The Occupation Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Jobs, Vocations, and Careers (Writers Helping Writers Series)

Now, let me start off by saying that I absolutely LOVE the other books in this thesaurus series. There is not a single time I’ve written ANY sort of fiction without consulting each one at least once. If you want to spend your money on a writing thesaurus, THOSE are the ones you should buy. That being said, I am quite disappointed with this specific thesaurus. The occupations included are often so specific it seems silly to include them in such a general thesaurus (such as Chocolatier and professional mourner) and then other, more popular occupations, like archaeologist and artist, are not included even though they are mentioned alongside other occupations. Instead of having general occupations like “soldier” there are only specific careers like “military officer.” I feel like this book is only helpful if you do not yet know what occupations your characters have and you need inspiration. This book would have been a much better resource if it had been more generalized.

Does a pretty good job in general terms, but leaves out so, so much. For example, the only type of doctor in the book appears to be a trauma doc/emergency room. Lots of occupations are entirely left out, as well. And, one can see why - one book could not cover every possible occupation.

Angela and Becca have done it again with this latest addition to their thesauri collection. While they couldn’t fit every job there is in this thesaurus, they brought their considerable research skills together to craft 100-plus job descriptions—some typical, some unexpected. Each entry gives an overview then drills down to skills, traits, sources of fiction, offers suggestions for twisting stereotypes and why a character might choose a profession.

The appendices include samples of occupation speed dating (who knew?), career assessments, and additional references. Thumbing through the occupations, gave me a rush of new ideas I could weave into my own characters’ stories . . . like Red Bull for my imagination.

I am very happy I added this tool to my writing toolbox.

As a writer of books for kids and teens, most of my characters don’t have careers. But I’ve found other thesauruses in Angela and Becca’s collection helpful, so I wanted to check out this new one. For a full list of their thesauruses, such as The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, The Negative Trait Thesaurus, and The Urban Setting Thesaurus, look here.

The Occupation Thesaurus is very user-friendly. It starts with a discussion of how a character’s occupation can help to characterize who they are, give them certain skills and/or values, and relate to their needs and goals.

Think about one of the first questions you’re asked by someone you meet at a cocktail party: “What do you do?”

What would be your first impression be of someone who said they were a kindergarten teacher? An emergency room nurse?

Even someone who tries not to stereotype people will get the impression that the kindergarten teacher enjoys spending time with kids and values education. The ER nurse probably has a deep knowledge of human physiology and first aid and is able to maintain control in stressful situations.

After a detailed discussion of how occupation can affect a character and their story, the thesaurus dives into a list of 124 occupations. For each, it lays out a description of the job as well as the training and skills that job implies. It then goes on to discuss traits a character with this job is likely to possess, sources of friction that come up in this occupation that might impact the character and their story, and the emotional needs a character in this occupation may have.

For instance, in the entry for Actor, useful skills, talents, or abilities include:

- Charm, creativity, good listening skills, the ability to make people laugh, the ability to multitask, photographic memory, promotional skills, public speaking skills, and wit.

Character traits for actors include being:

- Adaptable, adventurous, ambitious, bold, charming, confident, cooperative, creative, curious, enthusiastic, extroverted, flamboyant, and more.

Sources of friction for actors include:

- Working with pretentious or self-involved co-workers, too many actors competing for few roles or losing to a rival, blowing an important casting call, creative differences among co-workers, being typecast, and more.

This thesaurus will be more helpful for writers of adult books than kidlit authors. Still, the adults in kids and teens’ lives need occupations and teens have part-time jobs.

Teens also have job aspirations. What assumptions might readers make about a 17-year-old protagonist who wants to work for NASA? How can you, as the author writing that character, use or subvert these expectations to advance your story?

Reading The Occupational Thesaurus also made me think about how the teams, clubs, and hobbies of middle-grade characters fill a similar role to the occupations of older characters. They show their interests, allow them to develop certain skills, and say something about their personality and maybe their needs.

I’d recommend The Occupation Thesaurus for writers who want to dive deeper into characterization in their stories by choosing professions that highlight important aspects of their characters and make them three-dimensional. Also for using the characters’ occupations to create conflict or heighten tension in a story.

I received an advanced reader copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I have all Becca Puglisi's thesauri for writers and refer to them often to add depth and realism to my fiction writing. I highly recommend them. I was pleasantly surprised at the extent of info The Occupation Thesaurus offers, e.g., how a character's job can influence his/her personality, and skills required to be successful in their chosen field. For those of us who can't afford the almost one hundred dollar annual fee for Becca's and Angela's One Stop for Writers subscription online, these books are a godsend. I wish Ackerman and Puglisi would offer more books, so we can pay only for information we need, and find it easily and quickly! Fortunately, tons of free info is available online elsewhere. But buy this book! Buy them all! You'll be glad you did.

Angela and Becca have done it again! If you have never experienced one of their thesauri, it's a must for writers. It is so comprehensive it could be used as an MFA course. Find dozens of career entries, besides the psychological effects, positive and negative aspects and the personality type that might possibly be a good fit for that occupation. It's a writer’s best friend!

The Occupation Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Jobs, Vocation, and Careers is terrific. Like other books in their Writers Helping Writers series, I’m particularly fond of Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi’s call to writers to explore the psychology of characters. In sync with that, The Occupation Thesaurus offers an excellent springboard for further research, which helps facilitate the crafting of specificity in character, description, and world-building.

This isn't what I thought it was, so I gave it away. I thought I was going to lose my job so I bought this thinking I would be able to find a new job. This book is for writers.

Like other reviewers have said, this thesaurus left out too many professions. I would’ve loved to see more, plus fictional professions such as superhero or xenobiologist.

I love this book series. It helps and I tell my mentoring writing class about it all the time. I'm glad I got this book and love how it breaks down everything. The only thing I didn't like is that there were quite a few occupations missing and they were the type of professions that are popular. I was disappointed about that. I'm still pleased with the book but I'll continue to conduct my own research.