Well, waddya know?

I've been told numerously to, "write what you know". There are numerous examples to enumerate that advice. Usually it boils to setting and plot. John Grisham is a former law student from the South. Nelson DeMille is a Long Island inhabitant, most of his work is set in that rich eclectic enclave. Marvel Comics is based in New York City, as are almost all of its heroes. But what about fantasy writers? What world do they inhabit? Tolkien was an expert in linguistics, which is heavily interwoven into the Lord of the Rings, and the settings of that fantasy can be found in the surroundings of Oxford.

Even personal stories, characters and moods seem to be drawn from real-life experiences. The Simpsons were supposedly a distorted reflection of Matt Groening's own family. And the film Moulin Rouge, begs the question, "how do you write a love story without knowing love?"

There are few writers that can jump into diverse story after diverse story. Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle pulled it off, even writing across genres. Micheal Crichton, while mostly on the theme of techno-thrillers, also wrote very diversified narratives. To wit: compare Terminal Man, Andromeda Strain and the TV show ER to his subsequent work: Sphere, Congo, Airframe and The State of Fear.

As an aspiring writer, I would love to be able to jump from book to book, character to character, without being pigeonholed into a series, or a single character (as Doyle was stuck with the popularity of his Holmes titles to the point of resurrection). However, this requires massive amounts of research and a solid, well rounded knowledge base. Ideally, this writer should be a sort-of jack of all trades. But, can the Internet supplant personal experience and instant access to research? If I don't know it, can I google it?