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?
2 comments:
Ja, is leuk! Ik moet toegeven dat ik het zelf vaak niet heel grondig doe, want ik gebruik vrijwel alleen internet en maak er geen hele studie van.
Ik denk dat ik het meest informatie over techniek op zoek, maar ook allerlei andere onderwerpen, zoals geografie en klimaat. Het is maar net waar ik tijdens het schrijven informatie over nodig heb. In mijn geval is dat overigens maar zelden over geschiedenis, omdat ik geen historische verhalen schrijf en weinig verwijs naar het verleden.
Het leukste vind ik dat je dieper op onderwerpen ingaat, die je over het algemeen al interesseren, omdat je ervoor heb gekozen om erover te schrijven. Maar het kan ook frustrerend zijn als je niet kunt vinden wat je zoekt :P
Geografie en klimaat doe ik ook regelmatig idd. En inderdaad! Regelmatig kan ik gewoon niet precies vinden wat ik zoek, of is het allemaal zo...vaag :p Dan wil ik gewoon een expert die het me even snel kan zeggen, ipv het gigantische world wide web, haha.
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