Free Workshop
limited time
Start writing your family history today
Let's go beyond the family tree and into the forest...
A genealogy chart only tells a fraction of the story.
It can't describe the smell of your grandmother's Christmas pudding. Or provide the political context to the war that your uncle served in. It might show that someone was born in Scotland and died on the goldfields of outback Australia, but what a story it leaves behind in-between!
Imagine being able to provide your family with those in-betweens, those real stories that explain their ancestors and how the current generation got to become the people they are today.
This FREE workshop will kickstart your writing. Learn how to:
- Keep writing when motivation gets low,
- Get something down on the page and get a sense of your own voice and style
- Build extra detail into your story to make it more enjoyable to read
- Make sense of ancestors you don't know much about,
- Find authenticity in the past.
In the words of L.P. Heartly, 'The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there'. We will begin to make the past feel like home.
Free workshop to help you write your family story
Join our free workshop and start writing your family history. You'll learn key strategies to get words on the page and make sense of your archives. Perfect for anyone hoping to write a family history.
By downloading this guide you are joining our email community. The emails are sporadic (we are too busy working on our poems and you should be too). Unsubscribe at any time.
Hi, I'm Melissa
I've been teaching people to write their family stories for years now.
Inspired by what I learned through my PhD I decided to help as many people as I can write their family stories. You'll hear the detail in the workshop, but basically I was fed up by the lack of information about women who served in WWII in 'formal' histories.
It was the journals and personal archives that helped me the most.
And I'd love to help you create your own.
This workshop is designed to get you writing without intimidation.
I hope you enjoy working through this workshop as much as I enjoyed creating it.
From my pen to yours,
Melissa
About Melissa
Dr Melissa Watts has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours (creative writing & literary studies) from the University of Melbourne (2004) and a PhD in creative writing & history from Federation University (2023).
Melissa Watts has published poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Her poems have inspired other artists to craft bronze statues and compose piano performances for audiences in New York.
She has published Small Towns (2022) a collection of free-verse and structured poetry exploring the relationship between people and place.
Melissa is currently exploring pathways to publication for her novel depicting the lives of female cartographers in World War Two. She is passionate about history and has been teaching people to write their family stories for years.
She has hosted keynotes at Melbourne Writers Festival interviewing British author M.J. Hyland and Ballarat Writers Festival interviewing YA icon Maureen McCarthy. She has spoken at Clunes Booktown and maintained monthly radio programs interviewing authors such as Paddy O’Reilly, Graeme Simsion, Toni Jordan and Angela Savage. Melissa spent several years as the publicity officer for Ballarat Writers working on large literary projects including festivals and competitions.
When not writing Melissa has worked in instructional design and online learner engagement strategy for some of Australia’s largest corporations.
Melissa was the 2024 judge of the Martha Richardson Poetry Prize.
Nine Cups Writing
For writers.
And those not calling themselves writers... yet.
