Character Skills and Occupations

Nothing can flatten a character faster than to give it only the skills it needs to get through the story. There are plumbers who play piano and scientists who hold seances. Football players knit, and actors paint. A character with talents other than those central to the plot is a more interesting character.

But there is a huge difference between Vocation and Avocation. The work a character does for a living (or for charity, for the church, for the heck of it): this is an occupation too. An occupation, after all, is simply what keeps your character occupied.

Think about all each character does; all it might do that isn’t central to the story. Then load it up with any reasonable number of skills and occupations that can shed light on its makeup and depth on its nature.

Excerpted from
Dramatica Story Development Software