Research for the BIG book

The big book I'm working on at the moment mixes fiction with non-fiction. All fiction contains some elements of truth but using historical people, places and events in my story has meant that I have had to do far more research than I've ever done before.

The story focuses on the life of a certain pirate captain - a notorious man that captured lots of ships (I will go into more detail about him at another time). Although I've seen pirate ships on the television and have read about them in books, it was still hard to imagine what it would be like to actually stand of the deck of one of these tall ships?


How big were they? Books tell you the measurements of the ships but it's still hard to actually visualise it yourself. A trip to Bristol helped sort that out...

What does it feel like to look down from the rigging at the very top?

An important member of a ships crew was the doctor. I wondered what sort of equipment a doctor would have had on those days. If you imagine rows of shiny medical instruments laid out then you'd be wrong. A trip to the maritime museum helped with that - and lots of other things too.

As you can see from this doctor's bag, the main tool is a saw. Ouch!
Some of the things I have needed to find out weren't as exciting as ships or as interesting as a bag of doctor's tools... I wanted to know what the inside on an old farmhouse would look like. A very short scene in my story is set inside a house. I've also researched hats and clothes... If you want your character to sound believable you need to know a lot about them. What did they wear? What did they eat? How did they light the rooms in their houses? Lamps, candles or something else.

Dice play an important part of my story too - so I had to find out about those. I will tell you more later... on with the book.