Get Your Characters a Job
I was reading a story recently about a character who had a job doing a certain thing. Beyond that, I had nothing. There was no tie-in with his life, the plot, any of the other characters. It got me to thinking.
We all have jobs. So do characters. It can be president of a company, a utility worker, a stay-at-home dad, but we all have something we do to pass the day. Most jobs (except for the stay-at-home dad, which never ends) are usually at least eight hours of our life, not counting commute time (if the person is still commuting post-COVID – and even that work-at-home guy has some challenges).
Some writers, like the one who wrote the story I referenced above, don’t really think it matters what a character does for a living. For that writer, it is all about the plot. Because the job is a third of our life and at least half of our waking life, I disagree. How my day job goes affects everything else about the rest of my day and my life and relationships directly. The same is true for characters. Work – the pleasures and stresses – impact our relationships. They reveal to the reader our socioeconomic levels. They limit our lifestyles and how we enjoy what spare time we have away from the job. They reflect our educational levels. Jobs and careers let us know the person without us having to give long expository descriptions and explanations. A waiter who works at a restaurant where tips are not a usual (I’ve worked here) implies a certain lifestyle different from a studio executive (I’ve worked here, too). Believe me, there is a difference and no one has to write one sentence of expository description to explain it. The details are in the job themselves.
It also helps to know how a character feels about that job. Does she love what she does? Does she hate it? And why? This adds tremendously to the plot. You get this by being specific about the job. No job is general. The more specific, the more real it seems. Showing someone at work gives us insight into who they are and how they view the world…through their work. And it gives us other characters through which to reveal our main characters.
Some other things that give us interesting insights: job-hopping (why and what is this character looking for or how does this describe their inner motives) and a job that goes against type (what does it say about a brick mason who quotes Shakespeare at home, as my father did?). All of these choices add depth.
Your character’s occupations or jobs should have direct bearing on their role in the story. In fact, the story should partly, at least, come out of their work. Work ties our lives together. The same for the characters.
So, let’s look at your work in progress right now. Look at aspects of their careers or jobs and how they are reacting to those professions. Look at main characters and minor characters both. Are their careers an integral and useful part of the plot? If not, it’s an easy fix. Lean back in your chair and think how a different profession might bring more to the story you are writing and maybe even greater conflict between the characters.
There are riches to be made in fictional professions…even the most low-paying and uneventful.
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