The Writers’ Gym Podcast

The Writers’ Gym Podcast

Build creative confidence and beat the inspiration addiction with Dr Rachel Knightley. Every episode, we’ll discuss key writing topics while exploring the goals, exercises, tools and techniques to discover what you really want from your writing — and what your writing really needs from you.

Episodes

March 16, 2026 38 mins

Dr Rachel Knightley is joined by her client, award-winning true crime writer and researcher, Sarah Bax Horton. Sarah is currently appearing in Lucy Worsley’s Victorian Murder Club on BBC2. The three-part miniseries is based on the subject of her second book Arm of Eve: Investigating the Thames Torso Murders (The History Press), for which she won the RBAM (Ripperology Books And More) Book of the Year 2024. Fascinated by genealogy, ...

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Unblock your writing and your right to write: Dr Rachel Knightley identifies and debunks the myth that's most got in her way as a writer, and how believing in ourselves, not our monsters, is the purpose of the stories we tell ourselves.

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Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes joins Dr Rachel Knightley on the Writers' Gym Podcast, discussing how we turn interests and passions into writing careers. Xavi is Reader in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University and a founding member of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies. His publications include the monographs Contemporary Body Horror (CUP, 2024), Horror Film and Affect (Routledge, 2016) and Body Gothic (UW...
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February 22, 2026 7 mins

Dr Rachel Knightley shares how a Writers' Gym member's fear of plagiarizing can be turned from a 'reason' not to write into a reason to write as much as possible.

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Ally Wilkes joins Dr Rachel Knightley at the Writers' Gym to discuss the power of horror fiction to explore identity and the highs and lows of creating a writing life that works for the individual you are.  

 

Ally’s debut novel, All the White Spaces, was a Bram Stoker Award finalist, and her second novel, Where the Dead Wait, was one of Esquire’s best horror books of 2023. Her short fiction has been published in numerous magazines...

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February 8, 2026 6 mins

Dr Rachel Knightley shares three resolutions for creative confidence on the page and in life.

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Dr Rachel Knightley is joined by author and editor Jenny Rogers, one of the UK’s most experienced executive coaches. Jenny’s book, Are You Listening? published by Penguin Random House, tells human stories from the perspective of a coach: it tackles common human dilemmas such as how to overcome shame after a mistake, how to face disappointment and  bereavement, what it means to start a new career or recover a more honest self after ...

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Kayleigh Dobbs is an author, editor, and playwright from South Wales. She is the founder of Happy Goat Horror, a review site and podcast with a focus on independent horror. Her recent short story collection The End (Black Shuck Shadows) was a 2023 Imadjinn Award Finalist. This year she has presented and interviewed authors for World Fantasy Con and Edge-lit. https://happygoathorror.com/ Connect here: Instagram: @drrachelknightley S...

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Andrew was for ten years the Director of the Creative Writing programme at UEA, where he taught for twenty years on the MA in Creative Writing. He is the author of the bestselling guidebook, The Art of Writing Fiction, recently reissued in an updated second edition, and the monograph Against Creative Writing. His first novel Pig was the winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, a Betty Trask Award, the Authors’ Clu...
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Alison Littlewood’s latest novels, published as A. J. Elwood, are The Other Lives of Miss Emily White and The Cottingley Cuckoo. Her first book, A Cold Season, was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club and described as ‘perfect reading for a dark winter’s night.’ Other titles include Mistletoe, The Hidden People, The Crow Garden, The Unquiet House and Path of Needles. Her short stories have been selected for several Best Of a...

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Today Dr Rachel Knightley explores a different kind of storytelling that has been part of her exploring and expressing the stories she contains for nearly a decade, and a community she's been part of while also building her own in the Writers' Gym: Jade Robertson is the creative force behind Little Lies, an indie fashion brand rooted in 70s rock ‘n’ roll. Since launching the brand from her bedroom in 20...

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Dr Rachel Knightley's guest at the Writers' Gym today is  Ashley Thorpe. Ashley  is a self taught Devon based animator whose early films (SCAYRECROW, THE SCREAMING SKULL & THE HAIRY HANDS) were a celebration of the neglected aspects of British folklore. His first feature 'BORLEY RECTORY' (a Carrion Film / Glass Eye Pix co-venture) with Reece Shearsmith & Julian Sands was completed late 2017and won 'Best Animated Feature' at...
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Claire Louise Amias is an actor and playwright. She has worked extensively on screen and stage, including feature films, No. 1 touring, West End and regional theatre.She is also Co-Artistic Director of A Monkey With Cymbals Theatre Company and has written, acted in and produced several projects. The Masks of Aphra Behn is an Offie award-winning one-woman show about the first professional female writer in the English language; the s...
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Dr Rachel Knightley is joined by Kim Morgan MCC, author, speaker, Barefoot Coaching founder and internationally recognised expert in coaching and coach training. Kim’s passion to spread the word about coaching has resulted in two best-selling books, ‘The Coach’s Casebook’ (2015) and ‘The Coach’s Survival Guide (2019). Kim also has a monthly coaching column in Psychologies Magazine, and she is a sought- after conference speaker on a...
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Tim Lebbon is a New York Times-bestselling writer from South Wales. He’s written over fifty novels, as well as hundreds of novellas and short stories. His latest novel is Secret Lives of the Dead. He has won a World Fantasy Award, four British Fantasy Awards, a Dragon Award and a Scribe Award. His novel The Silence is a movie on Netflix starring Stanley Tucci and Kiernan Shipka. The movie of his novella Pay The Ghost stars Nicolas ...

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Joanne was born in Barnsley in 1964, of a French mother and an English father. She studied Modern and Mediaeval Languages at Cambridge and was a teacher for fifteen years, during which time she published three novels, including Chocolat (1999), which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche .

Since then, she has written over 20 more novels, plus novellas, short stories, game scripts, the libretti for two shor...

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November 23, 2025 5 mins
Build confidence in writing through focus on the inspiration already in your writer's artist palette – with author and coach Dr Rachel Knightley.   This week, we're exploring what makes you write.
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November 16, 2025 4 mins
Build confidence in writing through focus on the inspiration already in your writer's artist palette – with author and coach Dr Rachel Knightley.   This week, we're exploring plots and protagonists.
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November 9, 2025 5 mins
Build confidence in writing through focus on the inspiration already in your writer's artist palette – with author and coach Dr Rachel Knightley.   This week, we're exploring antagonist exercises.
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November 2, 2025 5 mins
Build confidence in writing through focus on the inspiration already in your writer's artist palette – with author and coach Dr Rachel Knightley.   This week, we're exploring symbols and characters
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