![]() ![]() ![]() You want the picture in your mind as complete as possible before you start playing on that historical stage. This is where you read every account you can find on the Battle of Crecy or the early life of Machiavelli. Now you need to narrow your focus understand EVERYTHING about the historical period and events you will be covering. ![]() You have your book idea the era and plot are chosen. Paul cathedral, and realizing that with a single brilliant plot twist you can tie it all together in one smash-hit novel. You have no idea what will be useful, so you read it all, dog-paddling in leisurely fashion through an ocean of sometimes only barely connected reading material, daisy chaining from a book about Polish airmen in World War II to the bombing of London to the building of St. Your plot hasn’t firmed up yet, so right now everything is grist for the imagination, and blinding flashes of inspiration come from random footnotes. This is the stage where you grossly over-use the One Click Buy feature on Amazon as you load up on used research texts to dog-ear and underline you also make dire use of the “Customers who bought X also bought Y” feature. You have a new book idea, probably something rather vague and unformed, and you’re reading everything you can get your hands on about Murano glass-blowers or the reign of Frederick the Great or Finnish lake mythology. For me, there are four distinct research phases involved in writing a historical novel. ![]()
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