Tarot Twiddling
Reversal
Tarot Twiddling
Over the years, I’ve read about people using tarot cards as writing aids. I’ve always wanted to give it a shot. The archetypal and iconographic imagery seemed like they could be really useful. But a) I didn’t have a tarot deck, b) most available tarot software wasn’t that good [*] and had chintzy public domain artwork, and c) I always felt silly just looking at the tarot decks at the book store, much less picking one out and buying a deck.
Last week, though, I overcame the silly feelings and used some birthday money to buy my first tarot deck. It’s very pretty.
Since then, I’ve been reading about the tarot, soaking up the meanings of the cards and reading about the history of the cards, both for playing games and for divination. Three cheers for the World Wide Web–and the local public library!
Starting on Wednesday of last week, and continuing through today, my stories have had their seeds in tarot spreads. “Fresh Air” and “Nail by Nail” started out with very simple 3-card spreads, basically just past-present-future readings.
Friday’s “Afternoon Gloom” came out of a 7-card spread that I found here. The seven cards in the spread are:
1) Hero
2) Teacher
3) Bad Guy
4) Mission
5) Problem
6) Help
7) Reward
If you’re keeping score, the “bad guy” in “Afternoon Gloom” is Becky’s own frustration. I’ve noticed that I have fewer actual “antagonists” in my stories. I tend to let people beat themselves up.
Over the weekend, I tinkered around, and created my own story spread. It requires nine cards:
Protagonist/POV
1) Past
2) Present (Situation)
3) Goal
Antagonist/Conflict
4) Past
5) Present
6) Goal
Plot
7) Help
9) Resolution
I used that one today, for “Victor Comes Home”. It seems to work. I expect, though, that I will be tinkering with the spread some more.
Overall, fun stuff.
The four stories, though, only “sorta” match the readings created from the cards. That is, if you squint and keep an open mind, you might be able to see how I got from the cards to the final stories. I can’t provide any examples, though. Because I have (rather intentionally) kept no records of the initial cards, nor of the readings made from the card, once I finish the story. Just doesn’t seem that useful to keep track of.
So, yah, it’s been fun. But I haven’t totally abdicated my creativity to the cards.
If anyone else has used tarot cards for story idea/structure generation, I’d love to hear how you did it.
-David
[*] This has changed. Check out Orphalese Tarot. It’s a bit quirky, but once you get used to the interface, it’s actually pretty snazzy. Thing is … I like to roll my own dice, and I want to shuffle and deal my own cards.
ARTURO said,
July 15, 2010 @ 12:48 pm
Buy:Aricept.Seroquel.Lipitor.Advair.Ventolin.Zetia.Cozaar.SleepWell.Wellbutrin SR.Benicar.Female Cialis.Zocor.Lipothin.Buspar.Lasix.Nymphomax.Acomplia.Female Pink Viagra.Amoxicillin.Prozac….