Series of random thoughts about writing and lots of history waffle, as well as happy snaps and illustrations!
Using history to inspire fantasy world-building
My very lovely husband bought me a subscription to this history magazine … because apparently I am obsessed with history these days. 😹
.
It’s true, though, I’m completely obsessed!
I’ve been reading through a lot of random history books, and I think, because I am writing fantasy and doing a lot of world-building for my fantasy manuscript and tie-in stories, its been great to find inspiration in real history.
.
These magazines are crazy good. They are just filled with the most interesting stories from history and I’ve been loving reading through them slowly. They are not super in-depth, but more like interesting tasters, and then you can go and do some more reading or research if something gets you excited (or just totally forget to do any of that, if you are lazy and forgetful like me, 😹).
.
Some favourites for me so far has been learning about:
- Carthaginian leader Hannibal’s war elephants!
- Reading about the true man behind the Dracula legends (Prince of Wallachia Vlad III … so fascinating!)
- Also about the golden age of Timbuktu in Western Africa
- The rise and fall of the Mexica city of Tenochtitlan (history remembers them as the Aztecs).
It’s been interesting to delve into all these fascinating stories, that often seem stranger than fiction, and to know it was all once real!
.
History is the best for inspiration when writing fantasy and doing world-building! I love it!
Old fairytales (the creepy, older kind!) 🌙
.
I’ve been collecting old fairytale books for a long time. Partly because I like reading all the strange stories and also folktales from all over the world, but also in large part because all the older fairytale books are just exquisitely illustrated.
.
This particular book in this photo (the illustration is from the Little Mermaid tale) is called Hans Anderson’s Fairy Tales, with drawings by Antony Groves-Raines.
.
I love this particular illustration from the Little Mermaid story, and actually when I first read this little tale, it influenced me greatly! I was really struck by the descriptions in the story as each of the sister mermaids reaches her fifteenth year and is allowed to go to the surface of the ocean to take her first look at the world above the water. Each sister sees a different scene (either sandy moonlight flooded beaches and night cities, or sunset-drenched orange seascapes etc.) but one particularly stuck with me.
.
The fifth sister has her birthday in winter, and when she visits the surface she finds giant pearly icebergs and pale green sea, and she sits on the ice and watches the world go by. She says,
.
‘Towards evening the sky became overcast with clouds. It thundered and lightened, and the black sea lifted the huge ice masses high up and made them glitter red in the flashing lightning.’
.
Also she ‘…watched the blue fork lightening plunge into the shimmering sea.’
.
That beautiful passage just stuck in my mind for years, and just demonstrates how powerful a good piece of description can be in setting mood and atmosphere in a story. I always hope to write settings that might be as evocative as that one :)
.
Also, I must admit, in this same story of the Little Mermaid, I was very struck by the description of the prince! It goes like this:
.
‘But the most handsome of all was certainly the young Prince with the big black eyes.’
.
Haha, I was so struck by that nice description I’m pretty sure 90% of every hero I ever write will also be described as having ‘black eyes’. Haha.
.
Kind of strange where inspiration can come from!
Our new bookshelves 😻
THANK YOU FOR READING
If you enjoy my slightly odd writing and history updates, please subscribe to my newsletter for much, much more of my random bits and pieces…
PJ Nwosu writes dark mystery novels set in epic fantasy worlds.
Free Fantasy Fiction Gift
A vast, rotting city set aflame by Purge House.
A crowd gathers in the shadow of the Red Palace to watch the pyres burn.
A bitter ex-soldier infiltrates the city’s greatest gold house, determined to locate the slave he seeks.
Diem Lakein might not like what he finds.
Welcome to the Red Kingdom