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Nov 2019

I've worked a lot of jobs blue and white collar, and I tend to write about professions that I've at least had glancing interactions with. My comic has a wide swath of political grifters, an ex-lawyer, the requisite indie coffee haus bookstore but there's a visible owner who works it solo most of the time, there's a witch doctor herbalist, a security team for a celeb, a missionary, and a mining baron. and some moms, can't forget the moms. researching and thinking of interesting professions for characters is something I really look forward to doing.

oh yes! i agree there are tons of overused professions in comics, maybe because its more relatable? i duuno :grin:

i use the "knight" class in my story which is can be found in almost any fantasy comic, so im guilty as well :blush:

but i try to add a little bit of a twist so that it wont be generic :wink:

I think in the case of something like Law & Order, it's probably not a case of writers not being well researched/experienced as much as the medium of TV has established its own tropes/cliches for lawyers. If they veer from those, to depict reality, the general audience won't accept it as "authentic".

Just a theory ...could apply to lots of tropes/cliches about occupations.

He says no :smile:

He's a fast learner and kind of a Jack-of-all-trades :ok_hand:

If we have the undying high school student, it must also come with the mysterious school principal. 🤧

How yawl gonna forget the alMighty “flower shop”, that’s another cliché one if you ask me. :joy::joy::joy:

I actually have a billionare mogul. But mine his wealth all comes from his family. He is half Chinese half Korean. But his Chinese father abandoned him and he used his father's money to make some good investments. His mother was from a super rich family and that is actually why his parents got married, it was a business merger, arranged marriage that leads to love. But yeah, I totally get the whole billionare nowadays trend, but they don't have money from anywhere specific or that makes sense to the market that we live in now.

Personally, I think it is okay to write rich characters as long as you do some research on how rich people became rich in the place your character's setting takes place.

Like make your character's back story make sense to the setting they are in. Don't just give them money because... I can.

Case and point. China one of the highest percentages of Billionare's in the world, many of them rich because of real estate. My characters father real Estate Billionaremother Advertising giant conglomerate worth Millions of Dollars. And there are parts where I actually show them working on adverts. XD

Well, not going to put the profession of my character who lives in ancient settings but for one in modern setting, so far I have:

Li XinWen - Actor
Li JingHua - Broker(is that the right job name?)
Xue Rui - cough CEO of his own company + One of the board of director for one of the well known hospital in that world.
Min XiaoYu - Account Supervisor + Martial arts Teacher

I guess out of those 4, only Xue Rui have the cliche type of profession 🤣🤣

I think the really common ones have all been stated. Student is I reckon the most popular! My that might just reflect the stage of life the writers find themselves in, and it might also reflect the fact that high school/ university student is a character almost everyone can identify with.

I just checked my own comics. Most of my characters don't have stated jobs, although many side characters are shopkeepers or banana peel salesmen or whatever else. The main characters are likely all just vagabonds. I did have one comic involving an evil gang of pastry chefs, and I have one coming in a few weeks about an accountant. And no, he doesn't have superpowers, he's literally a boring accountant.

Okay my male MC works at a Cafe though he has many hats. He is also a college student and soldier. He also is part of a secret government agency and he is a superhero. x

Wow like 5 genres in one. XD Does he have a talking dog?

Coffee shop
Convienence store
Office job
Sex profession (porn, nude drawing, sugar baby- BLs)
Manga artist
Famous actor or musician (usually with a plain partner that has to watch over them
Lest we forget sensei

Cool! Thats pretty freaking awesome if you ask me.

i know no one did. but like A girl can dream

I dislike any time the main character is into comics or wants to do comics.
I can't think of a universe I liked - where comic books exist....
Especially the kind that the story would actually be...a comic.

I think being or wanting to be an artist/writer/author is pretty popular. Bonus points if part of them being a successful author is kind of a secret identity if they're not trying out. Among others I come across quite often are:

Teacher (let's not forget sensei)
Bookstore related
Chef
Detective
Cafe or restaurant related. Oftentimes waiters.
Actors...do they count? Though modeling seems to be fairly popular. May or may not be but I know I'm guilty of it haha.

Funnily enough, this topic made me realise my character's don't really have an occupation o<

To me the popstar (or rather the ideal popstar living in an ideal world with an overly romanticized showbiz industry) is the ultimate cliche job.
It’s just....too perfect and nice and....I just can’t buy it ^^

Barista, office worker or flowershop clerk are cliche too. But not a turn off for me.
Barista and flowershop clerk sounds like a nice job to point out that your character has work ethics but not super wealthy.
And office worker is like a default job just to portray that your character is making money somehow without having yourself (or your story) tangled up in their work life.
So it’s pretty convenient to use jobs like that and I can get behind those :3