The Occupation Thesaurus: A Comprehensive Guide to Job Titles, Occupations, and Careers for Writers

GRAM D EUBANK: My wife is a writer and I got this for her for Christmas. She gets writers block a lot and this series of books really seems to help her.

United States on Feb 20, 2023

Joshua: good

United States on Jan 20, 2023

Matthew E. Bowman: This book is not an exhaustive list of all professions. It would not be practical to try, even if it's possible. Instead, the (still long) list of occupations provides a significant cross-section of modern society that can be used to extrapolate more ideas even if the occupation you want to include is not in the book.

The details are where it shines. It gives prompts for the incidentals you might see in relation to a character or their place of work. It's also a good starting point to research ideas for secondary or primary characters. It can even be used to brainstorm changes for historical, futuristic, or fantastic settings.

The crowning jewel is still The Emotion Thesaurus, which no writer or editor should be without; but Occupation deserves to be on any shelf of creative writing aids.

United States on Nov 04, 2021

Debra Purdy Kong: The many occupations in the world are impossible to list in just one book. So I wasn’t surprised, just disappointed, to find that the two professions I hoped would be included weren’t there. Nor were they available on the additional links provided.

There were a couple of occupations, such as novelist and server, that didn’t really need to be listed. Most of the writers who’ve purchased this book are likely familiar with the job, and most people have a pretty good idea of what a server’s job entails, or can talk to servers at local restaurants. It’s also curious how many times the word clairvoyance was listed under the category of the ‘Useful Skills, Talents or Abilities’ under each occupation.

After reading the book from cover to cover, I did find it helpful in choosing careers for key characters in an upcoming novel. If you’re a writer and can’t find the occupation you’re searching for this book, other ideas could crop up, so I recommend reading as many of the occupation descriptions as possible.

Canada on Nov 20, 2020

BeautifulMichigan: 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.

United States on Oct 03, 2020

Sacha Black: As far as I'm concerned, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have immortalized themselves as automatic buys for the rest of eternity. If you're a writer, do yourself a favor and make sure you add this book to your craft shelf. The Occupation Thesaurus is, without doubt, another home run. Ackerman and Puglisi take character occupations to the next level by showing you how to:

Connect occupation to your book's theme
Create conflict with an occupation
Link occupations to your character's emotional wounds and flaws
Draw spectacular details out from your characters occupations to hook readers and make your story sparkle

And that's before you get to the meat of the book.

Each occupation is rammed full of details like the training each job requires, helpful character traits for the role, skills and abilities you'd need to perform it, how to avoid stereotypes, ideas and motivations for choosing the perfect occupation as well as plenty of ideas for how to create friction and conflict.

Each and every thesaurus Ackerman and Puglisi produce is spectacular. The Occupation Thesaurus is no different. Full of inspiration, teachings and knowledge that's...

United Kingdom on Sep 17, 2020

Stella Carrier: The Occupation Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide To Jobs, Vocations, and Careers by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi includes extensive details on how and why the occupation of a character/characters in a particular story factor significantly in story/writing development. For instance, the authors illustrate motivations behind career choice via the Abraham Maslow five basic needs diagram and give an example of how andor why a character may choose a dangerous career choice when fulfilling a basic physiological need and the authors are also candid when giving examples of characters who are choosing a job andor career stemming from the opposite of a happy event (for instance the authors explain a character choosing to be a cop if one of their parents lived a life skirting the law and another example is given why a particular character might choose to be a crime cleaner even if they had a high/prolific interest in studying forensics. Personality traits, talents and skills, hobbies and passions, economic status, jobs as sources of the opposite of peace and harmony, the author’s are also very honest when explaining how much a money a character makes can also color the story through a...

United States on Aug 17, 2020

Ritu B: Having purchased all the other Thesaurus books in this fantastic set of resources, I jumped at the chance to be able to read an ARC of the Occupation Thesaurus.
If all we wrote about, was what we know, then our characters would be a bunch of people with not very diverse backgrounds and jobs, but lo and behold, we now have a resource that will help us to find the perfect job for our characters, and a list of responsibilities, situations, characteristics required, personality traits, etc. to help us delve into a career we may have no previous knowledge of.
Knowing an occupation, in detail, can really enhance your character, within a story. The place they work, and the job they do can affect them emotionally, and mentally, so having this new thesaurus to help piece together information to flesh out your character's background is priceless, and can even give you catalysts for behaviours and incidents in your story.
I can't wait for the hard copy to be available to order, because I'll be putting my order in straight away on the 20th July!

United Kingdom on Aug 16, 2020

Michelle Cornish: This book is so much more than a list of descriptions of occupations. The introduction includes valuable information regarding how to use occupations in fiction. Characters are impacted by the jobs they choose, and those jobs are often a source of many types of conflict. One of my favourite things about this thesaurus is the occupation speed dating appendix which lists character traits and suggests a number of occupations a character with those traits might be drawn to! Such a useful book - I highly recommend it if you are writing fiction and want to dig deeper into your characters’ jobs.

Canada on Aug 07, 2020

Kate McKate Mc: I am a big advocate of the Writers Helping Writers Thesaurus series, The Occupation Thesaurus being the eighth book brought to us by the curators of The One Stop for Writers website. It follows a similar format to the previous books, with the first 10-15% of the book giving an in-depth on how the thesaurus works with regards to the psychology and motivation of your characters.

Now Angela and Becca are clear that to list all occupations would be endless but those referenced in the Occupation Thesaurus are from a wide spectrum, covering something in most employment sectors. Even if your character's specific job is not listed, the needs, traits ideally suited to, sources of friction, even twisting the fictional stereotypes section provoke questions that will lead to your own character's motivations and will help to develop your characters back story.

For many people, their job defines them, it may not be the only thing to define them, but when asked people normally list their job before they say they are a parent. One of the most common questions when getting to know someone is “what do you do for a living?” and that opens a list of other questions, that most find...

United Kingdom on Jul 21, 2020