The Time comes for the Little White Book

I really never should have waited til the last minute for this...

But then...I never expected it to be so hard to write a LWB!

Piecies of it were swimming lazily in my head...and I had a few ideas, but actually sitting down to write and format it...well, many unforseen things have occured...

Like...I had an ephiphany about the Tarot..

which is...I know squat about Tarot! Nothing...absolutely zip...


Okay...not entitrely true...but if I had been writing a large book, where I could expound for pages and pages about a single card...THAT would be so much easier!

But trying to make the decision about how to sum up a card...an entire archetype, adding to it my own personal style...with only a few well-chosen words...
well...

It's been a real struggle! The limits of a tarot LWB has always been clear to me, as I usually remove them from a deck immediately after getting one!

Many many moons ago I opened a thread discussion abvout whether the LWB was neccessary at all...especially with a "collectors deck".

Hoping that people would say no, so I could let myself off the hook...I was surprised to see so many people very adamant about the need for a LWB...and even more surprising...I found I agreed with a lot that was said!

The meanings are not really as important...as just getting an idea of where the artist might be coming from.

But...man...this has been maybe the hardest part of this long deck production journey...

Does anyone else have a story about writing the book for their deck? Was it easy...or a struggle for you?

Have some of you been smart and started before the deck was finished, perhaps?

I would love you to share your tales of this process!

LOL!!! Chronata!!! It sounds like my effort with the Zulu Bone Oracle LWB!! I have the headings done in Publisher with the boxes for the bones symbols and have started writing it but OMG -

The same with the Sabian Symbols yep all 360 of them in my own words! The LWB looks like a chunky dictionary - LOL!!!

I have decided on a scroll format for the Planet Stones and the Astrological Stones - much easier!

and yep, I make everything first and then think about the LWB!! Im going to be watching this thread for ideas myself!!

I have been doing everything in Publisher so I hope this has been the best way to do it.

Im sure you'll get this done and it will be brilliant!!

Many Blessings
Elven x

I'm exactly the opposite - the less I have to write, the happier I am!!!

Exactly halfway through the deck, & yes, I have started on the text. I am finding that it is flowing quite nicely since I got over my major DREAD of the doing of it... I'm bi-polar, & sometimes small things can be insurmountable obstacles, so I have even more to deal with than your average Tarot/LWB author...

I am going to have a LWBB - a "Little Woad-Blue Book"!! I may even be able to get ahold of some REAL woad to put into it - there is this place called "Woad-Bleu" in France that sells it on the internet.

Well, that's more of my artistic bit coming out, I guess! I want the whole thing to be beautifully & elegantly done... We'll see what the finished product is actually like!

Yep, yep, it's not easy. My first one I just went with key words because I'd limited myself to those 16 tiny pages and I did it when the art was almost completely finished. It still took a lot longer than I'd thought it would. Even using the Publisher program, not everything ended up lining up exactly, the template ended up being off by 1/8". And the spell check kept highlighting Judgement because it was 'spelled wrong', which was annoying. (Remember--You can only go down so far in font size before people complain it's too tiny to read properly.)

The next one I'm doing the writing at the same time as I do the sketches -- http://www.livejournal.com/users/17coyotes/ -- trying to get at least a majority of it down while things are fresh, because I KNOW this one won't fit in 16 pages, it's going to have to be pamphlet sized. Which will make things harder to ship, but I can't see any other way out of it. At least with the larger format I can illustrate it a bit.

Hi Chronata!
Great to hear that you are already "there"...

So, yes... the LWB was a little killer... looks much less work than it really is...
I really don't know if I have any "story" for that, but I **think** it was less traumatic than the rest of teh production...

The only advice I can give you, is first decide WHAT you want to put inside. For example, to me it was important to include as much astrology stuff as possible. BUT, I also decided that I write a paragraph for the Majors, but keywords only for the Minors. and than, just open file, write in in all the cards' names, and little by little start filling it in... you get a lot of satisfaction seens blank gaps filled with words...

Another important thing is, as you actually mentioned, to bring forth your OWN voice. So, for your creamy Tower for example, write things that could not have been written for a burnng Tower...just for a creamy one...

Leave the design last (work as an editor-final copy FIRST), and have in mind how many pages it should be. Keep similar lengths of text per kind of card.
well, if you did a whole deck, you'll manage this one, JUST FINE!!!

Good Luck!

We "solve" the problem of getting as much useful information as possible into a small space by using keywords for all the cards in the LWB (nearly the same as the keywords and phrases in the main book, but sometimes edited a little). That leaves us with enough space to have a short intro, some summary about the Majors and each suit, and one or two spreads. I suppose I assume that a deck without book will often be bought by someone as a low-cost start to tarot, so I try to put in some absolute beginner's information. I think more serious readers will, sooner or later, probably want the companion book and won't bother much with the LWB.

What I do want to do is get more information on to the websites, but as we have more decks coming out that's a LOT of work. Ideally I'll start on it in the next few months though.

For a lot of cards in my deck-in-progress I've found it helpful to do the short definitions first, to give me a sense of where I want to go with the image. I guess that means that in the end, I won't have too much editing to do to finish a LWB. Everybody has his/her own style, though, and I wish you luck! (I understand how it can be easier to go on and on about the meaning, but a succint 5-6 word/phrase summary can be a challenge.)

Thanks everyone for your tales!

(and nice to see you again M-Press!)

I actually have now written two little white books, as I have two decks.

The first one, for the Minute Deck was really rushed...which I guess looking at it now...is rather appropriate for that deck!

I wish I had Publisher...as it probably would have caused my Spouse far less headaches...but somehow he managed it in Printshop (he is a genius, I now suspect)..13 pages...and every card just a single key word.
edited to say...and it's all on one single, double-sided sheet of paper!


I finally decided that the Masquerade LWB would consist of a single page, and would be the announcements of the arrival of every member of the party, using their formal titles and such.

(that probably sounds like it doesn't make much sense as a LWB...but it does when you see it!)

It turned out to be more like a Little Parchment Scroll, than a Little White Book...but I am glad it finally came together and I didn't compromise my quirky vision for this deck!

I am just so very very relieved that it is DONE!
Anyone else with a story to share?

Chronata said:

I finally decided that the Masquerade LWB would consist of a single page, and would be the announcements of the arrival of every member of the party, using their formal titles and such.

Click to expand...

This sounds like an absolutely faboulus and unique idea Chronata!!!

Happy Holidays everyone!