Crafting Deep Fiction: How Emotional Wounds Can Steer a Character’s Job Choice

By Angela Ackerman, @AngelaAckerman

Part of The How They Do It Series 

JH: What a character does for a living is an opportunity to deepen that character and your story.  Angela Ackerman shares tips on how to use emotional wounds to steer a character's job choice.

Angela Ackerman is a writing coach, international speaker, and co-author of the bestselling book, The Emotion Thesaurus and its many sequels. Her books are available in eight languages, are sourced by US universities, recommended by agents and editors, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, and psychologists around the world. To date, this book collection has sold over half a million copies.

Angela is also the co-founder of the popular site Writers Helping Writers, as well as One Stop for Writers, a portal to game-changing tools and resources that enable writers to craft powerful fiction.

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Take it away Angela...

5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Character’s Career

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A character’s job is a useful tool when developing a novel.

I’ve been working hard on a new book this week, and since it’s a bit outside my normal genre (this one’s a science fiction detective novel), I’ve had to do a few things differently. There are elements to this genre I haven’t had to worry about in previous books.

Most notably, has been how my protagonist’s job affects the rest of the plot. As a private investigator, his job is the plot, and that career choice affects pretty much everything else in the novel.

In one way, this makes developing this novel easier. I have very clear parameters to work in, and a specific character type to flesh out.

In another way, it adds a layer of difficulty. The most obvious and easiest path is also the most overused or even cliched. I don’t want that, even if I might want to play with the tropes and cliches a little (I can never resist this—it’s too much fun).