Out of the Metal Kingdom and into the Fire

With the book that took place in the Metal Kingdom finished, I've moved onto to writing a book that takes place in the Maldian Fire Kingdom. This book focuses mostly on dragons themselves and rarely will mention the human guilds of Guardious. The main character is human but she lives in the Fire Kingdom as an adopted daughter. So far, I've had a lot of fun writing this book. I've written out the list of scenes I would like to get through and am already deciding which ones I can combine and which ones need to be cut. This is a book that I've had planned out for a while so there are many scenes that have been imagined up. 

This book is slated to have a lot of characters. In writing it, I'll need to be careful in making sure that each character stands out so no one gets lost. I'm trying to think of books I've read recently that have had to manage a lot of characters so that I can learn from what they've done. There's of course The Lost Queen and The Forgotten Kingdom by Signe Pike I recently completed. They have a large group of characters and I didn't have a problem remembering who they were. Perhaps I'll read a few other books that have a lot of characters in them to ascertain how writers have written them effectively. 

What are some books you've read where a lot of characters are used? How do you plan a book before writing it?

Thank you for reading this article. Keep dreaming and day dreaming of all the beautiful worlds in your head.