Editing Character (arts) (section)

===Regular, recurring and guest characters===
{{See also|Bit part}}

In television, a regular, main or ongoing character is a character who appears in all or a majority of episodes, or in a significant chain of episodes of the series.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sandler|first=Ellen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0YeCet_B_-IC&pg=PA40|title=The TV Writer's Workbook: A Creative Approach To Television Scripts|date=2008|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-49221-0|page=40}}</ref> Regular characters may be both core and secondary ones.

A [[recurring character]] or supporting character often and frequently appears from time to time during the series' run.<ref name="Crafty">{{cite book |last=Epstein |first=Alex |title=Crafty TV Writing: Thinking Inside the Box |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |year=2006 |isbn=0-8050-8028-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/craftytvwritingt00epst/page/27 27–28] |url=https://archive.org/details/craftytvwritingt00epst/page/27 }}</ref> Recurring characters often play major roles in more than one episode, sometimes being the main focus.

A guest or minor character is one who acts only in a few episodes or scenes. Unlike regular characters, the guest ones do not need to be carefully incorporated into the storyline with all its ramifications: they create a piece of drama and then disappear without consequences to the narrative structure, unlike core characters, for which any significant conflict must be traced during a considerable time, which is often seen as an unjustified waste of resources.<ref name=mcbeal>{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Greg M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=joaM7TvhSzUC|title=Beautiful TV: The Art and Argument of Ally McBeal|date=2009|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-77784-2|pages=147, 151}}</ref>{{rp|147}} There may also be a continuing or recurring guest character.<ref name=mcbeal />{{rp|151}} Sometimes a guest or minor character may gain unanticipated popularity and turn into a regular or main one;<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kukoff|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T9zj0AqB6bUC&pg=PA62|title=Vault Guide to Television Writing Careers|date=2006|publisher=Vault Inc.|isbn=978-1-58131-371-0|page=62}}</ref> this is known as a [[list of breakout characters|breakout character]].<ref name=ESL>{{cite web|url=http://eslnotes.com./movies/html/man-on-the-moon.html|work=English Learner Movie Guides|title=Man on the Moon|year=2000|first=Raymond|last=Weschler}}</ref><ref name="This definition">{{cite web|last=Miller|first=Ron|title=They really were a great bunch of happy people|url=http://www.thecolumnists.com/miller/miller426.html|publisher=TheColumnists.com|year=2005|quote=Originally, the Arthur 'Fonzie' Fonzarelli character was to be a comic relief dropout type, put there for comic contrast to the whitebread Richie and his pals. He was a tall, lanky guy, but when Henry Winkler blew everybody away at his reading, they decided to cut Fonzie down to Henry's size. Ultimately, Winkler molded the character around himself and everybody, including Ron Howard, realized this would be the show's 'breakout' character.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716055123/http://www.thecolumnists.com/miller/miller426.html|archive-date=July 16, 2011}}</ref>