Registration is open - book online here
Cost: £130.00
Dates: Tuesdays - 6 October to 10 November 2026 (6 weeks)
Time: 19.00-21.00 BST / GMT*
*Be aware that the UK switches to GMT on Sunday, the 25th of October, so depending on where you are in the world, the class may begin and end at a different time than you are used to. This website can help work out time zone differences: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
From Records to Stories: Creative Writing for Genealogists
Join us for this online course delivered via Teams: 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.
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 8th of December 2026. (Student feedback discussions will not be recorded for privacy reasons).
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
Tutor biography:
David Pettigrew is a tutor of over twenty years' experience for the Centre of Lifelong Learning's daytime, evening and weekend creative writing courses, the Creative Writing Mentoring Programme, the Blaze online writing courses and the Classic Book Group. He is also the Centre's Departmental Disability & Guidance Officer.
Alongside his teaching, David is a professional editor working in the Scottish publishing industry. Qualifications include an honours degree in English Literature, masters degrees in Publishing and Creative Writing (with Distinction), and a postgraduate diploma in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. He is a recipient of a Scottish Arts Council New Writers Bursary award and his short stories have been published in a number of writing anthologies. He also researches and writes non-fiction in the area of Scottish local and social history.