Writing a novel..maybe

Well last night I started reading Stockholm Octavo, and I only read the first few pages but I already like the idea of 'a book involving tarot'. Since i always loved writing that made my creative gears move and I had an idea for a book, now i'm gonna share it with you guys not just because I want opinions, but also because since i dont really have knowledge in tarot and tarot books (not that much at least) maybe someone else already did a book like that, and I don't wanna copy someone book or whatever. So now this is the idea (its still raw and i need to expand it):

The beggining is a pregnant woman, walking on the street and then approached by a gipsy old woman begging for money, she says something like "give me a dollar and i'll bless your son." and the woman says she doesnt have money to which the gipsy replies "Liers deserve hell, but your son will bear the pain of your mistake." and leaves laughing like a maniac. The woman being a bussiness woman and "smart" shruggs it off saying to herself something like "crazy old gipsy."..then the son is born, and his curse is to live the fools journey, but exactly the way it is. Meaning he randomly is 'teleported' to a kinda dream world where he has to face all the cards in the major arcana, also the witch watches him in her crystal globe and sends other challenges when she feel like doing that (like she decides which queen he falls in love with, who he has to fight, what affecs him) all by adding more cards to the boys "life spread". like the idea?xD i know kinda crazy and doesnt make sense, but who knows maybe some of you would like it xD

That actually sounds pretty interesting. (honestly, i'd love it even more if it was made into an anime, with the style of Hayao Miyazaki. *squeeeeeeeeeels*)

I think the old Gypsy beggar who curses someone is not very popular with people who really do read the cards and tell fortunes. There isn't a person here I know of who would put a curse on anyone. A book that would use that plot just perpetuates all the bad image of Tarot readers that most of us have worked so hard to dispel.

The concept of someone having to take the Fool's journey would be an interesting one, but do a lot of good research first. And please don't perpetuate the evil image of Tarot and Tarot readers that's been portrayed so many times in movies and books.

Grizabella said:

I think the old Gypsy beggar who curses someone is not very popular with people who really do read the cards and tell fortunes. There isn't a person here I know of who would put a curse on anyone. A book that would use that plot just perpetuates all the bad image of Tarot readers that most of us have worked so hard to dispel.

The concept of someone having to take the Fool's journey would be an interesting one, but do a lot of good research first. And please don't perpetuate the evil image of Tarot and Tarot readers that's been portrayed so many times in movies and books.

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Well that was just a posibility, I know none of us would do that, obviously, but it's fiction, maybe i'll just change the plot a little, i'll see, maybe i wont even do the introduction, the part i want to focus on was "the fools journey" anyways xD and if you say that sounds good, then that's awesome and i hope i didn't offend anyone with my crazy idea xD

Alea said:

That actually sounds pretty interesting. (honestly, i'd love it even more if it was made into an anime, with the style of Hayao Miyazaki. *squeeeeeeeeeels*)

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i actually would want it to be a cartoon or if not a movie, but since I am only a highschool student I can't do that, at least not on my own, easiest way to achieve that is to write the book and hope someone is crazy enough to make into an anime/cartoon or movie xD

There's a deck that has a really good story of the Fool's Journey written into it in addition to a lot of other neat stuff. It's a companion book to a Celtic deck. I'll try to find it tomorrow so I can give you the title. If you look on Amazon sellers you can often find companion books to decks priced very cheaply. You don't need the deck. I don't have the deck but the book is a treasure trove.

If you wanted to do the old gypsy curse thing as an obvious satire---which you probably have had to learn at one time in your literature or writing classes---that would be alright, so long as you kept it in the realm of it being a spoof of that old gypsy character so many people have perpetuated so that it will obviously not be taken seriously, you could do that and it would actually be doing a service to the Tarot readers who fight the stereotypes so much.

I've got a back injury so it's hard for me to move around but tomorrow is a fresh new day and I'll find the book. I live in a motorhome, so it can't be too hard to find. I just can move around very well right now and tonight my back is quite painful. I'll also give you some more titles tomorrow. OKay? And good luck with your writing career! I was a high school budding journalist myself in the "covered wagon" days.

Grizabella said:

There's a deck that has a really good story of the Fool's Journey written into it in addition to a lot of other neat stuff. It's a companion book to a Celtic deck. I'll try to find it tomorrow so I can give you the title. If you look on Amazon sellers you can often find companion books to decks priced very cheaply. You don't need the deck. I don't have the deck but the book is a treasure trove.

If you wanted to do the old gypsy curse thing as an obvious satire---which you probably have had to learn at one time in your literature or writing classes---that would be alright, so long as you kept it in the realm of it being a spoof of that old gypsy character so many people have perpetuated so that it will obviously not be taken seriously, you could do that and it would actually be doing a service to the Tarot readers who fight the stereotypes so much.

I've got a back injury so it's hard for me to move around but tomorrow is a fresh new day and I'll find the book. I live in a motorhome, so it can't be too hard to find. I just can move around very well right now and tonight my back is quite painful. I'll also give you some more titles tomorrow. OKay? And good luck with your writing career! I was a high school budding journalist myself in the "covered wagon" days.

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Thank you, omg you're an angel and yeah i tought of it as being kinda satirical, and also in the end the book reveals the old hag's secret, and basicly, let's just say that it won't make us tarot readers look bad xD :3

GreenFlame said:

Well that was just a posibility, I know none of us would do that, obviously, but it's fiction.

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Not a good excuse! People reading a book rarely separate fact from fiction ('Willing suspension of Disbelief'). Superheroes fly and magical acts have causibility.

You need to find a better way to get the unborn child into the 'Fool's Journey'; in the movie 'The Red Violin' it all happens during a calm, quiet, non-stereotypical reading.

Have you written something as complicated as a novel before? Successfully submitted fictional material to an editor for consideration for publication? Or are you doing a personal project, perhaps a self-published e-book?

Writing is hard. Writing well is very hard. Writing something that will get published is stupid hard and writing what people will enjoy reading enough to pay you for it is beyond the skills of most humans.

Tarot as a primary vehicle or backstory plot mechanism has been done hundreds of times but it's only been done well a few times. Find those few books and learn from their authors.

Just my opinion, the best tarot tropes are never (or only superficially) supernatural. Stooping to spirits or inexplicable or hidden forces is a tyro's copout. Unless, of course, you're as skilled as, say Tim Powers, then the extraordinary is what drives your stories from the first words. Threading tarot into a well crafted story is a monumental challenge but no more so than having a main character make their living as a photographer or an actor. To write convincing characters, the author must know something about their skills.

I am actually using tarot to help in writing a novel I am working on, but it's to help with structure and plot, and tarot will show up nowhere in the content. Any book I've seen that uses tarot as an obvious element has always seemed contrived to me. But to use it to tell the fortunes of your characters behind the scenes, that I get.