While visiting a school today, a student asked, “How do you write characters?”
If ever Henry James’ dictum, “Show don’t tell,” has meaning, it’s in the portrayal of characters. What the writer says about character is vastly less meaningful than what writers show what characters do.
One might say, “Polly was a brave girl,” but it doesn’t mean much. Contrast that with a simplistic situation, in which Polly must cross a turbulent river. Does she swim across? Give up the notion of crossing as too dangerous? Build a bridge? Search for a safer place to cross? Get someone to carry her across, and so on and on. The action helps reveal what she is as a character. Moreover, with the development of the plot, Polly will make many decisions as to what she does. The sum total of all she does constitutes her character, and personality. The character can change and evolve, but there must be logic in that evolution, a logic which the reader can follow.
Here again, as throughout a novel, the details (clothing, gesture, speech, etc.) which help portray Polly adds much to this factor.
One often speaks of plot as a progression of events. May I suggest that it would be more interesting, and create better novels, if we were to speak of plot as how a character or characters deal with various situations?