Imma gonna do a thing

[loaded_march]

I've been asked How do you research before, in particular for when I do writing research, and since, well, right now I'm getting distracted every three sentences with the need to research something else, I thought I'd give an example of what I research and what comes out of it.  If it interests people enough, I might make it a semi-regular thing.

But since they might be spoilery for anything I might be writing, or too long for people to scroll through, I'm going to put them behind cuts.

First up would be my maybe-ACBB sign-up, assuming I hammer it down properly first.



I have a setting, but I don't have a setting, if you know what I mean.  I need a map.  I need a good map.  I need a map that doesn't exist.  Googlemap is of no use, because typing "Medieval England, AD 500" doesn't work --

Wait.  I didn't actually try that.  Hold on.

Well, that gave me Gainsthorpe Medieval Village in Hibaldstow, UK, and clicking on the link provided leads me to -- huh, interesting.  It's recorded to have been a den of thieves, occupied at least fifty years after the Black Plague, and the reason for its (apparently sudden?) desertion is unknown.  Not what I'm looking for, but fascinating, and I have to stop myself from Googling more.

My hind brain is tucking this tidbit of information away for later use, because I might be able to weave this in, somehow.  But that's for later.

Anyway, back to my original search.  I have about 8 tabs open after entering "Arthurian maps of England", because what I'm really looking for is some sort of idea of where the different areas mentioned in Merlin (TV) were located compared to Camelot, because I really need this information, okay?

First link in that search is the Google Images version with a bunch of maps, a lot of which I've seen or used before in one context or another, but none of which are relevant to my actual needs and purposes.  I will say that I opened about a dozen of those Images for a better look, but, yeah, not what I need.

The links that followed are neat.  Someone put together a compendium of Arthurian maps for a game they're working on, which is pretty neat because there's some nice resources.  But not what I'm looking for.  The next link has stuff on Arthurian lore and Arthur's Knights, and there's a map, but, fuck, is it ever flimsy for my purposes.  Wikipedia has a list of locations associated with Arthurian legends, which, score!  Except -- I need a fucking map.

I skip the dictionary entry, the Pinterest hit, and the rest of the links on the page, because a dictionary is not a map, Pinterest and I are not on speaking terms, and the remainder of the links are historical.  I love history as much as anyone, but I avoid them because I have a drill-down tendency to keep clicking links and reading and reading and the next thing I know it's 4 AM and I'm no closer to the actual answer to my question.

I go back to the search box and enter, "Merlin TV show maps".  Don't get me wrong, I will pillage the more historical Arthurian Maps, but later.  Right now, I just want to correlate fiction with reality, even if it's just ballpark, because of reasons.

First two links are for the Merlin Wiki.  The first one is a map of Camelot, which, nice, but not what I need.  The second one is an entry for Albion, with a list of Kingdoms and rulers (useful, keeping that one for later), but I'm afraid not what I'm looking for either.  MAP.  I need a map, people.

Google Images is third on the link list, and some of them are lifted from the first two links.  Some of those Google Images are from people's best guesses of where everything is located, but I can't tell if this is based on actual information in the TV show, or if the artist/cartographer used both whimsy and deductive reasoning to mark everything down.

Then guess what I find:  versaphile's Kingdoms of Albion on AO3, which has a disclaimer allowing people to use this as a fannish resource.  In the second chapter, there's demographics, which, holy shit, okay.  Please and thank you, I will be using this as a base, because this is awesome on so many levels and I can't even begin to say how much more easy my life has become right there.

Excuse me for a second, Imma gonna leave a thank-you comment, because, really, SO USEFUL. I appreciate the work that went into this, and yowza, I love people who do maps and stats stuff, because, just, wow.  Ok, and that's done.  I've moved the tab over to the "don't close this tab on penalty of death" side of my browser.  I have the link saved here and bookmarked, so I won't lose it.

My next step here will be to pull a map from both historical medieval England and the modern British Kingdom, then to build a new map that will more accurately represent the one I'll be using.

I'll be honest here.  The odds that I'll actually USE the map in the actual story are slim.  At most, I'm using it for the cardinal directions of everything ("Okay, Stonehenge is down this way") and for determining realistic travel time over certain distances, terrain and methods.  I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on this -- at most, I'll print out some maps that are roughly the same size, superimpose them, and trace over them with a blank sheet, marking the boundaries and landmarks.

And that's one thing for research down.  About 1,000 other ones to go.





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Comments

[cone-23.livejournal.com]

Your way of researching is interesting and mine is kind of alike, problem is that I get sidetracked a lot because out of the blue you find key information and then you go on reading but never arrive to the goal, hahaha. Well, that happens to me a lot. Nowadays, I don't like to write anything down or even on Word, I mean, anything related to gathering info for the actual plot. I had rough moments while in uni so, I'm trying to devert my memory from those times. The thing is, I keep everything in my mind. Sometimes is hard because of the everyday chores but not impossible. Rolling the collected info in my mind as a film helps. I wonder if you have an archive for all you data til the last bit or only the most hard pieces to remember? Love that you decide to share your researching views. I believe it could help everyone on how to put on perspective the quest of looking for the correct information. Hope you continue with a second, third part if convenient with your life/work schedule.

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

Oh, when I get sidetracked, I get sidetracked like a train wreck, so you're not the only one! I should log what happens when I do, because it can get pretty interesting.

I don't generally keep references. I'll save images or maps with links, but details? Nope. I know I can find them later. If I have a story that is research-heavy, I'll start a running chronicle (a table with links and information found), but it's generally pretty vague, because I'm more concerned with the business of writing than keeping tabs on all my references.

On the flipside, there are works where I do intensive research and have to hold onto my references, so I can show that, too!

(sorry about those rough moments in uni *hugs*)

[matchboximpala.livejournal.com]

I wish I could get the students I work with to journal their search process.

Your post gave me another reason to procrastinate, so I went off and did some searching of my own for medieval Britain maps. Here are two from 1605 and 1607 that I uploaded for you. https://app.box.com/s/7j366e8no5iu1em1js29ncqu72d1oa9k

And there's this site: Old Maps Online http://www.oldmapsonline.org/

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

Oh! Those maps are awesome! I grabbed one of them. Much appreciated!

I'll have to browse that link later (because I have to go to work now, bah humbug) but thank you!! It looks awesome.

You could always make it an assignment for your students? Extra bonus points? I am planning on doing other posts like this for the different things I research, so my fiction vs. non-fiction and academic vs. work approaches are really, really different.

[vlaffles.livejournal.com]

I did the same thing for last year's big bang: look at the kingdom of Albion, then at a modern map, look at places that are relatively where I want my characters to be at certain points, look up how far apart those places are, see how long it would take to travel on horseback, add a day or two for breaks, and, well, the fact that they're not going in a straight line... all so I could say "Yep that happened in about 2-3 weeks." It wasn't nearly as accurate and I don't think anyone cares, but it was really fun, I have to admit. It's so hard not to get lost when you're looking up those things.

Thank you for sharing this, and good luck with your writing! :'D

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

Great minds think alike! That's essentially my approach, too, except I was going to be scientific and use a ruler.

:D

[repna.livejournal.com]

A canon-era ACBB! I am intrigued! :)

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

Who said anything about Canon-era? :P

[repna.livejournal.com]

Ack, I meant Olden-times-y ACBB!!

(Medieval even!!)

#whistlesinnocently

[rubic-cube.livejournal.com]

Wow I am bowing down to your greatness at research!I found these three websites that deal with the landscape of Britain in the 500 AD era: -
http://www.shadowedrealm.com/medieval-maps/political/

http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/FeaturesBritain/BritishMapAD400.htm

http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/maps/500_kingdoms.html

Some deal with the political landscape at the time. I think I remember something about one of the museum building a map of Arthur's kingdom but I can't remember which. Will have to think on that.

But I did find this one which could help - all the places King Arthur supposedly visited from the stories - http://www.avalon.co.uk/map.html

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

Oo, those are nice! Thank you!