Creating New Characters in Wonderland

So I'm writing a book based in Wonderland. And obviously I'm drawing on characters from Lewis Carroll's original works (both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass), but I'm also thinking I'll need to create my own characters, so I have a big enough cast, and enough people to play roles that don't really fit Carroll's original characters. Do you think that's okay? Should I limit my number of original characters? Should I take v v minor background characters from AiW and TtLG and make them my own? What are your thoughts?

I think you should do all of it

Yeah. Especially using background characters.

LOL line I v much appreciate your acknowledgement of my post thank you
but like
IDK
maybe the minor characters thing is too much work? like to choose a minor character and really develop them and bring them into the spotlight is a lot of work, but might also limit character creation?

It could.
You could do OCs that are based off background characters with out being the background characters (idk if that makes any sense .-.)

like…. keeping the names and creating whole new characters?
ALSO I'd like to clarify- the characters that you think of when you think Alice in Wonderland- I probably have them already. Alice, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, The Cheshire Cat, all those…. I have them all.

What about the griffon?

when I say background character I'm talking like….
bill the lizard
who no one remembers
or like
characterizing the walrus and the carpenter from Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum's story
or the dodo bird
I am talking seriously background characters
not side characters

What about the griffon?

No, I don't have the griffon, but I'll look at putting it in

(There goes Bill!)

Do you have the flowers that no one likes but I kinda love?

Also you could maybe do like a POV rom those pencil/hammer bird-thingamajiggs.

*from (I can spell, I promise)

Do you have the flowers that no one likes but I kinda love?

I don't but I'm also not sure how to put them in.
My AiW telling is kinda dark lol. We open on a rebellion overthrowing the Queen of Hearts, and she basically gets beheaded, and then Alice gets put on the throne, but thanks to a childhood association with Peter Pan, she's like… well, she's obsessed with finding a way to stay young and then you have the Jabberwocky who has provided her with a way to suck the youth out of the hearts of criminals, but she's being presented with people whose crimes are v minor…. not exactly Disney-movie lol. She's a bit of a tyrant. But she's not as unreasonable as the previous QoH, so no one really minds? Or cares? And yeah, lots of political turmoil. Also another subplot by the Knave of Hearts to get the throne. So. Not sure how flowers come in lol.

Also you could maybe do like a POV rom those pencil/hammer bird-thingamajiggs.

That is a very interesting idea! I hadn't thought of that! I might use that for a scene in Tulgey Woods

Kat, that sounds sensational. Please let me know when you publish.

Kat, that sounds sensational. Please let me know when you publish.

I will lol. It's gonna be my nanowrimo project. I'm just doing a crap-ton of development because knowing me, it will not be done in a month if I do not come up with the plot and all the characters beforehand.

Thanks! Now I'm thinking like maybe the bird is watching her the whole time, or you could do random segments of it's POV to take a break from Alice. Whatever you do, it sounds cool.

yeah, not entirely sure what POV the entire story is from lol. I just know it's not first person. But the last chapter is. Maybe the first one (which is kinda prologue-y) too. But like. Yeah. It's gonna be fun lol
Also it's crossed over with Peter Pan I can't remember if I mentioned that
I'm so excited about it lol

I can see why! It sounds so cool!

Ok now I really need to read this.

DO YOU GUYS WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT
TALKING ABOUT IT LETS ME FIGURE MORE STUFF OUT

YES

HELL YES KAT

OKAY HERE WE GO IT'LL TAKE A BIT

GO FOR IT

So, a bit of backstory
This takes place after AiW and TtLG, but before (….roughly: I need to brush up on TtLG before I can say that for sure) those two, Wonderland was engaged in the Jabberwocky War. All of the jabberwocky were killed except one. He'll be important later.
Alice has returned to Wonderland, where the people have tired of the Queen of Heart's, Helena's, reign of terror. We open on a scene where the rebels are discussing a battle plan, figuring out how to take Hearts Palace. The Knave of Hearts kills Helena (or captures her, for a public execution at a later date, haven't quite decided yet), and Alice is " voted" as next queen. She is uncertain, but the Jabberwock (in disguise) convinces her that becoming Queen will help her achieve her ultimate goal of eternal youth. He tells her that the ruby mounted on the Queen's scepter, Vitality, has the power to drain youth from others and give it to the owner of the ruby. Enchanted with the idea, she accepts (more on her obsession with eternal youth later). The Knave of Hearts returns from visiting his sister after his part in the rebellion (she was having a baby), and is enraged to find that he wasn't considered/established as king. After all, he did so much for the rebels' victory. The Jabberwock makes a deal with him too (He's kinda like Rumplestiltskin-esque). The Jabberwock has this overlying plot to gain control of Wonderland and avenge his people and family.
Why does Alice want to stay young forever? As a child, she was friends with Peter Pan, and she learned how he never aged, but was too afraid to fly away to Neverland, leaving her family and her cat behind. Eventually, Peter's visits stop, but she never forgets him (and no romantic subplot, they are children). She doesn't want to grow old, she's afraid of it.
Let's see, what else. THE TEA IS MAGIC AND CAN DRIVE PEOPLE MAD AND OMGOSH THIS IS LIKE MY FAVORITE PART. Teamaking is like…. idk. alchemy or potionmaking or something. The Mad Tea Party (hosted by none other than yours truly, the Mad Hatter) has a large array of teas and treats, both benign and harmful. There's teas that just… help overcome colds or that help you sleep, but then there's ones that like… let you see the future. I have it all planned out in my notebook (an actual one lol). And I'm going to have this rad subplot with both the Mad Hatter and the Jabberwock trying to bring their dead family back to life, trying to turn back time.
So yes, time is a major motif.
also spoiler for the end:

OH MY GOSH! GUUUURRRLLL!!!! THAT IS SO FREAKING GREAT!!!

Also: Vitality, the ruby, is from a cave on Neverland full of these magic youth-sustaining rubies. Neverland is like… the stuff of fairytales (hypocritical as that may sound) in Wonderland, but Alice, though she was young, is convinced it's real, and I have magic porTAL MAKING RABBITS that she enlists to make a rabbit hole to NL, because the way looking glass portals work won't work (I won't bore you with my magic/science stuff), but then she has this conflict with the White Rabbits, the directors/mediators of the portal rabbits, and it's like. Big mess
but she's also a child? and doesn't know better and wants to have everything her way

OH MY GOSH! GUUUURRRLLL!!!! THAT IS SO FREAKING GREAT!!!

ISN'T IT????? I'M SO EXCITED IT'S BEEN IN DEVELOPMENT FOR ABOUT A MONTH NOW
I have like no rebels right now though lol
which is a problem obviously. They're crucial to my plot.