Because my aunt sucks...

... i now have a story forming in my head. she has offered another title with no story to go with it and i wrote it on a card and stuck it on the outside of a door in my brain. behind the door the story is forming, but already there is a single image, a single exchange that has been the seed of my epiphany garden.

the title alone told me that it would be a story about enna and eillim, my very favorite characters. especially since i revamped them into sci-fi witches. Shade and Shadow Analysis was what she offered me and i saw those crazy twins standing there and i just knew. I have since changed the slightly scientific sounding title to The Study of Shade and Shadow, which is still totally the same thing. (i love poetic license)

my first images of a story are always my favorite part of writing. And i still remember what they all were, for all of my stories. Sometimes they don't even make it into the words, but i still know where it all came from and can see bits of it in every chapter that follows.

for this one, for this odd story's title came first i see Enna and Eillim as kids, maybe in their early teens. They are sitting on a big blanket where all kinds of... stuff has been laid out. They're casting a spell, but they are dubious and regarding all of the yet unknown tools hesitantly.

Eillim looks at her sister and says "are you sure about this?"

Enna shrugs one shoulder, "...Um, i don't know." and then she picks up a bowl and dumps whatever is in it into another bowl.

its interesting to me in so many ways. Enna and Eillim, as i have them written, are very very different when it comes to their magics. at one point in the chapter eleven excerpt of the spaceship story Eillim reacts strongly, negatively, to a charm her sister has made. The fact that, as children, they started out working their magic together is something that i would very much like to investigate to learn more about them.

Also, if I were to have written this on my own, based on what i know of them in the future, i would have reversed their dialog. I would have had enna asking if it was safe and eillim being nonchalant about the whole thing. but since it came to me the way it did i know that whatever does happen after this affects the way they react to each other. That too i would love to investigate.

and the best part or worst part is that the book i was reading yesterday and will finish today is called Garden Spells. A witchy woman book between sisters which is both inspiring and fun. The door on which i have taped the words "A study of shade and shadow" is rattling in its frame, just begging me to open it up and take a walk. I'm having trouble resisting

...and that book? also on loan from my aunt. it's all her fault... sara's gotta learn to focus.