Has Internet affected your WIP?

Like you, I began researching my chosen era (17th century New England) long before the internet existed. Once it did, I soon came to realise its unreliability. The worst were the genealogy sites, where errors and misconceptions abounded (and still do). I soon learned to doublecheck everything, against primary sources if at all possible, against reputable secondary sources where necessary.

As you say, it's much better these days, especially for those with access to scholarly journals via the likes of JSTOR (which unfortunately I do not). The amount of archive material now accessible on the internet is truly exciting; long may it continue. Where I now live, in Germany, I have no access to English language reference books, a source of some frustration. But the web is much more help than it used to be. And it has always been better than nothing, used with care.

Well, culturally speaking, I live in the boonies.

So while I can't rely on actual internet sources, the internet is a treasure trove. I can find around 6 books in my local library, 2 of which have been helpful so far . Amazon.com has 1 or 2 that *might* be helpful, but that represents a small portion of all published books, and mostly best-sellers. I'm looking for rarer stuff. Many of the books I'm using as sources aren't on Amazon at all.

Online I can find dozens & dozens of sources to choose from. I can find online that I live within 300 miles of a cultural center for the culture I'm writing about. I can find a website for each historical site I might like to visit, and decide which ones are most important for initial visits, or which ones are least expensive for me to visit. When I find a source I need, I can search online for the ISBN and find the *one* bookseller that actually has a copy! Or find out if my local library can borrow that book from the library at UT, the only library that has a copy in the whole United States, apparently.

The other day I established an initial contact with a professor at my own alma mater who specializes in this period of history & was able to recommend several sources ... maybe in 3-6 months I can email her & say, "hey, do you like to read fiction from this period?"

I have found it to be invaluable, but not for primary sources. It has been a way for me to find out what I need & where to find it.


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It depends on the era, I suppose. I did write about Sumer for one of my first books, and truly did not trust the internet. Now I am writing about all things, the Fairfax district of Los Angeles circa 1962. I needed to find information about the lay out of CBS's Television City, and stumbled across a site with the schematics of all three floors of the original building. Sometimes the internet is the only place to get such information. One just has to be wary.

The internet can be both be both a great help and hellishly frustrating. I wouldn't like to count how many hours I've clocked up wading through lists of sites in my quest for information. Any query with the word Rome or villa in it for example, seems to toss up hundreds of sites offering tours and holidays...even if you do stick ancient in front. Chances are when you do find something that intially seems relevent, it's full of dubious information with no reliable sources. Have you ever noticed how a certain questionable fact can spread from one site to another like a disease but you never find the original source for it? The most promising links always, but always, seem to have the no entry-for the likes of me at least- sign (i.e JSTOR) posted above them. But there are some gems out there and I would have been stuck on more than one occasion without the internet.
Like you Julie, I'm stuck in a wasteland (in my case Israel) as far English language reference books go. I've bought quite a few over the years but my budget will only stretch so far, and some of books I do have, are already outdated. Very frustrating as I would like to read up on many periods...also biographies etc.
The British Council did run a fairly decent library a few years back, but for some strange reason decided libraries were not what people wanted any more and closed it?!!?

Has the internet affected my WIP? Certainly.

First and foremost in the ability to track down various books. I have a core of four or so that are my primary references, but surrounding those are maybe fifteen to twenty other books on everything from the lives of Roman women to senatorial policy and the tangled alliances among the prominent families.

Second - Thesaurus.com.

Third in the ability to track down little bits of information. My best find to date is a massive PDF that's basically a directory of Roman political office, organized by name. I forget the exact source (it's taken from a book), but this list has been EXTREMELY USEFUL in filling out the ranks of secondary characters and tracking alliances as they develop/splinter apart.

Fourth - Flickr! I love Flickr, not only for posting my own photos, but for tracking down landscape images. I've been to Italy several times, I have a pretty good sense of the geography...but that doesn't mean I've seen the lapping waters of Lake Trasimene or the terrain around Benevento. Flickr provides that detail.

Like Doogs, I love the internet for the images of places I haven't been able to visit.
And for those of you who write about the Middle Ages, SCA websites often have very carefully researched information about the kinds of "daily life" questions that academic historians rarely touch (dress, clothing, weapons, how to perform different daily tasks, etc.)

I couldn't be on AW without the internet and it is the single biggest factor in my writing.

As well, the time I'm usually doing any research is in the wee hours when nothing's open. That, coupled with me not being a driver, makes online research and college libraries very convenient, especially for ancient sources.

I didn't think about it from the image viewpoint. Yes, I've found the Internet useful for that. I only recently discovered Youtube and found that pretty useful for getting a glimpse at different places.
And of course...how could I forget it...being able to access a forum like AW!

I'm amazed everyone is citing advantages of the internet rather than saying surfing, AW, etc. is occupying too much of the time that should be being spent on WIPs. I know I'm certainly guilty of "playing" on my favorite websites on a multi-daily basis. Puma

Puma said:

I'm amazed everyone is citing advantages of the internet rather than saying surfing, AW, etc. is occupying too much of the time that should be being spent on WIPs. I know I'm certainly guilty of "playing" on my favorite websites on a multi-daily basis. Puma

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You definitely have a point here. The distraction of the internet is a big part of why I wrote my WIP longhand. It's hard to surf when you don't have a computer at hand.

Now that I'm in revisions, I pretty much have to have my laptop. The only exception is with major rewrites, where I still prefer pen and paper. And the internet can get VERY tempting, especially when I'm stuck. It's so easy to tell yourself you'll just check your e-mail (or AW, or whatever other sites you fancy) real fast...and then half an hour passes.

I'm fortunate in that I have a defined time each day that I can devote to writing. It's a boundary of sorts that helps focus my attention. That, and turning off the Wi-Fi antenna

I spend a fair amount of time on AW and an equal amount of time on my own forum, but for myself I don't find it interferes with the WIP. I'm not one who can force myself to write. If the words are flowing, I don't even think about surfing, it doesn't interest me. If the words aren't flowing I hit the forums or work on whatever song I'm presently fine-tuning. (Mandarin Oranges, at the moment.)

jass said:

The internet can be both be both a great help and hellishly frustrating. I wouldn't like to count how many hours I've clocked up wading through lists of sites in my quest for information. Any query with the word Rome or villa in it for example, seems to toss up hundreds of sites offering tours and holidays...even if you do stick ancient in front. Chances are when you do find something that intially seems relevent, it's full of dubious information with no reliable sources. Have you ever noticed how a certain questionable fact can spread from one site to another like a disease but you never find the original source for it? The most promising links always, but always, seem to have the no entry-for the likes of me at least- sign (i.e JSTOR) posted above them. But there are some gems out there and I would have been stuck on more than one occasion without the internet.

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This says most of it for me, but a few good things erase the frustration. The best thing that happened was being reminded that my historical characters have decendents who might be offended were I to get too creative in my pictures of their ancestors. It completely changed my initial take on my story, which was initiated by my interest in my own historical ancestor.

Then there are things like the portraits with the clothing of the period or informative sites about how to grow and harvest tobacco or make rope or turpentine, or collections of sea chanteys, even photos of the places I am writing about, places I have never been.

The Internet will never supplant well-thought-of books or the research possible in a good library, but I live in a small town with no local access to a good library. Without the Internet, I doubt I would have the confidence to write historical fiction, my first love.

I agree, though, that one of the frustrating things is the way the net perpetrates myths, not just creating them but repeating old falsehoods as if they were facts.

I will often start on the Internet, as a way to compile a list of books and other sources to consult. A quick web search on a topic will bring up primary sources to consult, reviews of relevant books on places like amazon (which is especially helpful if I can't find a particular book at the library and have to buy it). There are many sources that I can only get to on the Internet as well, such as newspaper archives that aren't available at my library.