Let's just write a damn story, already!
No AI, just tarot.
It's been a rough writing week and I want to get myself out of a funk. My brain has been playing the old familiar tricks on me.
My thoughts keeps flip-flopping between: excitement, 'Ooh! Idea!' and discouragement, 'This is crap.' I read so much this week about story and magic and tarot and all of it was beautiful because it was written by somebody else.
Comparison-itis for the win!
Cue all the rabbit holes! Toss the thought salad! It goes something like this:
Is this ADHD?
Is Mars in retrograde again?
Maybe I do want this to be a mystery.
Shouldn't you know already what this book is about?
Just get the words on the page!
Let's research the Pomodoro technique for three hours.
I love YouTube!
You know what you really need is the perfect planner.
What's for dinner?
Am I hungry?
If I can't tell I'm hungry, I'm not hungry.
Maybe I'm thirsty?
Is it too early for a glass of wine?
It's 9:00 AM!!!
Quit yelling at me!
After many days swirling in this spin cycle, I finally came to the conclusion that I don't know my story well enough to strike out and get words on the page. I need more characters, more complications, and I need to put them in a world that makes some sense. I would also like to know the ending so I know where I'm going. I have pages and pages of notes, thoughts, and questions. But no story.
So, in an effort to kill two birds, I thought we'd just tell a completely different story tonight. It will distract me to take a little break and strike out in a new direction. And, I'll have something to share with you. I hope it inspires you to make something up too. We're going to let the tarot cards build the story. Kind of like writing with a prompt, but our tarot spread will be the prompt.
Here's the spread.
This is the Dark Wood Tarot by Sasha Graham with art by Abigail Larson.
Trigger warnings: with the exception of the Judgement card (which is very sapphic and lovely) this deck is hetero-normative and not diverse in race or body type. It's dark and gothic and everyone is beautiful and thin. Also the cards I pulled are telling me a story about war, murder and attempted suicide. If that isn't for you, cool. Here's the place to stop reading this article. And, thank you for reading this far!
If you're okay with those themes, then let's do it.
I'm going to lay out the bones of a story the cards are telling me. They may tell you a very different story and I would love to read that story. I'm leaving the comment button here so you can share if you want. I would love to read about the story you see.
I drew two cards for two characters and another two for what drives each of them. I also drew cards for three story points. I'm seeing a dark HEA in here. The female MC (FMC) shows up as the Six of Wands driven by a single focused passion, with the Ace of Wands. We see her coming back to her village as a hero surrounded by her army of magic wielding femmes. They were victorious and now they are returning home to live quiet lives without fear.
Why?
Good question. Let's make something up. Something worth fighting for. Let's go with revenge.
Perhaps this army of female magic wielders grew up with revenge in their hearts because their village was conquered decades ago. All the men from their village including the baby boys were killed by the reigning king from the distant nation. These women, young girls at the time of this culling, were left to care for themselves. The older girls raised the youngest and together they trained in the dark arts as one in hopes of getting their revenge on the murderous king who slaughtered their families. They were patient. They nurtured one another and they thrived growing in strength and powerful dark magic until they knew they were ready. Our MC emerged as their leader not only because she was powerful, but also because she loved them and cared for them and did her best to build a village that was home in spite of the trauma she witnessed as a young girl.
Here's the kicker though. Throughout the long battle in the distant nation, she had multiple encounters with the currently reigning king. Ahem!
Or maybe he doesn't have to be a king.
No. He's a king.
The King of Cups. And what drives him? The Two of Pentacles. He is split between two choices both of them equally appealing and he’s trying to juggle both of them while maintaining his balance. He wants to be a strong leader like his father before him, but he doesn't know the whole story about the cruelty of his father. (His dad is the dude that ordered the mass murder of the FMC's village.) He also wants freedom. He wants to strike out on his own and be free of the obligations that bind him.
So these magic wielding women pull up in his kingdom and absolutely obliterate his army with their magic. He decides he has to stop the carnage. He also wants to understand why this is happening. Remember he doesn't know the whole story about what his father did to these women decades ago. He’s caught completely off-guard by their ferocity so he requests a parlay with our FMC, the leader of the magic wielding army.
They parlay and she learns that he never heard the story of what happened to her village. This fuels her rage because it means the loss they suffered was just a side-quest for the cruel king. And he refuses to believe her story. The parlay ends abruptly. He goes back to his castle and convinces one of the older soldiers to tell him the story. Now, he knows the truth. He requests another parlay. He tries to make peace. But our FMC has a single-minded fiery focus on revenge. His 'understanding and apologies' only fuel the flames of her anger and she leaves him for dead and rides back to her village victorious. (Now, that would be a fun scene to write!)
That's the set up. Now, for the three plot points.
The Nine of Swords. After they return to their village, they try to return to normal, but they've lost their focus. They have nothing to fight for. Nothing to train for. They go through the motions of living their daily lives, but our FMC is plagued by nightmares. Oddly enough, she dreams of the king she left for dead. He is kind to her in her dreams, but she is vicious and kills him again and again. The nightmares begin to take a toll on her. She is afraid she's losing her mind. She has no focus. No purpose. And even though she achieved her goal, she’s still angry. She thought fighting the battle and emerging victorious would make the anger and rage inside her fade. But they never fade. She still has the same burning desire for revenge and she realizes it will always be this way.
Eight of Swords. She decides that her life is unbearable. She wanders away from the village. She is trapped in her own mind and can't seem to escape so she chooses to end her existence.
I don't usually think of the Eight of Swords as a suicide card, but this deck is telling me that story fairly blatantly. When I was thinking through it, I tried to think of anything else. Something not so obvious. Maybe she isn't sacrificing herself - maybe this is a ritual and she's attempting to kill her unrelenting rage. Either way, she is trapped in her own mind and doesn't see a way out. She desperate.
Okay! Let's get to the HEA. The King arrives in the village looking for her. He has a small army with him, but he isn't there to conquer the village or hunt down their leader. It takes him a long time to convince the village of this and there’s a little skirmish. However, he eventually convinces them that he comes in peace. He wants to 'parlay' with our FMC once again, but she's gone. The women tell him about a tree in the woods where she often goes to think and commune with nature and he heads into the woods to find her.
And, for our last plot point we end up with The Lovers.
Decisions. Decisions.
Is she dead? Are we going with a Romeo and Juliet ending here? Uniting the two of them in hell forever? That's a little dark.
How about, a love scene. He has to convince her she isn't dreaming. She thought he was dead and haunting her nightmares. There's a spicy love scene (maybe not right there and then because her state of mind) and we get our HEA when he decides to ditch his kingdom to help her rebuild her village.
The End.
That was a fun little venture. And it was a nice exercise to get me out of my cyclical, ADHD, hamster wheel brain space. There's a little more room for breath between the thoughts now.
Please share your story. You can use this spread with your own cards or use the cards as they are in the picture. Either way, I hope you enjoy making something up with the cards and I would love to read your story.