I’ve got a better outline for this year than in years past. The year I actually finished needs a lot of work because people’s ages and story lines don’t match up.
This year I’ve got an outline already. My MC is 56 and I’ve mapped out the years and included some of the significant events in history.
And the South Carolina Dept of Tourism is sending me all kinds of info.
:-)
I can’t imagine how books got researched before the internet, I tell ya. I swear my head is going to burst from everything that I’ve been stuffing in there. For instance, I downloaded flora/fauna surveys of the region where my story will take place. I can tell you what percent of which acre is pine vs. willow vs. blaeberry, whether or not rare fungi spp have been spotted, and how many midge galls were found on trees. I found deed data for the lands going back to the 1300s including transcriptions off of historical maps and modern scholarly opinions on the etemology of the place names. As I get into this culture, I can really see where Tolkein got his influences. Every place has a name, every name means something, and knowing the name makes you part of the place.