Worldsmiths | Fantasy World-Building Resource Book

#11: Occupations

Occupation or Not?

Well for starters, having an occupation or not is something you might want to think about first. Do they even have one? Do they even need one? (or maybe you want to give them one, but why do you want to give them one?)

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Age for the Occupation: Accepted or Odd?

You also want to think about age. What age is normal to hold a job in your world? What age would be odd? If your character is a clan leader at sixteen, you might have to talk about if that's acceptable and normal in the society.

Readers will base your world off of theirs. So, it's quite common in our world that a teen might have a part-time job but not a full-time job and certainly not something life-threatening. If everyone around the character acts odd about this teenager leading their clan, then it is some unusual circumstance.

So, then, you get into why this job and what benefits do they get from having it? Why this job at this age? So young, so early, and they're made into a clan leader? What happened?

If it's not odd, well, then why? Why is it acceptable for a sixteen-year-old clan leader to exist? If the only reason is tradition, that still needs to be mentioned because, as I said, readers will base your world off of theirs. It might be odd for such a young individual to rise to power.

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Born into it? What of the predecessors?

This leads to "being born into it" like royalty and having to take the job whether they wanted to or not. Did your character have no choice but to take this job because something happened to their parents or their mentor? That could also be a reason for the clan leader being so young. Maybe their parents or mentor died? Maybe it was forced onto them to trap them somehow.

Let your imagination run wild ;)

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Types of Occupations

In fantasy, oh there are so many different types of occupations you can give your character depending on the setting: dragon riders, mages of different kinds (ones who are teachers, soldiers, or healers, etc.), smiths, tailors, soldiers, an advisor to the king or queen, tavern owner, inn keeper, various types of shop owners (potions, clothes, books, animals, food, or jewelry, etc.), musicians, writers, actors, etc. You could have swimming trainers if there's bodies of water. Fishermen, farmers, shepherds... maybe politicians (#8: Government)? Journalists even?

What is the setting of your story, or the climate (#5: Climate), and therefore, what types of jobs are needed to maintain it? Can there be drivers of various vehicles? Horse carriage? You might need to consider the landscape of your setting if you want to add in transportation for possible job opportunities (#2: Shape and Landscape).

An occupation type can set your character up for a good, rich life, or not. Shunned by society or not. There can be variations in the same occupation. Think of the hat makers who make hats for royalty. They might live a more lavish lifestyle than the hat makers for peasants.

Education and training will also play a big role in deciding what kind of job your character will have (check #7: Education System, #40: Training to be a Master of Something).

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Does every character need a job?

Obviously, no, as not every person has a job. You can have characters who are young and finding their footing in society. Maybe they're good at something, but they're not sure if they'll make a job out of it. Maybe during their story, they'll find some possibilities.

Do you have to mention if a character got a job or not? Does getting a job have to be the end goal?

Obviously not. The story can focus solely on your character's development and not mention a single thing about a job if you wanted to do that. That being said, if your character begins with a job or talking about needing a job, you might want to mention what happened with that at the end. Readers may wonder ;)