Developing And Understanding A Character's Skills

It's no secret that I shelved my fantasy novel for a while because I couldn't get a post-apocalyptic story out of my head.  As I'm getting to know my own characters better though, I start to wonder if it's always so hard to figure out where each person "fits" in the world.

For example, if you're talking about a wasteland: Low population, even lower food supplies, limited or no electricity, desperation. . . Each person needs to have skills to survive and possibly contribute to that new society, don't they?  It would take a lot more than just the average Joe going to his 9-5 to process papers every day.  You'd have to learn something meaningful.

What kind of first aid skills do your characters have?  How about you?

Here in the real world, I decided to take some disaster training.  It not only helps me with understanding what a few of my characters would be doing, It's also good to know out here just in case.  As I learned what it took to suture a wound, I realized that the way I wrote it was all wrong and was more of a guess as to what they did than anything based in real knowledge.  I rewrote that part of the scene to be more accurate.

Even in a fantasy setting, it seems appropriate to research how things really work rather than just going with, "She healed him and it closed".  If you're following survivors from a catastrophe, what do they do to keep surviving or even to thrive?  If they're a scavenger and your world is our modern one, do you know what could be left behind or how the buildings would have reacted to that catastrophe?  What state would they be in after how many years it's been?  Do all of your characters have survivalist skills or just one or two who help provide for the others?

If you had to, could you do this without a match or lighter?

I never saw a better example of this in fantasy than in the "Sword of Truth" series by Terry Goodkind.  Each of the characters have a specific skill set and their own knowledge.  While occasionally they overlap, every character brought something meaningful to the table and would have been the go-to person in different situations.

Outside of fantasy, Kathryne Arnold's "The Fear of Things to Come" featured a protagonist who had extensive knowledge of mental disorders and used it to save her life and the lives of everyone else.  Even the killer was given depth by showing what he knew and how he could use it.

That's what makes the characters feel real and drives you to care about what happens to them next.  They have flaws and strengths.  The lead character isn't perfect and omnipotent and the bad guys aren't completely flat.  That's what I'm striving for.