Yes, even if it is for a fantasy story, I've come to find that to get it right research is important. I have a theory that many people gravitate toward fantasy because of the way it seems to be the genre that requires the least amount of research. Still...even if it is in small ways, research does help give the world a sense of reality. The real world has rules in how it functions and I have come to think more and more that even when writing fantasy a created world needs to have rules as well.
In this case, of course, I was just doing small research. I actually took the time to look into both what colours compliment different skin tones (you know, that whole thing with what season a person is and so on...) and also into complimentary colours. I might go back and change it later. I'm not sure if the colours I chose will look right in my head at the end, but it was interesting to do.
I've also been looking into the general idea of what personalities are associated with what animals and totems. Why? Well...I thought I might tie it in to a degree with one of my peoples. One of my races have "clans" which are associated with different animals and I wanted to see if I could associate personality traits to a small degree with those animals. I'm not sure how far I'll go with it...it's something that I've more recently thought of. I even thought of taking similar animals (such as different kinds of bears or deer...as in some cases they have different traits associated with them oddly enough) and maybe even create different castes or roles related to them. I'm not sure how far I'll go with it but sometimes just doing research gives me new ideas to tie into my writing.
This is why I think research is key. To make the world, races and characters believable it does seem to help to look into things in this world to relate to the fictional world. I like that it helps give me more ideas as well. I know writers work best from actual real experience but sometimes it's not possible to experience it all. Research is maybe the next best thing.
Opening word count: 164,195
Closing word count: 165,200
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