So I've always done a little bit of research for every story that I've written, but this one is crushing my face. As you all may know, I'm writing about a guy in Lincoln buying a Triumph motorcycle and then riding it to Sturgis. I randomly searched eBay and found a 1973 Triumph Bonneville T120 for sale in a place called Elginburg, Ontario, Canada. I decided to have my character fly out there, get a mechanic to fix the minor things wrong with the bike, and then have my main character drive it the 1600 miles from Kingston (city near tiny Elginburg) to Sturgis. After all the research I did about Sturgis, I decided not to have him make it. Even from the beginning of the story, the whole idea seems like a long shot, and I thought it wouldn't feel right if Wyatt (main character) made it. Rest assured, it will still feel like a triumph even though he is going to break down.
The thing that is crushing my face right now is that I'm totally unfamiliar with EVERYTHING in my story. It is actually starting to piss me off because I'm writing one or two sentences, and then I have to look something up on the Internet. I know Michael said that this wasn't necessarily research, but I'm not going to call a random person in Kingston to ask about the city and airport, a random person in Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota, and middle-of-nowhere South Dakota to ask about their respective areas. Also, my not-research is producing some fairly authentic sounding material. It just sucks because at this rate, I will be done at 10am, but I won't have slept. I like sleepy. We are friends. I'm good at it. Sigh.
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I leanred today that apple seeds will kill certain birds. I learned that parrots eat dirt and gravel to counteract the effects of toxic alkalines in some seeds. I learned some other stuff, but I don't remember.
Where is Wyatt now? Is he triumphing?
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