Going into the novelization of “House of Cards”, I again went into planning stage. I thought the story would rotate between several groups of people: August and Julie August’s sister and her partner August’s workmates Julie’s school crowd Julie’s workmates the nursing home where Julie’s aunt lives the café where August hung out during lunch breaks. Lots of these groups involved blocks of characters, e.g. the workplaces, and Julie’s school. Most of them would be supporting or peripheral, but I wanted (and needed) them to all exist. I drew up eighty characters, assigning them different roles. In the book, I used only about twenty of them. The story never went…