Teaching

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Nik has been teaching writing to children and adults, age 4 to 84, since 2005, working with thousands of people from all backgrounds. He has worked extensively in primary and high schools, in academies, colleges, and universities as well as libraries, at festivals, and in community venues. He’s taught at the BBC regularly, and he’s run one-off workshops, courses, and longer projects for a number of organisations. (For Nik’s work with younger writers, click here.)

He’s passionate about not only giving people a voice, but an audience as well and guiding them to be the best version of their writing selves – be that for the joy of creating or something more serious. (Nik’s mentored people to publication and to win awards, including the BBC Young Writer of The Year).

 

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If you would like Nik to visit your writing group, library, school, university, festival, or any other venue or event, get in touch below.

 


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Contact Nik here
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TESTIMONIALS:

Nik is a great writer and an excellent teacher, with a kind, calm and open personality.  For most of last year I attended his bimonthly story writing workshops, where he  focused primarily on short stories but also gave us scope to work on larger projects. My personal issues with writing are never finishing stories and being scared to show my work to others; Nik was very patient with these problems and helped me to feel confident enough to share my stories with the group. Many of us were in a similar position of low confidence at the beginning of the course, and by the end we had all developed and improved hugely, as well as forming close friendships. In terms of technique, my writing also was greatly enhanced.

Each of Nik’s lessons was centred around a theme or technical aspect of writing, such as ‘endings’ or ‘dialogue’. Compartmentalising the writing process in this way was immensely helpful for all of us; we were able to pinpoint our personal strengths and weaknesses and work more on those. Finally, unlike other writing courses I’d previously attended, Nik was also keen to give us assistance on the practical side of writing, i.e. competitions, publishing and building a professional presence.

His lessons on these I perhaps found most useful of all, as the professional writing world often seems quite a daunting space to enter. It was so helpful to have some guidance on where to start with it all. I’ve since committed myself to applying to more writing competitions, and will hopefully apply soon to  publishers too. Overall, we all loved Nik’s classes and were extremely sad when they finished, which  I think above all else is a testament to his work!

– Natasha

 

I’ve worked with Nik for about 5 years now and I couldn’t have had a better person to kick-start my writing journey.  He’s incredibly open and approachable, and knows how to give well rounded, constructive criticism.  He helped me build confidence as a fiction writer, and I know I can rely on him for help when I need it!

 – Molly, 20

 

Nik has been incredibly supportive and encouraging right from when I started up at Sheffield Young Writers last year. By making it a welcoming and comfortable environment, he’s really helped me to have the confidence to share my work with others, which I had never really felt able to do before. Furthermore, whenever I’ve sent work to him to have a look at, he’s instantly replied with helpful and insightful comments, which has been really useful when trying to improve my writing for competitions, etc. In addition, by being totally accepting and non-judgemental, Nik has made the young writer’s group a place where you can be yourself and write as yourself, without feeling like you have to conform to anyone else’s expectations.

– Naomi

 

I met Nik Perring when my first book was mishmash of chapters and my confidence in my ability to write a book was virtually zero.

By my second meeting, I was reading out loud to the group. With weekly encouragement and constructive advice I started to put my first book together.

Nik holds the group together, helps beginners with their first steps, and encourages more experienced writers to stretch themselves.

I can highly recommend him as someone to run a writing group of any ability.

I later employed Nik as editor of my two books. He helped me put the books together in a cohesive manner, as well as helping with sentence structure, punctuation, order of paragraphs, – five years on and they’re still selling over 200 copies a month.

-Sally Gething (How To Breathe)

 

I just want to say thank you so much for this class. As I was typing out all the work I realised how much better you’ve made me, and how much more confident I am in my writing now. I’d never finished anything before this class and now I have nine pieces finished, as well as finishing other pieces outside the lessons. No class has ever motivated me to write like this one has and I am so grateful. I am honestly devastated it’s ending and I’m probably going to cry tomorrow!

 

-Ellen Uttley 27

 

thoroughly enjoyed Nik’s classes. They gave me a way to grow my writing experience by trying genres and prompts I never would have tried otherwise. He provides a lot of actionable advice and gave me a new perspective on how to write. I found his feedback really useful to gauge what I was doing well and where i could improve.

-Jake

 

I have known Nik Perring for a number of years through his work as a teacher of creative writing, an author, an ambassador for the arts and generally a passionate mentor for young people as they develop both who they are as a writer and as a person. Nik is know for being very patient and commited, giving his own time to support young writers.

 

Personally, Nik has helped me in countless ways; he has encouraged my short fiction to a point where I feel confident enough to submit to magazines and competitions, a couple of which I have been short listed in or won. He has taught me how to edit my work and regularly offers his editing skills freely to young writers like myself.

 

I know Nik to be incredibly kind and caring, and he shows this in both his work and his personal life. He has helped me through personal struggles and I know he been there for many others too.

 

I cannot express how hard working Nik is and I am certain that anyone who knows him will agree with me.

 

Louisa

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