30+ Character Traits and their Positive and Negative Uses

To create well-rounded characters, it’s important to make them as realistic as possible. This can mean seeing two sides of the positive (or negative) traits that best represent your character. Honesty is a distinctly good virtue, but is honesty always the best if it comes across as insensitive? Below, I’ve collected over twenty traits that can be flip-flopped between positive and negative uses.

• Kind or passive

• Strong-willed or stubborn

• Caring or sensitive

• Honest or insensitive

• Courageous or risk-taker

• Cautious or paranoid

• Calm or apathetic

• Optimistic or idealistic

• Knowledgeable or argumentative

• Determined or stubborn

• Devoted or obsessed

• Caring or overprotective

• Assertive or bossy

• Self-controlled or cold

• Passionate or obsessive

• Unyielding or unchanging

• Virtuous or high-strung

• Selfless or people-pleaser

• Open or naive

• Elegant or uptight

• Sincere or gullible

• Righteous or merciless

• Logical or cold

• Whimsical or weird

• Generous or excessive

• Effective or cruel

• Humorous or flippant

• Confident or arrogant

• Fearless or ignorant

• Wise or condescending

• Agreeable or impressionable

• Perfectionist or never satisfied

Tons of traits have opposite effects depending on when they’re used, and this is a great arc to add to any story.

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