Character Traits: Describing What a Character is Like
Basics on the topic Character Traits: Describing What a Character is Like
Character Traits in a Description – Introduction
When writing a story, authors develop the character’s personality through the character’s thoughts, dialogue, and actions. By identifying and examining these three things, we can describe the character traits of a character. Let’s look at the definition of character traits:
Character traits refer to the thoughts, actions, and a character’s dialogue, or what a character says. They define and reveal a character’s personality. Character traits also play a big role in determining how they will respond to various situations and how others perceive and relate to them.
Knowing how to identify character traits is important both when we are reading the text, and writing a narrative text. Character traits also come into play when you want to write a description of a character.
Character Traits in a Description – Strategy
You can use adjectives like brave, worried, or excited to describe a character, but authors also use dialogue and thoughts to show what the character is feeling or thinking. They also add actions and body language to give the reader clues about the character's emotions. When analyzing the character’s reactions or emotions in a particular situation, we get clues about their character traits.
For example, to show that the character is scared, the author can write: Shaking, Taylor walked up to the rollercoaster, whispering to himself, “I can do it! I can do it!”
We know that the character is feeling scared because he is shaking and whispering to himself. The character trait that we identify in Taylor is fear or anxiety .
When writing your own character description or doing character analysis, you can use this character description template:
Use this template to write down the thoughts, dialogue, and actions of the character to identify their traits.
Finding Character Traits – Examples
Let’s take a look at the passage about Olivia, a girl who is making a birthday present for her friend, and see what we can learn about how she is feeling:
When her mom returned from work, she found Olivia sitting in the pile of craft supplies, scratching her head. “Hi, Mom!”, declared Olivia. “Sorry for the mess, I am trying to make a present for Jamie.” “Why don’t you just make a scrapbook, like you did for your other friends?” asked Mom. “I want to create something special for her so she knows she has me as a friend. She just moved from Maine and is very shy, and I want her to know she’s not alone,” Olivia replied. “That’s so nice of you!” Mom exclaimed as she left the room. Suddenly, Olivia realized what she wanted to make. A friendship bracelet! she thought. It’s a perfect gift! I knew I would come up with a great idea!
Now we will look at actions, dialogue, and thoughts to understand how Olivia is feeling. Let’s use the character description template:
| Category | Example |
|---|---|
| Thoughts | "I knew I would come up with a great idea!" |
| Dialogue | "I want to create something special for her so she knows she has me as a friend." |
| "I want her to know she’s not alone." | |
| Actions | Scratching her head |
In the beginning of the passage, Olivia is seen scratching her head. This action shows us that she is feeling confused and is thinking really hard about the present. In the dialogue between Olivia and her mom about Jamie, Olivia appears very thoughtful, caring, and concerned about Jaime’s feelings. When Olivia thinks that she knew she would come up with a great idea, we can see that she feels confident. The character traits we can identify in Olivia are that she is thoughtful, empathetic, creative, determined, and confident in her skills.
Character Traits – Summary
Let’s summarize what we have learned about character traits.
In a story, authors use the character’s thoughts, dialogue, and actions to develop the character’s personality. Authors use dialogue and thoughts to show what the character is feeling. They also add actions and body language to give the reader clues about the character's emotions. These details help us identify character traits if we want to write a description for a specific character.
Now you know how to identify character traits! For more practice, watch our video and try our activities. To learn even more about characters, watch our video on understanding characters from actions and dialogue.
Frequently Asked Questions about Character Traits
Transcript Character Traits: Describing What a Character is Like
Character Traits: Describing What a Character is Like In a story, we use the character’s thoughts, dialogue, and actions to develop what a character is like, or their personality. These are called character traits! Oftentimes authors add dialogue and thoughts to tell the reader more about how a character is feeling. They also add details about body language, or the action of the character, to give the reader clues about a character's emotions. Authors consider how they want to portray the characters' feelings when they write a story. Let's read a few passages about Ari, Zayd, and Hewie's sandcastle-building contest and see what we can learn about how they are feeling! Ari felt the sun radiating as they wiped a bead of sweat off of their forehead. They dug in the sand. Nothing. They dug again. Nothing. "Where did you find all those pretty shells Zayd, I can't find any!" Ari threw up their hands and plopped in the sand. How is Ari feeling? (...) Ari is feeling frustrated that they can't find any seashells for their sandcastle. What thoughts, dialogue, and actions show how Ari is feeling? (...) In this passage, the author didn't include any thoughts but... when Ari says, 'I can't find any!' that shows that they are angry. And when Ari 'threw up their hands and plopped in the sand', that action also shows that Ari is frustrated. The character traits we can identify in Ari are that they get easily frustrated when things don't go their way, and give up pretty quickly! Let's read another. You both better have brought your A game today, I'm almost done with my best sand castle yet!" Zayd exclaimed. Suddenly, a big wave crashed on the shore and Zayd jumped up. ICK! keep that water away from me, he thought. How is Zayd feeling? (...) We know Zayd feels weary about the water because he thinks 'Ick! Keep that water away from me'. We know Zayd feels excited because he EXCLAIMED, 'I'm almost done with my best sand castle yet!'... and Zayd JUMPS UP when the big wave crashes which shows us that he doesn't want to touch the water. The character traits we can identify in Zayd are that he enjoys building sandcastles, but doesn't like getting wet! The last passage says, 'Hewie was decorating the pillars and adding the final touches to his castle. He smiled at the small sculpture he added to the courtyard. He peered at the bridge he made and put his fingers together to make a chef's kiss.' How is Hewie feeling? (...) There are no thoughts or dialogue that show us this, but the author uses Hewie's body language, or actions, to show how he's feeling. We know Hewie feels happy with how his sandcastle came out because he smiles at the sculpture and makes a chef's kiss . The character trait we can identify in Hewie is that he takes pride in his work. Before we see how the contest ends, let's summarize. Remember, (...) in a story, authors use the character’s thoughts, dialogue, and actions to develop what a character is like, or their personality. Often times authors add dialogue and thoughts to tell the reader more about how a character is feeling. They also add details about body language to give the reader clues about a character's emotions. Oh no! Here comes a big wave! [A big wave washes up on the beach and destroys Zayd and Ari's castles, Ari is disoriented and Zayd is buried in the sand, Hewie is too busy taking selfies with his castle to notice what happened behind him, we hear/see the camera flash]
