Available Courses and Thinking Notes


Simplifying Plot: Amplifying Character

Plot is widely described as the sequence of events that make up a story. Theorists from Gustav Freytag (who considers plots to have five parts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution) to Christopher Booker (who contends that there are seven basic plots: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy and Rebirth) largely agree with this theory, which derives from Aristotle's Poetics, in which he puts forward the idea that a play should have "a beginning and middle and end. I advocate that the notion of plot should be simplified, that a series of events can not make a story without the particular (and peculiar) responses of a character to those events. Thus a plot is essentially an intended direction that can lead to infinitely unique stories depending on the social and societal vocabulary of the characters in the plot. To put it simply, as a writer, the plot is yours, the story belongs to the characters.

Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Nii Ayikwei Parkes

£75

Character & Voice - A Thinking Note

Thinking Notes are short reflections on elements of craft that are meant to trigger further thought on the subject, or to direct you to reassess your work through focusing on specific elements. They work best if you make your own notes as you read and reflect on your work critically as you do so. This note focuses on Character as the focal point of a story, and Voice as the source of its distinguishing features.

Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Nii Ayikwei Parkes

£4

Text & Performance

Thinking Notes are short reflections on elements of craft that are meant to trigger further thought on the subject, or to direct you to reassess your work through focusing on specific elements. They work best if you make your own notes as you read and reflect on your work critically as you do so. This note discusses the elements of craft in writing and performance, using the story of the recording of the jazz album "Kind of Blue" as a starting point.

Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Nii Ayikwei Parkes

£4

"The thing I enjoyed the most about the workshops with [Nii] and Christian [Campbell] was the discipline and the focus on craft, the attention to awkward phrasing, agonising over the subtleties of voice, image and rhythm."


- UK Student (Devon)

Nii Ayikwei Parkes by Josimar Senior

"The plot is yours, the story belongs to your characters"


I have been teaching writing for over fifteen years, running workshops for the likes of Arvon, The London Library, Spread the Word, The Writers' Project of Ghana and Sing Lit Station (Singapore), as well as completing residencies at California State University Los Angeles and the University of Southampton. Additionally, I have worked as an editor for close to thirty years. I bring both of these perspectives into resonance and create straightforward, practical workshops and Thinking Notes that help you reframe your writing and maximise your innate storytelling skills to produce excellent work.

Outside of my courses on this platform, I also try to offer FREE / What You Can Workshops at least a couple of times a year to provide opportunities for less resource-rich storytellers. You can follow updates for those via my teaching website.