Feedback Wanted
A character’s work routine can do more than establish what they do for a living. It can show how they bear boredom, who they dodge, what they put up with, and what small rules they live by.
I’m often more interested in the interruptions than the job itself. The cup left to go cold. The interruption they resent but never refuse. The bit of paperwork they do twice because they don’t trust anyone else to do it properly.
Some routines belong on the page because they reveal the person before the plot starts making demands. Others just slow things down. I never trust a tidy answer to that.
I’m often more interested in the interruptions than the job itself. The cup left to go cold. The interruption they resent but never refuse. The bit of paperwork they do twice because they don’t trust anyone else to do it properly.
Some routines belong on the page because they reveal the person before the plot starts making demands. Others just slow things down. I never trust a tidy answer to that.
Routine can become a little trap in fiction. Once the reader understands the pattern, the interesting part is what breaks it and why. A character who always makes tea at 9.15 tells me something, but the fact they never sit down to drink it tells me more. Small habits are useful. Repeated habits with a crack in them are where the story starts breathing.