The Role of AI in Research
Good morning intrepid readers! Book 2 is still firmly in progress, but I wanted to take a minute to share some of the ways I’ve found to streamline research and consistency. Writing from a historical perspective can be challenging, especially when you care as much as I do about accuracy and attention to detail. I’m a visual writer, so I’m literally watching the scenes play out in my head and then writing down the results. My goal is to make sure that what I’m seeing would be accurate for that specific time period. What are people wearing? What do the buildings look like? How advanced is technology for certain aspects of every-day-living? How are people getting around? These are questions I ask myself when I’m adding detail to a scene.
I’ve found that a quick search through an AI engine (I use Copilot) is a great starting point to get some of those questions answered. Copilot does a great job of citing the reference material where it obtained the information I’m looking for, so it’s an easy click to not only verify the results, but I can also go check the source for context or maybe specific examples to help me in my writing. Let me give you a recent example of this technique in use.
I was writing a scene involving a cargo ship and a certain large city in Italy. Medieval naval operations isn’t exactly my area of expertise, so I asked Copilot what a medieval port in Italy would have looked like in the 11th century, and how cargo would have been unloaded. The answer it gave me was a great starting point for figuring out how to write the scene and explain the action happening around the characters. Without being able to travel easily to the location, image searches are also useful to be able to describe scenes accurately, especially concerning geography and city size.
Take this image of Salerno, for example. While this is a print from the 17th century, it helps me describe the scene as Roger’s ship comes into view for the first time. Castle Arechi, sitting atop the hill overlooking the city, stands out as a focal point to draw the attention of newcomers, as designed.
Hopefully this quick demonstration gives some insight into how internet searches and more extensive research plays a part in how I present the story to you, the reader, in the most accurate way I can. Keep an eye out for the next chapter in Roger’s saga, and maybe you’ll be able to picture his arrival to Salerno with more detail, as long as I’ve done my job correctly.
