 Fantasy: August 15, 2018 Issue [#9056] |
  Fantasy
This week: Character Career Day Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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Fantasy Newsletter by Dawn
A look at the world of our fantasy stories and what our characters might do for a living. Question of jobs, careers and why the options are needed.
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Fantasy has so many options and such a broad story to tell that one can spend a lifetime preparing a world instead of writing a story. Each character has a multitude of information possible to develop. Today we're going to look at one part of a character's life that is important yet might be easy to forget when writing a fantasy story: what do they do for a living?
Jobs are both common and questionable at time when it comes to the world of fantasy because there are some resemblances to the real world but also many things that make it different than our regular day to day lives. Even though the stories are set in different worlds or times than our own, what people do for a living will still be a factor and something we should forget. After all, where would fantasy stories be without innkeepers, tavern owners, blacksmiths or the guard?
One common used thing in fantasy or any genre is to take the main character away from their original plan or goals. The beginning takes them from their roots and forces action along with a new set path. This could also influence what they might do for a living. If they planned to live in the same community all their lives then get uprooted, their career path is likely to change as well. Question is, how does it affect the character? Do they long for what could have been if they had stayed? Are they set free, no longer confined to limited fields or ways to make a living from their previous upbringing? Is the craft/skills something they still use along the way?
Example: Early on in the Wheel of times, one of the characters longs of old back home where he'd been set to eventually become a blacksmith. He didn't have a main job yet but was learning and had a fair amount of skill already. Taken away from the small home to travel across the lands of his world, his destiny changed and part of him still wished to have stayed in the quiet, small town doing what he enjoyed.
That is one factor but a character's job doesn't have to change. Take something like the Dresden Files, where we get the combination of fantasy elements along with the main character's career. One can be a detective or train to be a knight as their main job and still have a story fit for the fantasy reader's enjoyment.
What route you take depends on your world and your character. It is one part that yes, lends well to those that do some plotting ahead of time. If you're more of a write first and plot later, still might be good to know or pin down a job at some point. You can switch things around during the first draft just don't forget to change things during edits so we don't have one start as a plumber and end as a fighter pilot without any reasoning for the transition (plus some training cause seriously, they don't just all magically become amazing at any job because that's too easy). Figure out what your character might do for a living even if it's short term. Maybe it's a retail like job, maybe they farm and share some of their crop to pay for their home. There are many options out there.
Find a job for the character and get to work... and or course, by work I mean Write!  |
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Does your character have a job/career or is there one they want to have?
Last month I wrote about creating an end to a story that was more on the concise side instead of meandering to a finish. No comments were went in over the topic. This month being about careers, let us know what you think in the use of jobs or having to take the character away from their previously planned path for fantasy or sci-fi stories.
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