One-Scene Johnnies. Characters who are only in the script for one scene. Think long and hard before you name these characters. If you really truly think they only work with a name, name them. Otherwise, call them by something general (Waitress, Lieutenant) so as not to force the reader to remember someone meaningless.
— scriptshadow.net
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📖 Notes & analysis
This works because names are promises. The moment you write "Denise" instead of "Waitress," a reader's brain files her as someone worth tracking, then feels mildly cheated when she vanishes after one exchange of dialogue. Calling her Waitress signals disposability up front, which is a kindness, not a slight — it tells the reader where to spend their memory.
Say a delivery driver hands over a package and cracks one joke. Leave him as Delivery Driver. But if that same driver returns in act three because the joke mattered, he's earned a name, and the reader will actually recall him instead of squinting at the page wondering who Marcus is.
The caution: don't let this harden into a rule where every minor character becomes a job title. A vivid one-line character with a real name can be a gift — memorable precisely because you broke the pattern.
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