Where does your research take you?

This week, a few of my discoveries were that most bird sh** has little to no smell (unless they are sick), that fart is one of the oldest words in the English language, and that it is pretty difficult to kill someone instantly with an arrow.

It is a joke amongst writers that we better hope no one gets murdered in the neighborhood, as our search histories would be pretty incriminating, and mine is no exception. The Absolution of the Morning Star series is a dark fantasy set in the late medieval period- probably the equivalent of the early 16th century. It is a sinister and turbulent time for Lucardia; thus, many people die in my books (poison has reared its head plenty). In my current work in progress, Koen, I’m on chapter five and have already killed off eighteen named characters. I want to make my books as visceral and realistic as possible, so that means delving into the internet’s darkest subjects. It has brought me places I really did not want to go and some that I wish I hadn’t ventured, but I do it all for you, dear reader!

It’s not all bad. Through countless hours of research, I’ve found that the discoveries I make and the information I glean feeds the plot as much as it supports it. Let me provide an example. Perhaps a story requires a quick death to move things along. Say, a posted guard needs to be eliminated so the main character can pass. It is a scene we’re all familiar with and one often portrayed in movies. The easiest method would be to pick up a gun. The kinetic energy of a firearm makes killing someone instantly just a trigger pull away. Even a shot to the arm or leg can cause massive blood vessel damage leading to death in minutes. But, when you remove the traumatic force of velocity, things get much more drawn out and complicated.

Gunpowder weapons have only recently appeared in The Absolution of the Morning Star’s world. Hence, the tools of death in my stories are blades, spears, axes, war hammers, and arrows (and some other interesting implements). They are violent, painful, and, for lack of a better word, personal weapons. In terms of story, they also make killing a character instantly quite challenging. Without something magical or devastating, like an explosion, there are only two options: massive trauma to the brain or rapid blood loss. For an author, it can get frustrating and ultimately repetitive. You can only chop off so many heads (which is not as easy as you may think) and stab so many hearts. Also, it should give you a semblance of relief that the heart and brain are well protected, and most of your major blood vessels are deep and hard for a sharp pointy object to cut. A quick Google search will show you that being stabbed 20+ times and surviving is not impossible. The triangle of death, a term used by modern snipers (also called the sniper’s T) and where a sharp object would kill you relatively instantly, is a tiny target in the scheme of things. I’ve found countless stories of people being shot with multiple arrows and surviving- i.e., Saint Sebastian. It is why medieval archers were more concerned with putting as many shafts in the air as quickly as possible rather than focusing on accuracy.

Yes, I know, with all the challenges, killing someone quickly with medieval weapons can clearly be done. With a bit of imagination, it can also be interesting to write and read. It is a messy affair that does lend itself well to imagery. But what if you wanted to kill that guard quietly too? You may be thinking; you can slit their throat as they do in the movies, right? Oh boy, here we go again into the internet’s dark corners. Suddenly, we come to another rabbit hole and a point of contention in the chats. Yes, there are chats about this topic, which should give us all pause. Funny enough, a fellow writer often poses the question. Then, all the “experts” creep out of the woodwork and go into too much detail. I won’t go into what I’ve learned here, but there is much to think about, ultimately changing a story’s flow. All joking aside, I hope the purveyor of this information is just another writer who has done their research, but who knows in this crazy world?

Quick aside: Let me be clear. I do not condone violence or particularly enjoy writing about it. However, I am intrigued by what a violent world does to the human psyche, and the prospect of violence certainly raises the stakes in a story. Ultimately, death, sometimes violently, is necessary to demonstrate humanity’s potential vileness and the human spirit’s raw power to overcome.

Well, it’s 6 PM, and I have a date with my characters. Something just splashed in a swamp, and I’m guessing someone is about to have a bad day 🙂

Cheers!