it resides in the message that you authored

So I authored it but I don't "really" own it until I mint it.

The transfer must always be initiated by the original creator/generator. Yeah, that makes sense...

you own it due to copyright, you just dont own an ordinal derived from it until you mint one. and if other people minted it from your message, i imagine you would have some recourse due to intellectual property law. but if someone gave you an offer to buy the ordinal (which doesnt exist yet) then you would mint it and transfer ownership of it in one action... basically someone would be giving you an incentive to mint it for them