Course Overview

Overview

Supporting characters are where most drafts bleed. The protagonist works; the supporting cast either drowns the protagonist (every secondary character clamoring for full development) or vanishes into wallpaper (everyone interchangeable). Four weeks on character economy — each supporting character gets ONE job and we let it be enough. We cover function (what each character is FOR), economy (how little development each actually needs to land), voice differentiation (without resorting to accents and tics), and ensemble integration. Four weeks. Twenty lessons. Bring a draft with at least six supporting characters. Leave with each one operational.

What’s inside

• 4 modules, 20 lessons + side-character cards — economy-focused, function-first
• Mindset Maven Test that names YOUR specific supporting-cast bloat pattern
• 4 guided meditations averaging 9 minutes — paired to per-character function work
• Toolkit: the One-Job Function Worksheet + the Side-Character Cards (one per character)
• Lifetime access, unlimited retakes — every new ensemble needs fresh function work
• Companion blog post per module — public, perfect for the writer drowning in characters

Who this is for

• The novelist whose protagonist keeps getting upstaged by her best friend
• The screenwriter with twelve secondary characters who all sound the same
• The playwright whose ensemble has six characters who could be cut without anyone noticing
• The game designer whose NPCs all read as variations of the same archetype

FAQs

Won’t ‘one job each’ make supporting characters feel flat?
Counterintuitively, no. Supporting characters with one clearly-executed function feel MORE real than supporting characters with multiple half-executed functions. Economy serves vividness.

What’s the difference between supporting character and minor character?
Module 1 covers the distinction. Supporting characters carry one or more story functions; minor characters carry voice/world texture. Different design moves for each.

How many supporting characters can a draft hold?
Depends on form. Novels can support 8-15 named supporting characters. Screenplays usually need fewer (6-10). Module 4 covers the cap calibration.

What about characters who ‘demanded’ more space?
Module 3 covers the demanding-character pattern. Usually ‘demanded’ means ‘I haven’t installed the function clearly and the character is drifting into protagonist territory.’ Sometimes it genuinely means the character belongs in a different draft.

Does this work for game design (NPCs)?
Yes — module 4 covers the game-narrative adaptation explicitly. NPCs benefit from the same one-job-each economy.

Can I retake?
Yes. Unlimited. Every new ensemble needs fresh function work.

What one student said

★★★★★

“We took this together — she’s writing a feature, he’s working on a debut novel. The supporting-cast economy framework works across both forms, which is partly why we picked this one as our shared course. Most weekday evenings for four weeks: dinner, then 90 minutes on the course, then 30 minutes arguing about whose subplot was the worst. Both drafts are better. Marriage is intact. We are recommending it to two other writer-couples we know.”

— The Eddards (Mara + Theo), screenwriter + novelist (married, took it together)