If I have to do any research, I do it from he comfort of an armchair.
My research is reading as many books as I can about my genre. The bulk of my chivalric novel is a product of my imagination.
If I have to do any research, I do it from he comfort of an armchair.
My research is reading as many books as I can about my genre. The bulk of my chivalric novel is a product of my imagination.
I write contemporary fantasy ("magic in the modern day" as I tend to call it) and a lot of my scenes are set in either real places or use twists on real events. I do a lot of my research online with Google and the like, particularly for the more obscure elements of UK mythology. On the other hand, I also find that a good encyclopaedia of mythology is also useful (my bookshelf in this respect usually raises eyebrows from guests - they have IT books, I have myths and legends).
I also love reading and sometimes do armchair research.
Google Earth is great for plotting places in relation to one another. I once placed a whole town at the wrong end of the island it is found on and only realised when I double-checked it.
When I write historical events, I also find that National Geographic channel is very useful, as is Discovery History. Sometimes watching programmes like "Weird or What?" or "Ancient X Files" sparks my imagination for things to include in the story.
I hope that this has given you some ideas.
Oh, and there's always field research - getting out there, walking, feeling bark under your fingers, playing with fire, jumping off things to feel that *whump* in your chest, crucial to dramatic scenes. My favourite type of research, is the physical kind.
That's not a double entendre, I swear.
I research with intensive reading of authors who influence my style, e.g. Alice Hoffman and Truman Capote. I look for their recurring narrative flow, their use of metaphor/simile, and learn from what I deem 'mistakes' (things that irritate me personally, as a reader; obviously very subjective but useful as a writer.) And in terms of actual social, cultural or historical events (in my novel's case, the rail cuts of Dr Beeching), research is absolutely paramount. Even if the facts are only hedged at, paraphrased, they must be substantiated. Even if it's a work of fiction, the Having of that knowledge, will add credence to any version of a set of events you choose to write, like having the building blocks readily to hand.