by Shirley Hailstock
When many of us began writing, we used what we knew. It's an axiom of writing. So, for occupations of our characters we gave them the job we were doing, whether that be a nurse, doctor, lawyer, airline pilot, etc. In my first book, the hero was a pilot.
My heroine worked for the FBI.
I have never flown a plane or worked for any governmental agency (I have sat in a helicopter and walked through the DMV). At the time I wrote my first book, I was working in the sales department for a pharmaceutical company. That sounds boring. It wasn't. I loved that job. Eventually, I wrote a book where the heroine worked for a pharmaceutical company. She was the director of an Information Technology (IT) department whose department was being eliminateddue to a merger. Guess what? I was that person, downsized as the result of a merger. So I wrote what I knew.
After several books, I branched out and began giving my characters professions that I needed for the plot of the story. As many writers have, I've used doctors and lawyers and engineers as character occupations.
Then I used occupations I was interested in: documentary filmmaker, billionaires, castle owners, home repair people and construction owners.
There are still characters to come with occupationsthat I have some knowledge of, but haven't used: photographers, television producers (used this one), business owners and more. They don't sound very sexy, but the story behind them will have you on the edge of your seat. Wouldn't you like to live vicariously at Biltmore?
Some of the settings and occupations I have worked in temporarily (home repair), studied (photography, floral design, automobile repair), or researched (engineering and I'm always asking questions at the doctor's office). I love learning about what other people do for a living. It sounds exciting to me and often an idea will come that allows me to use that profession. Researching someone else's job is always a plus for an author.
When many of us began writing, we used what we knew. It's an axiom of writing. So, for occupations of our characters we gave them the job we were doing, whether that be a nurse, doctor, lawyer, airline pilot, etc. In my first book, the hero was a pilot.
My heroine worked for the FBI.
I have never flown a plane or worked for any governmental agency (I have sat in a helicopter and walked through the DMV). At the time I wrote my first book, I was working in the sales department for a pharmaceutical company. That sounds boring. It wasn't. I loved that job. Eventually, I wrote a book where the heroine worked for a pharmaceutical company. She was the director of an Information Technology (IT) department whose department was being eliminated
After several books, I branched out and began giving my characters professions that I needed for the plot of the story. As many writers have, I've used doctors and lawyers and engineers as character occupations.
Then I used occupations I was interested in: documentary filmmaker, billionaires, castle owners, home repair people and construction owners.
There are still characters to come with occupations
What do you do that you think would make a good occupation for a character?
I love researching professions, too, but am always afraid I won't do justice to them when I write them. So far no one has told me if I have, but I still worry about it. I enjoyed your post.
ReplyDeleteFinding out what people do is always interesting. I'm blessed with family and friends in law enforcement, medical, law, business, manual labor and graphic design. I've found that most people are always happy to answer questions about their jobs, maybe even a little flattered that someone is interested in them. One of them who was an early reader of a yet u published book told them I made their work seem more interesting than it does to them!
ReplyDeleteI find people love to talk about their jobs.
DeleteOne of the best things about writing is getting to make up whole lives, occupations and places where our characters live. And research is so much easier now with the internet and Google search. But I’m going to have to follow your suit, Shirley, and ‘go outside the box’ with occupations.
ReplyDeleteI find those continuing educational classes wonderful for finding new professions. I've taken flora design, auto mechanics, cake decorating, sculpting, etc. If you don't use the profession, you still has much of the language to use for describing things.
DeleteOoo, I have a manuscript I'd like to resurrect someday where the heroine works for a pharmaceutical company. Now I know who can answer my questions. I'm writing a goat farmer right now. I grew up on a farm, but we didn't have livestock so I had a lot to research. A character in an upcoming book has a business based on fishing flies.
ReplyDeleteBeth, be my guess. I'd love to talk about pharmaceuticals. I worked for Bristol Myers Squibb for 26 years. One of the great anecdotes is how they chose the drug names.
DeleteMy cousin is heading off to college this fall and has already decided she wants to be a history teacher. She's absolutely brilliant and will make a wonderful teacher (she'll make a wonderful anything). I hope she takes the time to explore all the possibilities that are out there. Now what profession should I write about next...hmmm...
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about a docent for a historical house as a heroine and maybe a potter.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who is a docent at the African American Museum in Washington, DC.
ReplyDeleteI want to design a city, know where all the air conditioning units go, where the exhaust has to come out to keep the place safe. All the details. If I went back to school, it would be in architecture.
ReplyDeleteHi--I love thinking up jobs for my people--or better yet, passions. If they have jobs they don't like, that's okay. They'll find a new direction by book's end. I recall Susan Wiggs saying that part of story building for her was giving the heroine a cool job. You've created a lot of characters with cool jobs!
ReplyDelete