ISO Interesting Hobbies

I collect ancient coins (Roman and Greek).


RC airplanes
Stamps
Models
Rock gardening
Skeet shooting
Stained glass work
Workworking (perhaps of some unusual objects)
Glass blowing
Swordmaking (or knife making)
Amateur archeology
Arrowheads
Rocks and minerals
Restoring 1960s cars
Old motorcycles
Target shooting
Horse riding
Sailing
Scuba diving
Collecting folk art
Art metal work
Antique cars
Old farm equipment
Collecting old tools
Etc., etc., etc.

Breeding roses is a side hobby of mine. Growing roses/gardening has tons of obscure info, if that's what you are going for. The conifer folks are a really tough crowd

That's just an idea. My other hobbies are physical, or less distinct, so that's all I've got

Aviation
Boating (power boating, not sailing)
Biking
Classic Cars and Trucks
Offroading (beating the snot out of the local terrain with an F-150)

Personally, I'd give your character something that's out there, like tap-dancing.

We could list a thousand hobbies. I guess the big question is how do you want it to relate to your character, and/or how unusual do you want it to be. Collecting sea shells down by the sea shore is pretty ordinary, raising poisonous spiders is not.

I remember some old movie where the chief spy guy grew weeds rather than flowers in his garden. Now that's a quirky hobby! ;-)

Keeping tarantulas.
Or centipedes, scorpions, mantids, millipedes, carnivorous plants, etc.

Bone collecting. I know people who keep a colony of dermastid beetles to clean off all the juicy bits.

Rock hound.

Fossil hunter.

My current MC is into remote control airplanes. He knows more about them than I do!

I have dabbled in plenty: fossils, vegetable gardening, short wave radio, coin collecting, internet radio.

CaroGirl said:

If the hobby were ironic it would be best, I think. Your idea of making swords or knives might work well if I have him later suffer a stabbing. I need to hurt him, so that might be good. Or if the hobby simply involved a home to some degree, that would be ironic too, I think.

Thanks for all the ideas so far!

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Perhaps he was involved in a church that did a lot of homeless missions or soup kitchens (not quite a hobby, I know). Or maybe he was into ornamental landscaping.

Does it have to be a hobby? Maybe his job was designing houses, or interior design, or even construction.

Homebrewing
Birdwatching
Cricket raising
Pickling
sculpting
watercoloring
bonsai
topiary
flower arranging

Taxidermy. And then later he's attacked by a bird.

Glassblowing or making beads/vases/figurines/etc. from glass. His family could have given him help or suggestions for projects, and you could thematically link his glasswork to strength, fragility, color, heat, flexibility, rigidity...prolly others too. Maybe his wife used to make jewelry and he'd make beads for her.

Just some thoughts, take or leave

Firethrowing!
accordion playing
polka dancing
model trains
building wooden toys or dollhouses
sssssssssssssskiing

CaroGirl said:

The character is a man who's been homeless for a number of years because of a workplace accident and alcoholism. He needs to tell interesting stories to my MC and I'd like it if it involved a really interesting hobby to illustrate that, despite being one of the nameless homeless, he once had an interesting life, a home, a family, a job. If the hobby were ironic it would be best, I think. Your idea of making swords or knives might work well if I have him later suffer a stabbing. I need to hurt him, so that might be good. Or if the hobby simply involved a home to some degree, that would be ironic too, I think.

Thanks for all the ideas so far!

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It should also be interesting to the reader if these stories are actually going to be in the book.

One idea that comes to mind: amateur theater. Perhaps he once played noble kings and rich princes, now he's homeless and has to beg for food. He once strutted across the stage entertaining hundred of people, now he's one of the forgotten and unnoticed. He could also use part of his stage dialogues (from plays in the public domain) to illustrate things about his life, or about life in general (I'm thinking he's now a bit of a "armchair philosopher"--people who are down-and-out often are.)

Or, he could have just been an avid book reader, who offers his takes on all the classics and best-sellers to the MC (for an example of how something like this can make an ordinary book special, see The Haunted Bookstore by Christopher Morley). Maybe he now spends time in the public library just to stay warm, but sometimes memories of his better days return. The redemption of this guy could be a sub-plot.

I think a hobby that required belongings is a good one, since he's now homeless. He could, perhaps, hold onto one tool or item from that hobby.

I really like the idea of growing roses. Gardening is common enough for it to not seem too coincidental, and roses are so beautiful and smell so lovely against the dirty, bad-smelling hell he's now living as a homeless man. He could stop to smell the roses (well, that might be a *bit* corny). Perhaps injury by rose would be difficult though...trips over a fence after leaning too close to smell the roses and breaks something?

... coin collecting, too. I look for ones that are scuffed up and bent. Got a whole box full.

CaroGirl said:

The character is a man who's been homeless for a number of years because of a workplace accident and alcoholism. He needs to tell interesting stories to my MC and I'd like it if it involved a really interesting hobby to illustrate that, despite being one of the nameless homeless, he once had an interesting life, a home, a family, a job.

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Historic home preservation. He could volunteer for a preservation society where they research newspapers, county records, etc. to learn the history of old buildings, their respective architects, and original owners. It's like geneaology with buildings. He would be able to tell stories of the original owners, their various occupations and how the building may have transitioned over decades. Think along the lines of the HGTV show "If Walls Could Talk".

SummerSpring said:

Historic home preservation.

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You could link this with his work-related accident and alcoholism: he got drunk and fell off a roof.

Ken said:

... coin collecting, too. I look for ones that are scuffed up and bent. Got a whole box full.

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You sound like that guy from Throw Mama From the Train. "I've got a nickel . . . and a dime . . . and another nickel . . . this one's a quarter . . . here's another dime . . . "

I collect coins too. My earliest one is a Greek bronze from about 250 BC with Hermes on the obverse (front).

An unusual hobby...my SO counts pennies. He prefers the old ones. He doesn't trade them in or put them in a book, but he counts them and keeps them in little vile things that he labels by year and stuff. He asks for pennies in his stocking at Christmas. He says it calms him and relaxes him and clears out his head.

Maybe he used to sail when times were better, and he also makes ships in bottles.

CaroGirl said:

The character is a man who's been homeless for a number of years because of a workplace accident and alcoholism. He needs to tell interesting stories to my MC and I'd like it if it involved a really interesting hobby to illustrate that, despite being one of the nameless homeless, he once had an interesting life, a home, a family, a job. If the hobby were ironic it would be best, I think. Your idea of making swords or knives might work well if I have him later suffer a stabbing. I need to hurt him, so that might be good. Or if the hobby simply involved a home to some degree, that would be ironic too, I think.

Thanks for all the ideas so far!

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I'm a sartorialist.

That means I own more suits, sports coats, dress shirts, ties, and dress shoes than any guy my age ever should. And I know a lot about them, too, from why you never button the bottom-most button of a suit coat, to the history of surgeon cuffs, to why hand-canvassing is better than fused construction, etc., etc. In fact, I'll probably never go back to off-the-rack clothing for anything but jeans now that I've experienced the joy of custom clothing.

If you want ironic, I can think of few things more ironic than a homeless man with nothing to wear but bespoke clothing.

Damn, I may have to use that sometime, too....

If he is homeless, wouldn't camping be ironic as a hobby?

alleycat said:

I collect coins too. My earliest one is a Greek bronze from about 250 BC with Hermes on the obverse (front).

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... if they're scratched and dented I'm interested!
Mine are mostly recent: quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies.
My interest in battered coins began when I was a kid, from flattening coins on train tracks. Still have one from back then.
ps Your BC coins do sound cool, their condition, notwithstanding.

Not to be a stick in the mud but...

If your character has to know a lot about this hobby shouldn't it be something you-the-writer knows a lot about? Just sayin'.

What if he were one of those that made the stuff up...depending on who he was talking to. Then you could have him meet his demise by not being able to do something he said he could do. Like fly a plane, sword fight, alligator wrestle, scuba dive...

To give him a hobby that would interest even the majority of your readers would be difficult. But if his hobby was making up stories about things he used to do then we have not only his story to amuse us but his risk of exposure and maybe he really believes some of his own stories and he tries to prove it. There would be a world of places you could take them then.