How did writers ever survive without the Interwebs? Its merits must surely rank a thousand-fold — but there is one in particular that has inspired today’s post.
Research. Back in the pre-Internet days, writers must have spent a cursed lot of time in libraries, or writing letters to people to inquire about areas of specialist expertise. These days, one merely has to google.
Today, for example, I wanted to know about a certain . . . let us say astronomical/geophysical phenomenon. (I don’t want to be specific, because it is a key revelatory plot point.) Anyway, I googled “X” and found in remarkably quick time a reputable web site with embedded java script that actually calculated exactly what I wanted to know. I was even able to play with four different variables to establish which had the most impact, and helped me decide several critical elements of my climactic scene.
This ability to extract the most detailed information about the widest range of topics is the most amazing boon to writers. But on the flip side it gives us far less excuse for getting things wrong. On the whole, I would definitely rather be granted the opportunity to be accurate.
E V Gregory 