Have any of you used tarot cards as inspiration for writing stories? Any tips?

[Jessica]

I was thinking of using tarot cards to help get back into the habit of writing, either as writing prompts or as inspiration to move the story forward. Do you have spreads you use? Have you used them for plot twists? How do I go about it?

Discussion

[warlock4hire46]

I write action-adventure and mystery novels (yes, for a living) but my passion project, which is still in the planning stage, is to write a non-linear novel where each chapter is a Tarot card, and the story changes with each shuffle.

[QabalisticCuriosity]

This is a stellar idea.

When I read your post I immediately thought of doing a 3 card pull and trying to write a short story based on the progression and themes placed into different characters. Just a basic Beginning (First card, who could be the main character(s)? What world do they live in?) Middle (What’s the conflict?) End (How is this resolved? Does the character change, or is it possibly a cautionary tale?).

[ChunkMcHorkle]

My spouse writes; we’ve thrown spreads for the characters (personality, motivations, back story) but not plot twists. Once you have the characters’ motivations, their decisions and actions almost write themselves, or so I am told.

But that’s just us. You absolutely can throw cards for plot lines and twists if you want: if you can throw cards for living people, you can throw them for characters, and if you can throw them to find out what to expect for a living person, you can do so for a character as well.

Spreads for fictional characters are amazing and a great way to learn tarot better. We mainly just used Celtic Cross but you could use any spread that you think would apply.

There are a number of books available on the subject: [*Tarot for Writers* by Corrine Kenner](https://www.amazon.com/Tarot-Writers-Corrine-Kenner/dp/0738714577/), [*The Creative Tarot: A Modern Guide to an Inspired Life* by Jessa Crispin](https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Tarot-Modern-Guide-Inspired/dp/1501120239/), and [*Story Arcana: Tarot for Writers* by Caroline Donahue](https://www.amazon.com/Story-Arcana-Writers-Caroline-Donahue/dp/0578455757) come to mind, and I’m sure there are others. Try one and see how those ideas work out for you.

[Carded_Tarot-Tales]

Read the Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino.

[WinTurkey]

Really useful for generating a quick story arc in D&D

[chainless-soul]

I’ve used a spread like this as part of my initial planning/brainstorming: [https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3d/60/09/3d6009b077d6d4f454ff9f3a5eabae2a.jpg](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3d/60/09/3d6009b077d6d4f454ff9f3a5eabae2a.jpg)

I also like doing 3 card spreads for characters and for their relationships, the same as you would for a non-fictional person.

[maijoezerneem]

I do that too! One card to represent a person, another to represent their objective and a third to represent the obstacle on their path. Usually that’s enough to get me started, but you can double that for a second personnage for the fun of it.

[Miloinya]

Im writing a book in where each chapter represents a card of the mayor arcana, what happens in the chapter is related to the meaning of the card and in each one of the chapters is pressented a character who is the personification of the card

[RowanGreen]

I actually did this. But I just used the major arcana as the chapters for the first book. Someone from our world gets pulled into his tarot deck and has to take the fools journey. One book for each suit, the first being steampunk for the suit of Cups ,followed by clockpunk for the suit of Coins, followed by dieselpunk for Staves, and ending with cyberpunk for Swords. All of them have the tarot as a common theme with the Card Walker, a new Major Arcana, and the Knight of Cups as the only recurring characters throughout all four books.

Also having an actual deck made to go along with the series. I find it helps inspire me.

[FrogCola]

Yes I definitely do.

If you look into it the fools journey lines of perfectly with Campbells “the mono myth”, and you can check out Dan Harmons story circle for an even simpler version. If you combine that with the anatomy of Story by John Truby you get a pretty winning formula. I also throw in a splash of RPG character creator for really detailed characters.

Well I say winning but I’m not a wealthy author or anything so maybe its just really fun lol.

[IndenturedChef]

Slight tangent here…a band by the name of Dark Moor released an album based on Tarot. Highly recommend…