If you're not familiar with Mandyville, then it is possible that you've never seen The West Wing. It is named after a character called Mandy who up and disappeared during the end of season 1 and the start of season 2. She went poof, no explanation, even though there was a bit of a story line for why, but it was like she never existed in the first place. This happened with secondary characters where they just disappeared into the ether.
The reason why I'm writing about it is that it is one of the traps we should try not to fall into as writers. It's more for people who are writing a series, but you should have a plan for what happens for your secondary characters. Maybe not that they have a full on scene, but that they're talked about a small bit. You might not like the character but you might have a reader or a fan who does. Maybe they want to know what happened or what they're doing and that will spin into fanfic. That fanfic might bring in more people who read the original material and so on.
The easiest way to make sure you don't fall into the trap is to write down your characters, all of them, and write down what they do. Keep a line below their name to write which books they've appeared in and which books they're talked about in. You can do this either physically writing it down or Google Docs or a spreadsheet. Then, if you have nothing for them to do in the book, just mention them in dialogue if you can. But try not to fall into the trap that your secondary characters go poof. It's lazy writing. Yes, I'm saying that about Aaron Sorkin of all people, but, honestly, connect your characters.
So, until next time, back up your work and keep on writing.
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