TOOLS OF THE TRADE...

Having been prompted -by my voices-to write a time travel romance, I've found that it's not as easy as it sounds. While I could make all the characters, ships and places fictional, that would be too easy! So, I've had to figure out  how she travels. To which year she travels.  Who is involved? And, how, or if, she returns to her own time.  I assure you, this is as difficult as it sounds. Especially since  I want things to be intertwined and feasible. Okay, as feasible as traveling through time can be. I begin my research buy turning on the computer, pulling up the search engine and hitting enter. Some questions evoke an immediate answer, others take a fair amount of rewording. As with most things an innocent search can produce some rather unsavory results. Note to self, always remember to turn on the safe search mode when doing research. Some things cannot be unseen. Also abundantly clear is, it does not take long to get diverted when a search for something leads you off track.

This morning, as I sat here mindlessly going from page to page, pouring over each tidbit of information, hoping to gleam something of interest  to include within the pages of my manuscript,  I wondered about my predecessors. Authors, from times long before the invent of the Internet. Writers who, unless blessed with a wealth of information at their fingertips, had to dredge through the library, wondering aimlessly amid stacks of books, hoping to find the information which they were seeking. I wondered what they would think of being able to sit in the comfort of their home and have information readily available at the click of a mouse. It was at that moment that my task no-longer felt as if it were taking me away from my work in progress. No, that realization made me abundantly aware of the gift that I've been given.  The gift of writing, in a time when technology is readily available for all to use.  Just as we now look back and ask how on earth did you write a complete manuscript using a typewriter and whiteout, I am sure future authors will ask the same about the tools of the trade which is currently available to all of us. Really, if you think about it,  the answer is simple. If you've never had it you don't miss it.

Oh well, back to the internet!