Walk a mile in my shoes: immersive research for historical fiction

We all know how valuable research is for our writing, and don’t we just love the research! It’s so easy to get stuck into a book, visit a library, find just the right archive. But it’s also so easy to get sucked into the research, almost forgetting your original purpose. That’s especially true of the Internet where another click of a link takes us to yet more fascinating facts.

But my idea is for us to become active and immersive researchers, actually experiencing what our characters would have done. What better way can there be than to put yourself in your protagonist’s shoes? Actually walk in them, live in them, love and fight in them! I’m not thinking of those gaming headsets that put you in the middle of the action – although perhaps thanks to AI we’ll soon be able to go back in time just like that.

Use your imagination

We can, of course, visit old buildings, stately homes and living museums. Rather than just wander around, guide-book in hand, marvelling at the architecture and paintings, use a bit of imagination. Making your way up a steep, narrow, stone circular staircase can be quite treacherous in jeans and trainers; just imagine wearing armour and carrying a sword, or trying to hold up voluminous skirts as you are being chased by a would-be paramour!

Quite a number of historic places provide commentaries on individual headsets. They don’t just point out the bread oven, the oubliette and the minstrel’s gallery. Some create a story of the personages of the time, taking you through the castle, from being received at the gatehouse, transferred to the waiting room and finally meeting the Lord of the Manor in the grand hall. My favourite is Warkworth Castle in Northumberland, UK. I must know that story backwards by now as I’ve been so many times! But each time it really does make me feel so much more at home in each of the rooms, bringing history to life.

Another form of immersive research is to go on a course where you can do whatever activity it is that your protagonist is involved in. (One tip I’ve read is to give your main character a skill that will come in useful at some point in your story.)

Pounding herbs

My novel Pathway to the Gods centres around the frankincense trade in southern Arabia in the first century. I did a lot of reading on the subject but felt I needed more to bring it to life. I started looking for a course to go on. Could I find one? No! There were plenty of perfume courses around and I did find one in Glastonbury that felt just a bit too “New Age” for me! I stopped looking for a while and when I went back to the Internet, up popped a one-day course on Making Incense. Yes, I thought! That’s it, wherever it is, I’m going. Where was it? Less than a mile from my home, at a complementary medicine school based at my local hospital. I went, loved it, went on three more courses at the same place, all because the tutor was so passionate about her subject. Result! I could now write about pounding grasses and herbs to make medicinal incense, how hard it is and how long it takes!

I have also been on falconry courses, a glass blowing course, and a leather craft course. They were all immensely enjoyable and I learned a lot, information just waiting to be used in future novels.

For us history fanatics, there are so many others available, from coracle making (and putting them to the test) to blacksmithing, lace making, spinning and weaving. You can make a dagger in a day, a Welsh love spoon for Valentine’s Day, spend time outdoors making charcoal, dowsing and willow weaving. Your character might well be a milliner – so go on a hat making course! Or learn to keep bees or find out exactly which mushrooms you can or cannot eat!

Courses galore

For those of you in the UK, do you watch The Repair Shop? That’s filmed at the Weald and Downland Museum in West Sussex, just north of Chichester. They have demonstration days as well as running a whole host of courses. If one of your characters is an archer in the Middle Ages, you can learn how to make a longbow, and then spend another day learning how to shoot it! Also on the fighting front, there are courses on bronze sword and axe casting, and for the less ferocious, learn how to make cheese and butter, or how to forage for wild food.

Courses vary from one-day to two or three-days or even longer. They will all introduce you to the minutiae of the skills needed, as well as the equipment needed and specific terms used. If you ask the right questions, the tutors will love the opportunity to share their passions.

Method acting

Immersive research, in fact, is a bit like method acting, used by some famous thespians who’ve gone out of their way to step into their characters’ shoes. Timothy Spall spent two years studying art for his role as the painter in Mr Turner. Natalie Portman practised five hours a day as a ballet dancer in Black Swan. The result? An Oscar. For his role as Charlie Chaplin in Charlie, Robert Downey Jr learned to play the violin left-handed; Leonardo DiCaprio learned an indigenous language for The Revenant – and secured his first Oscar win; Daniel Day-Lewis tracked, hunted and skinned animals for The Last of the Mohicans and Tom Cruise, of course, learned how to fly a helicopter for Mission Impossible: Fallout.

Words of warning

As with all research, there are words of warning. You will undoubtedly come back from a course thrilled with the experience and desperately wanting to use everything you’ve learned. Don’t! Your readers do not need to know absolutely everything you now know. Use just enough to bring your character to life, no more. Be careful with jargon. Is it of the right era? Would your character use it? Is it really vital to your story? That’s when your writing skills kick in, enhanced by your immersive research. Enjoy!

Linda Spurr is a guest contributor to The History Quill. She is a former BBC journalist who now teaches creative writing. Her book, Pathway to the Gods, was shortlisted in the Wilbur Smith unpublished novel competition in 2018.