By Becca Puglisi
Successful stories are often ones whose elements are employed subtly. You may not be able to say exactly why they work, and as a reader, you probably don’t care; you just like the feeling of rightness that settles in as you read.
Theme is one of those important elements that are quietly working in the background of a strong story. This central idea, pulled deliberately or subconsciously from the author’s individual worldview, acts as an anchoring thread that connects the other elements and creates a sense of cohesion. But writing theme into a story can be tricky. If you’re too obvious, you risk whacking people over the head with it, and your story becomes preachy. If you’re too subtle, readers may not pick up on the message at all.
So how do we incorporate theme into our story with just the right amount of touch? One surprisingly effective way is to use the character’s job.
The movie Up in the Air expertly explores the theme of isolation, and it’s done largely through protagonist Ryan’s occupation as a Career Transition Counselor: corporations hire him to fire their employees for them. He travels 270 days a year, which leaves him very little time to connect with others, and he loves it. He loves it so much that when a young upstart introduces new video technology that would allow Ryan to fire people virtually from the comfort of his own home office, he sets about to dismantle her idea before it dismantles his entire way of life.
Ryan’s job highlights the theme of isolation on a number of levels.
First, the job itself: he fires people for a living. He is essentially the agent of isolation, forcibly removing people from the jobs that have provided them with satisfaction, purpose, and their work community. These people quickly unravel and lose their moorings, as we see in so many of the exit interviews he conducts.
Secondly, his career underscores Ryan’s own isolation. Because he’s never home, his apartment is sterile and completely without personality; the hotel rooms he stays in while working are more welcoming. And the get-in-get-out nature of the job ensures that he doesn’t have time to make meaningful connections on the road, either.
Ryan states in the opening monologue that he likes his carefree lifestyle and thinks it’s working for him. But the additional touchpoints via his job keep quietly reminding viewers of his isolated existence. And in the end, when he realizes that that he’s no longer satisfied with his choices, those same touchpoints beautifully contrast his former viewpoint—once again highlighting the theme.
So how can we use a character’s job to explore the important ideas in our own stories?
Identify Your Theme
Authors can arrive at their theme a number of ways. Sometimes, they know from the very beginning which idea is going to play a part in their story. Others begin blindly, with no theme in mind, only to see it emerging subconsciously as they draft. Either method works; once you’ve identified your theme, you either build it in when planning or backtrack once the first draft is finished to incorporate it more firmly into the story.
Choose a Job for Your Character That Relates to That Theme
Then it becomes a simple matter of choosing a career that allows you to shine a light on your central idea. For instance, if obstacles is a theme in your story, your protagonist could be a truck driver or outdoor guide who encounters physical roadblocks in their day-to-day life. Or they might be a therapist whose patients are constantly dealing with emotional or mental barricades. Careers like these will offer many opportunities for that theme to be revisited in ways that make sense for the story itself.
It should also be noted that it doesn’t have to be the main character’s career that highlights the story’s theme. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas deals largely with the idea of innocence, but Bruno, the nine-year-old protagonist, is too young to hold a job. His father, however, is not. His occupation as the commandant of Auschwitz provides many chances to highlight the concept of innocence—as it relates to the boy himself but also to the inhabitants of the concentration camp in Bruno’s backyard.
Experiment with Contrast
Because theme should be subtle, some careers may be too obvious. A nun highlighting the theme of purity or a slave in a story about enslavement may be too “on the nose.” These very well may work, but if you’d rather go with something more covert, consider a purposeful contrast. The CEO of a Fortune 500 company can be free in the most literal sense while being enslaved to obligations, public perception, or the fear of losing his money. Purity could just as poignantly be explored through its lack in the life of a prostitute, assassin, or con artist. Contrast can be very effective, and there are so many jobs that could work; to brainstorm possibilities for your story, check out our latest book, The Occupation Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Jobs, Vocations, and Careers.
A Caveat
This method of tying the theme to an occupation can work most of the time—but not if your project calls for a specific career. If you’ve written a story about a treasure hunter, for example, then you already know your character’s occupation and you’ll need to find other ways to flesh out the theme. But most of the time, as in real life, your character has career options. Finding one that ties in to your theme is a great way to pull multiple elements together and give readers the sense of Aaahhhh that comes from a cohesive and satisfying story.
Dear Scriveners: Do you use your own jobs/career in your fiction? Do themes in your books rise through deliberate choice or do they emerge from your subconscious? Do you prefer writing about jobs/careers you’re familiar with or ones that require research or imagination
Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other resources for writers. Her books have sold over 500,000 copies and are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.
Becca—Thank you for a top-notch post! You’ve illuminated an aspect of creating well-rounded characters not often discussed but crucial for fully developing the theme (spoken or unspoken) of a novel.
Thanks, Ruth. I agree; theme is hard to nail down, and we hadn’t considered until researching for this book how a character’s job could play into that. Anything that makes the job easier, right? 😉
I’m so pleased to see theme addressed here. Brava. It’s so often left to the literary critics to discuss, but it’s something we writers need to be highly engaged in. As to the “how do you come up with your themes” question, I typically get started with a character whose voice “speaks” to me. By chapter 4 or so of the first draft, I know him/her well enough to stop & ponder such elements as theme.
Thanks again.
I’m always jealous of the people who start with theme, since I tend to let it emerge on its own, which means I have to go back after the fact and add it in. I like your process of keeping an eye out for it so you can identify it when it announces itself. I’m going to try that. Should save me some time :).
Now that I think back on my four books, I can see the character’s career tying in with the theme. Totally unplanned of course! But now I know how to better work it in.
Awesome! I’m glad to know I’m not way off base, lol.
Thank you for this insightful article, Becca.
To answer the question have I used my career in my fiction…
Once upon a time, I was a knitwear designer. In the first manuscript I wrote that attracted a publishing house the protagonist was a knitwear designer.
Even farther back than that, I was a Early Childhood Educator working in day care centres. That career has inspired short stories and countless picture books.
I’ve found theme to be at times tricky but useful element to add to a manuscript.
Write what you know, eh? If you can incorporate a job you’ve experienced into a story, and it makes sense for the character, you definitely can be sure you’re writing it accurately.
Your post made me think, Becca. My WIP is a series, and I’m into book 6 now. I never gave any thought to the series theme or the theme of each particular book. But looking at it/them objectively, I guess there is a theme going on here. Thanks for the insight. BTW, I’m a real fan of the work you and Angela do. Much appreciated!
Just butting my head in to say thank you for the kind words, Garry, and to thank Anne and Ruth for letting Becca post today. 🙂
It’s funny how theme tends to assert itself naturally. I guess we all have something to say, and that comes through in our writing (if we get out of the way and let it).
Congratulations on your new book baby, Becca (and Angela)! Love this series. One of my series’ protagonists is a crime writer. Other than that, I’ve never used any of my past employment for a character. No idea why. In fact, I was just thinking about that the other day. Weird. *checks for hidden cameras* 😉
Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes the story calls for a specific career and you don’t really have a choice. Makes it easy :).
Lovely. Focused, interesting, thoughtful, and insightful.
Thanks for reading!
Great post! Thanks so much for guesting for us while I’m recovering, Becca. And congrats on your new book!
I’m so grateful for the opportunity. Get some rest!
Great topic, thanks Becca. I’d never consciously considered theme until invited to study for my masters with a group of 10 multi-published authors. As well as writing a novel, we had to analise our process, when I discovered I’d been revisiting one theme over and over – the “stranger in a strange land.” It was inspired by my childhood experiences as a migrant to Australia.My early characters hated their status. Only in recent years am I writing “strangers” who revel in who they are, my Beacons sci-fi series for Pan Macmillan making this transparent. My thesis btw was about how authors unconsciously do narrative therapy on ourselves through our choice of content.
Isn’t that the truth. Writing is absolutely a therapeutic process. 🙂
I’ve never considered doing so but it does sometimes happen within my stories that the job supports the theme. Great post! Makes one dig deeper into the mechanics of things!
Right? It’s almost always a good idea to dig deeper, whether we’re taking about backstory, physical details, or the character’s job. I find that when I discard my first ideas and do a little more research, I always find better, more creative options.
Tying a character’s occupation to highlight a story’s theme? How did it not occur to me before? Great post, Becca. I learned a lot.
~Ingmar Albizu
I’m so glad! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
I enjoyed reading this post because it’s not something I’ve seen before and it IS important to nail down careers. Personally, I love incorporating a career which surely is not mine and I don’t know much about. However, I’ve found that watching tv has helped a lot with this. Book #1 of my latest novel deals with a cardiac surgeon. I sure am not familiar with that occupation besides what I’ve seen over and over again on tv and I used that knowledge – since the cardiac surgeon was only one character and not the main one. And his job with its ungodly hours had a lot to do with what happened in the story.
Long hours can definitely contribute a lot to the story in the way of meaningful conflict. Tension with family members, broken promises in the form of missed recitals and ball games, having to spend lots of time with people that he doesn’t like (or who don’t like him), mistakes made due to fatigue… it definitely gives you a lot to work with.
In the manuscript I just finished, I’d been revising on and off for years and something wasn’t feeling right. What made everything click was my MC’s job: a receptionist at a hostel. Pretty niche, so it required a fair amount of research and in-person visiting, but the work setting rang so much truer to the story. It wasn’t until reading your post that I realized *why* this was the case.
My MC feels adrift, without a home despite the roof over his head. The hostel lets me play with this idea on a different parallel. Travelers in someplace new. Temporary living, always moving onto somewhere different.
This time around I stumbled upon the right job match. In the future, I’ll try to be more intentional 🙂
I’m glad to hear that you did some in-person research. This obviously isn’t always possible, but it’s so important to really know that job inside and out. And that firsthand research can supply the details that bring the job to life.
So interesting. I’ve often found that the story dictates the protagonist’s career based on if they need to travel or access to certain information. Interesting to have it reflect theme as well. Thanks.
I’m so pleased with your work just keep the writing up ????