• (occasionally) his or her name
• what the character does, and how she/he does it
• what the character says, and how she/he says it
• what others say about him/her
• what the narrator says about him/her

A well-developed protagonist is also:

• motivated: the writer provides sufficient information to justify the character's actions
• plausible, or believeable
• consistent
• well-rounded: we come to know him/her as a whole person, not a sterotype
• dynamic: she or he is capable of change. Sometimes this change is the result of an epiphany: a new insight

To contrast with the protagonist and/or fill out the story, we often have minor characters who are

• flat: not much development; we don't know much about them
• static: the opposite of dynamic: they don't change
• stock characters; we'd call them stereotypes
• Sometimes a minor character serves as a foil to the main character. The foil highlights an attribute of the protagonist by contrasting with him/her.

Remember that we want to do more than just identify aspects of characterization. We need to ask whether the character is effective in the story. It's also not enough to decide whether we like the character or not. It's great if we do, but often the writers of today give us characters that are just as difficult, or boring, or strange as people we meet in real life. We don't have to like them to find them interesting.