Protagonist board meetings are boring

In all my self pity I forgot I was supposed to talk about jobs. So now I'm going to talk about jobs.

I don't know about you guys, but I am really tired of people who work in advertising firms in movies. And sometimes they're lawyers and sometimes they're just people who work in some random office overlooking a beautiful view of the city. There are so many jobs out there, it's kind of lazy for a writer to fall back on an office job, especially an office job working for a magazine or an advertising firm.

So don't do that. I plead for a release from advertising firms and magazines as the place of employment for your main character.

So where do you get ideas for jobs? There's a couple of places.

First of all, if possible you should make the job match the story thematically. In the script for Tonight, He Comes, which has been turned into Hancock, one of the major characters is a security guard. This job is completely appropriate because the main problem is that he's completely lacking in testicles and his ego is next to nothing. A job as a useless security guard is absolutely perfect for the situation. Of course in the movie that job was changed to a PR exec, which to me is a lot less interesting, but is appropriate to how the story is now more about Hancock getting his shit together.

Try watching Dirty Jobs some time. There are a whole lot of people in this country who never set foot in an office, and Mike Rowe interviews a pile of them.

Even if you Google "unusual jobs" you come up with things like "chicken sexer." That must be a hell of a job.

For me, I usually use jobs of people I know. In Not Dead Yet, before the zombie apocalypse my female lead was a stunt performer. I chose that career for her because it makes her easier to believe as an action hero and because Ex-Boyfriend is on his way to becoming one.

In Jacking, I made a character a professional dog walker and pet sitter. Ex-Fiance did that job for a while and it also helps the story by giving my character a love for pets that makes her really sympathetic. Whenever I try to figure out what my characters do, I think of what interesting jobs my friends have, then I think of which job would really help push the story forward.

Every day you interact with people who don't work in an office. Ever buy a taco off the truck? (Seriously if you haven't, go do so immediately.) Ever ride the Metro? Ever bought anything, ever? That stuff doesn't go straight from the office to the street. I once dated a guy whose dad made a fortune building the machines that package pills for Glaxo Smith Klein. He worked in a warehouse all day.

Apparently I get all my job ideas from the boys I date. Come to think of it, I've never dated someone who works in an office. Ever. I tend to shy away from those guys because they're more boring than your average chicken sexer.

So please, please use your imagination next time you're giving a character a job. It makes them more interesting by giving them something to do besides sit around a conference table and it makes you stand out.