Characterization
Also known as character traits · character characteristics
How a character becomes specific on the page — the traits, tactics, and contradictions that show up in choices, not a résumé of adjectives parked in an action paragraph.
In practice
Characterization is evidence. Readers believe a person is careful because they wipe the glass twice, not because the slugline announces a careful heroine. Traits that never cost anything are costume. Give each important role a habit that collides with the want: the charming producer who cannot sit through a silence, the quiet sibling who rewrites other people's sentences.
A list of characteristics is research, not drama. Use it off-page, then spend the scene on one or two traits under pressure. When every guest star arrives with a quirky prop and a speech about their backstory, the draft is introducing types instead of people. Prefer contradictions the audience can play: kind timing, cruel words; competence in the job, panic in the kitchen.
Arc and characterization are partners, not synonyms. Characterization is who they are at the start and how that shows; arc is which of those patterns the story tests. After a page-one rewrite, re-check whether the new midpoint still forces a trait to fail. Skills can flag voice sameness across cues; they cannot decide which contradiction is the character.
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Common questions
How many character traits does a protagonist need?
Fewer than a spreadsheet suggests. Two or three that collide with the want will carry a feature. A dozen unused quirks read as homework the writer did not dramatize.
Is characterization the same as a character arc?
No. Characterization is the specific person on page one. Arc is whether pressure changes that person's pattern — or proves they will not change, and makes that refusal the point.
Should I put character traits in the first action line?
One playable detail is useful; a paragraph of adjectives is a novel leaking into the slug. Let later scenes confirm the trait through tactics, not through a second essay.
Can two characters share a trait without blurring?
Yes if they use it differently under pressure. Two cynics are fine when one weaponizes jokes and the other goes silent. Shared vocabulary with identical tactics is how ensembles flatten.