I realise that might sound a bit odd. Until about 6 months ago, I was not the biggest fan of research. I was under the impression that it was a necessary evil which had to be overcome in order to achieve a goal. I cannot even begin to explain how wrong I was!
First of all, as regular readers will know, in August, I spent a lot of time in the Local Studies Area of Colchester Library, researching a young lady called Charlotte White (nee Smyth), who lived in Berechurch Hall, Colchester in the early 19th Century. The purpose of this was to write a story about her ghost, as part of the Colchester WriteNight anthology. This research led me on a fascinating journey, which took me on interesting field trips, introduced me to some wonderful people and resolved a ghost story, which had scared me since my childhood. I am still intrigued by this story and have many projects in mind which are linked with it.
For more information on my adventures in researching Charlotte White's story, have a look at the following links: PART1 - PART2 - PART3 - PART4 - PART5
To purchase a copy of 'Charlotte -The Lady in White' a novel based on the Life of Charlotte White, nee Smyth, please click the link below
Over the past few weeks, I have been conducting some research into World War II and more specifically, events which had a direct effect on Colchester during that period. I have been researching this for my novel - Midnight. I plan to add 50,000 words to 'Midnight' for NaNoWriMo this year. (For more information, click HERE.)
For a number of years, I have been interviewing my Grandad's siblings to find out what happened to them during World War II but I needed some more detailed information about events in Colchester during that period, in order to bring my protagonist's story to life.
First of all, I took myself back into Colchester Library's Local Studies Area. There, I found a beautiful home made book - 'Colchester at War' by a man called Bernard Polley, which was full of useful facts, dates and events which took place.
Second of all, I discovered my new research interest E.J. Rudsdale.
Rudsdale was a curator at Colchester Castle Museum, worked for the W.A.C. during World War II and also worked for the Royal Observer Corps during the times when the V1 and V2 bombs were causing mayhem across Britain. He was also an avid historian, who appreciated the merit of diaries in documenting events for future generations. As such, he kept a detailed diary of the entire war period.
As regular readers will know, I recently read Rudsdale's diary and found it a brilliant read. (Click HERE to read more) Despite the fact that I was simply using the book for research, I was so impressed with Rudsdale's writing and interested in him as a person, that I am now very keen to look into his history and read more of his writing. I am eager to do this as soon as I can.
I cannot say strongly enough how useful the information available in Colchester Library is. I have also been consistently impressed by the staff there. They are so helpful and friendly. I thoroughly recommend them.
For more information, have a look at the website for Essex Libraries.
So, as you can see, researching history for the purposes of writing a story can be completely absorbing and utterly compelling. The more I research, with the purpose of writing, the more I want to do. If you have a story in mind and research is putting you off, give it a go. You might be surprised!
No comments:
Post a Comment