What do you wonder about? What questions tickle your mind?
Whether you want to tell a story or simply see the world a different way, the place to start is asking: what if? Not the what ifs that plague or worried mind, but the what ifs that make the world a little bigger and leave our hearts a little more open. (And if you think about it, either way you end up with a story. You might as well tell a story you enjoy!)
I’ve been immersed in what ifs about witches and dragons and wishing wells for the last few months. It started when my son asked if I would write a Maeve the Sun to follow up Maeve the Moon. He had me stumped. What could Maeve do to become a sun?
I made lists of all kinds of scenarios to put my familiar character into, but none of them stuck. That is, not until I stepped back and asked what if…
What if I start from the beginning? What if this was just a sun story?
What if a girl wanted to be the sun? Keep the sun? Hide the sun?
What if she was afraid of the dark?
What if a WITCH was afraid of the dark?! Eureka!
It turns out that this isn’t the story I was trying to make it. There’s a greater lesson here in letting things be what they will, and I believe a key to doing that is asking different questions.
I’ve been getting to know this new character, Zelda. Zelda’s a night witch of the Western horizon and a wishing witch in training, and she has many secrets:
her wishing stars explode
her birthday candles never light
her dandelions don’t puff
but worst of all is her most secret secret: she’s afraid of the dark.
Zelda will have an epic adventure in which she learns how to face her fears and follow her own path. I’ll have more to share about her story, Zelda’s Wish, in the months to come, but for now, I’d like you to meet Zelda!
Download a free coloring page featuring Zelda and her dragon and imagine for yourself, what would happen if a witch was afraid of the dark?
Get this and more for free in the Treehouse Club.
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