Your characters are a sum total of their traits. Maybe your heroine is beautiful, sassy, vulnerable, and intelligent. Maybe your hero is strong, witty, quirky, and claustrophobic. Piled together these traits can create complex and memorable characters. But sometimes authors fail to take full advantage of their characters’ traits and, in so doing, waste their characters’ potential.

For example, let’s consider our beautiful, sassy, vulnerable, intelligent heroine. We’ve established right off the bat that she’s all these things, but unless we use these traits within the story, we not only have no reason for the character to possess them, we are also leaving a lot of good stuff on the table.

As another example, let’s say you have a minor character who is renowned for his strength. He’s a Hoss Cartwright kind of character. When he first comes on stage, you wax eloquent about his strength and make sure readers understand this is what this character is all about. But then maybe the story gets rolling, you get distracted by other things needing your attention, and you never really get around to putting this character’s strength to any good use.

Readers aren’t likely to hate you for this mistake. Half the time, they probably won’t even notice your missed opportunity. But they will notice if you do take full advantage of every character.

If your character is strong, let him use his strength. If she’s supposed to be really smart, make sure her brain is taxed at every opportunity. If he’s funny, give him some funny lines. If she’s beautiful, make sure other characters take notice.

The point is this: Just saying a character is strong, or whatever, is great as far as it goes. But it just doesn’t go far enough. You’ve created a good character, so make sure you’re taking advantage of every interesting trait to give readers an experience they won’t forget.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Does your main character have any traits you’re not taking full advantage of? Tell me in the comments!