Time is one of the most powerful tools in family history writing and one of the most complex. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to move across years, decades, and generations with clarity and emotional intention. We'll learn ways to use compression, expansion, flashbacks, and glimpses into the future to control the reader's sense of time and keep them engaged. Perfect for anyone working with multi-plotline or multi-era narratives.

AI can be a brilliant structural assistant if you know how to direct it. Learn how to use AI to build simple scene structures that highlight action, drama, and intent, without losing your personal artistic touch. You'll discover what tasks to delegate, what to keep in-house, and how AI can help you write faster while still being genuine and creative.

Transitions are the invisible architecture of a powerful narrative. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to move seamlessly between scenes, emotional beats, time periods, and points of view. We will examine how to make smooth transitions using visuals, feelings, actions, rhythm, and differences, and also how to avoid stories that feel disjointed, particularly in stories that span generations or are based on research. Your writing will immediately feel more fluid, intentional, and immersive.

Interior weather is the emotional atmosphere inside your protagonist — and it can be expressed through sensory detail, metaphor, rhythm, and tone. This session will teach you how to show feelings without saying too much, using delicate and skillful methods. We'll explore how to use mood, images, and inner feelings to make a scene more emotional and show what characters are thinking and feeling inside.

Family history writers often try to “show the scene” by adding layers of description — but cinematic moments require clarity, not clutter. This workshop teaches you how to build vivid, emotionally anchored scenes using movement, contrast, sensory focus, and story beats rather than heavy visual detail. Learn how to create moments that feel alive, immersive, and dramatic while keeping the reader oriented and emotionally connected.

Your ancestors were complex people, influenced by culture, beliefs, experiences, desires, and life events. This session helps you portray them with nuance and depth neither idealizing nor judging them. You'll discover how to expose conflicts, feelings, weaknesses, and habits in a way that's honest and considerate. A transformative workshop for bringing ancestors to life on the page.

Every ancestor lived inside a web of cultural, political, social, and economic forces that shaped their choices. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to embed historical pressure into your scenes without info-dumping or overwhelming the reader. Discover techniques for showing history through character, setting, tension, and worldview, transforming your narrative into a richly textured, deeply contextualized story

Writing Faith, Ritual & Superstition in Historical Context 

OCT 1^st 2-3 PM ET

Faith, folklore, ritual, and superstition once guided daily decisions and emotional landscapes far more than they do today. This session explores how to write these belief systems authentically and respectfully, integrating them into character motivations, community dynamics, and story tension. You'll discover how to include rituals, traditions, and beliefs in your story without making them seem over the top or too obvious.

AI can help you write faster — but if used incorrectly, it can dilute voice, disrupt rhythm, or flatten emotional nuance. This session teaches you how to preserve your unique cadence, diction, and sensibility while leveraging AI intelligently. You’ll learn a voice-protection workflow, as well as how to shape prompts so AI supports your creativity rather than replacing it. Perfect for writers who want efficiency and authenticity

Framing Devices for Family History Narratives

NOV 19^th 2-3PM ET

A powerful framing device can transform a complex family history into a cohesive, emotionally resonant story. The workshop covers different storytelling methods: using narrators, found documents, stories from different time periods, objects, and a thoughtful tone. Understand how frames work, how to select the right one, and how they help develop themes, structure stories, and connect with readers emotionally.

For your ancestors, work was key to who they were, their social status, connections, and even staying alive, but it's usually not talked about in family stories. This workshop explores labor through vivid and accurate depictions. Learn how to use work to reveal character, tension, and theme.

Writing the Researcher as a Character 

DEC 10^th 2-3PM ET

Modern family history narratives often blend personal memoir with ancestral storytelling. This session shows you how to write your researcher-self into the narrative in a way that adds emotional weight, clarity, and meaning. You’ll learn how to balance past and present, use the researcher’s journey as a structural anchor, and integrate reflection, discovery, and personal transformation.