Finding inspiration in historic buildings

Old buildings can be a wonderful source of inspiration for your stories. They can be stately homes that you visit, or a ruin or an abandoned building near you. If you're in need of inspiration, do a quick search for old buildings near you or historic houses etc, and assuming they are open to the public, take a walk around and set your imagination to work. 

Of course, if writing historical fiction is not your thing, you may not think this idea is for you, but you could write any range of stories - it could be fantasy or horror set in that building, or perhaps the story of a family who take on refurbishing the building. What do they find in the process? Perhaps the building is hiding a secret - think Dan Brown and the Da Vinci code, or C.S Lewis' The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. It could be social history and drama such as Downton Abbey. I love visiting Brighton Pavilion which has had a chequered history - a royal palace, a ruin, a hospital for soldiers. Perhaps Anne of Cleves travels through time to see her house today.  Any of those are ways to explore and create a story. 

Once you're in your chosen building, armed with your trusty notebook, walk around and start to ask yourself:

• Who lived here? Was it an individual, a family, a company?
• Of course, the inhabitants could also be animals, ghosts, Carpet People (Terry Pratchett)
• What was their socioeconomic status - were they rich, poor, middle class?
• Did the owners change over the years?
• What were they like? 
• What was their daily life - did they work, farm etc
• Who built the place, and why?
• What is the mood of the place - is it peaceful, frightening, empty? 
• What happened here - births, deaths, romances, wars, disasters, treachery, negotiations?
• Does the building have any historic importance? Think about how Deborah Harkness uses time travel and buildings in her All Souls trilogy. (A great read!) 
• How did the place come to be in its current stat - ruin; refurbishment; public ownership etc
• How was it built - stones, bricks, concrete. It's worth learning about building techniques to feed into other stories - in a fantasy world, do they have the materials to create concrete? 
• Are there any secrets - hidden chambers; messages; secret doors; priest's holes; secret tunnels; servant's entrances etc. How might they have been used? How could they be used in your story - In Skyfall, Bond escapes to the church through an old tunnel. His parent's historic home is the setting for the showdown with the villain. 
• Now, ask yourself, what story could I write about this place, and the people in it. 

Zanzibar is one of my favourite places in the world, and I've set several stories there, including one that was recently published here.

If you're struggling to get to a building, take a look at the images below, sourced from Pixabay, (or search for your own!) and see if you can use one for your story.