The Writers’ Gym Podcast

Alex Dahl: Award winning Nordic Noir crime novelist

Alex Dahl is the author of six psychological thrillers. Her third novel, Playdate, is currently streaming on Disney+ and she’s published by (among others) Penguin Random House USA, Head of Zeus UK, Harper Collins Australia. Her work has been translated into 16 foreign languages and her debut novel, The Boy at the Door, was shortlisted for a CWA dagger award. She’s a half Norwegian, half American author and studied Russian, German and international studies in Oslo and Moscow before pursuing an MA in creative writing at Bath Spa University – at the same time as Dr Rachel Knightley.
Alex talks to Rachel about the importance of doing the writing you want – both in the responsibility of knowing you’re the one who needs to make it happen for you and the self-knowledge of what it is you want your writing and your writing life to be.
 
Find out more about Alex at
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2167982/alex-dahl/
 
 
Join the Writers’ Gym for more writing and creative confidence workouts at www.writersgym.com or sign up to our mailing list at drrachelknightley.substack.com
 
Get in touch with us at thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com
 
 
Writing Workout based on Alex’s interview
 
Warm-up: From Motivation to Identity
 
“I am quite character driven: most of a novel springs from understanding the characters...I have to understand their motivations and what drives them and what do they want? What are they willing to do to get it?” Alex Dahl
 
Consider the character you’re working on. What do they want? What are they prepared to do to get it? What aren’t they prepared to do that can stop them from getting it?
 
Main Exercise:
 
“That's something I always ask myself and it's actually something that I've started to apply to real life. It's like in interactions with people, like characters. It's super enlightening to just bring it back down to what does this person actually want? What is their desired outcome, whether it's a child or a partner or just a random stranger, same as with characters: what is it that drives them in this particular interaction? And that's so useful for me in novel writing, because it really does inform so much of the interpersonal relationships and also how to structure the plot, because you can always bring it back to that and be like, okay, so I'm stuck here. But in this particular moment, what is the pressing point for this character? What do they want?” Alex Dahl
 
Take a blank sheet of paper and choose one of these questions:
What do I want for my writing?
What am I doing to make it happen?
What am I not doing to make it happen?
If I knew it would all be okay in the end, what would I do next?

Rachel Knightley talks to award-winning author, journalist and ovarian-cancer-wrangler Jennifer Steil

‘Liminal’ is much more than the name of award-winning author, journalist and Ovarian cancer wrangler Jennifer Steil’s Substack newsletter. In this extended episode, the winner of the Grand Prize in the international Eyelands 2020 Book Awards and Finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Lesbian Fiction Award for Exile Music,talks about the kidnap experience and resulting ‘what if’s that inspired her first novel, The Ambassador’s Wife,and how writing has become even more important to mental health during her cancer treatment. Liminal spaces she discusses with Dr Rachel Knightley include ‘home’, and how that truly means wherever her husband and daughter are – whatever country or even hospital room that is today.
 
Discover more about Jennifer by subscribing to Liminal:
https://jennifersteil.substack.com
 
Sponsor this year’s Green Ink Sponsored Write for Macmillan Cancer Support:
https://www.justgiving.com/page/somewhere-thats-green
 
Visit the Writers’ Gym:
https://www.writersgym.com/

Rachel Knightley talks to Macmillan Cancer Support's Andy Gould

Green Ink Sponsored Write brings together published authors and developing writers to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. 
Each year's theme reflects Macmillan's mission of quality of life for everyone affected by cancer (with writers are sponsored for their time, not their word-count). This year, our theme is chosen by Rhianna Pratchett:
SOMEWHERE THAT'S GREEN: STORIES ABOUT PARADISES, UTOPIAS AND HAPPY PLACES.
Rachel Knightley talks to Macmillan’s Andy Gould about this year’s event.
 
Sponsor the Writers at  
https://www.justgiving.com/page/somewhere-thats-green
 
Dr Rachel Knightley 
www.RachelKnightley.com

Bookmark Bible

Showing up authentically on the page — and off the page — can feel like a big ask at first. But all it takes is a few simple truths to make the process of connecting with others, in writing and in speaking, come naturally. Dr Rachel Knightley shares this year’s Writers’ Gym bookmark, and how it’s a reminder of everything you need for an authentic, enjoyable audience relationship.

Landing Patterns

Procrastination gets — entirely rightly — a pretty bad press. So how do we differentiate it from warming up and getting into the zone? In this episode, Dr Rachel Knightley celebrates landing patterns and how they can add to our enjoyment of the journey.

Welcome to the Writers Gym Podcast

Shooting the Should Fairies

Anxiety is not a documentary. It’s creative writing at its most natural and automatic. Yet we so often hear our own projected worst case scenarios more loudly than our own interest in our writing. In this episode, Dr Rachel Knightley invites you to grab a water-pistol and give the ‘should fairies’ the response they deserve. Step beyond your ‘shoulds’ into curiosity, confidence and creativity at the Writers’ Gym.

Our Characters in Space and Time

Being in your character’s body as well as their mind isn’t always first-draft territory. For many writers, it’s easier to begin in an internal monologue, lost in thoughts and feelings which can then be frustrating to pin down to their causes: the triggers in the physical world for each thought, each feeling. The good news? It looks scary from the outside but, inside, that’s where the greatest fun is. Dr Rachel Knightley celebrates natural time and taking space in our own narratives.

Part Two: How to Trust Your Reader

Trusting your reader is one of the most famous phrases in creative writing teaching. But how do we do that? And what might be stopping us? Dr Rachel Knightley explores the temptations of ‘telling’ versus the greater rewards of showing (not explaining) the reactions, feelings and thoughts that illustrate who a character is and why they show up in their world the way they do.
 

Part One: How to Trust Your Reader

Trusting your reader is one of the most famous phrases in creative writing teaching. But how do we do that? And what might be stopping us? Dr Rachel Knightley explores the temptations of ‘telling’ versus the greater rewards of showing (not explaining) the reactions, feelings and thoughts that illustrate who a character is and why they show up in their world the way they do.