Transform your genealogical research into compelling stories in this six-week online course. Learn to write in an engaging style, build vivid characters from records, craft immersive historical scenes and shape powerful narrative arcs. Through guided lessons, practical writing exercises and workshops with feedback, you’ll learn how to turn records, documents and dates into a polished, immersive narratives.

Course structure: Six two-hour sessions covering:

• Introduction: the creative writing approach to non-fiction
• Finding and structuring a story from research
• Building character from fragments
• Developing an engaging style – language and point of view
• Scene and setting – making the past vivid
• Revision, editing and getting into print
• Workshop of a short piece of writing from each student

The teaching and Q&A portions of each session will be recorded and made available to students ASAP after each session. These will be available through the 14th of August 2026. Student feedback discussions will not be recorded for privacy reasons.

The sessions will be run using Microsoft Teams - a meeting link will be provided to enrolees.

This is a pilot class and the student fee has been reduced. In return, we ask that students provide full feedback to the tutor so any necessary changes can be made to improve the class.