World-Building

and Character Research   7.15.25

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  Writing a fantasy novel involves a lot of weird and sometimes random research to make the world the characters live in more authentic and the things they do more believable.

     Like: how long would it take a body to burn? Do crystals generate energy? What kind of ancient clocks existed in the past and how did they work?

    While exploring the above topics, I discovered the most amazing invention: a 10,000-year clock! Yes! A prototype is currently in the London Museum. The clock is still under construction by The Long Now Foundation in the city of my birth, San Francisco. Check it out: https://longnow.org/clock/background/

     Then today I was researching about women healers during the Middle Ages and came across this interesting article on the National Library of Medicine site about how 'women waged a lengthy battle to maintain their right to care for the sick and injured': https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1694293/

   I was also curious what ancient Persian travelers called a place to eat, as opposed to the typical English name, 'inn'. They were called caravanserais. I was wondering about creating my own name of a place where people could eat and sleep and find local entertainment. Then I found this site, https://history-maps.com/, which is a very exciting, chock-full of fascinating, read-for-hours, history information for so many countries around the world! You might find it interesting too :)

  I love doing research. I discover the most random things that mostly show up in a brief description or a small reference in a sentence, just enough detail to give the reader a sense of place. I think it's akin to traveling, to that sense of thrilling discovery we experience when we go somewhere new.

   Like anything we put our minds to creating, there is so much more involved in the process of making than the final product shows. So, when you pick up a book, hold it in one hand. Feel the weight of it. Flip through the pages. Stare at the tiny picture of the author.

    Then appreciate the immensity of the story they have crafted, knowing that what you hold goes far beyond what is printed on the page.