Thursday, September 5, 2013

the trouble with careers

I don't mean my career.  I mean giving characters careers.  How many jobs does a person have in their lifetime?  A few, for sure.  Service industry ones are common, maybe being a lifeguard, or an intern somewhere, and then you sort of settle in to your field, where maybe you have a few different jobs.  So, I'm counting.  I've had...nine different fields.  Is that a lot?  A little?  A good portion of them were jobs I did in my youth, not the sort of jobs I'd necessarily give to characters. 

There are the standbys, of course. Doctor, lawyer, engineer, teacher, police officer/detective...um, what am I missing?

Those jobs are somewhat easy.  I have never done those jobs, but I know what they entail.  (Except for the engineer.  Dude, what do they do all day?)

Jobs for my characters confound me.  I want my characters to have interesting, fulfilling positions that afford them security and opportunity to meet the loves of their lives! 

I feel like this shouldn't be that hard, that I should be able to look up a job and imbue a character with it, but yet, I struggle.

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