Twibling rivalry and writery

At first it was going to be "Ideas for writing: Twibling rivalry" but I thought writery sounded more fun. Makes me want to read the Jabberwocky outloud: "Twas brillig, and the slithy toves; twibling rivalry and writery did gyre and gimble..." (Lewis Carroll forgive me).

So it's the time of year, with NaNoWriMo less than 2 months away, when I start brainstorming new story ideas. This year I have a science fiction idea rolling around my head (update: what was to become Star Tripped). As I'm brainstorming for my main character, suddenly, I dunno where I got this idea - she has a twin sister.

Twins have always intrigued me, probably ever since the truth finally came out in Return of the Jedi that Luke and Leia were twins.

Or, maybe it's because my favorite part of Sophie Jordan's Firelight is the dynamics between twin sisters - one gifted with an incredibly rare and valuable ability, the other gifted with, um, nothing.  Enter subject of twibling rivalry (which I've heard escalates in the sequel, Vanish). Love these pictures of Jacinda and her twin Tamra - so similar, so different.

Maybe it's because two really good friends of mine are twin sisters, and they did not get a long AT ALL (extreme twibling rivalry) (which caused me a lot of problems trying to be friends with both of them).

Maybe it's because it always intrigues me when I find out some famous person had a twin. Did you know that Scarlet Johannson, Ashton Kutcher, Keifer Sutherland, Isabella Rossellini, Eva Green, Vin Diesel and Gisele Bundchen are twins? Elvis Presley was too, though his twin brother Jesse died at birth.

Oh, yeah, I also have twin daughters.  Fraternal twins, four and half years old. Who don't act like twins at all; they are bonded more with their older siblings than which each other.

Twin dynamics have always fascinated me - actually, any sort of sibling dynamics, because I'm an only child, and have always been curious about that family relationship I never got to experience.

My twins get a long pretty well, so far no sign of twibling rivalry, but based on my experience with friends who were twins, I'm always on the lookout of ways to prevent/mitigate twibling rivalry.

Turns out, from my studies on the subject so far, the problem isn't so much with the twins differences; the problem comes from the peanut gallery: everyone is tempted to compare twins. I've seen this first hand. People always asking me how they are different, how they are similar, pointing out various strengths and weaknesses. It's so tempting to compare them, even justifying it by thinking "she has different strengths than her twin." But this relentless temptation to compare appears to be root cause of most twibling rivalry (as I'm sure it is with most sibling rivalry in general).

So I figure if I'm going to write about characters who are twins, I'd better do it now - soon - before my twins are old enough to come back at me with things like "I just know you were writing about me and my sister in that book."

Here's a Goodreads list of books with twins in them. I was surprised at how few I've heard of and even fewer I've read. Ken Follet has a book called The Third Twin - what an intriguing title! (and right there with my current science fiction cravings). Also, because these kinds of lists fascinate me, here's a list of movies with twins.

What's your favorite book or movie about twins?