I have a scene where a bunch of teenagers are at a party in a big spooky house in the woods. I’m using some stories to weave in material about one of my main characters, and I’m going to use one of those stories in about fifty pages (I think). The story is set in a house in a mill hill. I just realized I have the same character living in both houses, the big spooky house and the mill house, so now I’m trying to make a decision. I could have the party at the mill house instead of the big house (I’m reluctant–the spooky house is a darling; and logistically it would be trickier to fit a bunch of people into a much more cramped environment). I could set the later scene in the big house rather than the mill house (but that would change the socioeconomic stuff in the later scene, which is more important than a darling). Or I could make up a new character, have new guy own the big house and old guy own the small house. Number three is probably what I’ll do, but then at some point I’ll have to figure out what function two minor characters serve that one couldn’t do (other than logistics–that’s just lazy). Loose, baggy monster.