Hi! I've been wondering how you handle so many characters at a time. 18 is no small feat and you plan on adding even more? Just, how? It's crazy impressive.
Practice. Literally, actual years of practice. I will readily admit that, in the beginning, I had no idea what I was doing and I’m pretty sure I accidentally shafted more than one of my characters. But the longer I wrote them, the more they grew into their own people, and the more I wanted to make sure they got their time in the spotlight. I also started keeping an informal tally of who was likely to talk, how often they’d actually said something, and whether or not I needed to go back in and change someone’s dialogue to match the speech patterns of someone else to make sure everyone was represented, and that helped TREMENDOUSLY.
But, uh… mostly practice.
