Story Characterization

"Far too many writers—especially beginners—think that a physical description of a character is characterization. If they have a woman stand in front of a mirror and comb her long brown hair with the comb delicately balanced in her slender fingers as she looks into her own flashing brown eyes, such writers think they’ve done the job. [Such] matters as hair color, complexion, eye color, length of the fingers, size of the s, or hairiness of the body—those are usually pretty trivial, unless there’s something exceptional about them."
~ Orson Scott Card

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The Importance of Characters

Characters are what make and break a story. Sure, a good plot will keep you charging forward and zipping through the pages but characters are really what will make you fall in love with the story. In so many ways, they're the very crux of the story. This is why they're so hard for us writers to write. Of course, there are two kinds of stories: plot-driven stories and character-driven stories. Surprisingly, characters in plot-driven stories are more difficult to develop. In character-driven stories, they usually just spring up fully-formed. But in plot-driven stories, I have to work harder to think them up or at least to find them. But even though plot is the driving element in plot-driven stories, characters are still incredibly important. In plot-driven stories, characters are the ones to essentially drive the plot. A character's narration can even change how the reader perceives the events in the plot. Maybe plot is the number one reason people keep reading, but good characters are essentially what make them stay. Good characters accentuate a plot and a story. Plus, readers are total ers for characters they like. Those important characters are the reason why they remember a story, and that's what you need to live for as a writer. 

A writer creates a convincing character by giving him a particular motivation or desire. As the character follows his true nature and struggles with his inner motivations, he begins to resemble a real person. The way that the writer chooses to reveal his characters varies. Some writers rely heavily on outward appearances. For example, a character may have a hunchback or some other deformity, which implies his evilness or antagonism. Writers may also reveal their characters’ traits using their thoughts, feelings and actions or another character’s thoughts, actions and feelings about that character.

Because characters are such an important element in short stories, the kind of character that the writer presents is also