How I use Tarot Cards in My Writing Process

For the most part when I'm writing, I'm a plantser, which for me means that I often start writing an idea down, sometimes it's just a random scene, without really knowing where the story's going. 

​I love this way of writing because it allows my creativity to just run wild, and I often find my characters surprising me with new things I hadn't thought of before until they just pop out of my head while the words are flowing.

The problem though is that I quite often find myself needing more; whether it's more insight into the characters or more ways to develop and move the plot forward. 

So, when I spotted Jessica Adren Cline's Kickstarter campaign last year called, 'Tarot for Fiction Writers', which promised lots of creative and fun ways to use tarot to inspire and develop stories, I knew I wanted to try it. 

I actually ended up attending a workshop run by Jessica, hosted by Capitol Crimes, as part of the Kickstarter and it really sold me on the book and the concept because it was just so much fun. 

The general idea is that you do a tarot spread for something in your book that you need help with, like a character's backstory or a plot twist. You then use the imagery and/or meanings behind the tarot cards to create something from that. To me, it's a bit like giving your brain a fantasy jump start or nitros boost, while getting to play around with beautifully designed cards. 

Tarot for Fiction Writers, is fantastic in that it's just packed full of incredibly helpful things. The author starts out by giving you some reasoning behind the method and explaining how it all works, which is too much for me to expand on here.

She then gives you an absolute ton of prompts that you can use in your own writing. There's things like, drawing a card to add a surprising detail to your character's personality, or what problem does your character encounter in the next scene. 

But then she invites you to delve deeper into things by drawing cards to help you convey an abstract concept in more concrete detail or even drawing cards for every major story beat. 

There really seems to be something for every scenario. 

If that weren't enough, she then gives you a chapter on how to interpret the cards and a huge chapter that she calls The Storyteller's Tarot Reference Guide. This is my favourite chapter because, not only does she give you the basic meanings for each card, she also expands on that to give you things like what this card might mean in relation to your character, to the plot, to story conflict, and to relationship conflict. 

There's just so much in this book that I keep coming back to it again and again when I'm trying to get to know my characters a little better or get some inspiration for that plot hole that I can't seem to climb out of. 

---

When it comes to tarot cards, I've always been a little bit fascinated with them. A friend did a reading for me when I was in my late teens and I remember falling in love with how beautiful the artwork was and how intricate the designs were, and since then I really wanted a pack of my own. 

Fast forward to now and I have the three decks above, but I'm always looking to add to my collection. 

Happily, a new queer, witchy booshop, Hexenhaus, has opened in a town I visit often and they have soooo many gorgeous decks that I just know I'm going to be adding a few more to my collection when I next visit. 

I tend to keep the Ace of Cups card from the Dark Mansion Tarot deck on my desk (don't mind the one-eyed owl) because, funny story, the day I decided to self-publish my short story collection, Spellbound, I pulled this card randomly out of the deck. It means new beginnings, creativity, inspiration, and new opportunities, and couldn't be more fitting to the current stage in my life.

So, I keep it there as a reminder and as an attempt to manifest this life that I want for myself as a fantasy writer. 

---

Getting Tarot for Fiction Writers has really injected this new sense of whimsy and creative freedom into my writing process now. Instead of feeling frustrated and trapped when I've written myself into a corner or when I don't understand a character's motivation for doing something, I turn to a deck and have fun with one of the prompts or spreads. 

It really is a great way to generate ideas, develop existing ideas and just have some fantasy-style fun with my writing. 

Whether you consider yourself a writer or not (I didn't for the longest time), why not crab a tarot deck (there are free random card choosers online if you don't have a physical deck) and give it a try. Maybe start with something simple like a beginning, middle and end, 3-card draw to get you started on a short story or writing sprint.

I'd love to know how you get on.

​In future, I might share some of my tarot spreads here on the blog to reveal how they affected certain characters or stories, so if you enjoyed this post, do look out for those. 

Here's to a little magic and a lot of storytelling—one card at a time.