Creating Characters by Howard Lauther Page A

three times more than has been needed.
    He is, as they say, an "easy touch."
UNGENEROUS
    Related Traits: Accumulative, acquisitive, avaricious, cheap, close-fisted, covetous, frugal, grabby, grasping, greedy, grudging, hard-fisted, hoarding, hoggish, mean, mercenary, miserly, moneygrubbing, monopolistic, niggardly, parsimonious, penny-pinching, penurious, petty, piggish, plunderous, predatory, rapacious, selfish, sparing, stingy, stinting, tight, tightfisted, uncharitable, wolfish.
    As Seen by Others:
    Doesn't like to share anything with anyone.
    Always "cutting corners," thus depriving others of what they either need or deserve.
    His penchant for saving is taken to the extreme.
    He is not moved by pleas to show some compassion.
    Scoffs at the virtue of giving.
    He wants not only a sizeable percentage of something but the overwhelming majority of it, if not all.
    Once he latches onto something, it is extremely difficult to wrest it away from him.
    Addicted to ownership.
    Hides things and pretends he doesn't have them.
    If two pieces of pie were on a table, he would begrudge each bite the other person took.
    He wastes nothing.
WELL-BEHAVED
    Related Traits:
    Cultivated, cultured, formal, genteel, gentlemanly, highbred, ladylike, nonplayful, polished, prissy, refined, restrained, stilted, unspontaneous, well-mannered.
    As Seen by Others:
    He acts like he came from an aristocratic family.
    Seems well-educated.
    Has all the mannerisms that come with good breeding.
    His movements are cloaked in politeness.
    Everything about him is well-orchestrated and reflective of decency.
    The only thing spontaneous about him is when he sneezes.
MISCHIEVOUS
    Related Traits:
    Devilish, elfish, free-wheeling, frolicsome, fun-loving, impish, mischief-loving, naughty, playful, prankish, puckish, rascally, reckless, roguish, spontaneous, uninhibited, unladylike, unrefined, unrestrained, waggish.
    As Seen by Others:
    He loves to play harmless pranks.
    One never knows what he is going to do next.
    Precariously walks the line between a tease and bad taste.
    Behind his smile lies plots yet unhatched.
    Tweaks the nose of formality whenever he gets a chance.
    Pomposity is one of his premier targets for attack.
IMAGINATIVE
    Related Traits:
    Artistic, bold, clever, creative, daring, dreamy, enterprising, extemporaneous, fanciful, gifted, improvisational, ingenious, innovative, inventive, mystical, nonconforming, original, resourceful, talented, unconventional, unorthodox, visionary, whimsical.
    As Seen by Others:
    He pulls possibilities out of the jaws of impossibility.
    Because he has a strong dislike of conformity, he tends to butt heads with tradition.
    He can make the most commonplace of things seem not at all common.
    He" develops things that make people wonder why they didn't think of that.
    He's always looking for something different, a fresh way to put a new face on something quite old.
    He hates beaten paths and is lured by the road not yet taken.
    He strives for the fascinating, the unique.
    Cannot be depended upon to walk the same rut, climb the same hill, sit on the same rock.
    Finds rationality in the irrational.
    Has the ability to give substance to what never was and will never be.
    He is a discoverer of countries in the hemisphere of the fantastic.
UNIMAGINATIVE
    Related Traits:
    Barren, commonplace, conforming, conventional, down-to-earth, emulative, imitative, machinelike, mechanical, mundane, ordinary, parrotlike, pedestrian, programmatic, prosaic, run-of-the-mill, uncreative, undaring, unenterprising, unexceptional, unimaginative, uninspired, uninventive, unoriginal, unresourceful.
    As Seen by Others:
    Does not question conventional wisdom, but follows it.
    He repeats what has become ordinary.
    Does almost all the things that practically everyone else does and which he is expected to do.
    He is a follower of rules, a practitioner of routine, an indefinable part of the crowd.
    He is a copycat, a modifier of accepted ideas.
    His work is