Every person who ever tried to write a story that is not solely based on their own experiences probably knows that research is a must.
Personally, I love doing research. I will admit that mine is usually not as thorough as, say, Juliet Marillier’s…She gets to travel to Transylvania and Ireland and all sorts of nice places… and I don’t travel to a foreign country before I make it my new book’s setting. If I ever get a publisher who pays for such things, I will gladly travel the world!
And yes, I use a lot of Wikipedia, fully aware that information on the internet is not always a hundred percent accurate.
That being said, I do try to get my information as accurate as possible. The fun about research is that you get to study a wide array of different subjects. A few of my favorite subjects so far:
- The Inuit mythology and culture
- The art of glassblowing (and the more ancient techniques, and how to dye glass)
- Vocabulary and grammar rules of the ancient Goths. It’s sad that the website I used seems to be offline now.
- The tribes of Great Britain, especially during 45 AD and even more specifically about the Dobunni tribe, the Uffington White Horse and Uffington Castle.
- The effects of melting permafrost, acid rain and climate change
- Iron Age skills like baking bread, weaving and the building of roundhouses
- Iron Age environment in the Dutch county Drenthe
- EVERYTHING about the Yde Girl/ Het meisje van Yde. And I mean quite literally, everything that there is to find, from factual information to shady articles on European prehistoric sacrifices and an interesting audio drama. And for this I actually did go to the museum, since I actually live nearby for a change. Het Drents Museum has a lovely collection of prehistoric things, but the actual Yde Girl is the most wondrous of them all.
- Survival skills: how to cross a river, how to build many different kinds of shelter, how to build fire, how to hunt and catch fish, how to prepare or cook caught game/fish. This is really big theme in Island in the Mist (especially in the second book) My favorite site is http://www.wilderness-survival.net/ Bear Grylls was also very helpful.
So, to you, writers…Do you like research? What is or was your favorite subject?
