Sponsored Write 2025 for Macmillan Cancer Support
Thank you Rhianna Pratchett for our brilliant title and Elspeth Hannen for our beautiful cover image: this year’s Green Ink Sponsored Write for Macmillan Cancer Support is a world I truly cannot wait to explore.
But I have to wait – because it’s a sponsored write, so it’s strictly 48 hours from creation to publication!
What is a Sponsored Write?
Every year, a team of published authors and developing writers in the Writers’ Gym(including people who are both) come together to write on a theme inspired by Macmillan Cancer Support’s mission: quality of life for everyone affected by cancer.
There’s usually something green in the title, green being Macmillan’s colour – and why the Writers’ Gym was originally Green Ink Writers’ Gym. Macmillan was the chosen charity of my friend Sophie Porter (1982-2007) and, eighteen later, Green Ink Sponsored Write is an established yearly event. I also write in memory of my grandfather, Abraham Banks, and my uncles, David and Jeremy Banks.
For 2025, our title, created by Rhianna Pratchett, is:
Somewhere That’s Green: Paradises, Utopias and Happy Places
What happens is this:
Writers donate a day of time. They’re not sponsored by their word count. They are sponsored for their time. There’s no obligation of any kind because a writing prompt is a diving board, not a dive (this was the event that inspired that First Draft Commandment in Your Creative Writing Toolkit. Other authors’ Sponsored Write pieces have become new books and other things, after the six-month world-exclusive period where what we write belongs solely to our readers: anybody who sponsors us on this page).
helping everyone affected by cancer.
Click any of the links to visit the page, and please share the full link with friends, family, followers and whoever is next to you at the bus stop, because literally every donation counts (and gets you an exclusive digital anthology, 48 hours after the writing day ends):
https://www.justgiving.com/page/somewhere-thats-green
Join me at Olympic Studios, southwest London, to develop your writing and creative confidence Saturdays 21 June, 28 June, 5 July and 12 July:
This Week…
The Writing Room | 11am-1pm, Monday 26 May
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 | Riverside Studios 7-8.30pm, Monday 26 May
All the inspiration, support and techniques you need to weave initial ideas into fully realised stories. Click here.
Writing Magic Realism: Poetry, Magic and Reality | 1pm-2.30pm, Tuesday 27 May
Tour through magic realist texts, and enjoy creative confidence building exercises to master these techniques and concepts, and make them your own. Click here.
Coffee & Creativity | 1-2.30pm, Wednesday 28 May
Hosted by Writers’ Gym staff member, Bella Barbieri. 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 | 4.30pm-7pm, Thursday 29 May
Members only: please check Voxer messages.
Coming soon…
Coffee & Creativity at Olympic Studios, Barnes | 10-11.30am, Friday 6 June
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.
Writing Workout and Feedback | 6-7.30pm, Tuesday 17 June
Adding to our programme of regular workouts at the Writers’ Gym, this friendly group workshop is the perfect place to hone your writing – and how to get the best out of feedback. Click here.
Powerful Fiction and Memoir (4-week course) | 2-3.30pm, Saturday 21 June
Truthful, powerful writing goes so much deeper than whether or not a story ‘really happened’. Join me at the legendary Olympic Studios to explore the tools and techniques of powerful prose. Writers of all levels of experience will build creative confidence, explore and express their unique memory and imagination and create truthful, compelling memoir and fiction. 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: 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: thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com