DISCLAIMER: I don't know what I'm talking about. This is MY opinion, stemming from MY experiences. This may not apply to or work for everyone.

Alright so this little bit of rambling was originally gonna be sent to Pteragon, but I figured other people might want to hear what I have to say about this as well

Also, I drafted this chapter like three weeks ago and then entirely forgot about it. Good job, me.

Large casts are a pox. They sound like a decent idea in theory, but once you get to writing, they are a pain. in. the. ass.

First thing I should say is that I don't recommend splitting up your characters just so you don't have to deal with them all at once. Sure, it works alright, but it's fairly unprofessional and it makes things more difficult for you in the long run.

In AWU (which may be a bad example because it's OLD), I split up the main cast because there was a lot of things I wanted the reader to know that I didn't want to do one-by-one. That would've taken forever.
So I divided them up: some people found out about Soren and the Fallen Castle, others discovered more about the crevice, etc.

From what I've seen, the biggest issue with splitting your cast is the who-knows-what problem. When you've got multiple groups of characters doing and learning different things, it can be difficult to keep track of which characters know which bits of information.

But I'm getting off topic.

The most basic advice I can give you is to keep track of who you have and what they're like. If you know how many characters you're dealing with, it's easier to add them in.

I tend to write a lot of dialogue, which kind of helps with giving everyone some time in the spotlight.

With the problem of not being able to handle more than a few characters at once...that can actually help you. People tend to divide into groups naturally, tending to hang out with those they get along best with.
So you don't have to write everyone at once- maybe form some groups within the main team and alternate between each of them.

This is something that cropped up in AWU a few times, especially once they'd reconnected into one large group. Everyone was together, yes, but there were different things happening within that group (example: some of the Authors finding out Star was alive, the Order reconvening, etc.)

If you did already split them up, then some of the people that were in those separate groups might stick together, seeing as they've spend a while together and are more comfortable around each other. Keep track of who's friends with whom, and who maybe hasn't interacted as much. If you're familiar with your cast, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how they work together.

Put actual thought into the scenes that require the full cast. Try to visualize what's going on with everyone, and alternate between them. You can take your time turning the focus on different people- have some scenes be more focused on one person within one group, then have the next scene be from someone else (this can apply just as much with third person as first).

Other than that, really all I can say is good luck. I haven't had a ton of experience with writing a large amount of characters- I did it with AWU and am now trying not to have to deal with it again.

People are strange, and things involving a lot of them can be very difficult to write. There's just no way around it.

Hope this was at least a little helpful, though I'm dearly sorry if it wasn't.

-your favorite lunatic 📝