A Directive is a simple behavioral rule that a paper creature was created with (or had added later on via magical inks). It will always attempt to follow its Directives. A magical paper creature can be told what to do on a momentary basis, but it quickly forgets verbal commands and promptly falls back on its Directives after a brief period.
If created with conflicting Directives, the paper will try or fail to act independently, but this tends to lead to early fraying or untimely destruction. Paper does not "know" anything or have self-preservation instincts, and it does not understand how to prioritize or reason (though clever use of Directives can help with this). This has led to many amusing childrens' tales of paper creatures who misbehave or destroy themselves in the attempt of their duties.
Examples: "Stay near me", "attack on command", "Steal gold pennies", "be stealthy", "evade capture", "return twice a day", "never attack children", "stay on this desk".
A Directive must be a simple sentence without conjunctions, clauses, or any sophisticated programmatic language that a three year old could not reasonably interpret and execute.