote last week about how believing writing is all inspiration is like believing love is all romance. I’m not denying for a nanosecond that it’s usually the most fun bit. But it’s the work the inspiration, um, inspires us to do all the time, in a million big and little ways – the motivation, the perspiration, from the inspiration – that makes the difference.

Because that’s really the thing. It’s not cheating. It’s not coming through you instead of from you. You aren’t possessed by the muse. You are doing the writing.

Why am I telling you this now? Because I tell myself every day. Because every day when it goes smoothly and freely, and every day when every step comes through effort and force, there’s a reason to get at myself:

“But it shouldn’t be this easy, should it?”

“But it shouldn’t be this hard, should it?”

Easier to compare myself with (my imagined view of) others and their successes, paint myself pictures of how much easier it is for (my fictional versions of) other people – that accept the limit of my control over my own emotional and intellectual weather patterns.

Every day, every page, I have the same choice:

Anxiety, or creativity? I don’t get to choose which of them I hear, but I do get to choose which of them I listen to.

Both are making up stories, but creativity acknowledges the process; recognises how real, how tangible its effects can be – even though the stories are made up.

That’s why I remind myself what my first love, Sir Paul, tells us in the picture at the top. I remind myself that the best work starts as play.

If you want to train your creative confidence muscles, beat the inspiration addiction and build a healthy writing life, grab any workout at the Writers’ Gym:

The Writing Room | 11am-1pm Monday 24 March
Free for everyone on my mailing list (if you’re reading this, that’s you!). No expectations, no readings, just an open chat box and ten minutes’ (totally optional) chat together at the end. Click here.

Coffee & Creativity | 1-2.30pm Wednesday 26 March
Quality writing time and excellent company! Grab a coffee and have a mid-week chat, a write and then another chat with your fellow creatives. Free for members: type your discount code where indicated. Click here.

Cocktails & Creativity at the Century Club | 7-8.30pm Wednesday 26 March
Join us for an evening workshop with cocktails, where creativity meets confidence in a unique blend of writing exercises, discussion, and networking. Whether you’re an experienced writer, just starting out, or simply curious about the craft, this event is designed to boost your word count, confidence, and connections—all in a relaxed and welcoming space. Click here.

Writing Room EXTRA | 3-5pm Thursday 27 March
Members only: please check Voxer messages.

(If you’re not in the UK, find your timezone here.)

On this week’s episode of The Writers’ Gym podcast:

The Writers’ Gym is part of Rachel Knightley Coaching: creative confidence for life, work and art. www.rachelknightley.com

You don’t have to be a member to join a Writers’ Gym session: visit here. But if you’d like to access our weekly programme for free, and receive 30% off all our other events, ask about membership at thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com

This is Ian Anderson, greatest poet of rock and roll. And folk. And jazz. And prog rock. Jethro Tull’s line-up and music style/genre never stop shifting and evolving – but there have always been cats. Cats, cups of tea, trains, and Christmas. I discovered Tull on a mix-tape made for me when I was eighteen and we have, so to speak, been together ever since. Thursday night was the first time I spoke to him, at a Q&A and signing at HMV Oxford Street. I didn’t get to ask a question – just said a very big thank you in the autograph queue – but I found the Q&A enormously helpful in hearing his version of the answer to one of the infamous, inevitable writing questions. Not the ever-popular ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ but its equally disempowered cousin ‘What if you’re not inspired?/Don’t you have to be inspired?’

Anderson had already brought up writing lyrics every day, in the interview before the Q&A. He was very clear with the audience about the difference between writing and rewriting: while everything you see on a completed album will be something he’s proud of, that isn’t what the daily act of creation looks like. He writes, he says, a set of lyrics every day; “not necessarily good lyrics”, but every office day. Because, like playing the flute, it’s as much a part of life, brain and body as we make it. Habit first; quality and quantity flowing cumulatively from there.

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.
– Pablo Picasso

Writers still lacking the confidence that comes from taking writing off the pedestal and into the gym – from something fundamentally beyond our control to something fundamentally in it – tend to be waiting for “inspiration” in a way that reminds me of the difference between romance and love.

The sense of something bigger than ourselves whisking us off our feet can feel wonderful, but there is a lot more to true love. Romance will always be a key ingredient, but if you want true, long-lasting love, there are more ingredients on the recipe card. They include consistency, commitment and knowing we don’t need to feel swept off our feet every moment. If we really love writing, if we want a genuine lasting relationship, it’s time trust it by showing up with effort as well as romance. It doesn’t mean we’ll be inspired every time our arse hits the chair. Because there’s a bank we draw from and give to. We bring to that chair our notes of thoughts that struck us when we were walking/thinking/making coffee. We work on those, and other ideas already in the bank and in need of development. The empowerment comes with acceptance that perspiration – what we do with inspiration – is where creativity happens.

I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.

– William Faulkner

We can choose the disempowerment of waiting, as if inspiration is an unreliable bus and we’re stuck at the stop until it shows up. But there’s a lot more fun and personal empowerment to be had in getting in the habit, learning about the craft but also about ourselves and what times of day, walks before work, pens, coffees and “landing patterns” on the way to that desk work for us.

Yes, inspiration is a thing. But waiting for it isn’t. Just like learning a musical instrument, a language, a new skill, we soon think it’s “just natural” when our hands make the shape of a formerly difficult chord or we walk into a garden and know what needs to be pulled up and planted now so it’ll look how we want it to when spring comes. That’s why we learn our craft and practice it, so we truly do the best we can when – yes – inspiration does strike.

Yes, inspiration is a thing. But waiting for it isn’t.

Come and Write This Week

(If you’re not in the UK, find your timezone here.)

On this week’s episode of The Writers’ Gym podcast:

The Writing Room | 11am-1pm Monday 17 March
Free for everyone on my mailing list (if you’re reading this, that’s you!). No expectations, no readings, just an open chat box and ten minutes’ (totally optional) chat together at the end. Click here.

Writing Audio Drama: Bringing it all Together | 1-2.30pm Tuesday 18 March
Audio drama has enjoyed a huge growth in popularity over the last few years. Major players are commissioning their own original dramas and there’s never been a better time to create your audio play. With producer and independent supplier to the BBC Chris Gregory, develop the skills to write your drama and the confidence to pitch it. Click here.

Coffee & Creativity | 1-2.30pm Wednesday 19 March
Quality writing time and excellent company! Grab a coffee and have a mid-week chat, a write and then another chat with your fellow creatives. Free for members: type your discount code where indicated. Click here.

Writing Room EXTRA | 3-5pm Thursday 20 March
Members only: please check Voxer messages.

The Writers’ Gym is part of Rachel Knightley Coaching: creative confidence for life, work and art. www.rachelknightley.com

You don’t have to be a member to join a Writers’ Gym session: visit here. But if you’d like to access our weekly programme for free, and receive 30% off all our other events, ask about membership at thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/eyebrows-and-imagination-rosie-garland-joins-the/id1674424465?i=1000699444640

Award-winning poet, long and short fiction author, performer and vocalist with the March Violets, Rosie Garland talks to Dr Rachel Knightley about curiosity, creative confidence – and taking on the world eyebrows first! She is the author of The Palace of Curiosities (which won the Mslexia Novel Competition and was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize), Vixen and The Night Brother, which was described by The Times as “a delight…with shades of Angela Carter.” Her new novel, The Fates (Quercus) is a retelling of the Greek myth of the Fates. Her latest poetry collection, What Girls do in the Dark (Nine Arches Press), was shortlisted for the 2021 Polari Prize. Val McDermid has named her one of the most compelling LGBT+ writers in the UK today. In 2018-2019 she was inaugural Writer-in-Residence at The John Rylands Library, Manchester, and in 2023 was made a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.

For a writing workout based on Rosie’s interview with Rachel, scroll down or visit WritersGym.com to download every Writing Workout in the series.

Find out more about Rosie at http://www.rosiegarland.com

Join our mailing list at drrachelknightley.substack.com or get in touch at thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com

Writing Workout based on Rosie’s interview

Warm-up: Rachel’s ‘Excuses Bingo’ Grid

Make a massive noughts and crosses board on your page. Each square just needs to be to be big enough to write a sentence in. Throw all of the phrases that come up: ‘What if it’s too boring?’ ‘What if it’s too weird?’ ‘I’m not that kind of writer.” ‘X is better than me.’ Whatever your brain might throw at you.

Go through them all, and use ‘What if’ to find the positive opposite (spoiler alert: it’s going to be true!). For example, ‘What if it’s too weird?’ might have as its positive opposite ‘What if this is the book that saved somebody’s life?’

Exercise 1: The Craft of Gentleness

“I strive to do is show myself the gentleness that I show to other writers. I mean one thing I absolutely love and which feeds and nourishes me is being a mentor for other writers. I come to mentoring with an attitude of acceptance and warm encouragement and cheerleading and something I try to do for myself. It’s sometimes a struggle because of that classic one of like the hardest, the person who’s hardest in the world is you on yourself.” Rosie Garland

1. Listening

Choose to listen to when the voices of self-criticism come:

• If there is a fear, what would it be? If the thing it’s criticising represents a step forward, what if that voice needs your reassurance instead of obeying it?

1. Choosing

Now you know it isn’t a fact, put the what the voice on your Excuses Bingo grid. Note the time reference (you might just find it flies past the window the same time tomorrow!).

Exercise 2: The Art of Randomness

“Go and pick up three random books, four if you’re feeling particularly adventurous. They could be recipe books, How to Fix Your Chainsaw or the novels of Jane Austen. Take the three books, open them up at a random page. Pick a random line: close your eyes, stick a finger in and basically with all three books pick out about between three and five random phrases, write them down and then use them as springboards for writing anything and try to get all five in.”

Rosie Garland

Cool-down Exercise: Be Surprised

“The thing about giving yourself permission to, you know, throw it all away when you’ve done it. was literally just, was exercising the writing muscles. Again, one of the reasons I do writing in the morning, apart from the fact I’m a morning person and I know not everyone else is, is it is like going to the gym. A… writer’s gym? I see what I did there. Who would have thought?” Rosie Garland

If there was one new creative habit you could bring into this week, what would it be?

 

For a language with – I’d conservatively estimate – A LOT of words, it’s amazing how differently we can use some of the most clearly defined ones.

‘Perfect’, for example.

Wanting something to be perfect before it goes out is something I hear a lot from writers and even more from would-be-writers. Sometimes about their writing itself, sometimes about their confidence to write.

There may be seven basic plots but there are infinite original voices
– Your Creative Writing Toolkit

The definition of perfect, ‘as good as it’s possible to be’, doesn’t sadden me as much as the one we see before it in the dictionary: ‘flawless’. Anxiety and self-doubt aren’t great at recognising ‘enough’, hence the temptation of looking for ‘perfect’. Because what we’re really doing when we want to be ‘perfect’ isn’t about the writing, or the reader’s connection with it. ‘Perfect’ tends to be our only picture of how we can experience the feeling of certainty.

‘Perfect’ was never on the menu. Here are three things that are:

We can’t be perfect. That’s not in our control (or, arguably, existent). But we can be these, which are in our control – when we take permission, instead of chasing perfection:

1. Focused. When we’re focused on what we’re writing, when we’re interested rather than trying to be interesting (Your Creative Writing Toolkit), we’re exploring authentically. The real world, when we return to it, will still be there. And we’ll be fresher in it for having focused on the path that we create as we explore. The way an actor engages an audience by strengthening their own focus on their created reality, so does the writer. We’re just luckier as we get to go back and edit! Confidence doesn’t feel like confidence. It feels like focus.

2. Curious. Rather than questioning ourself on whether an idea is good enough, following our curiosity means we’re making it as close to itself we can. As long as we’re not expecting to write a final draft before a first one, we can’t make the mistake of dismissing an idea as ‘bad’. It’s still not going to be perfect, but it is going to be unique. There are seven basic pots but infinite original voices (Your Creative Writing Toolkit). Creativity doesn’t feel like creativity. It feels like curiosity.
3. Clear. Again, knowing we need to write the first draft (probably quite long, probably quite woolly) before the final draft (probably much shorter, definitely much clearer) is the key. When we know our own ‘why’ of the message, the meaning and the intention of what we’re saying then the ‘how’ of writing and speaking it is a means to an end. The impossibility of perfection is no longer a problem, the temptation of people-pleasing – or, rather, avoiding displeasing – by saying a lighter or vaguer version of what needs to be said is no longer a temptation because you know your value. Or, rather, your message’s value. Clarity doesn’t feel like clarity. It feels like authenticity.

Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. – Leonard Cohen

Come and Write This Week…

(If you’re not in the UK, find your timezone here.)

The Writing Room | 11am-1pm Monday 10 March
Free for everyone on my mailing list (if you’re reading this, that’s you!). No expectations, no readings, just an open chat box and ten minutes’ (totally optional) chat together at the end. Click here.

Fiction and Memoir Writing | 7-8.30pm, Monday 10 March at Riverside Studios
All the inspiration, support and techniques you need to weave initial ideas into fully realised stories. Dr Rachel’s prose-writing sessions are suitable for anyone over the age of 18. Whether you’re working on a story, novel or non-fiction, want some creative inspiration, or whether you’re intrigued by the idea of writing and want a creative outlet, this is the place to discover and develop your ideas and your voice. Click here.

Evening Writing Room | 6-7.30pm Monday 10 March
An after-work edition of The Writing Room, led by Bella Barabieri while Rachel runs Fiction and Memoir Writing at Riverside Studios. Grab a blank page, your work-in-progress and give yourself some community writing time. Click here.

Writing Audio Drama: The Art of the Audio Monologue | 1-2.30pm Tuesday 11 March
Audio drama has enjoyed a huge growth in popularity over the last few years. Major players are commissioning their own original dramas and there’s never been a better time to create your audio play. With producer and independent supplier to the BBC Chris Gregory, develop the skills to write your drama and the confidence to pitch it. Click here.

Coffee & Creativity | 1-2.30pm Wednesday 12 March
Quality writing time and excellent company! Grab a coffee and have a mid-week chat, a write and then another chat with your fellow creatives. Free for members: type your discount code where indicated. Click here.

Writing Room EXTRA | 3-5pm Thursday 13 March
Members only: please check Voxer messages.

The Writers’ Gym is part of Rachel Knightley Coaching: creative confidence for life, work and art. www.rachelknightley.com

You don’t have to be a member to join a Writers’ Gym session: visit here. But if you’d like to access our weekly programme for free, and receive 30% off all our other events, ask about membership at thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jd-barkers-writing-life/id1674424465?i=1000698531052

This week at the Writers’ Gym, Dr Rachel Knightley is joined by New York Times and international bestselling thriller writer JD Barker. His work has been broadly described as suspense thrillers, often incorporating elements of horror, crime, mystery, science fiction and the supernatural. He is a frequent collaborator with James Patterson. JD shares the creative exercises and habits that support his writing life and how valuing every contact he made in his early career meant building the creative career he has today.

For a writing workout based on JD’s interview with Rachel, scroll down or visit WritersGym.com to download every Writing Workout in the series.

Find out more about JD at https://jdbarker.com

Join our mailing list at drrachelknightley.substack.com or get in touch at thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com

Writing Workout based on JD’s interview

Warm-up: Creative Stretch

“I turn off the Internet when I first start and I don’t turn it on until I get my daily word count done… which I’m usually done with by about ten, ten thirty. Then I flip that switch on the internet all the emails start coming in So basically the business side of this that I have to deal with…until three o’clock in the afternoon That’s what my quitting bell rings.” JD Barker

Take a pen and treat it like a magic wand.

Design your ideal writing day. Try writing it in third person, the writer experiencing his/her/their ideal writing day.

Tip: If the answer is ‘I don’t know’, dare yourself to fill the line anyway. Then maybe the next. Give it a few minutes – because the flow takes turning the tap on.

Main Exercise:

“Whenever I write, I listen to a thunderstorm soundtrack on noise cancelling headphones. And not only does it drown out everything going on around me, but it’s a Pavlov’s dog kind of thing. As soon as I hear that noise, my mind immediately snaps into writer mode.” JD Barker

– If I could give my focus one gift, what would it be?

– If I could give myself one piece of advice about my writing life, what would I offer myself?

Read the answers back to yourself. How will you use your personal training tips from you to you this week?

Cool-down Exercise:

“Years back it was paper notes, know, I scribble it down and put it down somewhere. I learned very early on, like when you wake up at three o’clock in the morning and you get an idea for your book, you’ll tell yourself you’re going to remember it in the morning and you never remember it in the morning. So I’ve always written it down.” JD Barker

Where in your house could you put a notebook and pen, or post-it notes, where you don’t have them already? What else would make the distance from brain to world a little less far?

 

I had my notifications turned off when I arrived at the Century Club our Writers’ Gym session last Friday night. So – while I introduced the writing warm-up, followed by creative exercises for clarifying ideas and engaging in curiosity that builds creative confidence for life and art – I didn’t see any of what was happening at the White House.

Instead, I was hearing from lovely, kind, talented people from all industries who want to do more of they we love. All shared different versions of one shared obstacle:

We want to feel confident enough, sure enough, before…

…we send that pitch.

…we apply for that job.

…we draft that story.

In life, in work and in art, we each find ways to distract ourselves from action in the same way:

“I’ll do it when I feel ready.”

If there’s one thing the world’s stage showed us on Friday, it’s the lack of correlation between being confident and being right. The problem is, as with anything important, giving up can sometimes feel like the closest thing to control. Despair and anger can feel like the closest thing to action.

But action isn’t giving up. It’s abandoning the perfect and moving forward in authenticity, one step at a time. It’s not stopping yourself for fear the world will.

So here’s a reminder of what we can all do this week, and why The Best Writing Advice Is Never About Writing but about everything:

Say The Thing. It might be throwing that first draft onto the page, so you can edit it later. It might be reaching out to a person who can help you move forward, asking for the specific feedback or advice or whatever it is you need. It might be offering something you can give. When we stop waiting for the world to be psychic and share our authentic offering, when we step our of expert mindset and engage in a spirit of curiosity, we learn something (in each conversation, and on our own blank page) that makes our world bigger and better.

There May Be Seven Basic Plots But There Are Infinite Original Voices. It doesn’t need to be the world’s most original idea. It just needs to be sharing our truth, in our own voice. As clearly as we can. If it’s in our head, our job is to get it out of our head and into the world.

Aim to Be Interested, Not Interesting. Sometimes, new writing coaching clients are surprised that my suggestion is conversation first, sharing material second. But the truth is the conversation we have gets that client in a clearer, stronger relationship with what they want to say. Then they say it clearer and better and the feedback they then get later down the line goes much, much further.

The first step? Keep listening to yourself. Not to criticise, not to compare, but to clarify. We have the right to our voices.

Aim to be interested, not interesting – First Draft Commandments, Your Creative Writing Toolkit

Writing Feedback: How to Give It, How to Take It
Friday lunchtime, online

Come and Write This Week…

(If you’re not in the UK, find your timezone here.)

The Writing Room | 11am-1pm Monday 3 March
Free for everyone on my mailing list (if you’re reading this, that’s you!). No expectations, no readings, just an open chat box and ten minutes’ (totally optional) chat together at the end. Click here.

Writing Audio Drama: From Page to Production | 1-2.30pm Tuesday 4 March
Audio drama has enjoyed a huge growth in popularity over the last few years. Major players are commissioning their own original dramas and there’s never been a better time to create your audio play. With producer and independent supplier to the BBC Chris Gregory, develop the skills to write your drama and the confidence to pitch it. Click here.

Monthly Writing Workout | 6-7pm Tuesday 4 March
Take your word-count for a workout at the Writers’ Gym. Creative exercises, supportive discussion, specific tips and techniques for the writer you are. A guaranteed boost to your knowledge, enthusiasm, confidence and your word-count! Free for members: type your discount code where indicated. Click here.

Writing Room EXTRA | 3-5pm Thursday 6 March
Members only: please check Voxer messages.

Coffee & Creativity at Olympic Studios, Barnes | 10-11.30am Friday 7 March
Grow your connections, build motivation and unlock inspiration in this creative networking event with a difference. Dr Rachel’s gently powerful facilitation provides a space to turn curiosity into creativity, wherever you are in your writing journey. Click here.

Friday Feedback and Writing Workout | 12-1.30pm Friday 7 March
Adding to our programme of regular workouts at the Writers’ Gym, this friendly group workshop is the perfect place to hone your writing – and the feedback you receive. We’ll begin with a creative writing warm-up, followed by a writing exercise with tips and techniques on giving and taking feedback on creative work. After this, volunteers will share their work with the group. Click here.

The Writers’ Gym is part of Rachel Knightley Coaching: creative confidence for life, work and art. www.rachelknightley.com

You don’t have to be a member to join a Writers’ Gym session: just come along. But if you’d like to access our weekly programme for free, and receive 30% off all our other events, ask about membership at thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/returning-to-being-a-writer-prano-bailey-bond-joins/id1674424465?i=1000697288392

Today’s episode and writing workout feature the art and life of Prano Bailey-Bond. Prano is an award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter who grew up on a diet of Twin Peaks in the depths of a strange Welsh community. Her work invokes imaginative worlds, fusing a dark vocabulary with eerie allure, revealing how beauty resides in strange places. Prano shares with Dr Rachel Knightley her early influences, creative fuel and sources of confidence and how directing her debut feature was when she reengaged with being a writer.

For a writing workout based on Prano’s interview with Rachel, scroll down or visit WritersGym.com to download every Writing Workout in the series.

Find out more about Prano at https://www.pranobaileybond.com/about

Join our mailing list at drrachelknightley.substack.com or get in touch at thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com

Writing Workout based on Prano’s interview

Warm-up: The Drive

“It was a filmmaker who said… some filmmakers are driven by wanting to tell the world something that they think, and some are driven by wanting to understand something that they don’t understand. And I think I’m probably the latter.” Prano Bailey-Bond

Take a blank sheet of paper and choose one of these questions:

• What do I want to say?

• What do I want to ask?

Tip: If the answer is ‘I don’t know’, dare yourself to fill the line anyway. Then maybe the next. Give it a few minutes – because the flow takes turning the tap on.

Main Exercise:

Read your answer back to yourself. What visual images come up? Or what conversations between characters in your life?

1. Draw one of the images.

1. Write one of the conversations (the actual dialogue – what the characters say to each other/how they argue with each other!).

 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adrian-tchaikovsky-talks-writing-health-and-insects/id1674424465?i=1000696112879

Today at the Writers’ Gym, Dr Rachel Knightley is joined by multi-award-winning science fiction and fantasy author Adrian Tchaikovsky. Find out how early experience running Tabletop roleplaying games combine with Adrian’s childhood inspiration (mainly insectoid) and adult inspiration (including coffee) to create his career as an author and what a healthy, happy writing life means to him.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British science-fiction and fantasy writer known for a wide-variety of work including the Children of Time, Final Architecture, Dogs of War, Tyrant Philosophers and Shadows of the Apt series, as well as standalone books such as Elder Race, Doors of Eden, Spiderlight and many others. Children of Time and its series has won the Arthur C Clarke and BSFA awards, and his other works  have won the British Fantasy, British Science Fiction and Sidewise Awards.

For a writing workout based on Adrian’s interview with Rachel, scroll down or visit WritersGym.com to download every Writing Workout in the series.

Find out more about Adrian at https://adriantchaikovsky.com

See him on tour: https://adriantchaikovsky.com/events.html

Join our mailing list at drrachelknightley.substack.com or get in touch at thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com

Writing Workout based on Adrian’s interview

Warm-up: Map of Me (or, in honour of Adrian, Spider of Me)

1. Write your name in the middle of a page. Circle it, andgive that circle as many legs as you like. At the end of each leg, write something you love. An interest, an activity, a band, a caffeinated beverage, anything. Spend 1-2 minutes filling the page. There’s no such thing as ‘random’ or ‘irrelevant’ or ‘wrong’. Just go for it.

2. Circle three things. Don’t think about why you’re picking them, just circle.

3. Select one of those three. Decide that whatever you write with that prompt, for fifteen minutes, is (the first draft of) something your dream publisher wants to publish.

4. Write exactly what comes to you, letting yourself have fun. Be curious. Remember there are no wrong answers. Write for fifteen minutes and see where you go.

Main exercise:

The First-Person Monty Python Helmet

Step into a character who loves one of those now. Consider what they see, hear, touch, taste and smell. What do they think in their minds, and feel in their bodies, as a response to their emotions?

 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dr-rachel-knightley-and-ashley-lexine-building/id1674424465?i=1000695551171

The Writers’ Gym is not just a podcast: it’s a membership platform, supporting writers (and writers-to-be) in buildingcreative confidence, growing their writing life and beating the inspiration addiction. Membership of the Writers’ Gym puts you in charge of your writing. It means creative confidence for life, work and art. It also means being part of a writing community with group and one-to-one sessions and personal support available throughout the week.

Founder and Writers’ Gym PT Dr Rachel Knightley is a fiction and non-fiction author, lecturer in Creative Writing and a qualified business and personal coach. This series, Rachel will be talking to award-winning authors across the genres. She kicks off this new series by introducing its producer: Writers’ Gym member, freelance writer (featured in Take a Break, Woman and Good Housekeeping) and Healthy Metal Hippie podcast founder and podcast editor extraordinaire Ashley Lexine.

For a writing workout based on each author’s interview with Rachel this series, visit WritersGym.com to download every Writing Workout in the series. See each workout below in the show notes.

Find out more about Ashley at https://healthymetalhippie.com

Join our mailing list at drrachelknightley.substack.com or get in touch at thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com

Writing Workout based on Ashley’s interview

Warm-up: Ideal week

1. Imagine your pen is a magic wand. What you write is going to happen. Not only is it going to happen, it’s going to happen without upsetting or offending anyone. What you plan is going to be absolutely fine.

1. Write the days of the week in the middle of a page. Put times at the side. Place writing time exactly where you want it. Then put in whatever else is important, around that.

1. Just look at it. Breathe it in. What does ideal look like? Imagine it happening. What does it feel like?

1. Take one small step. If there were one step you could make today, to make your week look one step more like the week you’ve just designed:

-What would it be?

-Who would you need to speak to?

-What would you tell/ask them?

Main exercise:

Assumption-identifier

Whether or not you’re a nine-to-five person, pick one of these three promises to gift yourself every workday this week:

-I promise my writing self I’ll take five-minute (or ten-minute) ‘writing breaks’ whether that means a locked loo door, or going outside like a smoker. If smoking breaks don’t destroy a working day, my writing breaks won’t either.

Or

– I promise my writing self I’ll write down my ideas as they happen. I’ll always have a pen, or my phone notebook. Wherever I am, I’ll make sure I write down key words to get me through that door later when I return to the thought. Or maybe I’ll ‘vomit draft’ the scene I think of right away.

From the show:

For creating time:

“If I go to the loo at work for five minutes, no one’s going to be like, where were you? I’m going to take out my notebook, sit on the floor, and it’s five minutes… the way other people do smoking breaks.”

For creating confidence (which is really curiosity!):

To get yourself out of ‘telling’ the reader and into ‘showing’ the reader what it is to be human… I dare you to jump into their head for five minutes or 10 minutes.” Transcribe what they think, feel, see, hear, the thoughts in their mind, the feelings in their body.

 

Every author you’ll hear on the new series of the Writers’ Gym podcast will say it. We don’t always come to it first in the conversation, but at some point that author will say, sometimes knowingly and sometimes like it’s a complete surprise to both of us, will say, ‘You know what? It’s a bit like going to the gym.’

The phrasing will change, but the sense of having just discovered it won’t. I founded the Writers’ Gym and I still rediscover it all the time: the surprise of Wow, what if it’s not meant to just feel easy every time? What if I simply need to keep taking the small steps, growing strength, building resilience? Showing up? What if it’s that simple?

Simple, of course, doesn’t mean easy. It is simple. It isn’t easy.

But it’s possible.

And it’s wonderful.

Healthy writing lives are what the Writers’ Gym podcast has always been about. Returning this Wednesday with my interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky and continuing over the next two months with bestselling and award-winning writers from novelist to poets and screenwriters, JD Barker, Prano Bailey-Bond, Rosie Garland, Gabrielle Kent, Kim Newman and Aliya Whiteley all talk about the importance of your unique curiosity.

The exercises and the reps that mean the fuel, the rituals and, yes, the coffee that turn inspiration to perspiration… Because it is possible – always – and only you can write what you can write.

Our different conversations are all about a writing life meaning relishing the opportunity of exploring what makes you uniquely you. All share the exercises and the reps that mean the fuel, the rituals and, yes, the coffee (Adrian claims it can be any coffee) that mean turning inspiration to perspiration: doing the work and showing up sometimes before our confidence or mood joins us. Because it is possible – always – and only you can write what you can write.

Which doesn’t mean you have to be on your own.

Every day this week is an opportunity to bring your word-count for a workout. The Writing Room is online today from 11am to 1pm, a silent space (until the last ten minutes when we chat) to enjoy writing time in the company of other writers. In the evening, join me for Fiction and Memoir Writing at Riverside Studios. Tuesday brings the third in Chris Gregory’s series of Writing Audio Drama workshops. Wednesday is Coffee & Creativity, Thursday is members’ event Writing Room Extra and on Friday evening I’m at The Century Club on Shaftesbury Avenue, with an in-person writing workout and creative confidence boosting discussion to apply creative confidence to what we want to create in art and in life: Write, Sip, Create at the Century Club, 28 February 7-8.30pm

Scroll down to book, or write to me.

The Writers’ Gym is part of Rachel Knightley Coaching: creative confidence for life, work and art. www.rachelknightley.com

Come and Write This Week…

Coming up next month: Writing Feedback: How to Give It, How to Take It

The Writing Room | 11am-1pm Monday 24 February
Hosted this week by Writers’ Gym member and office manager Bella Barbieri this week while I have a heath appointment (thank you, Bella!) and free for everyone on my mailing list (if you’re reading this, that’s you!). No expectations, no readings, just an open chat box and ten minutes’ (totally optional) chat together at the end. Click here.

Riverscribes: Fiction and Memoir | 7-8.30pm Monday 24 February
All the inspiration, support and techniques you need to weave initial ideas into fully realised stories. Whether you’re working on a story, novel or non-fiction, want some creative inspiration, or whether you’re intrigued by the idea of writing and want a creative outlet, this is the place to discover and develop your ideas and your voice. Click here.

Writing Audio Drama: Writing in Sound | 1-2.30pm Tuesday 25 February
Audio drama has enjoyed a huge growth in popularity over the last few years. Major players are commissioning their own original dramas and there’s never been a better time to create your audio play. With producer and independent supplier to the BBC Chris Gregory, develop the skills to write your drama and the confidence to pitch it. Click here.

Coffee & Creativity | 1-2.30pm Wednesday 26 February
Quality writing time and excellent company! Grab a coffee and have a mid-week chat, a write and then another chat with your fellow creatives. Free for members: type your discount code where indicated. Click here.

Writing Room EXTRA | 3-5pm Thursday 27 February
Members only: please check Voxer messages.

Cocktails & Creativity at the Century Club | 7-8.30pm Friday 28 February
Join us for an evening workshop with cocktails, where creativity meets confidence in a unique blend of writing exercises, discussion, and networking. Whether you’re an experienced writer, just starting out, or simply curious about the craft, this event is designed to boost your word count, confidence, and connections—all in a relaxed and welcoming space. Click here.

You don’t have to be a member to join a Writers’ Gym session: just sign up. But if you’d like to access our weekly programme for free, and receive 30% off all our other events, email thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com.

If you’re not in the UK, find your timezone here.