Building Characters Using Direct Characterization

Building Characters Using Direct Characterization

by Holley Cornetto

To many readers, one of the most important aspects of a story is the characters. Characters, after all, are the window through which the reader experiences a story. As readers, we may not always like a character, but a character needs to be interesting enough to captivate our attention and make us want to read on. 

There are two major ways that writers reveal information about character to the reader. These are known as direct characterization and indirect characterization. In this post, I’m going to discuss direct methods of characterization, what these methods convey to readers, and how.

The four direct methods of characterization are dialogue, description, action, and thought. All of these elements demonstrate something about the character to the reader. 

Dialogue
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