Internetitis Revisited

Pat here:

As I may have mentioned, I do not have the scholarly inclinations of most of our wenches, but over the years, I’ve still accumulated a massive research library which covers an amazing array of subjects.  I’ve read and enjoyed many of those books simply for the pure pleasure of learning, but attempting to access the information therein at a later date simply isn’t happening most of the time.  I might admire Harvard's A HISTORY OF PRIVATE LIFE series for the immense amount of material the books contain, but their indices are fairly useless for hunting a single relevant fact. I would do better to Google book search the details, even though the volumes are sitting right there on my shelf.

And therein lies my problem. With the age of the internet, I’ve grown hideously lazy.  I’m perfectly aware that my volumes on Regency England will disclose all manner of fascinating facts about money, dress, carriages, and anything else my wayward mind requires. (I just found a website reviewing a number of the books on my shelves at http://tinyurl.com/ydmfy48 )But that same wayward mind retains nothing. Simply trying to remember which book the answer is in may cost me hours of precious time thumbing through indices and pages, at

the risk of becoming entranced with the subject matter and forgetting what I wanted entirely.  How much easier it is to put the topic into a search engine and see if any answer miraculously appears!  Of course, it doesn’t always. Search engines can be frustratingly full of ridiculous nonsense, but rather than cross the room to hunt through my books, I almost always give Google a spin first.

Worse yet, Google is causing me to buy even more books I will probably never open again!  I needed information on volunteer officers in England’s army and could find utterly nothing except a snippet from a volume on Google Books.  The snippet was tantalizingly close to what I wanted, but I had to order the blamed book from England before I could verify what I needed.  And then ended up using maybe one entire sentence in the book with the information. There’s a reason I’m not a scholar—I’m cheap as well as lazy! Not to mention possessing a memory like a sieve.

I know I’m not the only one corrupted by the internet. I suspect there are more time wasters than time savers out there in cyberspace. Anyone else been seriously afflicted by internetitis? Do we dare whisper e-mail as an affliction? Are you corresponding more or less than in the days of snail mail? How else has the internet changed your way of doing things?

IN MEMORIAM: Kate Duffy, a romance editor since the beginning of the Great Romance Era and a guest of ours in January has passed away. She helped shape romance as a genre, and we owe her memory much gratitude.

Mary Jo adds: "Kate Duffy was a legend in the romance industry, known for her humor, her directness, her concern for authors, and her passion for the romance genre.  I felt honored to be one of her authors.  I only wish it had been for much, much longer."

Late addendum: here's a fun site for finding authors you might like: 
http://www.literature-map.com  

Just another fun way to waste time on the internet!

Comments

[Linda Banche]

I think part of the problem with computers is that typing "feels" like real work. It might not be. You might just be spinning your wheels, but the "feel" sucks you in.

I have tons of bookmarked web links. And like you and the book across the room, I sometimes google something to find that I already have the link.

No one reads a novel simply for the factual information. We want a good story that is true to the period. As for trying to find those knotty little details, give it a good try. If you still can't find the information, then make something up. As someone (I can't remember who) said, "It's fiction."

P.S. You can try the local library. If a librarian can't find the information, no one can.

[theo]

My most sincere condolences to anyone (but especially you, MJ) who had the joy of knowing or being edited by Kate Duffy. Though I did not know her, she was an institution that few romance authors or wanna-be's hadn't heard tales of. She will be missed.

As to the internetitis, I have it in spades! Those rabbit trails I sometimes go on can last a day or two and take precious writing time because I find new things and new stories and it all becomes a jumble. And the more time I spend researching and getting lost on the internet, the less time I have to write the current WIP, so I make notes for new ones until I have more notes than WIP and it's all just such a vicious cycle....

*sigh*

[margaret]

I am heartbroken at hearing the news about Kate. She was so influential, so wise, and such great fun to be around. A huge loss to so many.

[Jenny Brown]

Without the internet and its predecessor--the online discussion groups of GEnie and Compuserve--I would never have become a novelist.

The internet introduced me to people I would never have met in so-called real life, people who took the time to point me towards resources that made me a better writer, people who gave me detailed critiques on my fledgling efforts, and people who taught me what I needed to know about the industry to succeed.

I started out doing historical research in the 1970s when research required not just the acquisition of books, but long drives to musty libraries where I would have to spend hours, usually in a dank basement, scrolling through illegible spools of microfilm.

Back then, it took months to find the resources I can find in a single afternoon now.

So yes, while the internet does suck up most of my time and energy, the gifts it has given in return are well worth it.

[Patricia Rice]

Jenny, you are undoubtedly right that the internet has made our lives immensely easier. (I, too, did the musty library trek back when.) But like Theo, I get sucked in by that ease and the need to know just one more thing...

Linda, I've learned to sort and bookmark my favorite sites, so I look there first. And then I try to stick to copying a relevant paragraph and posting it in my manuscript notes so I don't have to go back in again. But when in procrastination mode... Sigh, I'm hopeless.

[Sherrie Holmes]

Sherrie, here. My condolences to all who knew and loved Kate Duffy, and sympathies to her famly, both genetic and in the publishing world.

The Internet. Synonymous with love/hate. It saves valuable time by putting the most obscure information at your fingertips. And then it seduces you into wasting hours when you chance upon a totally unrelated discovery, a fascinating diary, a cool blog, a new game (JigZone, anyone? Befuddlr, anyone? GameDesign Kitty Cat, anyone?)

I'm into cooking, coming from a long line of good cooks and culinary experimenters. The Internet has been a godsend, helping me find old recipes or variations of a given recipe. Likewise, I'm forever needing to convert something, like dollars to pounds sterling or kilobytes to megabytes--and http://www.onlineconversion.com has been a lifesaver.

E-mail. Ugh. Another love/hate. As a freelance editor, e-mail is my lifeline. It brings me customers. I brings me work. It brings me enormous headaches. The Internet has also been very helpful for me as a do-it-yourselfer. There are lots of DIY sites out there, with instructions on how to build anything, from a birdhouse to a barn.

Pat, like you, I have a large home library (5,000+ books and counting). Most are research books, but many are the most offbeat little treasures, gained from decades of haunting library book sales.

[Maggie Robinson/Margaret Rowe]

I too don't believe I would be on the road to publication without the Internet. When I started writing, I knew absolutely nothing, but thanks to the generosity of the romance community, I picked up lots of useful advice. I now have contracts with both Berkley and Kensington. Kate Duffy was not my editor, but I had so wanted to meet her. May she rest in peace with unlimited great romance novels to read in heaven.

Most of my information gets delivered via Internet. I no longer watch morning or nightly news programs (in fact, watch hardly any televsion at all). While I have tons of research books, more often than not I Google something, making sure I've checked more than one resource. It's amazing when I find out I can't do such and such because I'm three years off in my timeline, or the word didn't come into use for another 40 years.

Of course, the Internet is evil, too. I belong to so many Yahoo groups I can't possibly read through all the e-mail. But i met my crit partners online and love them to death!

[Cara Elliott/Andrea Pickens]

I have to admit that I've succumbed to the same temptation of "googling" rather than thumbing through the stacks of reference books on my shelves. The screen is definitely seductive_and has great uses. Like popping up a map of Bath while I was planning where my hero and heroine would be renting quarters . . .like finding the name of a bridge in Vienna.

I do try to depnd on books and other source material for more in-depth research. But when a plot is sticking, it's oh-so easy to let your fingers go wandering through cyberspace.

[LadyDoc]

Yup! Another Googler here. Between DH and I we have a reading/reference library that has recently been pared down to about 2500 books. But, it is just so easy to google!!

As a teacher, I smile at my students and know that their brains would explode if they ever had to use a card catalogue and do it the old fashioned way.

[Mary Jo Putney]

I love my research books, but I also love the internet. For each book, I'll set up a folder for "Small research," which is usually print outs of useful info from different sites. It's great to be able to find a quick fact when you need it. But those rabbit trails through the underbrush are awfully seductive...

Mary Jo

[Patricia Rice]

It's lovely to see I'm not the only procrastinator...ummm, dedicated researcher in the bunch. "G"

I hadn't thought about kids and card catalogs! Wow, that leads to wondering if they've ever noticed a bibliography and wondering just how outdated I am!

[Linda Henderson]

The internet is great for research.

[Manda]

Pat, if you find something on Google Books that you can't access from them, you might try using WorldCat at http://www.worldcat.org/ to see what libraries in your area have the book.

And if that doesn't work you can get it via Interlibrary Loan. There might be a fee (at my local library it's $1. Or if it's just a chapter from the book you need, the library might fax or email a copy of the article to you.

If there is a research university nearby you could check into becoming a Friend of the Library. Again for a small fee you can have access to the library collection and that includes Interlibrary Loan.

All that said, I'm a librarian and even I am addicted to internet research. Sigh. I spent fifteen minutes this morning looking up a phone number online that I could have found in the phone book in two minutes. Sigh.

Mary Jo, so sorry about Kate. I know there are so many of her authors now who are mourning her loss. I pitched to her a couple of years ago and she was lovely. Even though she didn't buy my book her rejection was a "good" rejection and her comments were very helpful. Romance is not going to be the same without her.

[Patricia Rice]

Smacking hand to forehead! Manda, you're right, and this just proves how lazy I've become since internet. I used to nearly bankrupt our local library with ILL before I had the ability to track books down on my own. That's exactly what I should have done instead of ordering the blamed book from England!

[Anida Adler]

When we moved house on 7 August, we had to make do without internet for a month, and after that had connection problems which are only sorted now. It was only then I realised how incredibly dependent I've become on the internet, for research, socialising, relaxation (one of my favourite haunts is jayisgames.com) and reading. Scandalous.

[Anne]

That literature map thing is cool, but it may not be entirely accurate. When I clicked on Louisa May Alcott, it showed "Jane Eyre" as one of the "authors" I might also be interested in! :)