{The Scribbler} When Little Nuggets Become Big Ideas

I decided to retire Word Count Wednesdays because I don't often bother to post it.
I still like talking about writing, though, and decided to merge WCW into The Scribbler,
which can be for any writing topics I wish to talk about.

Yesterday morning when I was still in the land that hovers between awake and asleep, my mind passed over an idea I had earlier this year.  It's something I think about on and off, and I've been considering beginning development on it in November for NaNoWriMo, though I really hate how frantic that event is when you don't have enough free time to dole out.  Plus, it's another contemporary, and I really want to work on a different genre after FizzyPop.  Even more to the point, this one is middle-grade, which I never though I'd write, either.  Especially contemporary middle-grade.  It's the contemporary genre I read least, followed by teen contemporary.  So if I go through with this, how much harder will my internal struggle be?  But if I just play around during NaNo, maybe, just maybe...

Anyway, I was working on internal character development for the main character's mother.  I know the type of mother I want her to be, and I was thinking about how she got to where she in life, the things that shaped her.  Writers often develop full backstories for their characters that readers are never privy to.  The characters know, however, and it shapes their present.  In that moment of internal thought, I realized that if I go even deeper into her backstory on paper than I'd been intending to, she has her own story to tell.  It's possible that if I dig hard enough, I can unearth a second story, one for teens or perhaps even adults, depending on where the lines of her life wind up falling.

So now what started out as a simple story with typical character development has the potential to become more.  In a way, this scares me.  And not just because it would mean more contemporary writing. I know how hard world building is, and I've never completely built a major backstory for a secondary character before in such a deep, full style that merits  a companion novel.  If companion is even the right word.  It sort of reminds me of the way Ellen Hopkins' TILT and TRIANGLES revolve around two sides of the same timeline from different perspectives, except what I'm doing wouldn't occur at the same time, but more as a...prequel, in a way.

So for now, I'll keep thinking, keep considering.  I told myself over the summer that if I finished a rough draft of Fizzypop by the end of October, I could start developing something new in November for NaNo, not necessarily focusing on 50,000 words of story, but on full-speed development.  I only have one month left to do that, and I haven't worked on FizzyPop since I unstuck my knot due to how hard September has been on me.  Time will tell, though.

We'll see!