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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34348
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There are no right answers, though there are conventions that are typically followed.

One such convention is the 'pyramid' method. Known as the Characterization Pyramid.

[![Characterization Pyramid](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YVBFw.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YVBFw.jpg)

(above is image of, dun dun duuuuuun, a pyramid. Please note, I'm being lazy. So I didn't put in too much effort to find a good image. Keep in mind, the point here is simply that it's a pyramid, meant to illustrate the importance of levels.)

How this works is, the bottom of the pyramid is your main character(s). The entire story hinges on the readers liking them and the readers will spend the most time with them. Therefore, they are the base, all others rest on them. And accordingly, they are the broadest section (most time spent on their development, characterization, etc.)

Then you get main supporting cast. They are usually those closest to the MC, so they tend to get a fair share of the spotlight and usually their own character arcs. (no hard and fast formula is used to show how much time, or how in depth an arc, or even how many arcs).

Then you get your supporting cast. They help, sort of, but not as much as the main supporting cast. These are most commonly the '2D' characters, though I would argue they still need to be well-rounded, you simply don't have enough screen time (or page space) to develop them too much. They almost never have an arc of their own, though it does make it quite interesting when there are supporting characters that do.

At the top is your background characters. These sometimes don't even have a name, but they are very much needed to show there's a world out there. The woman at the market that always has a warm smile and a kind word for the MC. The janitor the keeps grumbling things under his breath. Their main job is to show there's a world, on basically that's it.

However! Keep in mind that you, the god of this world you are creating, can do as you please. Maybe a nameless character has vital information that will drive the plot forwards. Maybe they'll give the MC(s) the motivation they need.

I like using the example from Genma's Daughter (and subsequent continuations), a Fanfic based on Ranma 1/2. In it, the main character, Ranko, finds her motivation to keep on keeping on (even after her existential crisis) almost entirely because of a little girl with otherwise little to no plot importance. Ranko, an aspiring violinist, loses chunks of herself, finding out her whole life has been a lie. But she finds a passion for the violin, almost by accident. But she's incredibly gun-shy because of her past.

She is asked to play an incredibly hard piece for a concert, and she finds it hard to find the will to put in the work. She's too busy trying to figure out who she is, so it's almost too much for her. But, one of her pseudo-sisters tells her the cold hard truth: there were no posters of women she could find, because no one found these women interesting enough.

So Ranko thinks on that little girl, and she decides she's going to be an amazing violinist, just so that she could one day be a poster in the little girl's room; to be someone the little girl can look up to, to aspire to become.

And so, a 'almost unimportant' character, because the sole driving force in motivating the main character.

So. How you, the writer, choose to do this is just that: a choice. How much time you spend on each character is just that: a choice. What you need to do is find a balance. And that can only come through trial and error (and beta readers... lots and lots of beta readers).

Original score: 5