Use action, not “telling” in developing your novel’s characters

By Dennis Mellersh

In learning how to write a novel, the art of character development is a skill you will need to acquire.

Although many books on writing techniques have been published on this literary topic, there are a few main points on character development to keep in mind when you are in the early stages of the learning to write process.

As best as you can, try to develop the personality of your characters through the actions they take in your novel, rather than through non-dialogue or non-action description.

You don’t want to tell the reader that a particular character is mean or evil, for example; you want to show it by the character’s actions.

Sometimes you may need to use purely descriptive prose to portray the physical features of a character, such as the color of their eyes, but to show their personality, do it through the action of your novel.

Here’s a too-obvious example: (“name of your character) roughly pushed his wife out of the way.”

Or, “It wasn’t the first time that (name of your character) had insulted his wife in front of their friends.”

Overly simple, but you get the idea. It builds a descriptive image of the character without simply telling/saying that he was rude and abusive.

And, even with prose description you can find ways to add action and avoid just “telling.”
Here are a few oversimplified examples:

“As he walked quickly through the doorway, (name of your character) had to duck to avoid hitting his head.” (Conveys that the character is tall without just saying he is tall.)

“(Name of your character) took her wrinkled slacks and blouse out of the laundry basket and dressed quickly.” (Describes how she looked without simply saying her clothing was wrinkled.)

“(Name of your character) looked in the mirror and was shocked at how bloodshot her eyes were.” (Better than “Her eyes were bloodshot”)

Overall, by using the more indirect or oblique methods of developing a character such as through action or action-oriented description, it leaves more up to the imagination of your readers and will help get them more involved in your novel.