Read, Writing, and Research

For weeks my Extreme Writing Makeover lessons have been about research.  This week the assignment wants research on something I know nothing about. 

An earlier assignment had me create an electronic booklist. The purpose, read widely, and keep track.   I explored a simple PC application called Evernotes.  I didn't like it, so I went back to something I knew, I created an Excel spreadheet.  Another assignment encouraged us to take electronic notes while browsing the Internet, or simply to collect inspirations as we write. Last week, as I looked through my Windows Explorer Documents folder, I found OneNotes.  A month ago I tried an Internet browser called Opera.  It's Norwegian, so I liked it right away.  In the narrow left side panel of the browser I found a Notes icon, similar to one of the features in OneNotes.  Facebook has Notes.

Zero in on OneNotes.  The first time in you find a Personal Notebook, a Work Notebook, and another devoted to Getting Started with OneNotes.  Each Notebook has tabs across the top.  Your Personal Notebook has tabs for private information nobody else should see, and others for recipes, books, movies, travel, and so on. Guess what? The notebook and each of the tabs is a Microsoft Template.  Click a link to Microsoft online for more templates.  I was overwhelmed by all the people who create templates. I did what I always do, I took the template and adapted it to things I want to track.

Research something I don't know about?  I'm familiar with most of the features in OneNotes.  Many are common to each Microsoft Office product. I simply haven't used them.

I did come to the same dead end both with Opera and OneNotes.  If you want to synchronize notes files between two or more PC's you must send a link by email.  Try it.  You need to be your own IT administrator to finish.  Both want to know the Pop address and the SMTD address from your Internet Service provider for sending and receiving email.  Now try to find those addresses for gmail or Yahoo mail.  Things have changed since the last time I had to know how to do this.  My first try to set up gmail to work with OneNotes froze the PC, and I had to reboot.  Having spent a whole evening with my family IT expert (I'm supposed to be that at home) trying to restore the settings in the Dlink Router that serves the Internet to all PC's in our house, setting Pop and SMTD addresses gets into a level of IT expertise I don't enjoy.

Simply put, Microsoft and Opera both work with the Cloud. You should not have to send a link via email.  You should not have to know about advanced settings. You should store the files out there on the cloud.

Let's try the cloud here. I could have done the same with a link from OneNotes had I prepared the review there.  Following is a book review I posted on Goodreads this afternoon.  In a sidebar to my review, HTML code was provided. I insert it here.

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 by Mark Twain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read only the free ebook sample from the Amazon Kindle Store.
I may purchase the printed hardcover edition.
More importantly, I registered online to http://marktwainproject.org. 
As you will find on the home screen, they have the latest electronic edition of the entire first volume of the autobiography, complete with annotations, commentaries, and appendices.  It's free.

The sample I read prepared me for the online features.  Besides the text of the autobiography, you get highlighted links to every supporting document. Every Mark Twain electronic book prepared by the Project is available.

Read the Introduction.   You will learn that Twain worked on autobiographical materials for nearly forty years.  What appear to be many starts and stops, became a valuable resource, thousands of pages. Every work of fiction is autobiographical, as are the travelogues, such as Innocents Abroad.  Each autobiographical topic has an original annotated version that was published in magazines or newspapers.  Each book he published allowed for extension of the copyright by adding fresh material to newly released editions from expanded versions of the original autobiographies.

If you hold a bias against historical fiction as a reliable interpretive resource, put your bias aside.  The background supporting material is here.  For example, I have an Edison Amberola (cylinder record player), a 1908 model.  Mark Twain wanted to use a much earlier version of an Edison recording device, but Edison told him to wait his turn to get one.  Eventually, Twain used one for dictation, but gave up after a few days, having already recorded over four dozen cylinder.  Each cylinder holds only about 3-5 minutes.

My real interest is in writing my own memoirs.  Like Twain, I have all kinds of autobiographical material published already in five blogs.  I have more than twenty years of handwritten journals. Should I emulate Twain or Benjamin Franklin for storytelling? Either might be a smart move and good practice. Twain hated Franklin's style.  I wouldn't try to emulate Twain's Eastern Tennessee dialogue.



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