Wednesday, April 15, 2015

O is for Occupations

Paula asks: How important are your characters’ occupations in your stories?
 
With some of my novels, I didn’t really have a choice because the storyline decided it for me. In ‘His Leading Lady’, for example, the hero had to be a theatre director/producer and the heroine an actress. In ‘Dream of Paris’, I needed both to be teachers.
 
In other cases, however, I’ve had to make decisions. When I first wrote ‘Changing the Future’ (many years ago and never published), both the hero and heroine were teachers, and the story was very different to what it eventually became. Once I dug it out of my box of old stories, I decided to move the heroine into a college, and to give her a background of television journalism instead of languages. In the original story, the hero had been a geography teacher, but I wanted to ‘upgrade’ him to a geologist. What kind of geologist? Well, that Icelandic volcano with the unpronounceable name was disrupting air transport at the time, and made me decide to reinvent him as a volcanologist – and I must admit my research for this story taught me more about volcanoes than I’d ever known before. His occupation also led to the fairly dramatic scenes in the latter part of the story. 
 
When I first conceived the idea of 'Her Only Option', set in Egypt, I had more decisions to make. Originally I thought about two passengers on a cruise ship, but that wouldn’t work because after the week’s cruise, they would both go home and the story would no longer take place in Egypt. From there it was a fairly easy progression to a cruise ship tour guide and an archaeologist, and it was the occupations of these two that was to provide an integral and conflicting part of the story.
 
When I first started writing ‘Irish Inheritance’, I knew my heroine was an actress and my hero was an artist. What I didn’t realise immediately was that the Victorian love story they would gradually discover would also involve an actress and an artist. This may sound weird, but as the lovers in the past gradually revealed themselves, I actually had a heart-stopping moment when I realised they were also an actress and an artist!
 
With ‘Irish Intrigue’, I had an actress again (yes, I know, I have a thing about actresses, but she had already appeared in 'Irish Inheritance' as a would-be actress!), but I had to decide what occupation my hero was going to have. I went through various possibilities in my mind. Hotel owner or manager? Farmer? Pub landlord? In the end, I decided (or maybe he decided?) he was a veterinary surgeon - and again that involved a lot of research, including the whole of one Sunday afternoon spent watching YouTube videos of foals being born.
 
In my current WIP, I wanted the hero to be the taxi driver who had featured in ‘Irish Intrigue’ but I needed him to have another job. I invented a whole scenario where he had been a university lecturer, but then decided that wouldn’t work, and now he’s an undercover police detective. As for the heroine, at the moment she is an American forensic scientist who has ditched her job to go to Ireland – but that’s not yet set in stone and could still change!
 
So – how important are your characters’ occupations to the development of your story? Are their occupations an integral part of the story, lending extra dimensions to the plot?

Or would your plot be more or less the same even if you changed their occupations? An interesting exercise might be to think of one of your stories, and think of how much it might (or might not) change if you changed the hero’s and heroine’s occupations!

16 comments:

  1. Hmm, in my current WIP, my heroine is a teacher and my hero is a war photographer. Her profession is essential, because she needs to be off of work in the summer so she can renovate her house. He had a few options for his career, but I think what I chose works best for him. In my other WIP, he is a lawyer and she is in public relations. Again, both jobs are important, as he needs a high powered something which is the opposite of what she wants in a boyfriend. I guess in this instance, hers is less important.

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    1. Interesting choices, Jen. A teacher here wouldn't be able to renovate a house during the summer unless she was a very fast worker, as our teachers only get a 5 or 6 week break in the summer!

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  2. Currently my hero is a paediatric cardiologist (I like to think big!) This was necessary for the story. The heroines occupation was less Important so long as it gave her the offer of a job broad. She turned out to work in PR/marketing for an international cosmetics company, or do she told me. Carol

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    1. Carol, I must admit I like occupations that are necessary for the story. And I like the fact that your heroine told you what her job was! :-)

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  3. In my WIP, the setting and genre dictate the heroine be a rancher.
    The hero is a land speculator looking to turn a profit on buying and selling ranches.
    In my next WIP, the heroine is a CPA specializing in schools and the hero a private school teacher. Gotta get them to meet.
    Also interesting to think about is taking stories and switching genres. I've long asserted Star Wars was a western good guys vs the bad guys set in space.

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    1. In your current WIP, both occupations are crucial to the plot, aren't they?
      And I have no idea what a CPA is! Which has reminded me I once read a story set in an American school, and half the time had no idea what the author was referring to with all the initials she used!
      Like your idea of Star Wars being a Western LOL. I'm not sure I could change the genres of any of mine!

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    2. CPA is a certified public accountant. Ours does our biweekly payroll and quarterly reports and does our taxes (e-filed today). CPA's also do audits for corporations. A licensed bookkeeper.

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  4. In my books, the 'importance' of my characters' occupations vary. In some stories, their job is essential to the storyline. For example, Jake's career as a bullrider is a HUGE part of the conflict in "This Feels Like Home". However, in I've also had 'throwaway' jobs for my characters, too. In "A Christmas to Remember", my heroine works in an office...it has no importance in the story, so her job didn't really matter.

    I'd have to say, though, more often than not, even if the job doesn't fully impact the storyline, it does shape my characters' personalities, outlooks, habits, POV, etc.

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    1. Debra, that's a VERY good point about the job shaping your characters' personalities etc. Must admit I hadn't thought about that!

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  5. I guess I cheat and make most of my heroes businessmen these days, although I have had a round the world yachtsman, a stud farmer, and a scientist, among others.Generally though because I'm concentrating on the romance my heroes jobs are of secondary importance. I like your idea, though, Paula, of changing characters jobs to see if would alter the story. I might even think about it for my current wip.

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    1. You've had some interesting occupations there, Margaret!
      In most of my novels, the occupations of one or both of the main characters has played an important part in the story, so now I'm wondering if your stories are more character led, whereas mine are more plot-driven - even though I don't really plot in advance. Sometimes the jobs of my characters lead me into developments of the story that I didn't expect! .

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    2. Yes, Paula, my stories are definitely character led. Whatever the jobs they are of lesser importance. An interesting topic, though.

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  6. An occupation, like an upbringing, would definitely impact the words a character thought and talked in. Great point!

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  7. Paula alerted me to the fact that my comment hadn't posted. I had said that I believe that a person's occupation is significant.Although a person should not defined by their job, there are certain characteristics that are a 'given': a pilot is going to be a confident person, as is a surgeon or a lawyer. An RN isn't going to be shy; someone who works in animal rescue is going to be compassionate.
    And then again, someone who has just a 'job' and not a career, has a story. Did they never aspire to anything else? Did they lack ability or confidence? Was there some turning point that put them in their position, or do they enjoy the freedom of putting in their hours and going home with a paycheck and little thought to their work? There are almost as many reasons as there are people, and it is part of who they are.

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    1. Hurray, your comment arrived this time, Tonette - thanks for trying again. Characteristics defined by a job - that's a fascinating subject to think about - but of course, there can always be exceptions. Several of my heroines have been actresses. You would think that anyone who goes out on a stage to perform would have to be a confident person - but I remember a girl in my class at school who went on to become a professional actress. She was a very shy 'mousey' type of person off-stage, but put her in costume on a stage and wow, she became a different person!

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    2. I know that some very big stars are quite shy when it comes to their personal lives; they use their roles as masks to hide behind.One actress wore a very sheer dress in a popular movie and said that she would never wear a dress like that...but she did.Several actors who 'bared it all' on the screen could not bring themselves to do certain scenes because it was too much like their real lives...and several who did the 'hoizontal lambada', could not bear to dance fully dress in public.

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