A term you'll meet in narrative technique.
Characterization is the set of techniques a writer uses to build a character and reveal who they are — their personality, values, and inner life. It's how people on the page come to feel like people, and it works through both what the author tells us and what we're left to infer.
Direct characterization is when the narrator simply tells us what a character is like — "she was generous to a fault," "he was a cruel man." It's efficient and clear, but used alone it can feel flat, because we're being informed rather than shown.
Indirect characterization reveals character through evidence we interpret ourselves: what a character says, how they say it, what they do, what they think, how they look, and how others react to them. A useful checklist is the acronym STEAL — Speech, Thoughts, Effect on others, Actions, Looks. We deduce the person from the clues.
The contrast maps onto the old writing maxim "show, don't tell." Direct characterization tells; indirect characterization shows. Strong fiction usually favours showing — letting a single revealing action convey more than a paragraph of description ever could — while using direct statement sparingly for speed.
When you study a character, separate what you've been told from what you've worked out, and notice the gap between them. The richest characters are often those whose actions quietly contradict the narrator's (or their own) stated account — characterization at its most revealing.
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