# Writing and researching history?



## Darkfantasy (Feb 16, 2013)

Hi, so my next Fantasy novels is about the Celts in Britian. There isn't much that can be found on them in the time period I'm aiming at so I'm going closer to 31AD for my research. Just to get a feel for them, but I also want to add in Mythology as well.

Is it better to do much research before I write my novel, or just get it written and then get it right?

This is the first time I've needed to do really in-depth research. How would you go about it?

Thanks
DF


----------



## Shaun b. (Feb 16, 2013)

This history of this period is quite a difficult subject, much that is known of them was written from the perspecitve of the people that encountered them. I've done some research myself mainly into the religious aspect but its hard to turn up anything concrete. Are you interested in the Picts or Brythons? or is it more Celtic as a whole? Their expansion across europe? Perhaps we could swap notes or discuss it in greater detail as im working on a piece with Celtic influence myself.


----------



## The Unseemly (Feb 16, 2013)

Google...

Usually (though this is my very queer type of novel with its own rules of logic and sociality), I find that you write, write, write, until there's a particular aspect you don't understand, and then look it up. However, when writing something like you are DF, I'd do at least some overall research to better understand the Celtic ideology.

And as a side note, I know someone sitting comfortably behind their computer will laugh at me for saying this, however if you want to know how the Celts lived, died, and strived, then could I suggest Horrible Histories? Sometimes the historical accuracy aspect can be dodgy in Horrible Histories, but there's also a lot of truth to now people lived at the time.


----------



## Alexandra (Feb 17, 2013)

Darkfantasy said:


> Hi, so my next Fantasy novels is about the Celts in Britian. There isn't much that can be found on them in the time period I'm aiming at so I'm going closer to 31AD for my research....Is it better to do much research before I write my novel, or just get it written and then get it right?...DF



What time period are you interested in and what are you looking for? I've found plenty of stuff on Celtic Britain.  If the history of the Celts is crucial to your novel do your research first and do it well, the subsequent writing will come easier and you'll be less likely to make mistakes and trust me, if you screw up you may not catch it but your readers will.


----------



## misaki (Feb 17, 2013)

This question is something I would love help on too - I am interested in researching history for my novel and wish to make it as accurate as possible, but don't know where to start. 

Thanks


----------



## Darkfantasy (Feb 17, 2013)

I'm not researching a specific events like "the Roman Invasion", it's just the people I want to learn about. The novel is dated around 55 BC


----------



## Butterfly (Feb 17, 2013)

St Fagan's The National History Museum of Wales has reconstructed a Celtic village from archaeological finds. It's here... Celtic Village | National Museum Wales It has some images on the bar below the main page.

55 BC Is pretty close to the end of the Iron Age, which is also the Celtic era, so you need to look for things relating to this like 'Life in Iron Age Britain,' Museums are a good place to look for things. A lot of them have images of exhibitions and finds from this era as well on information on daily life. Some have On-line Tours such as British Museum - Daily life in Iron Age Britain - Here at least you will be able to describe some of the tools they used. Also look at British Museum - People in Iron Age Britain (Look for the 'next button on both of these for info on other items).

The BBC History site is also pretty good for info on life in the iron ages. BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: Overview: Iron Age, 800 BC - AD 43

BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: Life in an Iron Age Village

BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: Surviving Iron Age Britain

Also this is interesting Living in the Past, Iron age reality - YouTube (But is relevant to the second century BC)

I found this book interesting - Lords of Battle: The World of the Celtic Warrior World of the Warrior: Amazon.co.uk: Stephen Allen: Books


----------



## Darkfantasy (Feb 17, 2013)

Thanks Butterfly, I'll have a snoop at your links, but I've just come of Amazon. There is very little information on them that far back in history, so I may have to research a little further down the line. But it was the Romans who wrote most of everything down in 55 BC. 

And thank you for your help
x


----------



## Chilari (Feb 17, 2013)

You really should research in some depth before you start, because you don't want to use something you've gleaned from Wikipedia as a major plot point and find you've got it wrong later and have to do major rewrites as a result.

I can recommend Neil Oliver's A History of Ancient Britain. It covers a lot more than iron age, but it gives a very solid understanding not only of the way people lived and how that changed, but also of Britain's connections to the continent and how we know about it all. If you can get his TV series online somewhere I'd certainly recommend that - you get to see the stuff he's talking about too. He's done Bronze age, Iron age and Vikings. I don't think it's on iPlayer at the moment (though, unrelatedly, Jago Cooper's series on South America is, and that's very good, and Jago is a cool guy he taught me to dig and remembered how to pronounce my surname when he took register... ahem).

Yeah, read Caesar's discussion of Britain but don't take it at face value. Remember that it's an outsider's perspective - it can inform your characeter's attitudes towards and interactions with the continent and the Roman world, but shouldn't be the basis of their culture.

Other than that, Barry Cunliffe and Francis Pryor are the authorities on pre-Roman Britain, but they're more academic, so their books are more expensive. If you can access a university library for them that might be worth it, but be preparared for an expectation of a certain level of understanding. If you're already a student or member of faculty at a university, you could use JSTOR to access recent journals, but they're not really big picture stuff, they're little details. Useful for adding spice but often difficult to get through and not always useful even within the subject you're looking at.


----------

