Career Choice as a Characterization Tool

Last fall, the delightfully smart and funny Danica Favorite made a comment on an author's loop and I pounced on it! I thought, this isn't an opinion... it's a blog post for Seekerville! So after I begged, cajoled and promised to always respect her love for chickens, she agreed to hang out with us today and talk about how authors can use a career choice to deepen their conflict/personality/setting. So without further adieux, I'm turning this over to Danica... with a fresh pot of coffee and a delightfully warm, cinnamony French Toast bake!

When you’re looking at a character and deciding what career to give him or her, you can’t arbitrarily assign a job to that character. Everything a character does is a reflection of who they are as a person and the total of the life events that shape them. Including career choice. An example: my father-in-law is one of the most brilliant men you’ll ever meet. I asked him one day why he didn’t become an engineer. He told me that he always wanted to be an engineer, but he didn’t think he was smart enough for college, so he became a mechanic instead. He has a good life, and enjoyed being a mechanic, but I’ve always wondered what amazing thing he would have invented had he had enough confidence to become an engineer.

Another example: A friend of mine is a manager at fast food place. Why does she work at a fast food place when she’s a smart, capable woman who could do a thousand other things?  In her case, it’s because the franchise owner is a family friend who lets her make schedules for herself that allow her to work only during school hours so she can be there for her kids. Not a lot of jobs let you do that. She is a wonderful, confident woman who values being there for her kids more than she values having an exciting career. She is willing to go to work at 3 a.m., mop the floors, scrub the toilets, and get everything ready for the day. She goes home to take her kids to school, drops them off, and returns to work, doing a job that most people make fun of. But she’s always got a smile on her face, and she’s happy to be there. Yet we all know the people who resent that they have to work at a fast food place, and when you walk up to the counter, you know it.

Think about how this impacts the kind of character you’re writing. What is the self-esteem of someone who is doing a job they hate but feel like they aren’t smart enough to follow their passion? How would that low self-esteem impact how the character interacts with others in the story? How would someone who thought he wasn’t smart enough for college interact with a genius? How would a fast food worker who was grateful for the perfect job to be there for her family interact with customers differently from someone who couldn’t get a better job?

When you dig deeper into a character’s career choices, you learn things that can help you understand more about your character. Sometimes we don’t go deep enough in asking the questions, and in doing so, we miss out on potentially important character clues that can add depth to a story. Think about the examples above and how having that information about a character could add new layers and potential to your story.

In my current release, For the Sake of the Children, my hero is willing to take whatever job he can get if it means supporting his daughter. Though his job isn’t a big part of the story, it tells a lot about the kind of man he is. Silas has a lot of reasons why taking the job he’s offered may not be the best idea, the biggest being it puts him in close proximity to the woman whose heart he broke years ago. But he does it because it is the best option for providing for his daughter.

In my other current release, The Scent of Romance, part of the Romance Grows in Arcadia Valley collection, my characters’ jobs are vital to the story. The heroine helps run her grandmother’s farm and is doing her best to keep it intact. Why? Because the farm represents safety and security to her, but more importantly, it is her passion. Contrast that with the hero, who is representing the company that wants to turn the farm into a golf course resort. Why is this job so important to him? Because he believes it is his chance to win his father’s approval.

For these characters, the jobs they have point to something deeper in who they are as people. I could have just made my hero a lawyer because that’s what I needed in my story, and a lot of writers are willing to settle for that. But when you go deeper and understand why he is a lawyer (he thought it would win his father’s approval), then you know more about him and can have him interact in more meaningful ways. Now the conflict isn’t just about doing a job, but about making his dad love him.  What do we as readers care more about? A man who wants another successful contract under his belt? Or a man who is still that little boy who wants his daddy to love him? 

Do you see how knowing a character’s reason for having a job, even if it isn’t a huge part of the story, can deepen the characterization? It’s tempting to make a character have a particular career because you’re filling out a form or giving them something to do, or you think it isn’t vital to the story. But you’re missing out on some great details that can make your story even better.

Your turn: What is your hero or heroine’s occupation? Do you know why he or she chose that job? Are there additional details about that job you can use to help your readers understand or relate to your character? 

If you’re not writing a book, I’d love to hear examples from books you’ve read or movies you’ve watched where a character’s job gave you more insight into the character.

And writer or reader, Danica has graciously offered a copy of "For the Sake of the Children" to one most fortunate commenter! Join in the conversation about careers, characters, choices and how they connect with you the writer... or the author!

About the author:

A self-professed crazy chicken lady, Danica Favorite loves the adventure of living a creative life. She and her family recently moved in to their dream home in the mountains above Denver, Colorado.  Danica loves to explore the depths of human nature and follow people on the journey to happily ever after. Though the journey is often bumpy, those bumps are what refine imperfect characters as they live the life God created them for. Oops, that just spoiled the ending of all of Danica’s stories. Then again, getting there is all the fun.

You can connect with Danica at the following places:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Danica-Favorite/e/B00KRP0IFU

Website: http://www.danicafavorite.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/danicafavorite
Instagram: https://instagram.com/danicafavorite/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanicaFavoriteAuthor  

About Danica’s Releases:

For the Sake of the Children:
The Nanny Agreement 
Widower Silas Jones needs a mother for his daughter, and marriage could help his former sweetheart repair her tattered reputation. Yet he can't blame Rose Stone when she refuses a marriage of convenience after he once broke her heart, marrying another woman to save his family's farm. He's blessed Rose agrees to be his nanny. If only she'd look at him again with the warmth she shows little Milly… 
Rose's tarnished past hasn't quelled her spirit. She's building a good life in Colorado with her infant son—and the glimmer of a future with Silas. But when his in-laws try to claim Milly, Rose must decide if the makeshift family she and Silas have forged can reopen her heart to love.

The Scent of Romance:

A high-powered lawyer must convince a woman determined to protect her family’s legacy to sell the family farm to his father’s development company, but finds his heart leading him away from everything he’s spent his life trying to accomplish.