Hey - we just published a new essay.

There is an term - Main Character Energy - that has become quite popular over the past few years alongside similar ideas, like ‘agency’ and ‘you can just do things.’

The basic idea of Main Character Energy is that it’s good to live like you are the main character in a video game or movie. The world is yours! Do what you want! Get all the attention! It’s the kind of phrase you might see commented under a social media post where someone is the center of attention (or ironically, under a post where someone is trying and failing to be the center of attention.)

I have a new proposal: what if striving for Main Character Energy, we should consider Background Character Energy? Here is our essay with thoughts.

Until next week,

- Carter and Jordan

p.s. last week, our free-to-join writing club (Writing Club) released the first interview in a new series called Writing About Writing, where we interview writers about how they wrote specific pieces. in the first edition we interviewed author and Substack writer Naomi Kanakia about her controversial piece, “Editors Don’t Want Male Novelists.” Read our interview with Naomi here.