When you first start research for your fantasy novel, it helps to start simple. In some cases, you may not even know what you need to know. EyeWitness Books are a great place to start. Although the information they give is basic, the books cover a lot of information and have many great pictures to help you visualize.
I have two EyeWitness Books – “Knight” and “Castle“. When I first started writing my fantasy novel, I didn’t know much about either. For knights what are the various pieces of armor? What are the different styles? What type of men were knights? How did they live? How did they fight? All this information is basically covered in the EyeWitness Books, “Knight”. There are great pictures, information on horse armor, knightly weapons, siege weapons, and even a couple of pages dedicated to the squires step-by-step process of how to put on armor.
What did medieval castles look like? Were there different types? What were some of the basic structural aspects of a castle? Who lived in castles? What was the purpose of a castle? The EyeWitness Books, “Castle” touches upon all these things and has great pictures too.
Other great EyeWitness Books include “Medieval Life“, “Viking“, “Arms & Armor“, and more. You can even get EyeWitness Books on different periods in history so that you can get an idea of what life was like in Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece or Ancient China. This can be very helpful if the setting of your fantasy novel is a bit more exotic. There are also great EyeWitness Books on battle, knives & swords, and warriors.
EyeWitness Books are considered children’s books. But don’t be embarrassed. They are really very helpful, even for adults – especially if it is a subject you know nothing about. When researching for your fantasy novel, start out simple. Then if you need more detailed information, you can purchase books which are more thorough. At least by the time you read a more thorough book, you will have a good grasp on basic terminology. Check out these and other great reference books for writing at our Writing a Fantasy Novel Store powered by Amazon.
Fantasy/Sci-Fi Author Dawn Ross 
My younger siblings liked the EyeWitness books, and I’m guilty of sneaking peeks before they went back to the libraries. Sometimes things as simple as pictures can help the writing process.