Forget fake it till you make it: show up until you realise you were ALWAYS worthy (and maybe that everyone else is just as scared!). The stories we tell ourselves show up in the smallest choices. A joy to talk to creative director and voice of Little Lies Jade Robertson on The Writers’ Gym Podcast.

“Everybody has a well of hurt and darkness somewhere... but don't get the opportunity to use that for their own creativity. I… was able to turn moments of having been frightened into being frightening — but in my own way… doing whatever I could to make the darkness sparkle.” Tim Curry

For anyone panicking about their career instead of discovering it, one surprising step at a time: The Writers’ Gym Podcast brings you @ashley999thorpe.bsky.social (Uncanny @dannyrobins.bsky.social, Borley Rectory). Animator, filmmaker, writer, horror fan, fellow disciple of Kermit the Frog…

In this monthly column, we pose your questions to an expert in a specific field of speculative fiction. This month, we asked writing and confidence coach @drrachelknightley.bsky.social to help our members get ready for a new year of creativity. britishfantasysociety.org/ask-an-exper...

Some wise words in this month's Ask an Expert column - thanks @drrachelknightley.bsky.social!

A truly lovely beginning to Christmas/continuation of Chanukah with the freelancers tribe. Thank you so much for arranging, @annodracula.bsky.social ❤️

FB words of @timlebbon.bsky.social about The Writers’ Gym Podcast: “It was so much fun chatting with Rachel Knightley for The Writers' Gym podcast, check it out!! Features horror, imposter syndrome, and cake.” I feel seen 😁

@drrachelknightley.bsky.social is in the expert hot seat for the BFS this month, ready and waiting to help you get your creative 2026 off to a great start 💪🏻

The brilliant @joannechocolat.bsky.social joins me at the Writers’ Gym to talk all things writing and the healthy habits that get us out of our own way and into our stories. Download us from Monday 1 January wherever you get your podcasts.

Thank you @nawewriters.bsky.social headlined by @naomialderman.bsky.social for inviting me to speak at this year’s conference, Inspiring Writing. Write, Speak, Connect celebrated how freedom, permission & creativity start with our work with ourselves, and support every other writer we work with.

The past tense on Twitter was ‘tweeted’. So, when I’ve posted here, have I ‘blueskid’?

Yes, that'd be us. The small suitcase proved heavier than expected when being lifted to the overhead shelf.

Symbols are SO personal, whether we’re discovering characters in the world or in our heads. I’ll never forget the LOOK I got when I tried explaining to the wrong person the skull on my scarf was a positive symbol for me. But it is. We’re here now.

So who else is on a train returning from @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social carrying many, MANY more books than they arrived with? #worldfantasycon

Enormously proud to report Green Ink Sponsored Write 2025 for Macmillan Cancer Support reached £1815. Proofreading by Writers’ Gym members Bella and Truett today; digital anthology by Steve for all our sponsors tomorrow. Thanks @rhi.bsky.social for a fab title and all who wrote or sponsored 💚

We’ve nearly doubled our intended total — and I’ve sneakily left the page open so you can still secure the world-exclusive new writing anthology by donating any amount to Macmillan tonight. Thank you @rhi.bsky.social for a glorious title. www.justgiving.com/page/somewhe...

Not a truly indicative picture of my tube-strike journey — but ALMOST made it worth it.

18 October: we write. 19 October: we edit. 20 October: world-exclusive anthology published, all for Macmillan Cancer Support. @sarahbrooks.bsky.social @rhi.bsky.social @rozkaveney.bsky.social @katharineorton.bsky.social

Honoured to be involved in this year's Sponosored Write, on behalf of Macmillan Cancer Support, along with a whole gaggle of amazing writers!

We have a beautiful title from @rhi.bsky.social this year and, as ever, 48 hours from creation to publication all for Macmillan Cancer Support. Grab your world-exclusive anthology by 18 October at justgiving.com/page/somewhere-thats-green

I very much enjoyed talking with @drrachelknightley.bsky.social for her brilliant writing podcast series. I'm not sure if I said anything useful, but all her questions are thoughtful and interesting.

Wise and generous creative insights from multiple-BAFTA-winning screenwriter, director and producer @danberlinka.bsky.social, joining me on The Writers’ Gym today. Follow or download wherever you get your podcasts.

Getting to know yourself as a writer — and becoming the writer that helps other writers along the way. Find Priya Sharma talking to me about writing, life, and finding what works for us on The Writers’ Gym this week, wherever you get your podcasts.

And my vote for ‘Most Ironic Book to Stand Your York Ghost Merchants Boo On’ goes to…

Me talking to the wonderful @drrachelknightley.bsky.social about my writing as if I know what I'm doing. youtu.be/Kq-HEL55Saw?...

Activist, critic, poet, fantasy writer @rozkaveney.bsky.social on the rewards and perils of research, deadlines, confidence, creativity — and of discovering how well we really know the characters around us on or off the page. Join The Writers’ Gym wherever you get your podcasts.

Thank you to the brilliant @drrachelknightley.bsky.social for letting me chat about my white noise obsession, creative doubts, and much more! I've found listening to her podcast incredibly helpful when my confidence is wavering, so it was an honour to be on it ❤️📚 open.spotify.com/episode/7En5...

One of the most important things about The Writers' Gym is showing success isn’t about not having the doubts or the struggles: that they’re part of what makes the wins so meaningful. Thank you @sarahbrooks.bsky.social for sharing such encouraging examples of making our writing lives our own.

For every nose I ever see turn up at what (they think) writing coaching is, I also get to read the real experiences — what it really changes, on the page and in the world. Thank you, Dr Kim Fleet, for sharing what these seven months have already created. This is why I do what I do.

Thank you Philip Palmer for a brilliant interview with The Writers' Gym: it’s such a pleasure sharing your love of writing and of supporting writers. open.spotify.com/episode/1znH...

New #Shelfies alert! This week, it's @drrachelknightley.bsky.social on Discworld, Holmes, Cadfael and Narnia! (ooh, I love the Cadfael books! Good call, there). Don't forget you can subscribe for a free weekly shelfie in your inbox!

The ‘what if’ that inspired thriller and Disney+ Series Playdate by Alex Dahl. Alex’s full interview with the Writers’ Gym podcast is waiting for you wherever you get your podcasts.

Here is a text message I got yesterday in The Writers' Gym Voxer, word for word. Writing coaching doesn’t tell anyone how to write. It frees them to enjoy being who they are and what that means they want to create. On the page and in the world.

Award-winning author, journalist, kidnap survivor and ovarian cancer wrangler Jennifer Steil joins the Writers’ Gym Podcast today. Writing for emotional health, creating our own realities on the page and in the most dangerous circumstances of our lives: find us on Apple, Spotify and everywhere else.

A genuine delight to bring Creative Confidence to @olympicstudios #barnes today. The books, businesses and new eras our club members are planning are a privilege to clarify and see them create. Wishing a happy beginning to everyone and can’t wait to see where we go from here ❤️

@drrachelknightley.bsky.social Just watched your video essay of The Seventh Grave Blu-Ray and thought your take was dead on. Enjoyed the movie quite a bit.

‘After’ and ‘Before’ shots of a truly lovely first workshop. What receptive, thoughtful writers (familiar and new faces alike) and, of course, a fabulous venue. Thank you, Olympic Studios #Barnes

My least ‘mid-word’ photo of Magnus’s interview with the brilliant @manuscriptgal.bsky.social at @srfantasyclub.bsky.social last night. Great to hear from Cari Thomas too and discover @allgoodbookshop.co.uk‘s books, notebooks and even honey!

Today I saw an optician walk backwards into a customer waiting for their appointment. She apologised and said she didn’t see her, entirely without irony.

So very proud of Writers’ Gym member Stacey Warner! Not just for the result but for everything that’s gone into showing up for yourself as a writer this year.

We have our first donation! Green Ink Sponsored Write 2025 has my favourite titles yet. Thank you @rhi.bsky.social for naming it and Elspeth Hannen for a beautiful cover. LITERALLY any donation gets you a world-exclusive anthology 48 hours after writing ends: www.justgiving.com/page/somewhe...

What a brilliant title by @rhi.bsky.social for Green Ink Sponsored Write for Macmillan Cancer Support 2025: Somewhere That’s Green: Paradises, Utopias and Happy Places. Sponsor the writers to receive the exclusive digital anthology, 48 hours after it’s written. (Writer announcements soon…)

Really loved recording my first interviews for the new series of The Writers' Gym Podcast: books, Disney Plus adaptations, drama, poetry, memoir, and how each writer finds their own voice through their own curiosity. Mini-episodes each Monday on all platforms, until release day.

Bagpuss’s home, the Smallfilms gallery of The Beaney. Like its subject, the gallery is a huge, beautiful world achieved in a small space. Reminder to us all it’s not about big budgets or infinite resources, it’s listening to your own curiosity, finding how to tell your story as only you can.

If you’re among the lovely writers who DMed about my creative confidence feature in @writersonline.bsky.social, hope to see you Tue 6 May for Magic Realism. It’s the perfect genre to explore your voice and develop your curiosity: www.eventbrite.com/e/1253152074... @alexdavis1981.bsky.social

Excuses Bingo! The workout I shared with the magnificent @rosiegarlandwriter.bsky.social on the Writers’ Gym podcast is in Writing Magazine @writersonline.bsky.social So happy it made the cover as it’s a crucial message: only you can do this, not through holding back but through curiosity.

Writing exercises for everybody who loves writing — or wants to! Build creative confidence and the curiosity that brings you to it.

Just ten days left to grab your tickets and enter a world not entirely like our own, with @drrachelknightley.bsky.social leading six weeks on WRITING MAGIC REALISM! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-ma...

I just asked my partner to ‘Wait a minute’ before starting the next episode of Black Mirror ‘because I’m just accepting my own invitation to collaborate on my own Instagram post.’

Biology may get in first, but identity is bigger. Who we are is through becoming, discovering, living. Trans rights are human rights.