ously effective, whether for good or ill.

FOOTNOTES:

[L] The writer should not have an eye to the origin of his words only
while writing dialogue. In narrating the homely and commonplace event,
and in describing everyday scenes, where the value lies in everyday
associations, the suggestive English word should be used. The matter has
been touched upon, though not in these terms. The whole endeavor in
fiction writing generally should be to make the word chime with the
substance.

CHAPTER X

PORTRAYAL OF CHARACTER

The Three Modes of Characterization--Dialogue--Action--
Description or Direct Statement--Aims of Characterization--
To Show the Nature--To Show the Man as a Physical Being--
Character and Plot--Characterization by Speech--
Characterization by Statement--Characterization by Action.

Characterization is an unlovely term, but it stands for much. In fact,
it stands for so much that it is the hardest point of technique to
discuss adequately. In the fiction writer's vocabulary, it stands for
things as diverse as the necessity that the whole action of a story be
significant in relation to character, and the necessity that the persons
of the fiction seem real and individual, apart from any unique quality
of their actions. Whether the action of a story is significant in
relation to character depends upon whether the writer has discovered a
real plot and developed it properly; whether the persons of a story seem
tangible and unique apart from their actions depends upon the writer's
skill in describing them and transcribing their speech. That is to say,
characterization is a matter accomplished by narration, by description,
and by the transcription of speech. A reader of a story has a clue to
the natures of its people in their actions, in their words, and in what
the writer has to say about them.

It may be well to enlarge somewhat on the respective functions of the
three modes of characterization. Dialogue, action, and description or
direct statement by the author all serve to give the character concerned
individuality in the eyes of a reader, but all do not function in
precisely the same manner or to precisely the same end. A few
illustrations will make this clearer.

Suppose a story involving a character whose most salient trait is
cruelty. The author may demonstrate this quality in the person by
stating directly that he is cruel, by showing him in wantonly heartless
actions, a