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| Exploring the Creation of Fictional Worlds |
Using Sensory Research to Bring
History Vividly to Life
by Melissa Addey
After more than fifteen years of writing historical fiction, from Ancient Rome to eleventh-century Morocco, from the court of eighteenth-century China to the ballrooms of Regency England, I’ve learned this: books alone will never give you the full story. If you want readers to feel as though they have stepped through the page into another time, then you must go beyond facts and dates. You must live the era. I call it full immersion: research done not only with the mind, but with the senses.
Why
Sensory Research Matters
While many writers focus on accuracy of events or costumes, readers often fall in love with the sensory details: the tang of woodsmoke, the clatter of hooves on cobblestone, the soft scratch of a quill on rag paper. Different readers respond strongly to different senses. Some connect through sound; others through visual details, scent, taste, or touch. By weaving in as many sensory details as possible, grounded in real experience, you widen your ability to engage the reader.
Sensory research also happens to be perfect for marketing. Readers adore behind-the-scenes glimpses. A simple video of you trying on a Regency gown, riding a camel, visiting medieval tanneries, or making 18th-century white soup can become one of your most liked posts.
The Power
of Being There: Research Trips
I’ve visited Rome, Morocco, China, Bath, and many re-enactment events. When you stand in a place alone, you begin to notice things your characters would know instinctively: the echo of footsteps in a marble hall, the call to prayer, the endless locked doors of the Forbidden City.
Here’s a tip: visit sites in the “wrong” order. Enter the back gate of a palace. Wander through the servants’ quarters first. Get a little lost. I practically ran across the Forbidden City to get to the private palaces at the back before all the other tourists descended, so I could be alone in the space that housed the emperor’s many concubines.
Family can be both a nuisance and a blessing on research trips. Yes, the kids feel like a distraction, but after scolding my small son for teetering on the edge of a lake in China, trying to catch frogs, I realised that the child prince in my novel would have done just the same. When my daughter needed the toilet at the Colosseum, we had to run round it to catch up with our tour guide. I developed a whole character just off the need to have a boy who could scamper about the vast building with messages.
Living the
Era: Clothing, Tools, and Daily Routines
As a writer, I often start with writing tools from an era: a replica wax tablet for a Roman scribe (did you know they had shorthand?) and a quill pen (so scratchy!) for a Regency woman’s love letter. Then I move on. Forget weighted vests at the gym, armour is really heavy! I visit haberdasheries to touch fabrics, try to sleep in a hammock, interact with farm animals. We would all have been familiar with horses (or camels depending on your location!).
Seasonal
Living: The Forgotten Rhythm
Historically everything was shaped by the seasons: light, food, clothing, festivals, daily work, sleep patterns. What food was available in each month? What animals were active? What herbs were picked? What did dawn look like at that latitude? Try tracking the months of your chapters, too. When your character is making soup in February, what ingredients would they realistically have? For my book The Garden of Perfect Brightness, set largely on the imperial summer estate on the outskirts of Beijing, I created a whole scrapbook with the seasons and animals, flowers, plants and temperatures.
Soundscapes
of the Past
Writers often forget that the past sounded different. Try shutting your eyes on research trips. Listen for market vendors calling their wares or desert sand swishing across dunes. The buzz of summer cicadas, church bells, calls to prayer, factory sirens. Just as I know an electric car, a bicycle and a car do not sound like the garbage truck, so someone two hundred years ago would have recognised the different sounds of a single rider, a cart, a fancy carriage or the circus coming to town.
Taste,
Smell, and the Wild World of Historical Food
Food is one of the fastest ways to time-travel and
one of my favourite elements to include when I world build. Make or seek out dishes
from your era: the ‘white soup’ served in Pride and Prejudice (hat tip to the
amazing Regency Cook Paul Couchman, who runs great online courses), Roman honey
cakes, roast lamb over hot coals in Morocco, hand-pulled noodles.
Smell is equally important. Historical worlds were “fragrant”
in ways we often forget:
- horse
dung and coal smoke in cities
- tanneries
and dye vats so pungent you are given a bunch of mint to hold against your
nose when you visit them in Fes, Morocco
- oil
lamps and candlewax: have a whole dinner by oil lamps and find out just
how much black gunk is in your nose the next morning!
- fresh bread on baking day
Events,
Activities, and Embodied Learning
Re-enactment societies are treasure troves. One of
my best historical consultants was Steven Cockings, who travels the world for
Roman reenactments: he invited me to his home for a Saturnalia feast – an
unforgettable occasion where he gave me a 1st century necklace to
wear for the night and I ate from a spoon that had once been in Roman’s mouth.
Take dance lessons from the era you write in, try archery, falconry, fencing, or attend jousting demonstrations (there’s just something about a knight in shining armour…). Attend religious services your characters would know and learn their everyday crafts, such as spinning, weaving, glassblowing or basket-making.
Emotional
Immersion: Experiencing the Intensity
History is full of dramatic moments: earthquakes, battles, storms, sieges. Even small immersive experiences can help you write intensity more authentically. There’s an earthquake simulator at the Natural History Museum in London (having been in a real quake, I can vouch for its authenticity), and when I had to write about Pompeii’s destruction, I sat with photos of Hiroshima to really feel the devastation before I wrote.
Sensory immersion is joyful. It’s messy and unpredictable and occasionally uncomfortable, but it deepens your writing in extraordinary ways. It also strengthens your bond with your audience, who get to follow along as you step into the past
As a writer, ask yourself: what could you touch, smell, taste, hear, or experience this month that would bring your fictional world to life? Then go try it. Your creativity will blossom. As a reader: what sensory writing made a story come alive for you?
BIO
Melissa Addey writes richly researched historical fiction inspired by what she calls “the footnotes of history” – forgotten stories and intriguing lives from the past. Her novels span Ancient Rome, medieval Morocco, 18th-century China, and Regency England. She has a PhD in Creative Writing, was Writer in Residence at the British Library, and lives in London with her family.
Browse her books (and get a free novella) at
Visit Melissa on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@melissaaddeyauthor
In the shadows of Rome’s greatest spectacle, a young woman discovers friendship, belonging, and the fragile beginnings of love.
Rome, 80 AD. Althea has always lived unseen. A slave scribe, she records the words of powerful men while silencing her own.
But when she is sent to serve Marcus, the man charged with creating the Colosseum’s inaugural Games, her life begins to change. Haunted by the loss of his family in Pompeii, Marcus teeters on the edge of despair. To save him, Althea must step beyond obedience and into courage.
Amid the roar of the arena and the demands of an Emperor, Althea forms unexpected bonds: a sharp-tongued prostitute, a fallen Vestal Virgin, a runaway boy, and others cast aside by Rome. Together, they become more than survivors. They become family. And in Marcus’ sadness, Althea begins to glimpse the tender possibility of love.
From the Ashes is a sweeping story of resilience, found family, and one woman’s journey to claim her freedom in a world built on power. Both action-packed and heart-stirring, it brings to life the people behind the Colosseum and the quiet strength that can rise from ruins.
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