Good MC profession?

I realize some writers disagree, especially those on the sci-fi side of mystery, but "write what you know" still has lots of merit.

I've always been a teacher -- marksmanship in the military, high school teacher later, then a college prof, now an editor and writer. My main character is usually in one of those ho-hum professions, because I have a better chance to make it feel real.

However, my hobby is beekeeping, so one protagonist was in that semi-exotic profession. What's your hands-on avocational experiences? Try one of those.

• Priest - been done before
• Teacher - mentioned above
• Counsellor - for overstressed cops
• Firefighter - many cops switch to that profession
• Recluse - can't face the world because of the stress
• Disaster Volunteer - fulfills need to help people
• Writer - I really dislike books about writers
• Security Guard - over qualified
• Private Detective - been done to death

That should get you started.

MRevelle83 said:

In the story he is now a former detective who had to leave the job because he was mentally unable to handle the strains of the job- buckling under the pressure, if you will. So I am wondering what kind of job someone like this would hold now that would allow one to help others. Naturally I have ideas all ready of what he is going to be (he's the most important character, after all), but I'm still interested in hearing opinions and suggestions.

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I'm not sure if any cops would go to a counsellor who had to leave the job because he couldn't handle the stress. Or is your guy a different kind of counsellor?

You know, that's an interesting statement you make, that nothing you do would be "what a former cop would do."

Consider this: many people who leave a profession because they can't take it will find somethign completely unrelated to what they did. If they can't take what they did, they may want to get as far from it as possible. So, maybe you shouldn't rule it out.

Saying there are things former cops "wouldn't do" comes kind of close to stereotyping. Maybe you could think about what made this character go into the police force and see if the can still fulfill that need or if he's changed his desire.

security guard
PI
private security (like ex-military ex-law enforcement get hired for)
paramedic/firefighter (as mentioned)

How about those totally 'different' jobs that some people just want to try, like used car salesman or waiter?

Some police I know have gone into insurance investigation, workplace safety auditing and the like - apparently they're in high demand there because of their investigative training, and the work is presumably more reliable than a PI, say.

Few real people are adrift and alone in life, so it should be for your characters.

What sort of family does he have? How was he raised? Parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts & uncles will each have opinions to contribute. What sort of jobs do THEY have? If one member of a family leaves his job there's always going to be one busybody putting forward suggestions. Goodness knows plenty of my family had alternatives to my becoming a writer (all of them wrong, of course.)

Janet Evanovich puts the fun in dysfunctional with Stef Plum's family in her series. Will Stephanie PLEASE go to work at the button or tampon factory? Noooo, she insists on being a (somewhat inept) bounty hunter.

One of my friends--I modeled a hitman character after him--has by turns been manager of two gay clubs (he's straight), ran a discount tire franchise, managed a topless club (he loved THAT one), sold ice cream, insurance, did financial management, carpet installing, D&D gaming for money, sold real estate with his mom, and is presently working in a company that makes realistic artificial limbs for amputees.

His parents were separated for years before he lost his dad--who was no angel--to cancer, and he has an extensive network of cousins in various professions. His dad was once a mover and shaker behind the scenes in state politics, and if my buddy had zigged instead of zagged he might well have ended up as a hitman for real. (He didn't like the mafia's retirement plan.)

He is also not--let's say *emotionally* rather than mentally suited for law enforcement, though he has much admiration for their profession.

Cops have to go through a lot of tests (at least in my state) to find out if they are psychologically able to handle the work. I had an ex who tried out for it and failed miserably. (No surprise, he was a total psycho.)

What it could be for yours is some traumatic incident can be the cause for leaving. Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder left his job when, while drunk, he shot the wrong person.

If your cop had to leave for emotional probs, then he might get disability and not have to have a regular job.

Try googling cops+quit or cops+retire, cops + disability or cops + severence to find out how things work on this.

Here's a nasty one about cops told to retire or be fired.

But this is my all time favorite site for police reports from a small California town:

Arcata Eye: The Mildly Objectionable Weekly. The police reports are works of literary art. I have it bookmarked and check in every month or so for a dose of weirdness. One can only imagine the stalwart thin blue line protecting the public from this crime wave:




For instance...

3:24 p.m. It sort of goes to the old quality of life when a guy with 15 outstanding warrants lolls around in front of your Northtown house all day, saying not-so-nice things to you whenever you walk outside.


3:31 p.m. Arguably worse was the man swinging on a swing at an A Street home where the residents were away, growling and shouting at people. When police came, he pretended to be someone else, which helped expedite his trip to jail.

4:25 p.m. A bearded man in flip-flops smoked a lot of cigarettes, which wasn’t good for him, and insouciantly flicked the lit butts into a Valley West yard. Police were asked to direct him elsewhere.

3:17 p.m. A woman in the cop shop lobby told of a Fortuna couple who threatened to kill her and who had blown up the “World’s Trade Center.” Further, she said, “grand master forces” directed by someone who’d caused the Columbine massacre by mind control, were “turning her interior.” Since she hadn’t violated any laws and wasn’t a danger to herself, she wasn’t taken into custody.

• Tuesday, August 26 11:12 a.m. A loose, two-pooch tag-team of twin black poodles unleashed poofy terror in front of a coffee shop at Ninth and G streets, where people were already jittery. A man said the dogs weren’t his, but that he’d care for them temporarily.

11:13 a.m. Next, the hotel complained of poodle horror out front.


2:44 a.m. A man called saying he was crazy and couldn’t pee, demanding an ambulance in “extremely irritated” tones.

3:09 a.m. Wee-hour funsters slid their pooches down the slide in the Stewart Park playground, the dogs arfing with delight or puzzlement or both, neighbors dialing police with annoyance or sleeplessness, both.

9:11 a.m. A Valley West resident reported a neighbor glaring at her dog. She was informed that “dirty glares” don’t represent a criminal act.

4 p.m. A bottle of unpaid-for orange juice was actually a ticket from Northtown to the Pink House.

The "Pink House" or sometimes "Pink Palace" is the local jail, which, apparently, has a girly color scheme.

PS...

A mystery-horror hybrid is called "urban fantasy" these days.

Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child's Pendergast books qualify, so does Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series.

Sub to a house that prints that genre. Mystery houses don't want them as mystery fans are unexcited about having what they call the "woo-woo" factor mixed into the plot. If the mystery ghost turns out to be the creepy caretaker in a sheet, that's ok, but the readers don't want a real spook.

And while it is a good idea to write what you know, it doesn't have to be taken literally.

I know a suburban housewife who tries to write scary vampire novels. Unfortunately she clings to the write what you know thing and has yet to sell a word. Her vamps are the old style tuxedo-clad guys from the movies, and they don't mix well with PTA meetings. In the hands of a better writer, they might, but so far with this gal, not so much. All she knows is mowing the lawn and watching soaps. She thinks she has to stick to that.

I tried to let her know that Jules Verne hadn't actually gone to the center of the earth or took a 20K league trip under water or traveled from the earth to the moon and did all right with 'em, but she just kept shaking her head.

A reporter/journalist is often a good character to have around.

He/she doesn't have to sit in an office all day, can go snooping around and ask questions, can even impersonate others if unscrupulous, etc. He's like an unarmed detective, basically.

Ah, the main character...

In the thriller genre, I'm so sick of the superhuman ex-military dude I could vomit. You know, the guy that was the Navy Seal, the Special Forces operative, the elite force commando that can bite through steel cable, blah blah blah...

Seriously, how is Joe Average supposed to connect with someone like that?

My favorite protagonist in mystery, thriller, and suspense, has always been the average man or woman thrust into a desperate situation. Ken Follett has peopled his best books with these people in the lead. The characters are far more vulnerable and exciting than Super Commando.

I'm reminded of a comic years ago in the National Lampoon. "Sgt. Nick Penis and the Brass Balls Brigade." Now those guys were tough! They'd jump out of airplanes WITHOUT parachutes, because that's how Real Men do it.

Gillhoughly said:

PS...

And while it is a good idea to write what you know, it doesn't have to be taken literally.

I know a suburban housewife who tries to write scary vampire novels. Unfortunately she clings to the write what you know thing and has yet to sell a word. Her vamps are the old style tuxedo-clad guys from the movies, and they don't mix well with PTA meetings. In the hands of a better writer, they might, but so far with this gal, not so much. All she knows is mowing the lawn and watching soaps. She thinks she has to stick to that.

I tried to let her know that Jules Verne hadn't actually gone to the center of the earth or took a 20K league trip under water or traveled from the earth to the moon and did all right with 'em, but she just kept shaking her head.

Click to expand...

Thank you for pointing that out. Can you imagine one of these literary poo-bahs chastising William Shakespeare for writing "Julius Caesar," "Hamlet", "A Midsummer Nights Dream," and "Romeo and Juliet"? Shakespeare had no personal experience with any of those settings. Did he let that stop him?

"Write what you know" is a yoke and won't get the job done. To me, it should only mean you should know what motivates and moves people. If you don't know about some thing or some place, there's a little thing I like to call "research."

Another tiresome main character (now mostly found in reject piles and pay-to-publish books) is the teen or twenty-something ingénue with fully-developed martial skills, packing an array of armament which blow off extremities and toss her victims like rag dolls.

It's an extreme of writing what you don't know -- which was offered as one solution to a specific problem, not an unswerving approach to all writing.

Of course fiction, especially science fiction, is an excercise of imagination . . . but enjoy vying for whom can urinate farthest.

To get back on topic, Your MC couldn't handle the stress of police work but still wants to work in a field where he can help people. I assume you want this new job to tie in with your story.

Counsellor or therapist MAY work, but I still stand with the opinion that if cops know he couldn't handle the job stress, they won't go to him to talk about job stress. He can provide therapy to anyone else though.

The other option offered, that he receives a disability income and doesn't have to work, therefore, he is free to do whatever you want him to do, MAY work. The hardest part is getting someone to believe the State would actually pay a dissability for stress related illness.

My villain is an investment banker, the hero is a freelance writer.

My most recent MC in my suspense/thriller was a waitress, and then a stripper. Apparently years ago in her bio I wrote for myself that she used to be a realtor or something? odd, I can't picture my protag in that career.

My MC is a nice middle-aged lady of no particular occupation, supported by an irritating and overbearing husband. Fortunately, she meets up with a shady soldier of fortune, a terrific cook, a child psychologist, and a cute little puppy dog, so her MC-ness is sorta shared by an ensemble cast. Being retired from an occupation gives your MC plenty of time and a little $$ so they can do whatever it is you want them to do without worrying about going into a job every day.

But people often define themselves by their jobs, so they can be critical for a Main Character. If Pendergast wasn't an FBI agent, think how hard his first several books would have been. His job gave him not only the skills, but the *access* to do the job which was ultimately the story.

So I think your MC should have the past - or current - careeer that would give him/her the skill set and the circle of friends necessary to the story.

I'm with everyone on the superman/woman MC too - except for Jack Reacher, who's gotta be my current favorite superman.

Regarding the queastion about your game - if your current story is different enough, there should be no problem. I am assuming it has grown and matured way beyond the game which it initially inspired.

In the two wips-in-process on my plate, one MC is an IT geek in an insurance firm and the other owns and operates a diner in a small town.

One can code like a banshee and the other cooks like, hmm, well, a small town diner chef.