I have to admit - one of the biggest thrills I get out of starting a new manuscript is the 'homework' that needs to be done to ensure the details are right.
For some reason my gladiator got railroaded by fairies and I'm now deep in the Irish Sidhe sorting out kings and warriors and who belongs in a fairy court. Gotta say Irish history and fairytales make for facinating reading. I always start at Wiki and Google then surf from there.
So far my world building is at the stage of figuring out what details are important to the story; and what details I can gloss over. Detail affects pace. Too much at the beginning and a reader will throw in the towel at chapter two. Too much later on and a reader will want to curse me for stopping her in the middle of a chase to explain why the colour yellow on my heroines dress aides her running skills (it doesn't btw - I just made that up as an example :-) ).
Also - this is the first time I've had a full-on fairy book (or two) stuck in my head. I'm not sure why it's fairies - except, I love the idea that fairies can't lie, which means I have to write some pretty clever dialogue for my bad guys. (Gives me the happy-shivers just thinking about it.)
Happy writing - Happy reading.
Tyree
