The Writing Community Chat Show · Christopher Aggett

Every Day I’m Brave | Mental Health, Resilience & Writing for Transformation with Renne Zukin.

August 31, 2025·54 min·4 clips

Renee Zukin redefines agoraphobia: it's not refusing to leave the house — it's doing everything possible to avoid the chance of a panic attack, which shrinks your world to a six-mile radius.

A busy week starts here. The host opens solo, explains the rare four-show run, and sends good wishes to Mr Hooley after a football accident. The welcome feels loose and lived in, with quick chat about the bank holiday, the Thursday show, and Friday's double lineup before Renny takes the chair. The best craft talk is about turning personal material into an actual narrative instead of a plain list of things that happened. Structure was not automatic. Renny talks about needing both structure and flow, especially when the material came from her own life. The book had been sitting with her for about a decade. When she finally got serious, she called her first writing coach to help sort out the beginning. That outside eye changed the work. The coach helped her shape the narrative arc and ask which pieces really belonged in the book. Editors then pushed it further. Renny wanted every chapter to give the reader something to learn from, which led to journal prompts at the end of each chapter. Those prompts sent her back into the chapters again, checking the lesson, the shape, and where each piece sat in the book. It took many passes. Six or seven versions of the structure later, the book had become more deliberate and more useful. The host lands the point neatly. For newer writers, this is a kind warning that finishing a draft is not the same as finishing the work. The close keeps the care in view, with the usual likes, comments, follow-up questions, and schedule notes, plus a pointer toward support and helplines if the conversation stirred something difficult.

As heard by us

A clear look at revision, narrative structure, and the work of shaping lived experience.

The conversation around Every Day I'm Brave is strongest when it treats personal writing as craft rather than confession. It keeps returning to structure, revision, and the outside help needed to make lived experience legible on the page.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a warm, practical chat about structure, flow, and revision.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Writing Community Chat Show