John in ‘Holiday Stories’ is passionate about bikes. He’s got lots of them in different places and has enough money to indulge in what he wants. My difficulty is I know nothing of bikes.. Hence this research.. These days even the little around town bikes have 6 or more gears! I still recall my last bike having 3. Maybe I need to remove the bike element, did I mention I was talking of a bike with pedals not a motorcycle?
Does it matter? Maybe I don’t need to describe the bike too much but allow those who know to work out which bike it would be. Those readers who aren’t interested won’t want to know more than the basics surely. They’ll be more interested in where he’s going, what he’s doing and why. I can just describe the feelings he has and the bike’s properties. Runs fast on the road. Built for speed, that sort of thing though even the use of ‘runs’ is that ‘bike speak’?
Holiday Stories is the first novel I drafted. I won’t say wrote as it’s not finished.. Before long I realised I’d delved into a territory I knew nothing about and needed some research. Oops, I’m going to need shed loads of research for everything as my knowledge has rather narrow spans.
Bags, a novel by me.
After her mothers death Millie, a teacher from Cambridge, sets about clearing her parents attic of her mothers things, most of which are delicately wrapped bags gained over the decades of life. It soon becomes clear that there’s more information to find out about the family Millie thought she knew and some she doesn’t yet know, as she explores the memories collected at each family occasion and kept in the bags used by her mother. Which bags from family events are there that she didn’t know about and which aren’t there that should be?
My AtoZchallenge posts are about writing, parts of my novels or some research I need to do for them. I’m not allowing myself to write about anything other than topics linked to the books, my books. The current titles that I’m writing about are ‘Bags’, ‘Holiday stories’ and ‘Dream Gardener’.
lynnelives 
It’s spring and a perfect time to go for a bike ride! You do not have to know about bikes, just feel the wind in your hair and enjoy the ride!
Spring’s not really warmed up enough here but it’s sunny today. Must get a bike first..
It’s always a challenge to know how much to put into a story when a character is passionate about a topic the author knows little about.
If the novel’s going to get finished it will have to be a little.. I’ll go heavy on descriptive of how he feels..
I would say you might need to have a bit of extra knowledge depending on what happens in the story. Certain techniques may be used going uphill, cross country, locking it up, bike gear etc. Good luck!
Thanks Dee, uphill, yes, I’d forgotten about that.. tee hee, Peterborough’s flat, very flat. Thanks for the luck, I’ll need it!
I love bikes, of all sorts. Great theme for the Challenge, Lynne, and thanks for all those RTs of the challenge. Look forward to the rest of your challenge posts!
Damyanti@Amlokiblogs
Co-host, A to Z Challenge 2013
Twitter: @AprilA2Z
#atozchallenge
Huge thanks for popping by. xx
I don’t know much about bikes either, so I’d be one of those readers who would only care about where he’s going. 🙂
Sounds like you have a lot of great writing going on.
TaMara
Tales of a Pee Dee Mama
Thanks for commenting. I think I’ll need more readers like you!
Bike riding is fun. The old adage is correct. No matter how long you’ve stayed away from one, you always remember how to ride it.
hmm.. I’m proof that’s not correct.. got on one after not being on one for years and yes I could ride it but couldn’t stop when went over a bridge.. haven’t been on one since.. oops! good to see you here.
I’ve never been able to rise a bike so I’m no help! I love that bags scenario. It made the back of my neck tingle!
ooh tingle is good.. I’d better edit it then! Thanks for the support Ros. xx
Unless your plot relies on some very specific technical aspects of bikes or bike riding, I really wouldn’t worry about it too much. Perhaps a short cut to the level of research you need is to speak to a bike enthusiast/expert and describe your character to them, along with how they use their bike. Then just ask them to recommend the right bike for your character? Usually, if someone is passionate about a subject, they will be delighted to give you all the information you need, as well as some added colour tha you wouldn’t be able to get from other forms of research. Love your theme and ideas – keep up the great work.
Phew! Thanks Wayne, I know just the right person to help me with my bike chat.
You’ve noticed I need a little encouragement this year perhaps? Yup! Keep it coming!
Hey, Lynne! So happy to see that you’ve signed up for the A to Z challenge too.
I agree with others that *you* probably don’t need to know huge amounts about bikes to be able to write a character who does. Wayne’s advice is excellent–find someone who doesn’t want to shut up on the subject and the research takes care of itself! (Of course, Wayne phrased it more nicely.)
And when you get right down to it, haven’t we all read books where we wished the author hadn’t done quite so much research on certain things, or at least hadn’t felt compelled to share it all? 🙂
Thanks Kern.
Have I said how glad I am that you’re here (just saying so again!)?
Yes, I’ve noticed that Wayne dishes out excellent advice and I’m going to use it!
This one really was beginning to bother me but I’ll relax about it now and get on with my next ‘issue’ tee hee.. I’m writer, I have tons of issues!
We are blessed to have one of the premier biking and hiking trails of the East Coast of the USA nearby. The bicycle culture is so strong around here you will be hard pressed to go a day between May and October without seeing at least one bike carried on the back of a vehicle or on a full trailer being pulled by a van full of riders on a ferry to the top of the trail which is Whitetop Mountain Virginia.
Beware Joe.. As Wayne suggests, I’m now looking for someone in the know to talk ‘bikes’ to me!
All i really know about a bike is you better have good tires or you will be walking! 🙂
Your drawings remind me of James Thurber’s.
Now I need to go find out who that is but thanks, I hope!
Kristin many thanks! Just found him and want to be writer in residence.. little issue that I’m not a US citizen or have any published work.. hmm.. need to get a contract and find someone to marry me before 3 June. That’s doable right? Think I’ve just created my next novel storyline! would be more hilarious if I wrote that, sent it in and got it.. 4 weeks living in his house working on WIP! sounds like a dream to me.