In another in her series of using the Tarot for storytelling, Ashley Christiano walks through one process for using a simple card spread to create an outline for your novel. “One of my favorite things about tarot cards is how rich in detail each card is, whether you know anything about the numerology or symbology layered into the card’s history or not,” Christiano says. “This makes using tarot as a writing tool extremely effective, since even the most novice of tarot readers can derive some meaning from the imagery.”
Caveat: Familiarity the Tarot basics is assumed here. Christiano describes a custom spread of six cards, each with its own purpose in building out a novel outline. “We’ll start with our why and who first, and with that taken care of, we’ll let the cards figure out what sort of chaos we’ll put them through in the beginning, middle, and end of their journey,” she explains.
Christiano suggests the following questions for your card spread, in order:
- What does your protagonist desire?
- What is an important factor to your character’s identity?
- Who or what is the villain of the story?
- What is the inciting incident of this story?
- What causes the nadir, or the low point, for your protagonist?
- How does your protagonist change by the end?
In her post, Christiano lays out an example spread, diving into the symbolism of each card and how she interprets it to create character and story.
