I have an idea for a series, but don't know much about the occupation my main character will be under...
and I'm wondering if anyone else has had this trouble and how they overcame it?
if I have posted in the wrong place, please let me know and how to move it, thank you.
What KIND of character? How old? M or F?
Male, might between the age of 30 and 45, someone who has seen a lot!
Night club bouncer, bartender, cop, security officer, ambulance driver or attendant, former service man, hotel desk clerk (night shift) if you want more I'll have to give it more thought but those are a few off the top of my head
Guess I'm also asking, if lush allows murder as it co-insides with my character.
I haven't seen or read, maybe that's due to the categories I am reading.
One way to handle it is to just avoid the issue. Everyone (including characters) have to have something they do. But unless what, very specifically, they're doing and the details of their specific occupation are central to the plot then there is really no need to go there in any detail.
In one story I have two women who work together in Chicago. They run an office in a larger company that provides training in house, and they work training clients who buy the company's proprietary processes/products. But I don't have to at all go into the details of their work day - there's just no reason to have to do that.
A character in another story is a young executive working at the Chicago branch of his London investment bank. But there is no need for me to document any part of his day or detail the sort of projects he works with. What he does is (when you get to the bottom line) just a plausible excuse/explanation to get this English character into Chicago to interact with other characters. I could as easily made him American, but I wanted just a more out of the ordinary character.
So, really give it some thought and decide how much you really need to know about a particular occupation/profession in the context of your story. Are those details absolutely central and crucial to the plot being able to work?
Doing location research is a lot easier. That story set in Chicago - I can remember years ago once changing planes at O'Hare. But other than that I've never been in Chicago. But the internet makes place research very easy. For the story/plot to work I had to be pretty specific about several location: Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain, Cloud Gate, The Loop, Schiller Woods, but maps, pictures, etc. were easy to find. And I've gotten feedback from readers who live in Chicago that the descriptions were good and an accurate rendering of those places.
It might be worth emailing a moderator and asking if stories with a murder involved is allowed or not, I did have quick check but there didn't seem to be anything on that subject.
I am currently in the early stages of my first novel (Non erotic) and have had the same problem as you when it comes to research, I needed to get some information on a characters occupation. So I was lucky enough to have a colleague that did the very same job, also the local library can be a very valuble resource when it comes to research.
Hope that is of some help to you.
thanks to everyone who has taken their time to reply. I have found your comments useful
GLENEM; I will do take your advise and email a moderator and see what they say!
thanks curlygirly. I will need to reconsider something else.
