A couple of years ago, I was climbing our tree fort with Kit. He was six or seven. We were playing with our dolls. He had some Barbies and I had a Sally doll from Nightmare Before Christmas. We were thinking about writing a story and, to get us started I asked what he'd call his story. He said 'The Witch's Daughter'.
I loved the idea then and I still love it. As a writer, there are so many angles to what you could do with a concept like this. Imagine the witch's daughter going to school, her gingerbread house off the beaten track, an outcast because of her mom. This could be a picture book or a novel. How about the witch's daughter as a teen torn between her mom's life and the village life. Would she protect her mom from the torch wielding mob or join them because of peer pressure? Imagine the middle aged woman dealing with her young life in therapy after being raised under the shadow of her mother's wicked life. Of course, there is the version where she is an acolyte into the world of witches, either ala Samantha Stevens or a dark tale of being inducted into the world of evil.
There are so many richly complex notions in this one title that I almost wish I wrote magic tales instead of science fiction. Of course, he didn’t have any idea what to do with it. After all, he was only six, but he liked the idea and it was his.
It’s great watching a young imagination develop.
