My head is very full of ideas right now and I need to empty it
Gave the bits of Streetlight People to the girls at work today (cause I wanted to show off the pretties but also because I keep asking them questions and we're running into a "need to know" sort of situation). I'm always hesitant about sharing things this early on with people because I so often leave them lying by the wayside and that is frustrating to people who aren't more in the know of my every thought (i.e. my flisters).
B was the only one to read it (I don't think R will read it because it irritates her when I give her something she doesn't consider "done" - which, is to say, something novel length and edited) and she gave it three very enthusiastic thumbs up. Okay, there were no thumbs involved. Her exact words were, "This is really good. You need to finish it. Not like the other things I keep telling you that you need to finish. THIS is what you need to finish. For reals." OR something like that.
I enjoy having B to bounce things off of because she responds with a lot of well thought out ideas. Like today. I think I came to some really good conclusions because of our talk.
So, the truths of the Streetlight People verse are, as follows:
1) Only women can access magic. And that's what it's called. They ACCESS it. If they want to put forth the effort, they can call upon the magic and it's theirs to use.
2) Each woman has a special little bit of magic that is like a free pass. They don't have to give up anything to access it. For instance, Aja's music is a sort of magic. She's REALLY GOOD at playing her cello. It's the other magic that she accesses that is starting to hurt her.
3) Accessing other magic takes something from the person accessing it. It comes at a cost. If it's little magic, it just takes a little bit from them. If it's magic, it takes a lot from them. And the cost is different for every person. Once again, let's use Aja as an example (because I know more about her, for some strange reason). She only started losing her sight after she started accessing the magic that helped her find lost things. To this point, it's been a small amount of magic so she's been losing her sight gradually.
4) The payment for magic is not something that is a secret. It's a bone-deep certainty within in the person who is attempting it that they are paying a price. They may chose to ignore the warning but it's there.
5) Society has been structured so that girls from good families (such as those that are in the three houses at Grantson) are taken away once they reach the age of 10 and a block is put in place so they can't access their magic at all. Women were dying out before they were procreating and important families were dying out because their women were using their magic before they came of age. This has been happening for so long that no one really knows why girls are sent away. They just are.
6) The Librarian (at this point, there is only one at Grantson although there have been more) is a female who gives herself over completely to the magic. Must remember to use the term Minion of the Magic since B and R like it so much. Libraries are still a repository of knowledge even if there are no books like we know books.
7) Every year, there is a girl who is born on exactly the second hour of the second day of the second month. Right now, I'm calling them Paragons. It's still up in the air about how this is going to work into the plot. Each of the four girls is a Paragon.
8) Each of the four girls is also at Grantson without going through the normal process to be there. No, I take that back. Aja isn't in school any more but she had been. After she started to lose her sight, she left.
9) Tevan's grandmother is scared of him, just as she was scared of his father and her husband. None of the males in this family line have been long for this world. There's something off about them. I need to write more about his past to come to more of an understanding but Tevan has anger issues.
I really wish there was a 10 but I'm at a loss. My head is empty once again. Now it's off to write once again. I have story prompts that need to be filled!
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.
B was the only one to read it (I don't think R will read it because it irritates her when I give her something she doesn't consider "done" - which, is to say, something novel length and edited) and she gave it three very enthusiastic thumbs up. Okay, there were no thumbs involved. Her exact words were, "This is really good. You need to finish it. Not like the other things I keep telling you that you need to finish. THIS is what you need to finish. For reals." OR something like that.
I enjoy having B to bounce things off of because she responds with a lot of well thought out ideas. Like today. I think I came to some really good conclusions because of our talk.
So, the truths of the Streetlight People verse are, as follows:
1) Only women can access magic. And that's what it's called. They ACCESS it. If they want to put forth the effort, they can call upon the magic and it's theirs to use.
2) Each woman has a special little bit of magic that is like a free pass. They don't have to give up anything to access it. For instance, Aja's music is a sort of magic. She's REALLY GOOD at playing her cello. It's the other magic that she accesses that is starting to hurt her.
3) Accessing other magic takes something from the person accessing it. It comes at a cost. If it's little magic, it just takes a little bit from them. If it's magic, it takes a lot from them. And the cost is different for every person. Once again, let's use Aja as an example (because I know more about her, for some strange reason). She only started losing her sight after she started accessing the magic that helped her find lost things. To this point, it's been a small amount of magic so she's been losing her sight gradually.
4) The payment for magic is not something that is a secret. It's a bone-deep certainty within in the person who is attempting it that they are paying a price. They may chose to ignore the warning but it's there.
5) Society has been structured so that girls from good families (such as those that are in the three houses at Grantson) are taken away once they reach the age of 10 and a block is put in place so they can't access their magic at all. Women were dying out before they were procreating and important families were dying out because their women were using their magic before they came of age. This has been happening for so long that no one really knows why girls are sent away. They just are.
6) The Librarian (at this point, there is only one at Grantson although there have been more) is a female who gives herself over completely to the magic. Must remember to use the term Minion of the Magic since B and R like it so much. Libraries are still a repository of knowledge even if there are no books like we know books.
7) Every year, there is a girl who is born on exactly the second hour of the second day of the second month. Right now, I'm calling them Paragons. It's still up in the air about how this is going to work into the plot. Each of the four girls is a Paragon.
8) Each of the four girls is also at Grantson without going through the normal process to be there. No, I take that back. Aja isn't in school any more but she had been. After she started to lose her sight, she left.
9) Tevan's grandmother is scared of him, just as she was scared of his father and her husband. None of the males in this family line have been long for this world. There's something off about them. I need to write more about his past to come to more of an understanding but Tevan has anger issues.
I really wish there was a 10 but I'm at a loss. My head is empty once again. Now it's off to write once again. I have story prompts that need to be filled!
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.